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Trump and Hannity team up on Fox News to discredit journalism

“I said journalism is dead, so we agree,” Sean Hannity told Trump during a fawning interview.

CREDIT: Fox News screengrab
CREDIT: Fox News screengrab

President Trump and Sean Hannity used a Fox News interview that aired Thursday evening to discredit other media outlets and uncritically restate Trump administration talking points. The spectacle was an egregious example how uncritically Fox News is covering the Trump administration.

After Hannity broached the topic of how other outlets have covered President Trump by saying, “the New York Times, CNN, ABC — they use the word liar to describe you,” Trump interjected with, “these are very hostile, angry people… the media is very dishonest. They are very dishonest people.”

“I said journalism is dead, so we agree,” Hannity replied. He also said the media “colluded against you on the campaign.”

That exchange occurred after Hannity opened the interview with this:

Left unmentioned by Hannity was the fact Trump has already broken dozens of promises he made during the campaign.

“Fox said that it was great”

The discussion later turned to Trump’s rambling speech to the CIA last Saturday, which focused in large part on attacking the media for accurate coverage of his relatively small inauguration day crowd.

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But during his chat with Hannity, Trump described the speech as “a 10,” mentioned CNN’s at times critical coverage of it, and contrasted that sort of coverage unfavorably with the praise Fox News provided.

“I get back, and Fox said that it was great. They treated me great,” Trump said. “Much of the media, not all of it, is very, very dishonest. Honestly, it is fake news. They make things up.”

“I don’t remember them treating Barack Obama that way,” Hannity replied, ignoring the fact he helped promote Trump’s unfounded conspiracy theory about President Obama’s birth certification on his show.

Hannity, the Trump propagandist

Throughout the hour-long interview, Hannity asked puff questions and refused to push back when Trump stated his controversial talking points about the efficacy of torture, the wisdom of spending $15 billion or more on a border wall, the precedent he’s established of doling out subsidies to keep companies in the U.S., and how it’s possible to slash environmental regulations while simultaneously protecting the environment.

Here’s a sampling of some of the “questions” Hannity asked:

I hear your helicopter out there in the background. You took great pride meeting with Carrier, saving jobs. Saving jobs in Florida. General Motors.

You want to get rid of 75% regulation or more?

We know now through Wikileaks [that] some of these networks were colluding with Hillary Clinton’s campaign, to defeat you. I’ve seen newspapers, two cable networks that use the word ‘liar.’ My question is, does that make you want to rethink entirely how this administration will deal with the media?

Waterboarding, “black sites” came up in your interview [on ABC] last night. I was thinking, if I had an opportunity to speak with David Muir, I would say, two guys go to your house, kidnap your child, one guy gets away with your child and you tackle the other guy. That guy knows where your child is. We do not waterboard that guy?

When we saw the Women’s March this weekend and you hear Madonna say I thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House. Imagine if I said that? When Barack Obama was here?

The fawning approach Hannity took to his first interview of President Trump followed his long-established precedent. During the Republican primaries, Hannity interviewed Trump 41 times without ever coming even close to making news. He asked questions like, “I’m sure you wish you were wrong, Mr. Trump, but you were right. What did you see that maybe others didn’t see about what was happening in Brussels and Belgium?”

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As we wrote last April, “Hannity has given Trump something that is unprecedented in American politics: A serialized infomercial, targeted at the most reliable Republican voters, but presented to the public as ‘news.’”

Since the inauguration, Hannity has habitually featured members of the Trump administration:

A symbiotic relationship

Hannity’s first interview with President Trump came a day after Trump spoke to ABC News’ David Muir. When Muir pressed Trump about his baseless claims that millions of illegal votes were cast in the presidential election, Trump responded by saying that “what’s important” is that the “very smart” people who watch Fox News agree with him.

Since the inauguration, Trump has used his Twitter account to praise Fox News and slam CNN as “FAKE NEWS.” He’s also used Fox’s coverage for policy inspiration.

Fox News has been complicit in its transformation into what amounts to Trump administration state-sponsored media.

In recent days, the cable network has been criticized for uncovering the massive women’s marches that happened across the country last weekend in response to Trump’s inauguration. Its Twitter feed often provides stenography of Trump’s quotes and tweets. And one of the most Trump-critical voices on the network, Megyn Kelly, recently left for NBC shortly after accusing Fox News chairman Roger Ailes of sexual harassment.