https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/magazine/how-far-will-sean-hannity-go.html
In November, news broke that Roy Moore of Alabama, the far-right Republican Senate nominee, was said to have approached, dated or initiated sexual contact with several teenagers — one of whom was 14 — in the 1970s. As had been the case with the “Access Hollywood” tape, it was a crucial (and dangerous) moment for the populist wing of the Republican Party, and for days, Hannity tried to filter and refilter the allegations for his fans.
Declaring that Moore should drop out of the race if the charges were true, Hannity nonetheless initially adopted a skeptical stance: “How do you tell?” he asked on Nov. 9, the day The Washington Post published the first article detailing accusations against Moore. “How are we, the American people, to ascertain what is true and not true?”
On the same program, McLaughlin, Hannity’s executive producer, argued that at least some of the allegations involved consensual contact. “Consensual, that’s true,” Hannity responded. A few hours later, after heated criticism on social media, Hannity told his viewers he’d not been referring to the 14-year-old, who under Alabama law, would be incapable of consent. But in a panel discussion that followed, he prodded a legal analyst, Mercedes Colwin, to explain why a woman might make a false claim of assault.
“Have people lied to get money?” he asked Colwin.
“Undoubtedly,” Colwin said, and went on to argue that actual victims of sexual predators were “very few and far between.”
The blowback was ferocious, and several advertisers, including Keurig and Volvo Car USA, initially threatened to pull spots from “Hannity.” (Colwin, the legal analyst,
stepped down from her management role at her law firm.) Hannity’s fans responded by smashing Keurig coffee makers; Hannity offered prizes for the best video footage. When Keurig’s chief executive apologized for how the episode was handled, the host instructed viewers to stop breaking their coffee machines. As more women came forward, and Republican congressional leaders turned on Moore, Hannity, with maximum theatrical flourish,
delivered an ultimatum: Moore had 24 hours to explain the inconsistencies in his story.
The demand was straight out of the pro-wrestling playbook: the powerful impresario demanding his foe grovel to be spared. And sure enough, hours before Hannity’s deadline, Moore, who had denied the allegations, argued for a stay of execution. “Dear Sean,” he wrote in an open letter published on Twitter. “I am suffering the same treatment other Republicans have had to endure.” In the end, Hannity announced that he would leave the choice to the voters of Alabama. “They will make the best decision for their state,” he said on Fox News. “It shouldn’t be decided by me.”
As Hemmer, the media scholar, pointed out, Hannity was backed into a corner of his own making. “He doesn’t know which way the wind is going to blow with Moore,” she said, “and Hannity’s got advertising pressure and probably pressure from inside Fox. This was his way out of an impossible situation.” I asked if she thought Hannity recognized he’d crossed a line. “I think what we’re seeing,” she said, “is that as long as the politics are moving in the right direction, the lines don’t really exist.”