(Todd A. Smith)
How does Chris Cuomo not have a job at CNN, but Sean Hannity still has one at Fox News?
Answer: Because Fox News is not a news outlet that employs fair-minded and objective journalists to tell their audience the truth.
They are just a media entity, not a news network.
Unfortunately, Fox News does not have many journalists anymore.
They have activists who epitomize the term fake news, saying one thing behind closed doors while telling their audience something totally different.
The Fake News that pundits like Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Dana Perino and basically everyone else disseminates at the network has placed America’s beloved democracy in danger and they need to stop if they truly love this wonderful country more than they love their coffers.
If they do not value true journalism, Fox News needs to rebrand itself as the Fox Right-Wing Propaganda Network so that their audience knows they are watching the opposite of real and truthful news.
Straight up, if Cuomo got fired because he helped his brother former N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo deal with a sexual harassment controversy, Hannity should be fired for helping former President Donald Trump deal with his attempt to steal the election from President Joe Biden.
What Cuomo did violates the ethics of journalism and warrants a termination.
But what Hannity did was far worse because he threatened the very foundation of what America was built on in addition to violating the ethics of journalism.
Not only should Hannity not be called a journalist, but he should also never be called an American because people of his ilk are traitors to the utmost power.
The Associated Press reported, “For years, Sean Hannity has skirted ethical boundaries with his role on a television network with ‘news’ in its name. Yet it’s never been stark as now, with the committee investigating last year’s Capitol insurrection seeking his testimony.
“The Jan. 6 select committee has revealed a series of texts where Hannity privately advised former President Donald Trump before, during and after the assault, and is seeking his insight about what happened in those days…
“It’s not unheard of for journalists to offer advice to politicians—history has records of Ben Bradlee’s friendship with former President John F. Kennedy—but such actions raise questions about their independence and allegiance to the public interest, said Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota.”
As a journalist, my mentors always taught me to avoid even taking pictures with celebrities and politicians so as not to appear biased in any way.
Those same mentors often told me, correctly, to never take money from a source or for a story.
Those same mentors taught me to never attend political rallies as a guest or supporter of a political candidate.
Furthermore, my mentors taught me to never endorse a candidate for political office by placing signage in my yard or giving money to those candidates.
The only time I have ever broken those rules was to share information about my father running for the Board of Trustees at Lone Star College in the Houston area.
I would do that again if I had the opportunity.
But my father never ran for a political position that I covered as a journalist.
And if he ever did run for a larger political office, I would recuse myself from that story.
I could easily do that because I am a self-employed independent journalist who answers to no larger media conglomerate like Hannity does.
If Hannity had a previous relationship with Trump prior to him becoming the 45th President of the United States, Hannity should have had a conversation with him letting him know that things would change once he took over the Oval Office.
Hannity should have told Trump that as a journalist or political commentator, he would have to tell the truth about his friend no matter what consequences came because of that.
If Trump had a problem with that situation, so be it.
He signed up for a political career.
Therefore, he must accept political criticism from all sides of the political spectrum.
And that reality is nothing new for media personalities.
Famously, Charles Barkley has seen his friendship with Michael Jordan deteriorate because as an analyst for TNT, Barkley has correctly criticized some of Jordan’s moves as the owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.
Barkley hates that he has lost his friendship with Jordan, hopefully only temporarily.
But what is more important: his professional reputation, career and income or the sensitive feelings of Jordan?
Most sane people would say his professional career is more important.
And that is just a sports and entertainment anecdote with no bearing on real life or things of importance.
If Barkley can put his integrity before personal relationships when it comes to sports and entertainment, it is not too much to ask for pundits at right-wing media companies like Fox News, Newsmax an OAN to value protecting American democracy and our future as a nation more than it values the childishness of an almost 80-year-old defeated former president to paraphrase President Biden’s words on Thursday.
Conservative media must realize that they are not bigger than America and its democracy.
Those MAGA minions who support Trump’s big lie must realize that Trump is not bigger than America.
He is a loser.
But just because he lost an election fair and square does not mean America should lose its beloved democracy just to make Trump happy.
And if that means the liars on Fox News, Newsmax, OAN and others lose their jobs, careers and credibility to save our country, so be it.
