Silke Jasso
Cars.com has pulled their advertising from “Hannity,” a move that could signal more headlines for Sean Hannity and Fox News. In recent days, Hannity has come under fire for refusing to back down from his promotion of a conspiracy theory surrounding the murder of a former Democratic National Committee staffer, Seth Rich.
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After Fox News retracted their coverage of the story, and the Rich family begged for people to stop talking about the conspiracy, Hannity said he would stop talking about it on his Tuesday night show. What he didn’t say was that he didn’t believe it was true.
“Out of respect for the family’s wishes, for now, I am not discussing this matter at this time,” Hannity said on air.
Later in the evening, Hannity posted a message on Twitter saying that he wouldn’t back down from the “truth.”
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“Ok TO BE CLEAR, I am closer to the TRUTH than ever. Not only am I not stopping, I am working harder. Updates when available. Stay tuned!” Hannity wrote.
https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/867211447901851649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzfeed.com%2Fmaryanngeorgantopoulos%2Fsean-hannity-advertiser
Cars.com is a popular online tool that connects drivers with their future automobiles. After watching Hannity’s program of late, they’ve chosen to pull their advertising.
“Cars.com’s media buy strategies are designed to reach as many consumers as possible across a wide spectrum of media channels,” a spokesperson for the website said in a statement to BuzzFeed.
“The fact that we advertise on a particular program doesn’t mean that we agree or disagree, or support or oppose, the content. We don’t have the ability to influence content at the time we make our advertising purchase,” they continued. “In this case, we’ve been watching closely and have recently made the decision to pull our advertising from Hannity.”
If more advertisers pull their funding from “Hannity,” Fox News could be compelled to re-examine their financial stake in the program and in its host. In April, former Fox News mainstay Bill O’Reilly left the network after allegations of sexual harassment caused more than half his advertisers to pull the plug.
