Sara Carter and Alan Dershowitz on the Steele Dossier-- Hannity show, May 21, 2019
Apparently unable to find real reporters to provide the kind of pro-Trump propaganda Sean Hannity relies on, he has turned to a trio of fake ones – despite a management directive not to call them “reporters.”
Hannity’s three fake “investigative reporters” are Sara Carter, Lawrence Jones and John Solomon. None of them provide material for Fox News’ “news” division yet Hannity has repeatedly used the term “investigative reporter” to describe them and even "Fox News investigative reporter" in Carter's case.
Carter, a near-nightly Hannity guest, had a history of shoddy, salacious work before she got on the Fox payroll. It speaks volumes that Fox hired her as a contributor, not a reporter. According to Mediaite, the network found her work does not measure up to Fox’s guidelines. But Hannity inflates Carter’s credibility by referring to her as “investigative reporter” even after the network reportedly told him to stop.
The Daily Beast crunched some numbers of Hannity's lies:
In fact, according to a review of Fox News transcripts, he has only gotten more defiant since he was reportedly scolded by executives. This year, Hannity has referred to Carter as an “investigative reporter” at least 18 times, two-thirds of which came after he was told to stop. In several of those instances, Hannity even slapped a network-wide stamp of approval on Carter, calling her a “Fox News investigative reporter.”
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While Hannity has regularly promoted her articles on-air and via his social media accounts, Fox’s actual news division never uses her reporting.
The Daily Beast found that Hannity has also falsely called Jones an “investigative reporter” at least a dozen times, with a majority of those instances coming after the Fox host was reportedly asked to stop labeling Carter as such. You may recall Jones from his attention-getting stunt (that got an unintended kind of attention) of wearing a tactical vest during a border “report.”
Then there’s Solomon. The Daily Beast summed him up this way:
Nevertheless, Solomon has proven quite useful in Hannity’s quest to discredit criticism of President Trump via supposed investigative reporting. The Hill columnist, whose own outlet does not consider him a reporter, has been hyped by Hannity as an “investigative reporter” at least 12 times this year, including twice this week.
Not surprisingly, this fake news has ticked off many of Hannity’s colleagues. Several of them are quoted anonymously in The Daily Beast’s report.
Yes, it’s outrageous that Hannity – who holds himself up as “always fair and balanced” – should be getting away with such shenanigans. But really, this is just the logical extension of what Fox has always done.
