April 15, 2010

Sean Hannity latest teabagging event has come to a violent halt when he pulled out at the last minute. WLWT reported that there were some technical issues and then it would seem that Hannity blamed it on personal reasons.

Fox News commentator Sean Hannity has cancelled his appearance and broadcast at a Tea Party rally at Fifth Third Arena.Hannity planned to tape his television show from the event, which starts at 6 p.m. at the University of Cincinnati.Organizers of the rally said there were technical issues, but that the overriding factor for the cancellation was a personal matter that Hannity needed to attend to in New York. WLWT was the first to report that there were issues when Hannity failed to appear at a book signing at 4:30 p.m. Minutes later, Hannity's bus was seen leaving the campus.Hannity's newscast will broadcast from New York with a guest host.

However that story isn't holding water. The LA Times is reporting that Sean took a scolding from FOX News execs and they are making him do his show tonight from his studio.

Angry Fox News executives ordered host Sean Hannity to abandon plans to broadcast his nightly show as part of a Tea Party rally in Cincinnati on Thursday after top executives learned that he was set to headline the event, proceeds from which would benefit the local Tea Party organization.

Rally organizers had listed Hannity, who is on a book tour, as the headliner of the four-hour Tax Day event at the University of Cincinnati. The rally, expected to draw as many as 13,000 people, was set feature speakers such as “Liberal Facism” author Jonah Goldberg and local Tea Party leaders. Participants were being charged a minimum of $5, with seats near Hannity’s set going for $20, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, which reported that any profits would go to future Tea Party events. Media Matters for America noted that Hannity’s personal website directed supporters to a link to buy tickets for the Cincinnati rally.

But senior Fox News executives said they were not aware Hannity was being billed as the centerpiece of the event or that Tea Party organizers were charging for admission to Hannity’s show as part of the rally. They first learned of it Thursday morning from John Finley, Hannity's executive producer, who was in Cincinnati to produce Hannity's show.

Furious, top officials recalled Hannity back to New York to do his show in his regular studio. The network plans to do an extensive post-mortem about the incident with Finley and Hannity's staff.

“Fox News never agreed to allow the Cincinnati Tea Party organizers to use Sean Hannity’s television program to profit from broadcasting his show from the event," said Bill Shine, the network’s executive vice president of programming. "When senior executives in New York were made aware of this, we changed our plans for tonight’s show.”

Before the tea party movement got going, FOX News was very excited to use their entire network to promote them because a Democratic politician was elected to the White House. Now, they are trying to make believe that never happened. I wonder if their legal department got involved when money was changing hands with the teabaggers?

UPDATE: More News from FOX 19:

A statement was released by the Vice president of Programming of FOX News, Bill Shine.

"FOX News never agreed to allow the Cincinnati Tea Party Organizers to use Sean Hannity's television program to profit from broadcasting his show from the event. When senior executives in New York were made aware, we changed our plans for tonight's show." FOX News has confirmed that Sean Hannity's broadcast of tonight's show from New York City.

Yep, it's all about the cash. Well they still have Joe the Plumber and Bill Cunningham to entertain them...

Poor Glenn Reynolds of Pajamas Media has been there waiting for Hannity to arrive and now can be counted as the people who were surely disappointed by Hannity's sudden departure.

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