Advertisers are fleeing Sean Hannity, and his Fox News show after Hannity defended Roy Moore’s sexual abuse of children.
Hannity defended Moore by urging his viewers not to rush to judgement, and the backlash was immediate:
Hello. We can confirm that we do not have advertisements running on this program.
— Nature's Bounty (@NaturesBounty) November 12, 2017
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
We’ve received inquiries RE: advertising on Hannity. We are not running TV advertising on Hannity. We continue to closely evaluate where we advertise.
— 23andMe (@23andMe) November 10, 2017
Hi there! Hannity is blocked from our advertising list. If we can help with anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at social@eloquii.com.
— ELOQUII (@ELOQUII) November 10, 2017
While we continually strategize on where we advertise on and offline, we are not currently, and will not be running TV ads on Hannity. @mmfa
— realtor.com (@realtordotcom) November 11, 2017
Donna, thank you for your concern and for bringing this to our attention. We worked with our media partner and FOX news to stop our ad from airing during the Sean Hannity Show.
— Keurig (@Keurig) November 11, 2017
Fox News was desperate to take back the primetime #1 rating from MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, but what they are quickly learning is that it is better to be number two and be able to sell ads than be number one and losing money.
Any Republican or conservative news outlet that defends Roy Moore is going to face a backlash. Advertising boycotts work because advertisers don’t want their brands associated with division and controversy. By supporting a sexual abuser of children, Sean Hannity has smeared his advertisers with a stain that will never come off. Hannity already lost advertisers after he embraced the Seth Rich conspiracy theory on his show, and one has wonder how more Fox News is willing to put up with.
Roy Moore may be heading for defeat, and he could be taking Sean Hannity down with him.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association