Fox News host Sean Hannity, a longtime fixture at a network that has paid out staggering
sums in legal settlements over its repeated dissemination of falsehoods, has once again positioned himself as a champion of truth—while simultaneously railing against the so-called dishonesty of the “mainstream media.” Despite Fox News paying nearly $800 million to
Dominion Voting Systems for knowingly spreading lies about the 2020 election, Hannity took
it upon himself to decry what he perceives as widespread misinformation within legacy media.
During a recent interview with Mediaite, Hannity promoted his new interview show on Fox Nation, the network’s streaming platform, while taking shots at traditional media outlets. “That’s why legacy media is dead. They don’t know it yet because they don’t tell the truth,” he declared. This statement came from a man whose employer has spent years fabricating stories to mislead viewers, raising questions about his own commitment to truthfulness.
Hannity’s criticisms of the media’s credibility were particularly ironic given that, in the same interview, he downplayed Donald Trump’s role in the January 6th Capitol attack. When interviewer Aidan McLaughlin pointed out that the violent riot was a direct result of Trump’s repeated false claims that the 2020 election was “stolen,” Hannity responded with skepticism, asking, “Are you sure of that?”
The facts surrounding January 6th are well-documented. Trump actively encouraged his supporters to gather in Washington, D.C., promising on social media that the protest against Joe Biden’s certification would be “wild.” His inflammatory rhetoric incited the crowd, leading to the storming of the U.S. Capitol in an unprecedented attack on American democracy. Trump was impeached for his role in the insurrection and later criminally charged for his actions. Yet, in Hannity’s version of reality, it was Trump who had been wronged.
“As far as I’m concerned, they all owe him an apology for how they treated him and the lies and conspiracy theories they peddled,” Hannity complained. This statement perfectly encapsulates the type of revisionist history that Fox News and its top personalities have mastered over the years—shifting blame, denying reality, and portraying Trump as the ultimate victim.
Hannity, of all people, should be well aware of Fox News’s track record. As one of the network’s longest-serving hosts, he has been a key player since the channel’s inception in 1996. He was one of the first hires made by Roger Ailes, the now-deceased former Fox News chairman who was later exposed as a serial sexual predator. Over the decades, Hannity has played a crucial role in shaping the network’s far-right, pro-Trump narrative, often at the expense of factual reporting.
His involvement in promoting falsehoods extends beyond casual commentary. During the 2020 election, Hannity repeatedly gave airtime to baseless conspiracy theories about voter fraud, leading to his inclusion in the Dominion defamation lawsuit. He has also used his platform to amplify debunked conspiracy theories, including the racist “birther” movement that falsely claimed Barack Obama was not born in the United States—an effort that was spearheaded by none other than Donald Trump.
Hannity’s pattern of dishonesty is extensive. He falsely claimed that Obama once referred to Americans as “lazy.” He misled his audience by stating that the Obama administration failed to declare a health emergency during a bird flu outbreak. He inaccurately suggested that Trump had taken security measures to prevent the events of January 6th. And despite later asserting that he had warned against using ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19, there is no record of him doing so.
One of Hannity’s most egregious deceptions involved his relentless promotion of conspiracy theories surrounding the tragic death of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. Without any evidence, Hannity pushed the false narrative that Rich’s death was linked to Hillary Clinton and the DNC, using the tragedy to smear the former Secretary of State’s 2016 presidential campaign. These baseless claims caused immense distress to Rich’s grieving family and were eventually retracted by Fox News—but not before Hannity had spent months amplifying them.
Despite his lengthy history of spreading misinformation, Hannity insists that it is the so-called “legacy media” that is failing the public. To some extent, mainstream media outlets do have credibility issues—though not in the way Hannity suggests. Rather than being dominated by “liberal bias,” as conservative commentators often claim, mainstream media has been criticized for its reluctance to challenge Republican disinformation and its tendency to present both sides of an issue as equally valid, even when one side is rooted in lies.
For someone so deeply entrenched in Fox News’s ecosystem of deception, it is almost laughable for Hannity to present himself as a truth-teller. His close relationship with Trump, a man who has built his political career on falsehoods and conspiracy theories, further undermines any claims of credibility. If Hannity truly cared about journalistic integrity, he would start by holding himself and his network accountable. Instead, he continues to operate as a loyal propagandist, deflecting blame and ensuring that Fox News viewers remain trapped in a carefully curated world of misinformation.
