Apr 23, 2018 4 min read

Sean Hannity isn’t a journalist. He’s a performance artist.

He spends his weekdays on the radio and his weeknights on Fox News, extolling all things Trump.

He’s good at what he does, but he shouldn’t be confused with people who make their livings chasing facts.

As Ted Koppel (a real journalist) told Hannity to his face in March 2017, “You have attracted people who are determined that ideology is more important than facts.”

That’s a stinging rebuke of a man who fashions himself as a “fact-teller” beyond reproach.

Hannity would have been left alone to freely spin his yarns about Trump and his administration, until that federal court hearing in New York on April 16.

That day in court revealed Hannity’s deceitful, nightly charades.

After the FBI raided the office, home and hotel room of Donald Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, on April 9, Hannity launched a blistering attack on Special Counsel Robert Mueller on his radio show.

“It seems that there’s no limit at all into the fishing expedition Mueller is now engaged in. And if he has access to everything that his personal attorney has I can only imagine where that’s going to lead,” he told his audience.

The following night on Fox News, he spit out a full scale, 10-minute attack on Mueller, while in support of Trump’s attorney Cohen.

“Want to take bets on what Mueller and Weissmann (Mueller’s special counsel team manager) are looking for? ‘Cause I have a pretty good idea tonight,” Hannity smugly said.

What he didn’t say was that he was also in the snares of the FBI’s search warrant.

When Cohen’s attorney took the matter of the search warrant into federal court, they also submitted a long letter.

In that letter, they mentioned that Cohen had 10 clients between 2017 and 2018.

They also stated that Cohen had offered “strategic advice,” and “business consulting,” for seven of those clients.

But there was the matter of the other three clients.

One is Trump. Another is a man named Elliot Broidy.

But it was the name of the third client, when it was revealed, that is said to have set off “audible gasps” – Sean Hannity.

If there were presses that had to be stopped, they would have when Hannity’s name pierced the calm in that courtroom.

Hannity – a man who vehemently defends Cohen and Trump, had omitted the one fact that would prevented people from questioning his motives for displaying such vehemence.

That he, too, was part of a very big story.

Any real journalist would have uttered the six words that would have alerted his viewers (or listeners) to the fact that he has an agenda.

“In the interest of full disclosure…”

Instead, he uses phrases like “we did some digging today,” or “we’ve got to investigate…,” as if he’s a hard-charging reporter on a beat.

He’s not.

He’s free with opinions – not with essential facts.

After his name was revealed in court that day, Hannity was quick to deny that he had been Cohen’s legal client.

“Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid him legal fees,” he told his Fox News audience.

You’d have to wonder why, before his name was revealed in court, did Cohen’s attorneys argue that they had some kind of mystery client (Hannity), who wanted to remain anonymous, because he was a “prominent person,” who would be “embarrassed,” to be identified.

In fact, that letter Cohen’s attorneys submitted to the court specifically said, “The third legal client directed Mr. Cohen to not reveal the identity publicly.”

How could Hannity still claim that he hadn’t been Cohen’s client, if he directed Cohen’s attorneys not to reveal his name?

Meanwhile, Hannity claims that whatever his relationship is with Cohen, it falls under attorney/client privilege.

Hum?

If, as Hannity says, he’s not Cohen’s client, then there can’t be any attorney/client privilege.

It’s like claiming you’re a journalist – but only when it suits you.

Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.