The unindicted co-conspirator is hitting the road for one last pre-midterm rally in Missouri, broadcast to the nation by the state media arm Fox News's Sean Hannity, with an assist from Rush Limbaugh. Hannity is appearing as Trump's "special guest," and they're apparently letting Limbaugh tag along because he's there, anyway, living in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
CNN is there for the mocking: "Hannity is not a journalist, but he works at a hugely popular network with 'News' in its name, alongside staffers who have to follow policies that forbid this type of political involvement." Fox is pretending like this isn't really a problem, saying in response to the Trump campaign press release announcing the special guests that "Hannity is not sponsoring the rally or campaigning for Trump." Right. He's just using the rally as the set for his show Monday night, with an interview from Trump.
Did I mention this is a Trump campaign event? CNN points out that it "isn't making a distinction between interviewing the president and showing up at the rally as a 'special guest,'" but is advertising on the website as an event "w/Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, & Lee Greenwood." This, as professor and conservative media historian Nicole Hemmer told CNN "highlights once again how little space now exists between the White House and conservative media." This merger of Trump and conservative media, she says, "is a crucially important characteristic of the Trump administration and the conservative movement more broadly."
What a difference a Republican in the White House makes for Fox. Back in 2010, Hannity was going to headline a tea party rally and Rupert Murdoch forced him to cancel. "I don't think we should be supporting the tea party or any other party," Murdoch said then. Now that they've got Trump, there's no need for any pretense that they're anything but Trump's network, and by extension the GOP's network. To the point that they point-blank refuse to let George Soros, their favorite bogeyman, on the air to rebut their conspiracy theories about him.
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