Conservative media covered Sean Hannity and Obama's speaking fees.

Today in Conservative Media: The Persecution of Sean Hannity

Today in Conservative Media: The Persecution of Sean Hannity

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April 25 2017 5:34 PM

Today in Conservative Media: The Persecution of Sean Hannity

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Fox News host Sean Hannity n the White House briefing room in Washington, DC, on January 24, 2017.

Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

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A daily roundup of the biggest stories in right-wing media.

Last week, anti-Muslim blogger Debbie Schlussel accused Fox News host Sean Hannity of asking her back to his hotel room before and after an event. In his Monday night monologue, the Fox News host spoke out against what he called “attempts by liberal fascists to silence conservative voices.” In what followed, he obliquely discussed Schlussel’s sexual harassment allegations. Quoting at length from his own official statement, Hannity described Schlussel herself as a “serial harasser,” but never named her.

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While few conservative publications covered Schlussel’s initial allegations, which she made on a talk radio show, many took up Hannity’s line of attack. Breitbart republished a full transcript of his monologue and LifeZette—whose editor-in-chief is Fox personality Laura Ingraham—credulously repeated his suggestion that supporting Trump had “made him a target.” While some sites, including the Blaze, noted that Schlussel subsequently “denied that these were accusations of sexual harassment, saying that it was merely ‘creepy’ on his part,” few acknowledged that she herself has generally espoused conservative views.

Conservative sites took notice of other apparent attacks on their work as well. The Gateway Pundit ran a post titled, “Politico Publishes Hit Piece on Conservative News With Special Hostility Reserved for Gateway Pundit.” Calling out Politico for its own supposed inaccuracies, Gateway Pundit wrote, “Any news site accusing Gateway Pundit of running ‘National Enquirer-style headlines[’] while pushing Putin conspiracies on a daily basis has a lot of nerve.”

Meanwhile, Independent Journal Review covered a slight hiccough for Breitbart, reporting, “The Senate Press Gallery’s Standing Committee of Correspondents chose to deny permanent Hill credentials to Breitbart News on Tuesday morning.” Breitbart itself published a short post on the matter, quoting Sen. Chuck Schumer’s observation that “if … Breitbart News and The New York Times are regarded with equal credibility, you worry about this democracy.” Though it was only two paragraphs long, that post drew almost 5,000 comments from Breitbart’s readers and sat near the top of its list of most-read posts for much of Tuesday.

In other news:

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Some conservative outlets offered appraisals of what Gateway Pundit called “the most successful first 100 days of any president in the last 100 years.”

Washington Examiner’s Byron York acknowledged that Trump had “over-promised for his first 100 days,” but “[t]he bottom line is that Trump has been a 100 day success when it comes to exercising the executive powers of the presidency.” An article on Fox News’ website meanwhile, held, “President Trump’s first 100 days in office had all the hallmarks of a chief executive’s approach: Busy, brash and bold,” though that post’s headline called the results of his efforts “mixed.” John Roberts, the channel’s chief White House correspondent, noted on air that while the president “got off to a swift start … unlike his recent predecessors, the president so far has no legislative accomplishments to point to.”

Other publications focused on specific issues: Breitbart wrote, “President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have steered a course during the administration’s first 100 days that anti-abortion activists have been dreaming about for decades.” And a Daily Caller opinion piece by former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell praised steps the president had taken toward “Securing America.” Blackwell wrote, “Unlike his predecessor, President Trump doesn’t spend much time on the golf course. He’s busy issuing executive orders, appointing strong conservatives, bombing Islamist terrorists, and safeguarding our borders.”

Fox News’ new primetime roundtable show The Five took another approach, focusing on “100 Days of Liberals Losing Their Minds.”

On Facebook, posts about former President Barack Obama’s speaking fees spread widely from conservative pages: