Trump’s Return to Hannity — For First Fox News Interview in Six Months — Is a Loss For the Network’s News Side

Sean Hannity concluded his Wednesday show with a significant announcement: Former President Donald Trump would participate in a sit-down interview for the entire hour of next Monday’s show. This is the first time Trump will appear on Fox News for an interview in six months. The last time, on September 20, 2022, he also appeared with his old friend and informal advisor, Hannity. A lot has happened in the months since.

Trump appearing on the network has historically been a pedestrian occurrence. Before he dove head-on into politics, he regularly appeared on Fox & Friends. And while in the White House, he would appear on the network — almost always for the softest of softball interviews — quite frequently.

But in the past six months, Trump has turned against the network that long served as his political ally. He has blasted Fox Corporation chair Rupert Murdoch on social media. He has criticized the network for covering Ron DeSantis, not talking about him enough, and “aiding & abetting the DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA.”

Trump has also ramped up his deranged rhetoric that he is a victim of a vast conspiracy that rigged the 2020 election. None of his claims are true, but in the world of conspiracies, proving the case is not what matters. And it has been disproved over, and over, and over again.

I called out Fox News last week for ignoring Trump’s increasingly bonkers rhetoric, arguing that an outlet that describes itself as a news organization was falling on the job by pretending that the presumptive Republican candidate for 2024 isn’t making provably false claims … repeatedly.

Of course, the context of the aforementioned column was damning texts and emails revealed in Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against the network, which showed how many executives, producers, and on-air talent privately dismissed Trump and the stolen election claims he spewed. On air, however, they ignored his claims (at best) and promoted them (at worst.)

All of these topics are on the table for the former president, who could very well return to the White House in roughly two years. And who gets the chance to ask him about it? Sean Hannity, his old friend, a man referred to as Trump’s “shadow chief of staff” during his administration, a host who drew a rebuke from his own network for appearing on-stage at a Trump political rally.

Forgive me if my expectations for anything but a softball interview are meager.

Ordinarily, a sure-to-be convivial Hannity-Trump fireside chat wouldn’t be an issue for Fox News. But right now, just weeks before they head into a Delaware courtroom to defend themselves against a ten-figure defamation lawsuit, the network could use any little bit of evidence that they are, in fact, a journalistic operation.

Having Donald Trump off their air for half a year was one of the few things executives could tout to support their claims of Fox as a legit newsroom. It was a line in the sand for a network that has drawn very few.

Fox News employs some terrific journalists both at home and abroad. To name a few: Jennifer Griffin, Trey Yingst, Chad Pergram, and of course, Benjamin Hall each demonstrate best-in-class journalism.

But there are now serious questions about what exactly Fox News is. The answer supports critics who see them as a partisan media operation that throws off a ton of revenue.

Trump’s return to the network is a big deal, but the fact that Fox News agreed to have him appear on Hannity and not face an interview from a more reputable journalist like Bret Baier? It’s a massive win for the opinion side of the network (which happens to also be the more lucrative side) and a loss for the news side.

It also indicates how Fox News will operate in the two years leading up to the 2024 election. The Dominion documents showed that network executives are terrified of losing the Trump base as viewers, and eventually, course corrected so much that they now find themselves on the business end of a $1.6 billion lawsuit.

Trump on Hannity will almost certainly be another episode of the same show we’ve seen for the past six years. And the fact that Fox appears to be opting for a rerun at a time when they could show the strength and independence of their news operation? That’s a real shame.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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