Tea partiers report Fox story changed

Sean Hannity

Fox News says it pulled host Sean Hannity from a Cincinnati tea-party event on Tax Day because the network never agreed to allow the program to be used to provide a profit to the grass-roots organization.

The tea party, however, is reporting that's not what it was told.

As WND reported yesterday, Fox News executives angrily ordered Hannity to drop plans to broadcast his show from Cincinnati where a tea-party rally was being held.

The celebrity was on a book tour for his No. 1 best-seller "Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama's Radical Agenda" and was scheduled to be a featured speaker at a four-hour rally at the University of Cincinnati – with as many as 13,000 in attendance. Proceeds from the event were to benefit a local tea-party organization.

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Fox News programming executive Bill Shine, however, was quoted in a Los Angeles Times blog explaining, "Fox News never agreed to allow the Cincinnati Tea Party organizers to use Sean Hannity's television program to profit from broadcasting his show from the event. When senior executives in New York were made aware of this, we changed our plans for tonight's show."

In a statement, officials with the Cincinnati organization said they were told Hannity has a "personal emergency."

"Shortly after the scheduled book signing (which was canceled) Fox News producers onsite informed the Cincinnati Tea Party senior leadership that Mr. Hannity had to rush home for a personal emergency. The Cincinnati Tea Party expressed a statement of support and concern to Hannity and family," the party said.

Then things took another turn, with a participant in the event posting on the Cincinnati tea-party blog a report that there were "technical" glitches that were causing problems.

"The first excuse given for Sean['s] disappearance (with hundreds in line to get their books signed) was a 'family emergency.' Then as I was walking past the line of fans waiting for the book signing, a female with a Conservative Victory tee shirt (apparently part of Sean's staff) was explaining to a woman in line that the show couldn't be broadcast because of some 'technical' problem," wrote a tea-party forum contributor.

When WND contacted Fox News for an explanation today, spokeswoman Dana Klinghoffer completed the circle, referring WND to the original L.A. Times blog post referencing the ticket prices. No response was available from Hannity himself.

The explanation cited by Fox said officials with the network were not aware Hannity was being billed as the centerpiece of the event or that tea-party organizers were charging admission. The report said they eventually learned of it from John Finley, Hannity's executive producer, who was in Cincinnati to produce the show.

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The event was charging $5 for tickets – or more for premium seats – and tea-party organization spokesman Justin Binik-Thomas told WND there was a charge whether Hannity was part of the event or not, because of the cost of the venue.

He said both Hannity and the tea party had separate contracts with the University of Cincinnati for their respective events.

"People were excited to see him, but he was a bonus," Binik-Thomas told WND.

He said Hannity's absence had minimal effect on the event.

His posted statement said, "Freedom has rung loud and clear in southwestern Ohio at the second annual Tax Day Tea Party 2010. Nearly 10,000 conservatives and all local media outlets joined together to celebrate liberty and freedom in the United States of America."

Then he said while Fox News "was responsible for all aspects of the book signing and the television show – staffing, funding and producing," it was the Cincinnati Tea Party that dealt with its event's "staffing, funding and producing."

"Funding and contracting for these events was separate and no funds or contracts were signed between Fox News and the Cincinnati Tea Party," he said.

He said he was unable to get explanations from Fox, but that tea-party organizers felt they should offer refunds for those who would request them.

He confirmed plans were to set up a special e-mail address for the requests.

In a bullet-point listing of responses to Fox's insinuations, the Cincinnati Tea Party said no member of its organization profited, since they all are volunteers. It also said the ticket cost was set up to offset the production costs, including $50,000 for the facility, $10,000 for advertising, and $9,000 for speakers Jonah Goldberg, Bob Murphy and Sonja Schmidt.

The organization itself, explained the posting, is a grass-roots, nonpartisan organization "promoting its core values of limited government, fiscal responsibility and free markets, while strongly opposing wasteful government spending at all levels."

On the tea-party website blog, one participant suggested Hannity return "on his own time and leave Fox out of the equation. Seems to me that Fox was about to make money off of the tea party, rather than the other way around."

Added another, "Profits? The majority ticket price of $5 should be a good indication that the (Cincinnati Tea Party) weren't intending to profit on the event."

Added yet another, "I get everyone's agenda; I just find it hard to believe that a giant entity such as (Fox News Channel) couldn't have seen this conflict coming sooner and avoided it. I was disappointed Hannity wasn't there, but the event was fine otherwise with great speakers. Let's not lose track of why we go to these events: to build a unifying force of like-minded patriots working to save the USA. Stay Focused!!!"