Sean Hannity is taking a victory lap after landing the first interview with Donald Trump Jr. since the New York Times reported that the president’s son met last year with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton. The interview will air Tuesday night on Hannity’s Fox News show.
The only thing dulling Hannity’s exuberance (slightly) is his belief that rival television networks won’t give him enough face time when they air clips of the interview Wednesday.
“They so hate me, but every network is going to have to run my interview now,” Hannity said on his syndicated radio show Tuesday afternoon, before speaking with Trump Jr. “And let me predict what they’re going to do: They’re not going to run any video of Hannity. It’s all going to be just Trump Jr.”
Hannity told radio listeners his conversation with Trump Jr. will take up most of his TV show. But he said he will reserve some time to address political journalists, knowing they will feel compelled to watch.
“I don’t want to give it away now, but I’m going to start tonight’s TV show with an opening monologue for all of my colleagues in the media that are going to be tuning in,” Hannity said. “I’ve got a thing or two to say to them ’cause I guess the tune-in factor is going to be pretty high tonight.”
He then responded to a tweet posted by CNN media reporter Brian Stelter.
The real journalists at Fox News must be disappointed that Don Jr. is talking to Hannity, not them. https://t.co/RPvkjpaemG
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 11, 2017
“At least we have real journalists,” Hannity said. Channeling President Trump’s penchant for name-calling, Hannity called Stelter “the little pipsqueak stenographer of Jeff Zucker.” Zucker is the president of CNN.
(Note: Stelter’s distinction between Hannity and “the real journalists at Fox News” sounds like an insult, but Hannity himself has drawn the same distinction. “I’m not a journalist,” Hannity reminded his radio listeners last year. “I’m a talk-show host.”)
“I just love when I know I have a captive media audience for the show,” Hannity continued in the opening segment of his Tuesday afternoon radio broadcast. “It motivates me and energizes me in a way, ’cause they have to listen ’cause they know they have to watch this. And it’s going to drive them nuts that I have Donald Trump Jr. on the program tonight.”
Hannity is right, of course. This is how the symbiotic relationship between the Trump White House and Fox News works. Fox News’s opinion shows shower President Trump with praise, which results in greater access.
For example: This year, Trump has granted four interviews to a single Fox News show, “Fox & Friends,” while giving just three to all of the shows on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC combined.
Appearances on Fox News by the president and his surrogates make the network’s programs more newsworthy. Journalists have to tune in to hear Team Trump’s positions — which sometimes go unchallenged in interviews — and the attention invariably amplifies the synchronized messages of the administration and Fox News.