‘Hannity’ Cincinnati Show Canceled, Fox News Execs ‘Furious’

By Chris Ariens 

Sean Hannity was all set to broadcast his show from a Cincinnati Tea Party event tonight, but was recalled to his Manhattan studio by “furious” executives late today.

Hannity had been promoting the appearance on his show all week. Glenn Beck even mentioned Hannity’s Cincinnati appearance on his show late today.

But the Los Angeles Times reports Fox News executives first learned the extent of Hannity’s involvement this morning from the show’s EP John Finley who was already in Ohio. Organizers were going to charge anywhere from $5 to $100 to attend, a fact reported by Media Matters earlier this week.

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“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,” EVP of programming Bill Shine, tells the Times.

The Times reports, “The network plans to do an extensive post-mortem about the incident with Finley and Hannity’s staff.”

There was no mention of the Cincinnati switch on his show tonight, but after an interview with Suzanne Somers, Hannity closed with, “This tax day, thank you for being with us. Hope you think you’ve paid enough.”

> Related / MediaDecoder: At Tea Party Rallies, a Fox News Presence

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