Chicago Tribune's Rick Pearson accuses Hannity/FNC of "hijacking my credibility" & "identity theft"

[wndycty]

Trib's Pearson: Sean Hannity "Hijacked" My Credibility

by Josh Kalven on August 07, 2009 - 10:27am

Earlier this week, we highlighted a segment from Sean Hannity's nightly Fox News program that spent over six minutes smearing State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. What we found perplexing about the piece wasn't that it included numerous distortions and omissions -- that's par for the course, after all -- but rather that Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson had submitted to such a lengthy interview with Hannity. How could he "possibly be confident the resulting report will be fair and accurate?" we asked.

Well, it turns out that Pearson didn't actually know his analysis was going to end up on Hannity's show. To the contrary, he taped the interview under the impression it would be used as part of a straight news report on the U.S. Senate race -- one that examined both Giannoulias and GOP candidate Mark Kirk. He only later found out that he would be appearing as part of a Hannity hit-job on Giannoulias and that his comments regarding Kirk would be left out entirely.

On Steve Cochran's WGN Radio show yesterday evening, Pearson shared his thoughts about the segment, saying that he felt "hijacked" by Hannity because his presence in the report had been used to "lend them credibility." "It's almost like an identity theft kind of thing in a way," Pearson added, "because all I have is my credibility. And I know that show doesn't have any."
-snip-

http://progressillinois.com/2009/8/7/pearson-hannity-hijacked

[madrchsod]

1. pearson should have known better

did he should have known that that sean would not be "fair and balanced". 6 minutes smearing alexi on national television is a bit odd. i guess sean does`t know that kirk is`t the darling of 27% of the republican party and giving alex national exposure is as they say-priceless.