Why Did Fox Blink in Hannity Tea Party Shakedown?

[SoDesuKa]

It's not really clear why Fox News executives ordered Sean Hannity to do his April 15th show in New York rather than in Cincinnati as planned. Surely they knew that the Tea Party was charging money for Hannity's appearance. Hannity had not made any secret that the show wasn't free.

Fox News executives said they canceled because they did not know that the Tea Party organizers were raising money based on Mr. Hannity’s widely promoted attendance at the rally. But Mr. Hannity’s producers at Fox were aware for months that tickets were being sold, said Chris Littleton, the president of the Cincinnati Tea Party, a nonprofit group. And Mr. Hannity mentioned the sales on his TV show a week ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/us/17fox.html

Because Hannity was a no-show, the Tea Party will have to refund tickets to people who paid up to $100 to hear him. But what really went on, such that both Fox News and the Tea Party were embarrassed?

It's possible that Hannity wanted to skim too much off the top. His Freedom Concerts foundation is notorious for high administrative expenses; in fact there's a complaint before the Federal Trade Commission that Hannity actually gives very little to the families of fallen soldiers.

CREW’s FTC complaint alleges Hannity and Freedom Concerts have engaged in illegal and deceptive marketing practices by suggesting that all money generated by ticket sales for the Freedom Concerts he sponsors each summer goes to scholarships for children of killed and wounded service members. In fact, the concerts are staged by Premiere Marketing, which is headed by Duane Ward – also the head of Premiere Speakers Bureau, which exclusively represents Mr. Hannity and Lt. Col. North. After staging the concerts, Premiere donates an unknown portion of the concert proceeds to the Freedom Alliance.

http://citizensforethics.org/node/44511

My guess is that there was a three-way tug of war between Hannity, Fox and the Tea Party. Fox folded quickly rather than be embarrassed by Hannity's greed. The Tea Party refused to blink because they wanted a bigger cut from the event. And Hannity remains convinced he's bigger than God.

[Ron Green]

1. Moran fight!

[PSPS]

2. They didn't "blink." They shut it down because they weren't getting a cut of the take.

It's all a circus, the media is. The Teabagger "movement" was created entirely out of whole cloth by Fox.

[tsuki]

3. Because Media Matters confronted Rupert "Plausible Deniability"

Morlock at a media conference about ClusterFox promoting the Teaparties. Rupert was put on the spots, and claimed he didn't know what ClusterFox was doing, and he'd have to look into it because they should be reporting, not instigating.

You don't put Rupert "The Boss" Morlock on the spot with your shenanigans. Now, Rupert "I'm Fairly Unbalanced" Morlock looks like he's in charge.

It's all theater.

[malaise]

4. It's fun to watch the cannibals

at work. They're all going down slowly. Butter anyone? :popcorn: