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April 21, 2017 - Sean Hannity Show
07:02
Morning Minute: Sean Responds to Bill O'Reilly Firing - 4.21
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This is an iHeart Podcast.
A lot of you want to hear from me about what has been going on at the Fox News Channel.
And I really honestly and truly don't have any insight that I can offer you above and beyond that which is being reported.
And you say, well, Hannity, how's that possible?
You work there.
You've been working there 21 and a half years.
Well, the answer is I I don't know the nature of the allegations.
I'm not aware of whether they're true or not, as it relates to Bill O'Reilly.
Um here's something that probably will surprise a lot of you.
I do most of my work every day across the street from the Fox News channel.
I I don't pay a lot of attention to other people's hours because I'd like to get my hour the way I want to get it every night, and that is to put the best news and information uh programming in the most entertaining way on the air for all of you.
Um so if you're asking, you know, do I have any particular insight as to what it happened?
No, I don't know.
Um I don't know the nature of all of this.
I don't know the accuracy of the accusations.
I don't know what was discovered in the investigation.
Nobody ever talked to me.
Uh I maybe see Bill O'Reilly once a year, and we weren't particularly close in the time that we've been there.
Our hours have always been very different, and we just you know, I just don't see the guy.
And maybe that surprises a lot of you too.
Um he would tape his show earlier in the day, and and for most of the years I've been at Fox, I do a live program.
So what does it mean for the Fox News channel?
I yeah, I I don't know.
I know that my show is not gonna change.
I know that I've read a lot online and even a New York Times reporter suggesting, well, this could be it for a Hannity now.
There is a an environment that I think we do need to discuss, and that is the environment of it's for like in politics, I've I've often argued we're criminalizing political differences.
There is an environment, and I've told you about this for years, that all of us in radio and television work in now.
And there's a reason all these years, I've never supported boycotts.
And I've been asked by many fellow conservatives over the years, and we want you to support our boycott.
And my answer is always the same, it's no.
And the answer is because boycotts, more often than not, are gonna be used against conservatives, and it's a weapon that's used that if they can attack people's advertisers, and financially a show takes a hit and is not as financially viable, then there is a a greater likelihood that that voice of that individual can be silenced.
Now, are there legitimate boycotts?
I guess there are.
Um I don't participate in them because I believe at the end of the day, conservatives will be victimized by the use of them more often than liberals.
So, but the environment is this, and just so you know and are keenly aware, I guess somebody wrote me that Glenn Beck said today, well, Hannity's next.
Well, I mean, if it's true, um whatever.
I don't uh it's news to me.
I don't know where that's coming from or where the New York Times guy is coming from, but I do know politically there are lots of people on the left that would love to see me gone and love to have my voice silenced.
And I have known this my entire career, and I have conducted myself accordingly with that full knowledge and cons and understanding.
I have known for years and years on this program that there are people that are paid, literally paid to monitor every word I say three hours a day, every day on radio, and monitor every word I say on the Fox News channel and monitor every comment I make on any other show that I might happen to appear on.
And I know what their hope is, their hope and their prayer is that that I might say one word, one phrase, one sentence, make one sentiment that is deemed politically incorrect by them, and then they could use that as an ability to to either attack my advertisers or to be just get me outright fired.
And so that is, you know, does it stifle my freedom of speech?
No, it really doesn't.
There's nothing that I think that I want to say that I don't convey to you.
You know, sometimes am I careful in choosing the right words to say and convey exactly what I want to say and convey to you?
Yeah, I understand the nature of the environment that we're living in, but this is it's kind of chilling.
You know, how many years have I said on this program that for as much as I despise Bill Maher, Bill Maher in many ways is good for America.
And you say, Hannity, how could you say that?
I hate that guy.
Because he kind of says anything he wants, and he gets away with it.
And sometimes it shocks people, and sometimes it annoys people.
But if he can get away with saying anything he wants, then I think conservatives can and should be allowed to say the things that they want.
I'm just telling you all of this because A, I don't have any more details to share.
I don't know.
I've not talked to Bill O'Reilly.
I don't know him that well.
I haven't seen him very often in the last twenty-one years.
It's we were never really particularly close, um, without giving a lot of details away.
I mean, there's there's nothing here.
It's just I do my show, he does his show.
That's basically what it came down to.
And I had no feelings whatsoever anyway for him.
Um I think it's hard for anybody to go out like this.
Um, does he deserve and will he at some point be given a platform to maybe give his side of the story?
I guess he will be.
And I think that's fair, and and will he show up at another network at some point?
I don't know.
I I actually probably tend to doubt it.
But from my standpoint, I'm just I think it's important we all understand what's going on here too.
There is a battle, a conflict, and those of us that give news and information, and we're so separated from the left-wing alt-left propaganda, destroy Trump media, there's nothing more than leftists would want to do than to silence every single, at least effective conservative voice that they can.
And I do believe you need to understand the environment that we work in every day.
And that would be me.
That would be anybody on the Fox News channel, frankly.
That would be Mark Levin.
Thank me.
I'll say it, nobody else will say it.
That would be Rush Limbaugh.
That would be Glenn Beck.
That would be Laura Ingram.
That would be uh any of us that do this for a living.
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