Fox News firebrand Sean Hannity hit back at CNN’s Jim Acosta, after Acosta accused Hannity of “peddling lies” and “injecting poison into the nation’s political bloodstream.”
Hannity was criticizing Acosta on air, after the CNN anchor was booed and heckled by Trump supporters at a rally in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday. Hannity accused Acosta of being part of the “abusively biased” media, and said that CNN should be more outraged at the ongoing harassment of conservatives by anti-Trump liberals.
Acosta in turn called Hannity a “propagandist for profit,” and accused the Fox host of “peddling lies every night.” Hannity is an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, and reportedly talks to the president by phone several times per week.
Hannity mocked Acosta for his response. “Sorry your precious feelings are hurt & that people see through your lying bullsh*t for what it is,” he tweeted. “FAKE NEWS.”
Hannity’s latest beef with Acosta started after the CNN anchor was booed and heckled at a Donald Trump rally in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday. Trump supporters drowned out Acosta, shouting “traitor” and “CNN sucks” as he attempted to deliver a piece to camera.
Speaking on HLN Wednesday night, Acosta said that his experience at the rally made him feel “like we weren’t in America anymore.”
“These opinions that these folks have at these rallies… they’re shaped by what they see in the primetime hours of Fox News… that just sort of give them this daily diet of what they consider to be terrible things that we do over here at CNN,” he said.
President Trump has been scathing in his criticism of CNN, and lavish in his praise for Fox. “Real FoxNews is doing great, Fake News CNN is dead!” he declared in June, citing CNN’s declining ratings.
At a joint press conference with UK Prime Minister Theresa May in July, Trump refused to take a question from Acosta, snubbing the CNN anchor for a Fox News journalist.
CNN has been overwhelmingly negative in its coverage of Trump’s presidency. A Harvard study conducted last year found that 93 percent of the network’s coverage of the Trump presidency was negative in tone.
However, while Acosta and Hannity represent organizations at different ends of the ideological spectrum, they have more in common than they would ever admit. Both downplay their advocacy, with Hannity hiding behind the excuse that he is a talk show host, not a journalist; and Acosta justifying his political grandstanding as noble truth-seeking.
Like this story? Share it with a friend!