CNN’s Alisyn Camerota and Brian Stelter discussed what it takes to be an ethical journalist on “New Day” Tuesday, after it was revealed Fox News host Sean Hannity has a connection to President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen.
“In terms of journalism, the rules of journalism that we follow, there’s something called full disclosure and it works like this,” Camerota said. “When you have a previous relationship with someone, you say something to the effect of ‘I worked at Fox News for many, many years and know Hannity and always had a very pleasant relationship with him.’ So the viewers know where I’m coming from.”
“Hannity talked about Michael Cohen a million times,” she continued. “He never disclosed to his viewers that they have this relationship where he seeks legal advice from him. But Hannity gets to play with the facts in terms of whether he’s journalist or not and he’s said both. Does it matter if he’s not a journalist, should he have had to have disclosed all of that?”
WATCH:
Stelter thinks Hannity should have disclosed the relationship to his viewers, but said the Fox News host should not be considered a journalist.
“The disclosure for me about Hannity is that he calls me Humpty Dumpty for some reason,” Stelter said. “Don’t know why and I enjoy covering him. I think he’s a really interesting phenomenon because he does blur these lines. He says he’s not a journalist. Says journalism is dead and yet he calls his show real news and has anonymous sources.”
Stelter said Hannity tries to be both an entertainer and a newsman and gets lost somewhere in between.
“He’s an entertainer but on a channel with the logo in the corner that says news on the bottom of the screen,” Stelter added.
“I think this story shows us how Trump world really works and how tight-knit the relationships really are,” he said. “It’s a reminder about all of these men and their relationships going back decades. That could be a good thing or maybe that could be a very bad thing.”
You can Follow Nick on Twitter and Facebook
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.