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Hannity's Megyn Kelly Attack Is Plain Hypocrisy

by Alexandra Spychalsky

Two of Fox News' top anchors are now locked in their own headline-stealing battle over presidential support and journalistic bias. On Wednesday, Sean Hannity tweeted at his colleague Megyn Kelly, saying, "Clearly you support her," referring to Hillary Clinton. The retort came after Kelly went after Donald Trump on her evening news show, saying that he chooses to be interviewed only by sympathetic parties and alleged that he is unwilling to go on any news show where he knows he will be challenged:

With all due respect to my friend at 10 o’clock, he [Trump] will go on Hannity and pretty much only Hannity and will not venture out to the unsafe spaces these days.

While some may take a certain spectator glee in watching two of Fox News' biggest stars lob friendly fire, what's most amusing to me is that Hannity would have the audacity to accuse Kelly of showing unfair political bias, when he could essentially be considered one of Trump's surrogates.

First and foremost, Kelly's assessment isn't wrong. Hannity is known to lob softballs at Trump, and months ago, he declared himself to be an enthusiastic supporter of the candidate. When Hannity hosted a town hall with Trump in August, his line of questioning was criticized by many as being too easy on him. Trump even invoked him on stage in the first presidential debate. He repeatedly said to "call Sean Hannity" during his attempt to answer whether or not he supported the Iraq War when it began.

Kelly and Trump had, at one point, a public rift after she questioned his misogynistic rhetoric during a debate last year and he, in turn, very maturely called her a "bimbo" and suggested she was on her period. Even so, Kelly has not let this past battle get in the way of her election coverage. Yes, she has been tough on the Republican nominee, and noticeably tougher than some in her Fox News cohort. But she certainly has not been lacking in her criticisms of Clinton either, attacking her on her private email server controversy, the potential Clinton Foundation and State Department conflict of interest, and her allegedly poor working relationships with fellow politicians. Kelly even tweeted at Clinton last month asking when the former secretary of state will actually be a guest on her show, rather than just using her name and her own situation with Trump to attack him.

Hannity may want to pause and look around Trump Tower to realize people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones — or at the very least, they should choose accurate targets.