SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR:
Joining me now with reaction is
Minnesota
Congresswoman
Michele Bachmann
is back. Congresswoman, welcome back. REP.
MICHELE BACHMANN
(R),
MINNESOTA
:
Sean
, thank you. Always a pleasure.
MADDOW:
That was from
September 17th
of this year, the host of
FOX News Channel
's
9 p.m
.
Eastern Time
show interviewing
Minnesota
Congresswoman
Michele Bachmann
. Two and a half weeks after that same host donated $5,000 to
Michele Bachmann
's
political
action campaign. Mr.
Hannity
's donation to
Michele Bachmann
was noted at the time. It was reported on by
Salon.com
in the article you see here.
FOX News Channel
's executives responded to be -- quandary pointed out here by telling the
St. Paul Pioneer Press
in
Minnesota
that Mr.
Hannity
would disclose his $5,000 donation to
Michele Bachmann
's
political action committee
on the air to his viewers when he interviewed Ms.
Bachmann
.
HANNITY:
All right. Congresswoman, good to see you. Thank you for taking time. We appreciate you being here.
MADDOW:
Despite
FOX News Channel
's assertion that the host would disclose on air when he interviewed her that he had made those donations to Ms.
Bachmann
's the
political action committee
, the host did not make that disclosure. The same host also maxed out his personal
political contribution
to a republican
New York State
congressional candidate named
John Gomez
. The host then interviewed Mr.
Gomez
after the campaign donations in
late September
of this year.
FOX News
hosts
have also explicitly endorsed republican candidates, just from this election cycle. Here's one.
HANNITY:
I stand proudly in
Kasich
's corner with an endorsement as long as it doesn't hurt you.
JOHN KASICH, FORMER UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE:
We want all the help you can give us,
Sean
.
MADDOW:
Here is part of a press release announcing a whole lists of endorsements, the same
FOX News
host Mr.
Hannity
is touted by the
Todd Tiahrt
for
Congress
campaign from Mr.
Hannity
's endorsement of Mr.
Tiahrt
. Here's another explicit endorsement of a congressional candidate named
Michael Faulkner
, and endorsement again by the
FOX News
host Mr.
Hannity
.
Presumptive
2012
republican presidential candidate
Mike Huckabee
. He's also a host at
FOX News
, he
hosts
the show there, I think, that's on the weekends. Making explicit
political
endorsements is essentially as Mr.
Huckabee
's
full time
other job, besides being on
FOX
. When he is not making explicit
political
endorsements, Mr.
Huckabee
, the
FOX News
host, is appearing at
political
fundraisers for Republican candidates.
FOX News
, Republican
fundraiser
,
FOX News
, Republican
fundraiser
.
That's what
he does as a
FOX News
host. Same goes for
FOX News
host
Sarah Palin
. Ms.
Palin
hosts
a
TV show
on
FOX
called "
Real American Stories
." And when she's not working as a host at
FOX News
or doing her other
TV show
that I think that's kind of like a
reality show
, she is endorsing Republican candidates. Also headlining Republican fundraisers.
FOX News
, Republican
fundraiser
,
FOX News
, Republican
fundraiser
. It's what she does as a
FOX News
host. Here's the local press in
Cleveland
, very excited about
FOX News
host
Sean Hannity
headlining an expensive
fundraiser
for Republican candidate for
Ohio
Governor
John Kasich
. Sometimes,
FOX News
hosts
save the travel budget and they just hold these fundraisers for Republican candidates right on the air.
GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS ANCHOR:
How can I help you
raise money
?
BACHMANN:
Well, people could go to
MicheleBachmann.com
. I need the help.
KASICH:
It is a very central race. And 11 times,
Sean
, they're coming after
Johnny Kasich
for 11 times, he's going to be here, it's amazing. People can come on our
Web site
at
KasichforOhio.com
. Sunday night at 6:30, we're going to talk about the damage the
Obama
agenda has done to us. And if you have any extra nickels or dimes, please send it our way.
KasichforOhio.com
.
HANNITY:
Well, I want to put this -- put some emphasis on this, because this is really important, to explain to people why we cannot afford to lose that race.
MADDOW:
Also, those nickels and dimes. In case it wasn't clear enough, this is from Mr.
Hannity
's own website, from his photo album on his
Web site
.
The Web
site brags that this is Mr.
Hannity
headlining a
National Republican Congressional Committee
fundraiser
. That
fundraiser
reportedly raised $7 million for
Republican House
candidates. Earlier this year, that took place, Mr.
Hannity
raising money for the
NRCC
, $7 million in one
fundraiser
, $7 million earlier this year. You may have heard today that my colleague and friend
Keith Olbermann
was temporarily suspended from his job hosting "
COUNTDOWN
" on this network because he made three personal
political donations
to candidates in this last election cycle. The reason that resulted in
Keith
's suspension is that here on
MSNBC
, there is an explicit employee rule against
hosts
making contributions like that.
You can do it
if you ask in advance and management tells you OK. That's what I understand happened with our
morning show
host's
political donations
in
2006
under previous management. But if you don't ask in advance for an exemption from the rule, you are bound by the rule. For the record, the rule applies to us
hosts
here at
MSNBC
and to
NBC News
staff.
CNBC
is not under
NBC News
, so
CNBC
staffers are not bound by the same thing. I understand this rule. I understand what it means to break this rule. I believe everybody should face the same treatment under this rule. I also personally believe that the point has been made and we should have
Keith
back hosting "COUNTDOWN." Here's the larger point, though, that's going mysteriously missing from all the right-wing cackling and the
Beltway
old media cluck-cluck- clucking about this. This is what I think is missing. Let this incident lay to rest forever the facile, never true anyway, bullpucky, lazy conflation of
FOX News
and what
the rest of us
do for a living. I know everybody likes to say, oh, that's cable news, it's all the same,
FOX
and
MSNBC
, mirror images of each other. Let this lay this to rest forever.
Hosts
on
FOX
raise money
on the air for Republican candidates. They endorse them explicitly. They use their
FOX News
profile to headline fundraisers. Heck, there are multiple people being paid by
FOX News
now to essentially run for office as Republican candidates. If you count not just their
hosts
but their contributors, you are looking at a significant portion of the whole lineup of Republican presidential contenders for
2012
. They can do that because there's no rule against that at
FOX
. They run as a
political
operation. We're not. Yes,
Keith
is a liberal, and so am
I. And
there are other people on this network whose
political views
are shared openly with you, our beloved viewers, but we are not a
political
operation.
Fox
is. We are a news operation, and the rules around here are a part of how you know that. Before it was politically safe to do it,
Keith Olbermann
attracted the ire of the right wing and a lot of others besides when he brought to light and raged against what he saw as the errors and sins of the previous presidential administration.
Keith
was also the one who brought to light
Fox News
' water-carrying role for the
Bush administration
. He was one whose point-of-view journalism exposed and put exclamation points in the problems in the
political
operation disguised as news
network model
embraced by the guys across the street at
Fox
. Now, weirdly, once again it is
Keith
who's illustrating the difference between what he does on
TV
, what we do here at
MSNBC
, and what goes on across the street. Good night. THIS IS
“ ”