Sean Hannity is a popular conservative political pundit who has remained a high-profile reporter. Hannity is best known for his nightly news show, Hannity on Fox News, and also leads the Sean Hannity Show on radio. His website, Hannity.com, is his online platform for disseminating news stories through his point of view.
As a renowned political commentator with millions of followers, the question of whether Hannity.com is biased demands close examination. According to Pew Research, the partisanship and ideological leaning of Hannity.com readers are overwhelmingly conservative (78%) with a small moderate (13%) base and even less liberal (5%):
Source: Pew Research
In this article, we will analyze the newspaper’s coverage and editorial decisions to determine if there is a discernible political bias in their reporting. Through our analysis, we hope to provide a comprehensive answer to whether Hannity.com is biased and shed light on the factors contributing to media bias.
How Does Biasly Rate News Sources?
Biasly’s algorithms produce bias ratings to help provide multiple perspectives on given articles. Biasly has analyzed 200,000+ news articles from more than 3,200 news sources through our A.I. technology and team of political analysts to find the most factual, unbiased news stories.
Biasly determines the degree of political bias in news sources by using Biasly’s Bias Meter Rating, in which Biasly’s team analyzes media sources’ reliability and bias and produces three scores, a Reliability Score that measures the accuracy of media sources; an A.I. Bias Score, evaluated by A.I.; and an Analyst Bias Score evaluated by political analysts. These scores are rated based on seven rating metrics including Tone, Tendency, Diction, Author Check, Selection/Omission, Expediency Bias, and Accuracy. These metrics help our analysts to determine the political attitude of the article.
Our A.I. machine-learning system employs natural language processing and entity-specific sentiment analysis to examine individual articles and determine their bias levels. By analyzing the key terms in an article such as policies, bias phrases, political terminologies, politicians, and their nicknames, the algorithms can rate the attitude of the text. Bias scores range from -100% and 100%, with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral.
Is the Hannity.com Politically Biased?
Biasly’s rating for Sean Hannity is based on its computer algorithms, which are based on A.I. Biasly rated the New York Times with a Computer bias score of Moderately Conservative, which means it gives political coverage from an American conservative political perspective. As Biasly rates more articles, the scores will become more accurate. Praise for firebrand conservative talking points and policies, plus a noticeable dislike toward liberal policies and politicians, contribute to this rating. Biasly’s scores closely align with determinations by other third-party bias research agencies.
Sean Hannity has been in the public image for over a decade. He has faced recent criticism by liberals and independents for being defamatory in nature over the results of the 2020 election, as they say his rhetoric towards the reliability of the Dominion Voting Machines was one-sided and erroneous.
Readers are more likely to respond strongly to Sean Hannity and Hannity.com based on their political leaning because Hannity.com tends to favor conservative causes and people, as represented by Biasly’s “Moderately Conservative” rating. In the remainder of this article, we’ll discuss ways to identify this bias so you can separate the opinions from the facts and become a more informed news consumer.
Before we begin, we need to discuss bias. Bias is a natural function of humans, and we can express it both consciously and unconsciously. Bias is one of the most fundamental forms of pattern recognition in humans. This isn’t to lower the bar and say that “all things are biased,” but to explain the process in which we may come to trust certain news organizations that display patterns of coverage.
On the media’s part, there is an incentive to retain audiences, encourage them to purchase subscriptions, and rate products positively. Bias is a two-way street, people want to see news stories about things they care about, and the media needs viewers to continue their operations. This creates a positive feedback loop that influences what stories are covered and from what perspective. This also explains the actions of more liberal news organizations.
Analysis of Bias in Hannity.com Online Articles
Pew Research has discovered that Hannity’s primary audience tends to be the older generation over 65 years of age and those with a relatively average income. Given their educated and well-informed readership base, is Hannity.com really biased? We’ll look at some of their articles below to identify the signs.
Source: Pew Research
When determining bias, some of the most common metrics used include Tone, Tendency, Author, Diction, and Expediency Bias, which are the primary metrics we’ll focus on below.
- Tone: This represents the attitude of the writing, formed distinctively but related to the author’s word choices or diction.
- Diction: The specific words chosen by the writer.
- Author: A metric related to the article’s author, taking into account their history of stance on issues based on past articles and social media posts.
- Tendency measures how consistently an author shows bias in their work, including factors like their tone and perspective.
- Expediency Bias relates to the immediate impression created by elements like the article’s headline, images, or summary, indicating if they favor a particular viewpoint.
Hannity.com is typically used as a way for viewers of Hannity to get smaller portions of the coverage that is typically presented on his nightly show. As a result, there isn’t too much substance in each article, rather, the title of each article is frequently capitalized with buzzwords to attract Hannity’s conservative base.
The first article we’ll examine is titled “JOE AT THE FOOD BANK: Biden Pitches in at Special MLK Event, Looks Confused.” The expediency bias against Joe Biden is evident from the title and image. The authors, who are unnamed staffers for Hannity, wrote a title that paints U.S. President Joe Biden unfavorably and used an image to complement it. The use of an image of Biden appearing “confused” while standing next to a young volunteer was designed to generate the impression that he is too old and unfit to be president. It is portraying a right-leaning opinion and attempts to portray a side by calling Joe Biden “confused.” This clearly shows the author’s bias as it casts a subjective lens over the article before the reader even starts reading.
Even if you look past the title and image and immediately scroll through the article, the biased tone against Joe Biden is tough to miss. The authors poke fun at Joe Biden’s interactions with other volunteers by portraying them as slip-ups or awkward moments.
“But Biden’s visit wasn’t without a few signature Biden gaffes and strange moments.”
We also see an example of conservative diction in the quote. Conservatives have frequently used the term “gaffe” to describe Joe Biden’s mannerisms, even when they’re normal, everyday actions. The authors use this term to describe Biden humurously asking a child at the food bank how old he is and discussing his wife’s education with another volunteer.
Hannity authors also frequently uses information in the form of tweets from X (formerly known as Twitter) to back up its explosive headlines with evidence. In the example of this article, the user RNC Research is tagged. RNC Research is a GOP-run account that typically has activity related to painting liberals and Joe Biden in particular in a negative light through a similar use of explosive language in tweets and clipped videos.
Biden attempts to make conversation: “How old are you? 11? Wow.” pic.twitter.com/YVNhVjXmFM
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 15, 2024
The authors’ tendency always remains the same regardless of what article you’re looking at. Let’s look at another Hannity article, “‘UNCOMMITTED’: Biden Continues to See Significant Protest Votes in Primaries; Report.” The conservative tone against Joe Biden is apparent from the opening line.
“Bad news for Joe…”
The authors write about the relatively small percentage of Democratic primary voters casting a ballot for “Uncommited” because they disapprove of the president’s stance on the Israel-Hamas War and how its presumably affected the administration’s relationship with Israel.
“Biden has been hemorrhaging support from his once-reliable coalition. In an effort to keep the support of Pro-Palestinian activists, Biden has announced new aid plans for Gaza and is being more vocal in opposing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.”
The tone remains consistently negative towards Biden but also Pro-Palestinian activists, who are also affiliated with the left. All these findings are consistent with Biasly’s rating for Hannity as Moderately Conservative.
Analysis of Hannity.com Opinion Articles
Before answering this question, we must distinguish between opinion and reporting. While reporting is intended to be neutral, giving the reader the facts and quotes from primary sources to let them form their own opinion, opinions are an outlet for columnists to express their personal views on the day’s issues.
Even though the previous articles looked at demonstrated heavy conservative leanings, they still presented the news with video evidence to let the readers decide for themselves what to believe. The opinion articles present on Hannity.com are not original articles written for the website; rather, they are reposted articles from other op-ed sites such as the Wall Street Journal and NY Post. However, selecting opinion articles still outlines a clear bias within Hannity.com and its political leanings.
One example is in the reposted opinion article “WSJ OP-ED: Anthony Fauci Fesses Up”. In this op-ed, mask mandates and social distancing measures are heavily criticized, as was the practices undertaken by Fauci during the COVID-19 Pandemic. While there is variance among both political parties, the dismissal of mask mandates and other precautionary measures due to skepticism about the danger of COVID-19 was primarily a conservative talking point. This was typically followed by a call to reopen the economy and stop social distancing. Hannity.com, highlighting this opinion article, shows its conservative bias by only representing one side of the issue.
Who Owns Hannity.com?
As discussed earlier, Hannity.com is primarily a newsreel of the latest Sean Hannity pieces from his show, Hannity on Fox News. The affiliation with Fox News has made Hannity extremely popular within conservative circles and has given him much of his audience on TV and through his website. Fox News is a conservative channel that is 40% owned by Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch has been a long-time supporter of conservative talking points throughout his time in American politics, spanning more than 3 decades, and is a major reason why Fox News slants so conservative. Hannity being employed as the flagship host in the Fox News late-night window highlights his conservative slant as he is effectively the face of Fox News and its politics and, thereby, Murdoch’s interests.
Source: Wikipedia
How to Evaluate and Uncover Bias
It can often be difficult to tell if the news you watch is biased. If you have settled on a news channel, it’s usually because you trust the information you are gaining. Unfortunately, many trust the information they are hearing because it confirms what they already believe. This is referred to as “confirmation bias.” It is important to challenge your beliefs and get third-party verification that what you are hearing is the full story. This is why we recommend using Biasly to compare different news stories side-by-side using our bias ratings to figure out what both sides think of a political issue.
Even though Biasly gave Hannity.com a score of moderately conservative, it is possible to have some deviation within the ratings for each specific article within the site. For example, some less political talking points could be given a “Center” rating instead of a traditional conservative one. Additionally, some article types will inherently have more or less bias; general news articles are known for being less biased than opinion pieces. And while every article you read will be biased to some degree, some stick to the facts better than others, which is why it’s so important to use Biasly’s News Check to help you determine the bias of what you read.