On this weekend’s broadcast of CBS’s “Sunday Morning” during a segment about the polarized media landscape in America, an exchange by CBS contributor Ted Koppel and Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity was featured that Koppel said Hannity was “bad for America.”
Koppel suggested he was skeptical that the American public and more specifically Hannity’s viewers could differentiate an opinion show and a news show. He added that it was bad over the “long haul” because the audiences Hannity and others are reaching are more concerned with ideology than facts.
Partial transcript as follows:
HANNITY: We have to give some credit to the American people that they’re somewhat intelligent and that they know the difference between an opinion show and a news show. You’re cynical.
KOPPEL: I am cynical.
HANNITY: Do you think we’re bad for America? You think I’m bad for America?
KOPPEL: Yeah.
HANNITY: You do? Really?
KOPPEL: In the long haul I think you and all these opinion shows —
HANNITY: That’s sad, Ted. That’s sad.
KOPPEL: No, you know why? Because you’re very good at what you do, and because you have attracted a significantly more influential —
HANNITY: You are selling the American people short.
KOPPEL: No, let me finish the sentence before you do that.
HANNITY: I’m listening. With all due respect. Take the floor.
KOPPEL: You have attracted people who are determined that ideology is more important than facts.
Later after the segment aired, Hannity challenged CBS News in a tweet to release the entire interview.
Watch the full “Sunday Morning” segment
(h/t The Hill)
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor