When it comes to cable news networks that know how to drive headlines, it's had to get much more successful than Fox News, which manages to make noise both in good ways, such as dominating ratings, and in terrible ways, such as its ongoing allegations of sexual misconduct behind the scenes. Now, Fox News' latest head-shaker of a story revolves around an incident where longtime host Sean Hannity pulled a gun on a liberal analyst when the cameras weren't rolling.
To be expected, both sides of the aisle are treating this with the familiar amounts of defense and antagonism. According to CNN, one of last year's episodes of Hannity featured left-leaning pundit Juan Williams, who is no stranger to the show. Sources claim once the "spirited" segment was done, Sean Hannity pulled a gun out and started pointing it in Williams' direction, with the laser sight reportedly turned and and bobbing around Williams' body.
Of course, this is where the story takes something of a split path to get to the present. CNN's sources reported there were people on the set who were clearly uncomfortable with the weapon being brandished, with Williams himself also getting the description. As well, when the issue was brought up with Fox News' execs by CNN, it claims nothing appears to have come from it, and it was stated the complaints were referred to the human resources department.
On the Fox News side of things, the report was handled exactly how it one would expect, with all parties denying any wrongdoing or that anyone's safety was threatened. In a statement, Fox News defended Sean Hannity by saying the situation was investigated in full and that no one was found to be guilty of endangerment. Both Hannity and Juan Williams took to Twitter and released statements after the story went wide.
Though no one appears to be denying that Sean Hannity did indeed take a gun out while on the set, the whole point behind him doing so was about showing it off, and not making threats. Juan Williams also took to social media to defend the incident as something to be swept under the rug. Something tells me we won't be hearing about any similar kinds of incidents in the near future.
Hannity airs weekdays on Fox News at 10:00 p.m. ET. Check out our midseason premiere schedule and our summer premiere guide to see everything that's coming to the small screen in the future.
