Sean Hannity Under Fire for Failing to Disclose He's Client Michael Cohen
BALDWIN: Breaking news here at the top of the hour. The Southwest plane that took off from LaGuardia, was supposed to be headed to Dallas, had to be diverted and make an emergency landing in Philadelphia, because at some point, we believe, one of the engines exploded, the shrapnel from the engine was believed the fuselage hit a window, blew it out. One person ended up going to the hospital. We just got an update from officials on this. Roll it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED OFFICIAL: We transported one patient in critical condition to a local hospital. We will not be releasing anything about patient outcome at this time. We also assessed 12 other patients and treated seven patients for minor injuries, although none of those were transported to the hospital. Our firefighters provided foam due to the risk of a fuel leak and applied that agent for some time. We still have one fire department vehicle on scene supporting our partners with airport. I have to say thank to you the airport and the police department and all the other partners, including all the airlines here at PHL, who have really come together to help us deal with this tragic incident.</s>BALDWIN: We are awaiting an update from the NTSB. They will be giving a briefing at the top of the hour. We'll take that for you when it happens. Meanwhile, the most stunning moment in the court hearing involving the president's attorney happened when Michael Cohen's attorneys were ordered by the judge to name Cohen's third mystery. Client. The announcement of the name Sean Hannity caused gasps in the courtroom. The FOX News host is not only a supporter of the president, but Hannity has been a vocal critic of the special counsel, Robert Mueller, and his entire investigation. On the day Cohen's office, home and hotel were searched, Hannity used his show as a platform to blast those FBI raids, never mentioning the fact that, oh, by the way, Cohen was also his lawyer.</s>SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST, HANNITY: You think Hillary Clinton's attorneys had their offices raided during this e-mail investigation? Not a chance. Cohen was never part of the Trump administration or the Trump campaign. This is now officially an all-hands-on-deck effort to totally malign and, if possible, impeach the president of the United States.</s>BALDWIN: Hannity has downplayed his attorney/client relationship with Michael Cohen, arguing he had brief legal conversations with Cohen, claiming he never paid legal fees, nor was he billed. And I think he said he paid him ten bucks at some point. With me now to discuss, CNN media analyst, Bill Carter. Bill, we now have a statement from FOX News on Sean Hannity. Quote, "While FOX News was unaware of Sean Hannity's informal relationship with Michael Cohen and was surprised by the announcement in court yesterday, we have reviewed the matter and spoken to Sean, and he continues to have our full support." There's a lot in there.</s>BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: Your first response?</s>CARTER: My first response is I'm not gasping.</s>BALDWIN: You're not showing your shocked face.</s>CARTER: It isn't quite the same as hearing his name in court. The interesting part is they acknowledge he did not tell them.</s>BALDWIN: Unaware about this relationship.</s>CARTER: He didn't think it was important to tell his bosses, even though he was covering this story, that he had in fact some sort of business relationship with a very prominent figure in the story. He didn't think it was important to do that. Most people who work at any news organizations know they must do that, that's absolutely essential in their job. It doesn't mean he necessarily would have to stop covering it, but he certainly would have to let his boss know and his viewers know. He didn't acknowledge it to them either.</s>BALDWIN: Are there no rules at FOX?</s>CARTER: There always been a different sort of philosophy at FOX at how they approach things and they've underscored it with Trump. They have basically gone all in on Trump. Because their audience is all in on Trump. They're not going to back off. And Hannity's their biggest player. What would they do? Suspend him? Give him some sort of a fine? I don't know what they would do. Other places have in fact suspended people. Keith Olbermann was suspended because he gave a donation. He was a pundit. He had a point of view. He was not allowed to do that because a serious news organization says you can't be that in the tank for somebody that you're covering and, in this case, they apparently do case.</s>BALDWIN: Do you think viewers will care?</s>CARTER: I don't think the FOX viewers care. The FOX viewers probably think it's great that he's got a close relationship with the president and that he had some sort of business arrangement with Cohen and when Cohen is indicted, assuming he is indicted, Hannity will be on the air denouncing that, even though he has a business relationship. He may say he wasn't his lawyer, he didn't have a legal deal with him, but for some reason they didn't want his name out. So whatever is in the documentation may -- there may be something more to say about Sean Hannity at that point.</s>BALDWIN: Let me flip the script on this whole scenario and play out -- let's say it was a president Hillary Clinton and president Hillary Clinton's personal attorney was under criminal investigation and let's say that her personal lawyer represents Rachel Maddow and Maddow doesn't go on air and disclose it but goes on TV every night and attacks this whole investigation. So Hannity, this conspiracy theory peddler would be like it's cool?</s>CARTER: No, he would obviously attack it. By the way, MSNBC would surely suspend her for that and say you broke our rules. They don't have the same rules at FOX. Because FOX is not strictly a journalism organization. It is for want of a better word, a propaganda organization. They're pushing a point of view. They don't adhere to the rules that every journalist adheres to. There may be people that are very embarrassed by this. There probably are. But at the top of that organization, and particularly Rupert Murdoch is very close with Donald Trump, I don't think it's going to bother him at all.</s>BALDWIN: What about this past Sunday, Brett Baier was playing golf with Donald Trump, and this is one of their serious journalists at FOX. Where's --</s>CARTER: Where's the line in that? I don't think any journalist -- I used to work at "The New York Times." If someone said you're playing golf with Donald Trump, that would be a serious problem. At FOX, everything that they're doing with Trump looks like it's state TV now. We're just putting out his point of view, we're supporting whatever he does. And he doesn't have any rules, generally speaking, so they don't have any rules either.</s>BALDWIN: State TV, reminds me of what we heard from Ted Koppel. We'll play that for you next hour. Bill Carter, thank you very much.</s>CARTER: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Coming up, did Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, quote, "get ahead of the curve," when she announced new sanctions on Russia? A top White House aide just said she did.