Media watchdog organization Media Matters for America yesterday reported that several companies announced they would no longer run their ads during Fox’s Sean Hannity Show after his interview with Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for senator from Alabama. Hannity was widely criticized for defending Moore while discussing accusations that Moore pursued sexual relationships with four minor girls while he was working as a district attorney and in his 30s. Moore denies all allegations of sexual misconduct.

Yesterday, a fifth woman, Beverly Young Nelson, publicly accused Moore of sexual assault in the 1970s, when she was 16 years old.

Business Insider reported yesterday that a spokesman for Conagra said it had “removed Hannity from our advertising plans for all Conagra brands.” A spokesman for Conagra told Banker & Tradesman that Hannity’s show “has not been part of our media spend for several months,” and that “the recent news has had no impact on our media plans.” Other companies including Keurig announced they would stop advertising on Hannity’s show, but later reversed course.

“Among those companies was Realtor.com, a real estate search engine site,” Media Matters reported. “As Hannity began encouraging a counter effort against companies that said they would no longer advertise on his show, Realtor.com deleted its Twitter announcement and published a statement saying the company would ‘continue to place ads across a broad range of networks, including Fox News and its top shows.'”

When asked by a Banker & Tradesman reporter on Twitter why Realtor.com deleted the tweet announcing it would pull ads from Hannity’s show and how it would explain the move to its members, nearly two-thirds of whom are women, a spokesperson for Realtor.com replied with a link to the company’s full official statement. It reads: “We advertise on dozens of television networks and hundreds of shows quarterly as a way to introduce realtor.com to the widest audience possible. We will continue to place ads across a broad range of networks, including Fox News and its top shows.”

Media Matters also noted the ties between Realtor.com and Fox News’ parent companies.

“Realtor.com is operated by News Corp subsidiary Move Inc. under a license from the National Association of Realtors,” according to Media Matters. “In other words, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which manages the operations of realtor.com, has decided to continue advertising on a program airing on Fox News, part of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox.”


This story was updated to include a statement from a Conagra spokesperson regarding the company’s media strategy.

Realtor.com Tweets It Will Pull Hannity Ads, Then Quietly Retracts

by Banker & Tradesman time to read: 2 min
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