Fox News yanks Sean Hannity from Cincinnati Tea Party rally he was set to star in.

Sean Hannity had to pull out of a Tea Party event claiming that a "personal emergency" made his appearance impossible.

Angry Fox News executives ordered host Sean Hannity to abandon plans to broadcast his nightly show as part of a Tea Party rally in Cincinnati on Thursday after top executives learned that he was set to headline the event, proceeds from which would benefit the local Tea Party organization.

Rally organizers had listed Hannity, who is on a book tour, as the headliner of the four-hour Tax Day event at the University of Cincinnati. The rally, expected to draw as many as 13,000 people, was set feature speakers such as “Liberal Facism” author Jonah Goldberg and local Tea Party leaders. Participants were being charged a minimum of $5, with seats near Hannity’s set going for $20, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, which reported that any profits would go to future Tea Party events. Media Matters for America noted that Hannity’s personal website directed supporters to a link to buy tickets for the Cincinnati rally.

But senior Fox News executives said they were not aware Hannity was being billed as the centerpiece of the event or that Tea Party organizers were charging for admission to Hannity’s show as part of the rally. They first learned of it Thursday morning from John Finley, Hannity's executive producer, who was in Cincinnati to produce Hannity's show.

Furious, top officials recalled Hannity back to New York to do his show in his regular studio. The network plans to do an extensive post-mortem about the incident with Finley and Hannity's staff.

“Fox News never agreed to allow the Cincinnati Tea Party organizers to use Sean Hannity’s television program to profit from broadcasting his show from the event," said Bill Shine, the network’s executive vice president of programming. "When senior executives in New York were made aware of this, we changed our plans for tonight’s show.”

Apparently, Fox News think it is still possible to maintain the myth that the Tea Party movement and themselves are not one and the same thing.

It's a bit late in the day for this surely? In my mind Fox News and the Tea Party protesters are synonymous.

I imagine lawyers have pointed out to Fox that it is illegal for a "news organisation" to raise funds for what is, to all intents and purposes, a political movement.

Hannity has simply gone a step too far, but the support Fox gives to these people will not be diminished.

Tags: Sean Hannity, Fox News, tea Party protests