Fox Host Sean Hannity encouraged president-elect Donald Trump to “transcend the media” because “he doesn’t need them anymore” hours after Hannity’s Fox colleague Shepard Smith said Fox News would not be using promotional material from Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe “in protest of the media lockout” Trump has effectively instituted.



Hannity, in an interview with Breitbart News' Joel Pollak, commented that “if [he] were on the transition team,” he would advise Trump to “transcend the media” because mainstream outlets are allegedly biased against him. Hannity said Trump should “go in Instagram” and other social media accounts to reach the American people because Trump “doesn’t need [the mainstream media] anymore.” From the November 17 edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Sean Hannity Show:

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Remember when Dan Quayle was appointed as Vice President, they went on their infamous Quayle hunt, and their goal was to smear and slander this guy? By the way, very decent man, hard-working, successful, but they didn’t want to hear it. So, you know, it’s very funny, because this little pipsqueak over at CNN, Brian Stelter, you know, he tweets out and sends a message: “media accessibility was a winning strategy for Trump in the primaries, how about trying it again now as president-elect?” And I tweeted back, I said, “Hey pipsqueak, why should @realDonaldTrump ever go on CNN again? CNN gave @HillaryClinton debate questions and they colluded with the DNC about what questions to ask Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Carly Fiorina.”



Now if I’m Donald Trump’s campaign, or now president-elect Trump’s transition team, I’m looking at the revelations of The New York Times, I’m looking at the revelations about CNN, and CNBC, and NBC, and MSNBC, and The Boston Globe and basically every other major media outlet, and my attitude is why should he? He should transcend the media; do what he did during the election. Go on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter; go on shows that will actually allow him to give a full answer. And, you know, he doesn’t need these people anymore. The world has been transformed. There is a media revolution going on before their eyes and they’re just not in tune to it, apparently.

However, hours before on Fox News, Hannity’s colleague Shepard Smith said that “the Trump team is not allowing photo journalists” to attend his meeting with Abe, continuing “a freezeout of media coverage of the president-elect’s events” of Trump’s transition. Smith added that though the Trump team was providing “a staff photo” of the event, “Fox News will not be using it in protest of the president-elect’s media lockout.” From the November 17 edition of Fox News’ Shepard Smith Reporting:

SHEPARD SMITH (HOST): Extending a trend, the Trump team is not allowing photojournalists to attend the meeting with Prime Minister Abe. This continues the freezeout of media coverage of the president-elect’s events. The Trump team reports it will release a staff photo; Fox News will not be using it in protest of the president-elect’s media lockout.