Advertisers begin dropping Sean Hannity's show amid the controversy over Seth Rich conspiracies

Fox News host Sean Hannity has begun losing advertisers amid heightened controversy surrounding his decision to draw attention to conspiracy theories about the death of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich.In recent weeks, Hannity has repeatedly pushed the claim that Rich was not the victim of a botched robbery, as authorities suspect, but rather that he was killed for providing Wikileaks with internal DNC emails.There is no evidence suggesting this theory is true.Hannity first raised questions about Rich's murder in August 2016, speculating about the possibility that Rich was a WikiLeaks source. Hannity has repeatedlycalled attention to the conspiracy theory over the past week as well.Rich's family has repeatedly asked the cable TV host to stop peddling the rumor of a WikiLeaks connection.On Tuesday, Hannity said that he would not discuss the Seth Rich story at this time "out of respect" for the family, but on Wednesday, he tweeted that he was "working harder than ever to get to the truth the family wants and deserves."According to CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy, Fox News president of programming, Suzanne Scott, met with Hannity on Tuesday and "encouraged him to stop pushing" the Seth Rich conspiracy.As of Wednesday night, Hannity continued talking about the case on his show, without mentioning Seth Rich's name.Kim Guilfoyle, a co-host on Fox News' "The Five," said Wednesday that she would be filling in for Hannity for the next two days.Here are the companies that have announced they will stop airing ads during Hannity's show:SEE ALSO:Fox News retracted its controversial story on slain DNC staffer Seth RichDON'T MISS:Sean Hannity slams 'phony hypocrites' for attacking him after Fox News retracts Seth Rich storyOn Wednesday, Cars.com said in a statement to BuzzFeed News that it would no longer advertise on Hannity's show."Cars.com's media buy strategies are designed to reach as many consumers as possible across a wide spectrum of media channels," said the statement, according to BuzzFeed News. "The fact that we advertise on a particular program doesn't mean that we agree of disagree, or support or oppose, the content. We don't have the ability to influence content at the time we make our advertising purchase. In this case, we've been watching closely and have recently made the decision to pull our advertising from Hannity."A few hours after Cars.com pulled its ads, exercise company Peloton announced it was doing the same."We directed our media agency to stop advertising on Sean Hannity's show,"the company tweeted on Wednesday. "This will take a few days to take effect." The tweet was posted in response to Twitter users who slammed Peloton for advertising on Hannity's show.Leesa Sleep, the e-commerce mattress company, also followed suit, according to an email a reader forwarded to ThinkProgress. The reader asked the company if they would reconsider their ad buys, and a company representative said Leesa Sleep would no longer air ads during Hannity's show.Source: ThinkProgressSee the rest of the story at Business Insider
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