Washington Examiner
The New York Times declined to apologize or issue retractions at the behest of Fox News prime-time host Sean Hannity. Hannity’s lawyer sent a letter to the newspaper on Monday demanding they apologize and retract opinion pieces that attacked his coverage of the coronavirus. Each of the three columns referenced in the letter accused Hannity of downplaying the virus and putting his viewers at risk. “The columns are accurate, do not reasonably imply what you and Mr. Hannity alleged they do, and constitute protected opinion,” David McCraw, the deputy general counsel at the New York Times, wrote in a letter sent to Hannity’s lawyer on Tuesday. “In response to your request for an apology and retraction, our answer is ‘no.’” Hannity’s lawyer claimed the three columns that criticized the prime-time opinion host were factually inaccurate, thus making them libelous and defamatory. Hannity’s legal team warned they would pursue “immediate legal proceedings against” the newspaper if it did not “retract, correct and apologize” within 24 hours of receiving the correspondence. “We have reported fairly and accurately on Mr. Hannity,” Eileen Murphy, a New York Times spokeswoman, previously told the Washington Examiner after publication. “There is no basis for a retraction or an apology.”
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