Sean Hannity is one of America’s most famous television personalities, a conservative opinion-slinger who regularly attracts more than 3 million viewers to his nightly prime-time Fox News show while also hosting a daily syndicated radio programme. But lately a kind of Talmudic question has swirled around Hannity: Is he a journalist? And if not, what is he? The question is probably irrelevant to Hannity’s loyal fans, who tune in for his reliably fierce defence of President Donald Trump. But its importance rose anew on Monday when lawyers for Michael Cohen, the president’s beleaguered lawyer, revealed that Hannity was also one of Cohen’s clients, a fact Hannity never mentioned to his audience while denouncing a federal investigation into Cohen. (Hannity says he merely consulted Cohen and was never a client.) Watch Fox News’ Sean Hannity being mocked by Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah after Trump lawyer revelations This news caused the old journalist-or-not? question to resurface because of the implications for Hannity’s ethical obligations. Journalists are bound to recuse themselves from a story in which they have a personal stake, or at least to disclose their relationship with a person they’re covering or commenting about. Even Fox acknowledged it was blindsided by Hannity’s Cohen connection. The ethical obligations of a talk-show host, however, are considerably less fixed. Fox News often says there is a clear line between its news side – the province of journalists such as Shepard Smith and Bret Baier – and its opinion side, represented by Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro. Its representatives bristle when the distinction is not made clear. But Fox is not keen on declaring the latter group to be “journalists”. Asked repeatedly on Wednesday whether Fox considered Hannity a journalist, a network spokesman declined to answer directly. She would only allow that Hannity is “an opinion talk-show host”. Fox News host Sean Hannity revealed in court as mystery client of Donald Trump’s lawyer The reluctance reflects, in part, the internal debate – one insider describes it as “a war” – between Fox’s opinion and news sides. The friction spilled into public view last month when Smith told Time magazine that “some of our opinion programming is there strictly to be entertaining”. Hannity took exception, tweeting in response that Smith “is clueless about what we do every day” and that his show “breaks news daily.” (Ingraham similarly objected, saying her team “does real reporting.”) But Hannity has played both sides of this game, as the occasion suits. “I never claimed to be a journalist,” he told The New York Times in 2016 when asked about his close association and friendship with Trump. But in another interview with the Times last year, he said: “I’m a journalist. But I’m an advocacy journalist, or an opinion journalist.” More “Anonymous” sources! I have said “I’m not a journalist” in the traditional sense. I have said I am an opinion journalist or advocacy journalist and I am. But I am a radio and TV Talk Show Host. https://t.co/yE1cM0malk — Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) April 18, 2018 <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- //--><!]]> As a Talk Show Host, sometimes I report the news straight with no opinion, do news making interviews break news, do investigative reports etc. Other times I give strong opinion, debate others, and moderate debates. It’s all part of being a Talk Show Host. And I am a conservative! https://t.co/iFOow2AZ6b — Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) April 18, 2018 <!--//--><![CDATA[// ><!-- //--><!]]> When a Boston Globe columnist named Michael Cohen (a different Michael Cohen) criticised him in 2016, he was back on the other side. “I’m not a journalist,” he tweeted. “I’m a talk host.” In his shot at Smith last month, Hannity flipped again. “Hannity breaks news daily,” he tweeted. “Warrant on a Trump assoc, the unmasking scandal, leaking intel, Fisa abuse, HRC lawbreaking, dossier and more REAL NEWS!” Trump’s lawyer cannot review files seized by FBI, judge says, in dramatic day complicated by Fox News revelations In fact, Hannity conducts interviews with newsmakers and convenes panels of talking heads just like many television journalists. He frequently criticises the mainstream news media, saying his own “reporting” is a more accurate account of events. One of his guests, former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, praised his commentary by comparing him to CBS News legend Edward Murrow. As such, journalists at the network said they were angry and disappointed by Fox’s decision not to discipline Hannity this week over the Cohen controversy. They said another employee would very likely have been suspended or fired for not disclosing such a relationship with someone they’ve reported on. Whether he is a journalist or not, experts agree Hannity had an obligation, if only as a broadcaster, to disclose his involvement with Cohen. “He has an audience, and he is bound as a broadcaster to be transparent with them,” said Susan King, a veteran television journalist who is now dean of the University of North Carolina’s journalism school. “He owes it to his audience to let them know when he is talking about something that impacts him directly.” King declines to apply the J-word to Hannity. She calls him “a provocateur whose medium happens to be radio and TV”. But Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, said Hannity would very likely meet the legal definition of a journalist. “He doesn’t actually get to decide that,” said Rosenstiel, the co-author of the book Elements of Journalism . “You can say you’re a kumquat, and the courts will decide if you walk or talk like a journalist, you will legally be a journalist. You’re talking about someone who conducts interviews, does exposes, breaks news and [is involved in] all the nomenclature of news.” Ultimately, he said, Fox and Hannity depend on keeping their audience’s trust, and so it does not matter what Hannity is called. “It’s not in Fox’s interest to have someone keeping things from its audience. If you’re hiding something, you’re no longer putting your audience first.”