Company faces backlash for pulling Hannity ads

By DAVID BAUDER, AP TELEVISION WRITER NEW YORK — May 26, 2017, 4:22 PM ET

Financial services firm USAA, facing a backlash to its decision to pull advertising from Sean Hannity's show on Fox News Channel, says it is withdrawing from other opinion-based television programs.

The company, which sells insurance and other products to members of the U.S. military, veterans and their families, had cited its aversion to opinionated programming in backing away from Hannity. The veteran talk show host has become a liberal target because of his focus on a discredited story about a murdered Democratic National Committee staffer.

Yet the conservative watchdog Media Research Center noted that USAA ads had run in recent weeks on left-leaning shows hosted by Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell and Chris Matthews on MSNBC.

The ads were placed in error and that mistake is being corrected, said Roger Wildermuth, USAA spokesman. It wasn't clear how the ads could be placed in at least four opinion-based shows in violation of the company's policy; he didn't immediately respond to a question about whether there were more.

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