Sean Hannity
Role at the time: Fox News host, interviewing Zacharia on "Hannity"
Condemned
Statement summary
Hannity asked Zacharia why she had drawn a distinction between a lawyer and an attorney instead of saying plainly that she never practiced law. He said he did not think most people see much difference between the two.
“Why get into this long, drawn-out definition between the difference between a lawyer and an attorney? ... Because I don’t think most people see much of a distinction. Why didn’t you just say, ‘I never practiced law?’”
Open source (opens in a new tab)AP: Zacharia departs as White House press secretary after less than a week · Associated PressFull article (Associated Press story as published by WCAX)
Why we used this label
The matter under scrutiny is how Zacharia described her legal qualifications. Hannity faults her for relying on a lawyer-versus-attorney distinction instead of saying she never practiced law, which criticizes those descriptions. He does not address the bar complaint.