From one perspective, Hannity’s entanglement with Cohen is not a great surprise. Hannity is not only politically allied with Trump, but is personally close to him and his family, and Cohen has been deeply enmeshed in Trump family and business matters for years.

Yet the ethical implications boggle the mind. Hannity has covered the raid on Cohen with vigor. Hannity said the raid was proof that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had “declared war” on Trump.

“It is clear, as I have been warning, Mueller is out to get the president and it appears at any cost,” he said. “Clearly, his objective is to remove him from office. Now, I told you and I’ve told anyone who will listen: Mueller’s team is corrupt, starting with him, and it has been from the beginning.” Hannity called the raid (which was conducted after a referral by Mueller, but executed by the federal prosecutors in Manhattan) an “unprecedented abuse of power” and evidence of a “two-tiered justice system.”

“There’s no limit at all into the fishing expedition that Mueller is now engaged in and if he has access to everything that his personal attorney has, I can only imagine where that’s going to lead,” Hannity said on his radio show.

These views align with Trump’s, so it’s likely that Hannity would have espoused them anyway. We now know, however, that his coverage represents a huge conflict of interest. By concealing—not just by omission, but by commission, in requesting that his involvement be kept anonymous—his relationship with Cohen when he made these comments, Hannity misled his viewers and listeners, whether that relationship was with an attorney or simply with a friend.

Such behavior would not pass muster at any other major news organization. Fox representatives did not respond to questions about whether the company was aware of Hannity’s relationship with Cohen, whether he should have been allowed to cover the raid without disclosing it, or whether he would be allowed to cover it going forward.

Conflicts of interest exist elsewhere in the media—witness last night’s high-profile moment, in which former Bill Clinton spokesman George Stephanopoulos interviewed James Comey about, among other things, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. But the Fox News conflicts are on a different scale.

Fox has previously yanked Hannity back for crossing ethical lines. In 2010, he was barred from headlining a Tea Party fundraiser. But Fox has changed a great deal in recent years. Roger Ailes, its longtime leader, was forced out in a sexual-harassment scandal, and Bill Shine, his deputy, also left the company. Perhaps most importantly in this case, the channel began the 2016 race as Trump-antagonist or -agnostic, but its opinion shows have since become an important pro-Trump organ. (This separates Hannity and colleagues like Laura Ingraham from the more traditional, if right-leaning, news side, represented by hosts like Bret Baier.)