USAA reverses course on ‘Hannity,’ reinstates ads

A screengrab of a Twitter post by an Air Force veteran who switched from USAA to State Farm following last week’s furor over USAA pulling its ads from conservative talk show hosts Sean Hannity’s program on Fox News. less A screengrab of a Twitter post by an Air Force veteran who switched from USAA to State Farm following last week’s furor over USAA pulling its ads from conservative talk show hosts Sean Hannity’s program on ... more Photo: Screengrab / Photo: Screengrab / Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close USAA reverses course on ‘Hannity,’ reinstates ads 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

San Antonio-based USAA, seeking to quell furor over its decision last week to pull commercials from conservative talk show host Sean Hannity’s program, is reinstating ads on the show.

Bowing to public pressure from its largely military customer base, USAA said Tuesday it will buy air time on the Fox News program and other opinion news shows after initially suspending advertising. The company said it will also reinstate ads on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “Hardball with Chris Matthews” on MSNBC and CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.

“We heard concerns from many members who watch and listen to these programs,” the company said in a statement.

“Today, the lines between news and editorial are increasingly blurred,” the company added. “As such, we are reinstating all previously removed ads on programs representing a variety of perspectives while we review our policy to determine how best to apply it in today’s environment and in line with our mission.”

Beau Phillips, a crisis communications specialists with Reset Public Affairs in Washington, said USAA bungled its handling of the controversy from the start. A Twitter user wrote USAA on Wednesday afternoon requesting that it stop supporting Hannity’s show after liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America released a list of his advertisers.

“I’m really surprised USAA has chosen to pander to some mild social media protests or tweets, because their brand and their reputation is strong enough to give them the ability to do whatever they want here as far as making the right choice, as opposed to the expedient choice,” Phillips said.

USAA touched off a firestorm after responding to a tweet from @kathydettmer at 5:14 p.m. Central time Wednesday, saying “Advertising on opinion shows is not in accordance with our policy and we’ve since corrected it.”

The flap intensified after conservative groups pointed out that USAA still advertised on MSNBC programs hosted by liberal commentators Matthews and Maddow.

Hannity supporters called on customers to drop USAA, using the hashtag #BoycottUSA and #IStandWithHannity, to express their outrage.

Hannity, who retweeted an article Friday from @SScalpings about veterans groups boycotting USAA, is now asking his 2.4 million followers to support the company.

“Please support them, they are returning to my show @USAA -,” Hannity tweeted Tuesday.

USAA spokesman Roger Wildermuth said last week that the company has had a policy in place since 2011 not to advertise on opinion-based news programs, but wasn’t aware that its commercials were airing on such programs until last week. USAA said it responded by removing those ads.

Phillips, who is a USAA member, said companies should to “be consistent and make moves that have integrity.”

“There is no way to win in a situation like this because you’re always going to anger somebody, whether its on the left or on the right,” Phillips said in an interview. “So you shouldn’t try to make anyone or everyone happy. You can’t. That’s their mistake here.”

USAA provides banking, insurance and other financial services to about 12 million customers, who are service members, veterans and their families.

Media Matters President Angelo Carusone accused Hannity of organizing his fans to “harass his own network, his advertisers and his potential advertisers.”

“We warned that Hannity was volatile and bad business,” Carusone said in an emailed statement. “Now, many are currently experiencing first hand that doing business with Hannity is needlessly risky.”

USAA and some other companies yanked their ads from Hannity’s program after he was criticized for promoting a widely debunked theory over the murder of a former Democratic National Committee staff.

Brent Bozell, president of the conservative Media Research Center, said he wasn’t surprised by USAA’s decision “given the avalanche” of protests. He said his group mobilized the campaign against USAA, claiming its members generated more than 1,600 calls to the company within 48 hours.

The long holiday weekend did little to snuff out the firestorm. Twitter users were still up in arms Tuesday morning.

“@USAA HOW COULD YOU acquiesce to left-wing agitators and pull ads from @seanhannity? Sad!! #boycottUSAA #HannityMattersTo America,” @TinaBogani tweeted Tuesday morning.

Another Twitter user with the handle @saravern said Tuesday that USAA was “just another cowardly USA corporation letting the liberal thought police shut down our freedom of speech. #BoycottUSAA.”

Bozell praised the company after USAA reversed course.

“@SeanHannity has been a longtime friend of the troops. This is the right move from @USAA,” Bozell tweeted.

pdanner@express-news.net

Twitter: @AlamoPD

The Associated Press contributed to this article.