This week, a handful of companies including Cars.com announced plans to stop advertising on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program in response to his unapologetic promotion of a conspiracy theory surrounding the murder of a Democratic National Committee staff member. To some, it looked like the beginnings of the kind of exodus that helped push Bill O’Reilly off the network last month.

But as it stands, Mr. Hannity appears to be avoiding the sort of large-scale retreat and condemnation from advertisers that contributed to the ouster of Mr. O’Reilly, as companies and even some activist groups draw a line between protesting on-air content that they may disagree with and that which violates their core values.

Mercedes-Benz, which was one of more than 50 brands to pull its ads from “The O’Reilly Factor” in April after The New York Times reported on settlements Mr. O’Reilly made with at least five women who had accused him of sexual harassment or other inappropriate behavior, attributed its decision to “the importance of women in every aspect of our business.” When it came to Mr. Hannity, however, the company did not see a need to get involved.

“Our rule of thumb is that we do not pull our ads based on editorial content,” Donna Boland, a Mercedes spokeswoman, said in an email. “Our feeling is that a variety of viewpoints is part of the natural discourse that takes place in a free media.”