The president’s favorite apologist was at it again, devoting his hour-long show on Fox News Channel to a strange assortment of topics that had nothing to do with the blockbuster news on everyone else’s lips.

The top of Sean Hannity’s hour Monday night went to “why Comey had to go.” That took eons to fully explore and was mostly devoted to the evils of Hillary Clinton’s email practices.

The bottom of the hour was a pressing request to viewers to answer the question, “Do you think health care is a right or a privilege?”

But the most notable segment was his idea for reforming the White House news briefings by requiring journalists to choose among a dozen or more topics and submit written questions in advance. The White House could then pick those it liked and answer them after carefully crafting responses.

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It’s a lousy idea under any circumstances, but with the situation that erupted Monday evening, after The Washington Post reported that Trump had shared classified information with Russian officials, it’s downright terrible.

Imagine Tuesday’s briefing — with a full international crisis brewing — being contained to a few mild topics chosen in advance by the White House to forward Trump’s agenda and cover the presidential backside. Important and serious questions abound, and open dialogue is required to answer them on behalf of the public.

That’s not what Hannity had in mind.

“First, the White House press team should regularly develop a list of the top and most important 15, 20, 25 issues of the day,” he said.

“Next, the media, well, they should be able to submit questions about these issues in writing, give the White House time to respond with clarity and specificity, and if Sean Spicer then wants to take a couple of questions from the briefing room podium, that’s fine. But only on those specific topics.”

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This, Hannity claimed, would result in more “truth” and less “gotcha.”

He’s worried about the combined forces of bad media, the bad left, and weak Republicans causing “a clear and present danger” to President Trump. (Trump has both praised the briefings for their ratings and suggested that he’s too active and decisive a president for them to work effectively.)

Niels Lesniewski, who covers the Senate for Roll Call, reacted on Twitter to Hannity’s proposal: “Should an outlet that has a prime-time host who suggests this be allowed in the pool?”

Laura Ingraham, whose conservative Lifezette site is one of many new voices in the briefing room, wasn’t so sure about the details, she told Hannity. Her proposed tweak: There should be fewer preselected topics.

She called for “much shorter, succinct interactions with the press” and — in a logical leap — suggested that the White House beat reporters stop hanging around the White House so much.

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“White House reporters should go out to the rest of the country,” she said. (Yes, and police-beat reporters should spend their work hours at the seashore.)

But Hannity, who’s known to have the president’s ear, is on to something — although he’s approaching it like the partisan fanboy he is, not a journalist or a democracy-minded citizen.

The White House news briefings are in a particularly sad state of affairs, and do need fixing.

We saw it last week when Sarah Huckabee Sanders, subbing for Sean Spicer, stated confidently that the president had fired Comey on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general — only to have the president say he had made the decision before that.

We saw it this week when Spicer deflected question after question about whether the White House has recordings of visitors.

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But the answer isn’t written questions chosen from a preapproved menu, which sounds like something right out of an authoritarian handbook in a chapter titled “The Fine Art of Propaganda.”

It’s having spokespeople who are well prepared, articulate and trustworthy giving journalists accurate, vetted and consistent information .

The White House news briefings have devolved into a comic tableau. President Trump suggested last week that he might kill them altogether.

Hannity’s plan would save him the trouble.

For more by Margaret Sullivan visit wapo.st/sullivan

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