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Sean Hannity

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Sean Hannity
Occupation(s)Television personality/host, Talk radio host & Author
SpouseJill Hannity

Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961, in New York City, New York) is an American conservative talk radio host, an executive producer of Fox News Channel's program Hannity & Colmes, and the author of two books. Hannity is of Irish descent and a practicing Roman Catholic.[1]


Current professional life

Sean Hannity is currently a nationally syndicated radio talk show host broadcasting from flagship station WABC (AM) in New York City, co-host of Hannity & Colmes, a Fox News political debate program, and host of Hannity's America, also on Fox News. He is a spokesman for General Motors, the automobile manufacturer.


Hannity and Colmes

Hannity is executive producer of Hannity & Colmes, an American political debate television program on the Fox News Channel featuring conservative Hannity and liberal Alan Colmes as co-hosts. Hannity has had on-air clashes with guests of the program. On August 25, 2006 he had a heated discussion with Laura Costas of Code Pink, an anti-war women's group, on an event Code Pink held in front of Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Hannity called it a protest attacking wounded veterans to make a political statement, Costas said it was vigil for increased compensation for veterans.[1]

Hannity's America

In January 2007, Hannity began a new Sunday night television show on Fox News Channel called "Hannity's America". This show is much like "Hannity and Colmes", except that this show exclusively features Sean and has more of an investigative style rather than debate. The show is on Sundays at 9:00pm.

Freedom Concert

Since 2003 Hannity has hosted the annual Freedom Concert, featuring conservative speakers and guests, at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. In 2006, a second Freedom Concert was added in San Diego. The event provides full college scholarships for children of fallen U.S. military servicemen, and promotes conservatism with speakers and guests such as Ann Coulter, David Limbaugh (brother of Rush Limbaugh), Mark Levin and Rick & Bubba, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, former Congressman Tom DeLay, and TV personality Susan Lucci.[2] In the weeks leading up to the event he provides some callers with tickets to the concert.

Film

In the 2005 documentary film This Divided State, Hannity is shown speaking to the students of Utah Valley State College and members of the surrounding community. He had been invited to speak on campus to balance the liberal filmmaker Michael Moore who had been invited to speak on campus two weeks before the 2004 presidential election. Hannity also appeared as a newscaster in the 1998 thriller The Siege.

Hannidate

Since 2005, Hannity has run a dating service on his website, called "Hannidate," matching conservative or Republican-leaning singles. The stated purpose of Hannidate is to create a "place where people of like conservative minds can come together to meet."[3][4]

Controversy and criticism

Wikiquote has quotations related to Sean Hannity.

Over the years, some individuals and organizations have been critical of some of Hannity's espoused political beliefs and activities:

  • Media watchdog group Media Matters for America has been consistently critical of remarks Sean Hannity has made on his television and radio shows.[5]
  • Frank Rich, in a New York Times editorial, criticized Hannity and Dick Morris for using the American flag on their book covers, saying they "use the Stars and Stripes as a merchandising tool for their own self-aggrandizingly patriotic screeds cashing in on their TV celebrity."[6]
  • In an interview with Salon Magazine in February 2003, Camille Paglia questioned Sean Hannity's role as a political commentator. She said, "I'm frightened by what I'm hearing these days from commentators like Sean Hannity, whose program I listen to when I'm driving home from school … These days I can't believe what I'm hearing, the gung-ho passion for war, the lofty sense of moral certitude, the complete obliviousness to the world outside our borders. How many people has Hannity known who aren't Americans? Has he ever been anywhere in the world? His knowledge of world history and culture seems thin at best. This is increasingly our problem as a nation – we can't see beyond ourselves. It shows the abject failure of public education."[7]
  • Sean Hannity has frequently attacked critics of the Iraq war, claiming that political opponents who question Bush's foreign policy were undermining the war's progress. This in turn has attracted criticism from media commentators News Hounds.[8][9]

See also

Books

  • Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism (ReganBooks, 2004) ISBN 0-06-058251-0
  • Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty Against Liberalism (ReganBooks, 2002) ISBN 0-06-051455-8

References

  1. ^ FOX News story on CODE PINK protests at Walter Reed Medical Center
  2. ^ Freedom Concert 2006 lineup
  3. ^ Hannidate website
  4. ^ Concord Monitor, 12/4/06. "Hannity's other side comes out on web: Fox News host fosters gay male hookups"
  5. ^ Media Matters for America
  6. ^ Had Enough Of the Flag Yet?
  7. ^ The Salon Interview: Camille Paglia
  8. ^ Sean Hannity Calls Iraq Bush's "Biggest Success Story.", October 18, 2005
  9. ^ Hannity's Iraq Victory Plan: Keep Attacking The Democrats, December 6 2005
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