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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]

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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.

Radio

Further information: The Sean Hannity Show

Sean Hannity got his first talk radio show in 1987 at KCSB-FM, the volunteer college station at UC Santa Barbara. After airing for 40 hours of airtime,[1] Hannity's weekly show was canceled in 1989, when KCSB management charged him with "discriminating against gays and lesbians" after two shows featuring the book The AIDS Coverup: The Real and Alarming Facts about AIDS by Gene Antonio. The station reversed its decision to dismiss Hannity due in part to a campaign conducted by the Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Hannity decided against returning to KCSB.[2]

In 1988, Hannity placed an ad in radio publications presenting himself as "the most talked about college radio host in America," and WVNN in Athens, Alabama (part of the Huntsville market) hired him to be the afternoon talk show host.[1] From Huntsville, he moved to WGST in Atlanta, filling the slot vacated by Neal Boortz, who had moved to competing station WSB. In September of 1996 Roger Ailes, founder of the Fox News Channel, hired the then relatively unknown Hannity to co-host the television program Hannity & Colmes with Alan Colmes.

Hannity's radio program is a conservative political talk show focusing on current issues and politicians. The show is frequently critical of, and has drawn criticism from, the Democratic Party. David Wade, a John Kerry spokesman, said during the 2004 Presidential election regarding the term carpet-bombing, "If the term hasn't found its way into print, its distortions certainly have. From Rush Limbaugh to Sean Hannity to Laura Ingraham to Saxby Chambliss to the R.N.C., you can't turn on a TV or pick up a radio without seeing a systematic and coordinated attack on John Kerry."[3] Hannity also draws praise from conservative politicians: "He has a great personality, and the tone counts for a lot," said Texas Sen. John Cornyn. "He's willing to ask questions and challenge the assumptions that many in the mainstream news media are not."[4]

The Sean Hannity Show began national syndication September 10, 2001 on over 500 stations nationwide. As of spring, 2006, the program is heard by over 12.5 million listeners a week.[5] In 2004, Hannity signed a $25 million 5-year contract extension with ABC Radio to continue the show through 2009.[6] The program was made available via Armed Forces Radio Network in 2006.

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.[7]

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.

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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."[8][9]

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.[10]
  • 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."[11]
  • 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."[12]
  • 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.[13][14]

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. ^ a b Sean Hannity's bio
  2. ^ http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1158
  3. ^ Kerry Speaks to New York, Talks Back to Washington.
  4. ^ HARD HITTER: Angry man Hannity a big draw at the Garden. Houston Chronicle. Sept. 2, 2004
  5. ^ TALKERS Magazine: The top talk radio audiences
  6. ^ "Sean Hannity Profile". WSGW 760. 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-18.
  7. ^ FOX News story on CODE PINK protests at Walter Reed Medical Center
  8. ^ Hannidate website
  9. ^ Concord Monitor, 12/4/06. "Hannity's other side comes out on web: Fox News host fosters gay male hookups"
  10. ^ Media Matters for America
  11. ^ Had Enough Of the Flag Yet?
  12. ^ The Salon Interview: Camille Paglia
  13. ^ Sean Hannity Calls Iraq Bush's "Biggest Success Story.", October 18, 2005
  14. ^ Hannity's Iraq Victory Plan: Keep Attacking The Democrats, December 6 2005
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