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Sean Hannity

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Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity at King of Prussia Mall (2004)
Born (1961-12-30) December 30, 1961 (age 62)
New York City, New York
NationalityAmerican
EducationHigh School Diploma
Occupation(s)radio/television host, political commentator & author
Employer(s)Citadel Broadcasting, Fox News Channel
Known forpolitical commentary
Political partyConservative Party of New York
SpouseJill Rhodes Hannity
Parent(s)Hugh J. and Lillian F. Hannity
WebsiteHannity.com

Sean Hannity is an American radio/television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He first gained national recognition as co-host of Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes. In addition to that show, he currently hosts the radio show, The Sean Hannity Show, as well as another show on Fox News Channel; Hannity's America. He is also the author of two New York Times bestselling books.[1][2]

Early life

Hannity is the son of Hugh J. and Lillian F. Hannity. Both his paternal and maternal grandparents emigrated from Ireland. He has two sisters, Joanne S. Hannity and Therese Grisham (Hannity). He grew up in Franklin Square, New York. During the late 1980s, Hannity worked in construction in Santa Barbara, California, and also as a bartender.[3] He has lived in Roswell, Georgia; Athens, Alabama; Lloyd Harbor, New York; and Santa Barbara, California. He married Jill Rhodes, a columnist for The Huntsville Times, on January 9, 1993. They have two children.

Education

Hannity graduated high school in 1980 from St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary in Uniondale in Long Island, New York. Described as "an indifferent student",[4] Hannity dropped out of New York University and another college numerous times for financial reasons, and later decided to pursue a radio career.[3] In 2005, Jerry Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University, awarded him an honorary degree for speaking at the commencement ceremony.[5]

Professional life

Hannity in a radio and television interview with Vice President of the US Dick Cheney

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.

Hannity hosted his first talk radio show in 1989 at the volunteer college station at UC Santa Barbara, KCSB-FM, while working as a general contractor. The show aired for 40 hours of air time[6]; Hannity has since called the show "terrible".[7] Hannity's weekly show was canceled after less than a year 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.[8]

After leaving KCSB, 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.[6] From Huntsville, he moved to WGST in Atlanta in 1992, filling the slot vacated by Neal Boortz, who had moved to competing station WSB. In September 1996, Fox News founder Roger Ailes hired the then relatively unknown Hannity to host a television program under the working title Hannity and LTBD ("liberal to be determined").[9] Alan Colmes was hired to co-host and the show debuted as Hannity & Colmes.

Later that year, Hannity left WGST for New York, where WABC had him substitute for their afternoon drive time host during the week of Christmas. In January 1997, WABC put Hannity on the air full-time, giving him the late night time slot. WABC then moved Hannity to the same drive time slot he had filled temporarily a little more than a year earlier. Hannity has been on WABC's afternoon time slot since January 1998.[10]

Hannity's radio and television shows draw praise from conservative politicians.[11] However, he also has been vocally critical of and has drawn criticism from progressive and liberal groups such as Media Matters for America.[12]

In 2005, Fortune included Hannity in the article "25 People We Envy Most (Lucky Hall of Fame Getting Paid to Mouth Off)" saying, "It's every blowhard's dream: getting paid to preach to the choir. For four hours a day Hannity fills the airwaves with his sure-fire formula: If you agree with his conservative worldview, you're deemed a "great American." If you don't, you're a pusillanimous blame-America-firster, who might as well pledge allegiance to France. Armed with a classic talk-radio voice, Hannity reportedly makes $5 million a year for the radio show, and undoubtedly more from Fox. Plus he's written two bestsellers and draws legions of fans to his national tours." [13]

Conservative Cal Thomas and liberal Bob Beckel, in their book Common Ground, describe Hannity as a leader of the pack among broadcasting political polarizers, which following James Q. Wilson they define as those who have "an intense commitment to a candidate, a culture, or an ideology that sets people in one group definitively apart from people in another, rival group."[14]

Television

Hannity is a host of Hannity & Colmes, an American political "point-counterpoint"-style television program on the Fox News Channel featuring Hannity and Alan Colmes as co-hosts. Hannity presents the conservative point of view with Colmes providing the liberal viewpoint. Hannity has had on air clashes with show guests such as Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer of Human Life International, who challenged Hannity on his public dissent from the Catholic Church on the issue of contraception.[15][16] Hannity has stated that if the Catholic Church were to excommunicate him over the issue, he would join Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church, the church associated with Liberty University, who awarded Hannity his honorary bachelor degree.[17]

In January 2007, Hannity began a new Sunday night television show on Fox News, Hannity's America.

Radio

Hannity's radio program is a conservative political talk show that features Hannity's opinions and ideology related to current issues and politicians. The Sean Hannity Show began national syndication on September 10, 2001 on over 500 stations nationwide. As of spring 2006, the program is heard by over 12.5 million listeners a week.[18] In 2004, Hannity signed a $25 million five-year contract extension with ABC Radio to continue the show through 2009.[19] The program was made available via Armed Forces Radio Network in 2006. In June 2007, ABC Radio and Radio Networks was sold to Citadel Communications.

In January 2007, Clear Channel Communications signed a groupwide three-year extension with Hannity on over 80 stations. The largest stations in the group deal included KTRH Houston, KFYI Phoenix, WPGB Pittsburgh, WKRC Cincinnati, WOOD Grand Rapids, WFLA Tampa, WOAI San Antonio, WLAC Nashville, and WREC Memphis.[20]

The opening theme music for the Sean Hannity Show is "The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby and the Range

Books

Hannity is the author of two books, Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Ideas in Politics, Media, and Life and Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism published through ReganBooks. Both books reached the nonfiction New York Times bestseller list. The second book quickly went to number one and stayed there for five consecutive weeks.[21][22] Hannity has stated that he is too busy to read many books,[23] and dictated a lot of his own two books into a tape recorder while driving in to do his radio show.[24] Frank Rich, an opinion columnist for the New York Times has criticized Hannity for using the American flag on his book covers, saying that the imagery is used "as a merchandising tool" for "self-aggrandizingly patriotic screeds."[25]

Freedom Concerts

Hannity has hosted country music-themed Freedom Concerts since 2003, billed to help benefit the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, a charity created by Oliver North to provide college scholarships to children with a parent severely disabled or killed in military action. Appearing artists have included Sara Evans, Martina McBride, Lee Greenwood, LeAnn Rimes, Montgomery Gentry, Darryl Worley, Charlie Daniels, Larry the Cable Guy, and Michael W. Smith.

The Freedom Concerts were held annually in the Northern Star Arena at the Six Flags Great Adventure Amusement Park in Jackson, New Jersey through 2006. In 2007, the annual concert was expanded to a summer series held at locations across the United States, culminating with the September 11 event at Great Adventure marking the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.[26]

Speakers at the September 11, 2007 concert included Oliver North, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani and several conservative talk show hosts from WABC Radio.

Hannidate

Hannity's internet dating service, called "Hannidate," matches conservative or Republican-leaning singles, straight and gay. Begun in 2005, it is described as a "place where people of like conservative minds can come together to meet."[27][28]

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ "BEST SELLERS: September 22, 2002". New York Times. 2002-09-22. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  2. ^ "BEST SELLERS: April 4, 2004". New York Times. 2004-04-04. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  3. ^ a b Kurtz, Howard (January 14, 2002). "Radio's New Right-Fielder". Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
  4. ^ Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2005.
  5. ^ http://www.liberty.edu/academics/communications/champion/index.cfm?PID=10609&CAID=217
  6. ^ a b Sean Hannity's bio
  7. ^ CBS: 'Hannitization' Of America
  8. ^ http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1158
  9. ^ http://www.alan.com/staff/alan.htm
  10. ^ 77 WABC Personality Sean Hannity, retrieved 28 December 2007.
  11. ^ Mason, Julie (2004-09-03). "2004 REPUBLICAN CONVENTION NEW YORK / HARD HITTER / Fox News' Hannity a big draw at the Garden". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-06-20. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Media Matters for America
  13. ^ 25 People we envy Most: Lucky Hall of Fame Getting Paid to Mouth Off. Fortune Magazine. October 17, 2005
  14. ^ Thomas, Cal and Bob Beckel (2007). Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America. William Morrow (HarperCollins), New York, p. 3-6.
  15. ^ [1]
  16. ^ McCain, Robert Stacy "Hannity at Odds with Catholic Doctrine" Washington Times, March 14, 2007
  17. ^ Royal, Robert. "Sean and Rudy's excellent adventures in moral theology." National Catholic Reporter; 30 March 2007, Vol. 43 Issue 22, p19-19, 2/3p.
  18. ^ TALKERS Magazine: The top talk radio audiences
  19. ^ "Sean Hannity Profile". WSGW 760. 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-18.
  20. ^ Coyle, Sanda."Clear Channel Radio Renews Sean Hannity Through 2010", Clear Channel Radio, September 28, 2006.
  21. ^ Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2005.
  22. ^ http://affiliates.abcradionetworks.com/abcradio/seanhannitybio.pdf
  23. ^ Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2005.
  24. ^ Poniewozik, James. "Sean Hannity". Time, 0040781X, 11 November 2002, Vol. 160, Issue 20.
  25. ^ Had Enough Of the Flag Yet?
  26. ^ Cotter, Kelly-Jane. [September 11, 2001 attacks "LET FREEDOM SING"], Asbury Park Press, September 7, 2007.
  27. ^ Hannidate website
  28. ^ Concord Monitor, 4 December 2006. "Hannity's other side comes out on web: Fox News host fosters gay male hookups"
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