Sean Hannity
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. |
Sean Hannity | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | Television pundit / polemicist, Talk radio host & Author |
| Spouse | Jill Hannity |
Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961, in New York City, New York) is an American conservative talk radio host and executive producer of Fox News Channel's program Hannity & Colmes, and the author of two books. Hannity is of Irish descent (all four of his grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland) and he is a practicing Catholic.
Early life and career
Hannity grew up in Franklin Square, New York. He is the son of Hugh J. and Lillian F. Hannity, both children of Irish immigrants. His paternal grandparents immigrated from County Down and his mother's parents came from County Cork. Hannity was educated in Catholic schools on Long Island. He has two sisters, Joanne S. Hannity and Therese Grisham (Hannity). Hannity attended college at New York University, but did not graduate. During the late 1980s he worked in construction in the Santa Barbara, California, area. Hannity has lived in Roswell, Georgia; Athens, Alabama; Lloyd Harbor, New York; and Santa Barbara, California.
Present day
Sean Hannity is currently a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. He broadcasts out of WABC radio studios in New York, N.Y. In addition, Hannity also co-hosts the Fox News political debate program, Hannity & Colmes.
Radio program
Hannity's ABC Radio program began national syndication September 10, 2001. Prior to Hannity's radio show syndication, Hannity was a regular fill-in for nationally syndicated radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. Making several guest subsitutions for the absent Limbaugh, Hannity's on-air persona gained popularity. Today, the Sean Hannity Show is aired from WABC in New York and is now heard on well over 500 stations nationwide. His program now boasts the second-largest radio audience in the country behind Rush Limbaugh, heard by over 13 million listeners a week. The show was recently made available via Armed Forces Radio Network beginning 2006. In 2004, Hannity signed a $25 million 5-year contract extension with ABC Radio to continue the show through 2009.
Hannity interviews people involved in the current news. In addition to numerous newsmaking guests, Hannity also does several segments with his former call screener and Associate Producer, Jill Vitale[1], better known as Flirty Flipper (named so for her infamous tattoo of a dolphin). The most famous of these segments is her notorious "Man on the Street" segments, where she asks everyday New Yorkers and tests their knowledge of everyday current events.
Typically, the show includes regular conversations between Hannity and conservative pundits and politicians, such as Oliver North, Ann Coulter, Mark Levin, Dick Morris, Rudy Giuliani, George Will, Newt Gingrich, G. Gordon Liddy, and Ted Nugent. Hannity invites others who hold opposing views onto his show for so-called "shoot outs." Some such guests have been Arianna Huffington, Jesse Jackson, Senator Ted Kennedy, Rosie O'Donnell, Mike Farrell, Bob Beckel, and Howard Dean.
Since 2003 Hannity has hosted the annual Freedom Concert at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. In 2006, a second Freedom Concert was added in San Diego. This event provides full college scholarships for children of fallen U.S. military servicemen, as well as promote "Reagan conservative" ideals within and without the armed services. In the weeks leading up to the event, he provides some callers with tickets to the concert, which features conservative speakers and guests.
Education
Hannity went to high school at St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary in Uniondale, Long Island, New York, graduating in 1980. Thereafter, he attended New York University but dropped out to pursue his radio career. He has also claimed several times on his radio show to have had financial difficulties that contributed to his dropping out. Though no longer enrolled as a student or involved with WNYU (New York University's radio station), Hannity placed an ad in radio publications presenting himself as "the most talked about college radio host in America," and WVNN in Huntsville, Alabama hired him to be the morning talk show host.[citation needed] From there, he was hired by WGST in Atlanta to fill the slot vacated by Neal Boortz, who had moved on to competing station WSB. Roger Ailes, founder of the Fox News Channel, took a chance on the relatively unknown Hannity, hiring him to co-host Hannity & Colmes with Alan Colmes. Hannity received an honorary doctorate from Liberty University in 2005, and an honorary doctorate from Southeastern University of Lakeland, Florida in 2006.
Criticisms
Hannity was dismissed from KCSB in 1989, following an interview with Gene Antonio, author of The AIDS Coverup: The Real and Alarming Facts about AIDS. During the interview, Antonio argued that so much as a cough or a sneeze may allow HIV to be contracted, and that gays "were a subculture of people engaged in deviant, twisted acts." Hannity voiced his own opinion by adding, "Anyone listening to this show that believes homosexuality is a normal lifestyle has been brainwashed. It's very dangerous if we start accepting lower and lower forms of behavior as the normal." After hearing the commentary, another presenter at KCSB, who was a lesbian, called into the show to voice her complaints. During the call, Hannity pointed out to the audience that the caller was a lesbian who had a child through in vitro fertilization. Antonio then called the caller's child a "turkey-baster baby,". The station decided to dismiss Hannity, but shortly after reversed its decision, thanks in part to a campaign conducted by the Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Hannity decided against returning to KCSB. He later wrote, "...It [the KCSB show] didn't last long. I was too conservative, the higher-ups said, and they didn't like the comments one guest made on the show... The left-wing management had zero-tolerance for conservative points of view. And I was promptly fired."
During the Terri Schiavo controversy, two of Schiavo's nurses appeared on Hannity and Colmes to argue that Schiavo was not brain dead. Talk show host and actor Harry Shearer obtained a video tape[2] where Hannity can be heard coaching the nurses on how to respond to Alan Colmes's questions. He told them to respond "I'm just here to tell you what I saw", no matter what Colmes asked. After the segment, Hannity can be heard saying "We got the points out...But you did great, both of you"Video on Youtube.
Hannity has also been criticised by the left for having allowed racist right-wing talk show host Hal Turner to be a regular call-in contributor to his WABC show.[3]
Hannity was an outspoken critic of police brutality victim, Abner Louima. Louima, a black Haitian Immigrant was beaten severely by Brooklyn police officers in 1997. During the attack, Louima was forcefully sodomized with a plunger causing severe internal injuries as well as being beaten, threatened with death and racially abused. Hannity was one of Louima's biggest critics, charging that he had fabricated the rape — calling him "lying Louima" — and using interviews with people alleging Louima had past sexual relationships with men to bolster the claim that he had sustained his injuries during a "gay sex act." During, the trial of officer Justin Volpe, Volpe admitted to sodomizing Louima and was sentenced to 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
Hannity was criticized for statements he made on an August 30, 2005 radio broadcast about picketers at a funeral for a fallen Iraq war soldier named Sgt. Jeremy Doyle. Hannity concluded "I guess this is just another example of how the anti-war left supports our brave troops". However, the picketers were not in fact left-wing, but rather from Fred Phelps, Sr.'s anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, who claim that the deaths of US soldiers overseas were punishment for acceptance of gays in the US.[4] The picketers stated agenda was not anti-war but anti-gay. Hannity defended his statement by pointing out that Fred Phelps Jr. was the state campaign director for Al Gore's 1988 Presidential campaign[5] and Fred Phelps, Sr., a disbarred personal injury attorney, has ran for statewide office five times in Kansas as a Democrat.[6]
Hannidate
Since 2005, Hannity has run a dating service on his website, called "Hannidate," matching conservative or right-leaning singles. According to the the purpose of Hannidate is to create a "place where people of like conservative minds can come together to meet."[7]
Books
- Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism (Regan Books, 2004) ISBN 0-06-058251-0
- Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty Against Liberalism (Regan Books, 2002) ISBN 0-06-051455-8
References
- ^ Jill Vitale's Website
- ^ Hannity and Colmes video
- ^ The Nation article on Hal Turner
- ^ Hannity blamed "anti-war left" for protest at soldier's funeral actually organized by anti-gay church, Media Matters for America, Aug 31, 2005
- ^ Gore Political Ties to "God Hates Fags" Founders Uncovered
- ^ The "God Hates Fags" Left
- ^ Hannidate website