Sean Hannity

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Sean Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is a conservative talk show host and television host of Fox News's show Hannity, as well as host of the former Hannity's America. The youngest of four children, Hannity was born in New York City to Irish immigrants. He dropped out of college to embark on a radio career, and in 1988 was at a small-town station of WVNN in Huntsville, Alabama. He later broke into a Top 10 market in Atlanta at 640 AM WGST. His national recognition came as an occasional substitute host on the top rated The Rush Limbaugh Show. Allegedly on his first guest show, he dropped the golden EIB microphone because of a case of high nerves. The attention gained from substitute-hosting the show paved his way to national syndication.

Television

Sean Hannity was asked to join the newly formed Fox News Channel (FNC) in September 1996.[1] He accepted the offer and became co-host with liberal Alan Colmes of Hannity and Colmes, a prime time one-hour debate-driven talk show focusing on the controversial issues and newsmakers of the day.[2] January 9th, 2009 was the final show of Hannity & Colmes, replaced the following week with Hannity's solo, self-titled show Hannity. Hannity and Colmes ranked among the leading cable TV news shows (just behind CNN's Larry King Live and FOX's O'Reilly Factor). Hannity also has a weekend show on Fox News, Hannity's America.

Controversy

Hannity angered some traditional Catholics with his antagonistic treatment of Father Thomas Euteneuer on August, 2006, during which Hannity criticized Fr. Euteneuer for prominent sex scandals in the Catholic Church.[3] After heated remarks by Hannity during the interview, he finally asked the priest, "Wait, would you deny me Communion?" To which Fr. Euteneuer responded, "I would."[4]

Hannity has also received criticism for his involvement with the Freedom Alliance charity and the associated Freedom Concerts that he has hosted for the charity since 2003. The concerts are held to raise money to give to severely injured U.S. soldiers or as scholarships for the children of slain or injured soldiers. Through 2008, less than 20% of revenues raised by the Freedom Alliance have actually gone to these causes (and as low as 3.7% in 2006), according to IRS Form 990 tax data[5]. This was widely reported by Debbie Schlussel, a conservative commentator and blogger, and Schlussel has also made corroborated accusations that hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent by the Freedom Alliance for each concert to accommodate Hannity and his friends and family[6]. Hannity has been accused of taking advantage of the charitable nature of conservative, patriotic Americans.

Books

Hannity's books use patriotic rhetoric as a main theme. His first book, in 2002, was entitled Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism. The book remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 17 weeks.[7] In 2004 he published Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism in which he "reveals how the disgraceful history of appeasement has reached forward from the days of Neville Chamberlain and Jimmy Carter to corrupt the unrepentant leftists of the modern Democratic Party from Howard Dean and John Kerry to Bill and Hillary Clinton."

Radio

Hannity reaches approximately 12.5 million radio listeners each day, second only to Rush Limbaugh.[8]

References

See also

External Links