Sean 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.

Early life & career

Hannity grew up in Franklin Square, New York, in a traditional household. He is the son of Hugh J. and Lillian F. Hannity and a grandson of Irish immigrants to the United States. His paternal grandparents emigrated from County Down and his mother's parents came from County Cork. Hannity was educated in Catholic schools on Long Island. He has one sister named Joanne S. Hannity and another named Therese Grisham (Hannity). Hannity attended college at New York University and Adelphi University, but had to drop out of both due to his poor academic performance. During the late 1980s he worked in construction in the Santa Barbara, California, area. Somewhat nomadic, Hannity has lived in Roswell, GA; Athens, AL; Lloyd Harbor, NY; and Santa Barbara, CA.

KCSB dismissal

His first radio show was in the late 1980s as a volunteer broadcaster for the University of California, Santa Barbara's radio station, KCSB, although he was not a student at the university .

Hannity was dismissed from the station 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 fertilisation. Antonio then called the caller's child a "turkey-baster baby," with Hannity continuing, "I feel sorry for your child."

The station reversed its decision to remove Hannity. However, Hannity decided against returning to KCSB, later writing, "...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."

After KCSB

Hannity placed an ad in radio publications presenting himself as "the most talked about college radio host in America," and WVNN in Athens/Huntsville, Alabama, hired him to be the afternoon talk show host. 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. There, he asked for actors and actresses to wear light blue ribbons to the 1992 Academy Awards to support the police officers charged with beating Rodney King.

After a few years at WGST, Roger Ailes picked him to be the conservative voice on Hannity & Colmes, on the Fox News Channel. Soon he began hosting a radio show on a part-time basis for WABC-AM, and before long he was given the afternoon drive-time slot. On September 10, 2001, his show went national.

Even before his national syndication, Hannity achieved national prominence by frequent appearances on such shows as The O'Reilly Factor, where he was a frequent and harsh critic of the Clinton administration, and anything he percieved as "liberal".

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. The 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, 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. In addition to numerous newsmaking guests, Hannity also does several segments with his former call screener and Associate Producer, Jill Vitale, 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 corners everyday New Yorkers and tests their knowledge of everyday current events.

Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter

Hannity is also famous for inviting guests who hold opposing views onto his show for "shoot outs" on a frequent basis. Some such guests have been Arianna Huffington, Jesse Jackson, Senator Ted Kennedy, Rosie O'Donnell, Mike Farrell, Bob Beckel, and Howard Dean. Regular guests have included Oliver North, Ann Coulter, Mark Levin, Dick Morris, Rudy Giuliani, George Will, Newt Gingrich, G. Gordon Liddy, and Ted Nugent.

Since 2003 Hannity has hosted the annual Freedom Concert at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. This event aims to provide full college scholarships for children of fallen U.S. military servicemen, as well as promote right-wing 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 exclusively right-wing speakers and guests.

He is now competing with Bill O'Reilly in the radio business. Sean used to appear occasionly on the "O'Reilly Factor" with O'Reilly.

Coverage of the Fred Phelps protests

Hannity has been criticized for his claim on the radio that the protesters who were heckling the families of fallen veteran Sgt. Jeremy Doyle were part of the "anti-war left." The protesters were members of the Westboro Baptist Church, a conservative religious group led by Fred Phelps. He has since correctly identified the protesters, criticized them extensively, and hosted several debates between representatives of the church and veterans' groups. Transcript of Hannity and Colmes at 9:12 PM. Transcript of Hannity and Colmes at 9:50 PM. Transcript of Hannity and Colmes at 9:31 PM.

Hannidate

Since 2005, Hannity has run a dating service on his website, called "Hannidate," matching conservative or right-leaning singles. According to the Hannidate website, the purpose of Hannidate is to create a "place where people of like conservative minds can come together to meet."

Books

Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism (Regan Books, 2004) ISBN 0060582510
Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty Against Liberalism (Regan Books, 2002) ISBN 0060514558

Trivia

* Hannity was a student of the Marxist NYU professor Bertell Ollman in the 1980's.
* Hannity's radio show uses Martina McBride's rendition of Gretchen Peters' "Independence Day," the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's version of the Carl Orff piece O Fortuna from Carmina Burana, and Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" as introductory theme music, listed in order of appearance on the show.
* A fictionalized, cyborg version of Sean Hannity takes a principal role in the conservative comic book, "Liberality For All" , in which he â€" along with G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North â€" leads an underground resistance against a hypothetical liberal dystopia.
* Sean Hannity has a friendly relationship with radio hosts Opie and Anthony. During their "Sex for Sam III" incident, Sean stood up for them on his show, saying while it was wrong, it was still protected under free speech, and they should not have been fired. Opie and Anthony frequently thank him whenever possible, and have been on Hannity and Colmes.
* The position held by Hannity at WVNN in Huntsville, Alabama has since launched the careers of talk radio talents Kevin Miller and Mike Church of Sirius Satellite Radio.
* Thanks to Hannity's position as a radio talk show host in Huntsville and his nickname ("the Baby Jesus,") Huntsville has been dubbed "the birthplace of talk radio".
* Sean Hannity's national syndication occurred the day before the World Trade Center Terrorist Attack.
* Hannity spent time along the United Statesâ€"Mexico border in 2005 with the Minutemen. He is a proponent of legal immigration to the U.S. while supporting the enforcement of existing laws and tougher stands against illegal migrants crossing into the United States.
* Hannity has recently come under fire from actor Richard Dreyfuss, whom he has in return dubbed "Richard Dufus."
* The song "You're Wrong" from punk band NOFX's 2006 EP Never Trust a Hippy contains the line "You're wrong if you agree with Sean Hannity."
* Sean Hannity received an honorary doctorate in Republican Propaganda from Southeastern University in 2006.
* Alec Baldwin in a recent exchange with Hannity referred to him as a "No talent whore" and "a former construction-worker hack" resulting in Hannity referring to Baldwin as a third rate actor. The feud between the two continues with Hannity frequently playing an actual clip of Baldwin hosting his own talk radio show. The clip contains some rather unflattering moments from Baldwin.
* Hannity interviewed Opie and Anthony during their hiatus from radio. The radio duo call their friendship with Hannity unlikely and are appreciative of how fairly he treated them in the interview. Hannity regularly calls their current show.
* On his IFC Network television show, Henry Rollins stated he wanted Hillary Clinton to be elected president specifically for the hilarity Hannity's reaction to it would bring.
* Hannity appeared in an episode of the 2003 ABC drama Threat Matrix.