Last modified on October 15, 2023, at 05:10

Sean Hannity

Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity.jpg

Born December 30, 1961
New York City
Spouse Jill Rhodes (div.)
Religion Christian[1]

Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is a talk show host and television host of Fox News's show Hannity, as well as host of the former Hannity's America. He generally takes conservative positions, with notable exceptions being the controversy regarding Todd Akin (see below), as well as being generally neoconservative warmonger on foreign policy. Liberals strongly oppose Hannity[2] because he contradicts their favored narratives.[3] He was among the first on any network to use his program to host a discussion of the pandemic by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.[4]

Todd Akin/Roy Moore controversy

Congressman Todd Akin was the Republican Party nominee for one of the most-watched races for the U.S. Senate in 2012. He had represented a portion of the greater St. Louis, Missouri area in the House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013 (Missouri's 2nd congressional district).

On August 19, 2012, in a local television interview with KTVI, Akin rejected a suggestion that there should be a broad rape exception to limits on abortion. He distinguished between an actual rape and a false allegation of rape by referring to the former as a "legitimate rape," terminology that the liberal media then unfairly took out of context to engage in demagoguery against him.

Hannity claimed that Akin should consider withdrawing from the Senate race: "I think there is one political reality that I think has to be faced by you and your campaign ... Democrats now have a ton of ammunition and they are now going to try to use these remarks to hurt everybody they can. And if I was put in that position, I would at least be thinking about what is in the best interest of the party."[5]

True conservatives stood with principle and defended Akin's remarks, and his right to remain in the race.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

Hannity showed himself to be a RINO backer through his actions.

In 2017, Hannity similarly damaged the Roy Moore U.S. Senate campaign in Alabama when he scolded the former state chief justice for failure to defend himself adequately in regard to allegations of sexual abuse that surfaced in the campaign. Moore then lost the race to the liberal Democrat Doug Jones, and the GOP Senate majority slipped from 52 to 51.

Early career

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, Georgia, 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.[15] 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.[15] January 9, 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.

In September 2017, Hannity's show was moved to the 9 pm EDT time slot, putting him in direct competition with left-wing MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. In his first week in competition with her, Hannity received much higher ratings than her, despite her rise in ratings prior to that in 2017.[16][17][18] Not only has Hannity consistently ranked #1 on cable television, but some days, such as during his coverage of President Trump's summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, he has ranked #1 out of every television show whatsoever.[19]

Controversies

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.[20] 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."[21]

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.[22] 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.[23] Hannity has been accused of taking advantage of the charitable nature of conservative, patriotic Americans.

In May 2017, Fox News published and then retracted a story about the murder of Seth Rich. Hannity did not retract anything he stated, noting the fact that liberals and Democrats themselves widely accepted and circulated conspiracy theories, most notably those regarding alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.[24] Because of Hannity's decision, liberal advertisers chose to pressure and bully him by pulling out their ads from his show.[25] Many of these attacks were attempts on the part of left-wingers to destroy a non-left-wing voice in the media.[3]

In October 2023 Sundance of The Conservative Treehouse summarized Hannity's transformation into a neocon Deep State shill for the military industrial complex:

"Hannity, the perpetual interrupter, totally loses his cool in an interview with Vivek Ramaswamy and starts defending the agenda of defense contractors. It is a remarkable level of sunlight upon the controlled Fox News host who succumbed to the black-ops file involving his zipper problems (see Ainsley Earhardt). Now divorced, and under substantial financial pressure, Murdoch et al have Hannity right where they want him.

Hannity attacks Ramaswamy for the candidate’s position on government contractors funding SuperPACS, then goes into a diatribe about how only deep state government defense and intelligence officials can manage our national political priorities. Dropping the remnants of his mask, Hannity finishes the interview extolling the virtues of the military industrial complex, and saying only career politicians are qualified to be President."[26]

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.[27] 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.[28]

Trophy

In Oct. 2022, Senate Republican campaign chairman gave Hannity ‘Champion of Freedom’ trophy.[29]

References

  1. Sean Hannity Opens Up About His Religious Journey and Christian Faith
  2. Ernst, Douglas (May 24, 2017). Sean Hannity warns fans of organized, left-wing effort to ‘silence’ him. The Washington Times. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Kew, Ben (May 25, 2017). Brent Bozell: Attack on Hannity Part of ‘Liberal Strategy to Monopolize the Media’. Breitbart News. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  4. How the liberal media weaponizes COVID-19 against Trump - The Washington Times
  5. [1]
  6. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=004DDFAC-6907-452E-93F5-62D3793BBABE
  7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/08/21/tony-perkins-gop-treatment-of-akin-suspect/
  8. http://www.rollcall.com/news/missouri_delegates_still_support_todd_akin_despite_controversy-217050-1.html
  9. https://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57497428-503544/rep-steve-king-backs-up-todd-akin-weighs-in-on-rape-and-abortion/
  10. Rand Paul reticent to weigh in on Akin's future but says Akin's comment was incorrect by Ryan Alessi, mycn2.com, August 22, 2012, retrieved August 24, 2012
  11. http://akin.org/huckabee-chip-in
  12. http://hinterlandgazette.com/2012/08/social-conservatives-including-frc-head-tony-perkins-defending-rep-todd-akins-legitimate-rape-comment.html
  13. https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/80049.html
  14. http://buchanan.org/blog/a-grand-old-party-in-panic-2-5223
  15. 15.0 15.1 https://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,1242,00.html
  16. Schwartz, Jason (September 29, 2017). Hannity beats Maddow in first week of 9 p.m. showdown. Politico. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  17. Enloe, Chris (September 30, 2017). Sean Hannity is now in head-to-head competition with Rachel Maddow — and the ratings just came in. The Blaze. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  18. Beck, Conor (September 29, 2017). Hannity Beats Maddow in First Week at 9 P.M. Hour. The Washington Free Beacon. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  19. Miles, Frank (June 12, 2018). 'Hannity' is most-watched show on all of television Monday, even beating 'The Bachelorette'. Fox News. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  20. http://thebadguy.wordpress.com/2007/03/15/video-of-the-hannity-euteneuer-squabble
  21. http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/070320
  22. Economic Research Institute. Nonprofit Organization Information - Freedom Alliance. http://www.eri-nonprofit-salaries.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=NPO.Form990&EIN=541411430&Year=2009
  23. Schlussel, Debbie. "Sean Hannity’s Freedom CONcert Scam: Almost None of Charity’s $ Went to Injured Troops, Kids of Fallen Troops; G5s for Vannity?" March 18, 2010. http://www.debbieschlussel.com/6938/sean-hannitys-freedom-concert-scam-only-7-of-charitys-money-went-to-injured-troops-kids-of-fallen-troops-g5s-g6s-for-vannity/
  24. Concha, Joe (May 23, 2017). Hannity on Seth Rich coverage: ‘I retracted nothing’. The Hill. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  25. Kew, Ben (May 24, 2017). Advertisers Bow to Activist Left, Begin Pulling Ads from Hannity. Breitbart News. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
  26. Glowworm Showing – Sean Hannity Goes Bananas During Interview with Vivek Ramaswamy, Sundance, The Conservative Treehouse, October 13, 2023.
  27. http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/24930/Sean_Hannity/index.aspx
  28. Newsweek, April 27, 2007, p. 29
  29. Alexander Bolton, Senate Republican campaign chairman gives Hannity ‘Champion of Freedom’ trophy, The Hill, Oct 28, 2022.
    National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott (R-Fla.) gave Fox News host Sean Hannity a small silver trophy on Thursday night to celebrate him as a “Champion of Freedom” at a town hall style event in West Palm Beach. Scott feted former President Trump in the same way at his Mar-a-Lago estate in April of last year because he said Trump “worked hard” on border security, the economy and holding China “accountable". The Senate Republican campaign chairman heaped praise on Hannity while they shared the stage with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R), who is running for re-election.

See also

External links