Valerie Jarrett
Senior Advisor to the President
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2009 Serving with David Plouffe
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Barry Steven Jackson
Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2009
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Julie E. Cram
Personal details
Born	(1956-11-14) November 14, 1956 (age 55) Shiraz, Iran
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	William Jarrett (1983–1988)
Children	Laura
Alma mater	Stanford University University of Michigan
Profession	Lawyer

Valerie Bowman Jarrett (born November 14, 1956) is a senior advisor and assistant to the president for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Obama administration. She is a Chicago lawyer, businesswoman, and civic leader. Prior to that she served as a co-chairperson of the Obama-Biden Transition Project.^[1][2]

Personal[link]

Jarrett was born in Shiraz, Iran to American parents James E. Bowman and Barbara Taylor Bowman. Her father, a pathologist and geneticist, ran a hospital for children in Shiraz, as part of a program where American doctors and agricultural experts sought to help jump-start developing countries' health and farming efforts. When she was five, the family moved to London for one year, returning to Chicago in 1963.^[3]

In 1966 her mother, Barbara T. Bowman, was one of four child advocates that created the Erikson Institute. The Institute was established to provide advanced knowledge in child development for teachers and other professionals working with young children.^[4]

As a child she spoke Persian and French.^[5]

Jarrett graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon in 1974. She earned a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1978, and a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.^[6]

In 1983 Jarrett married Dr. William Robert Jarrett, son of famed Chicago Sun-Times reporter Vernon Jarrett. She attributes her switch from a private to a public career to their daughter Laura's birth and her own desire to do something that would make the daughter proud.^[7]

To one reporter's e-mailed question about her divorce, she replied, "Married in 1983, separated in 1987, and divorced in 1988. Enough said."^[7] In a Vogue profile, she further explained "We grew up together. We were friends since childhood. In a sense, he was the boy next door. I married without really appreciating how hard divorce would be."^[7] William Jarrett died of a sudden heart attack in 1993.^[7]

Career[link]

Chicago politics[link]

Jarrett got her start in Chicago politics in 1987 working for Mayor Harold Washington^[8] as Deputy Corporation Counsel for Finance and Development.^[9]

Jarrett continued to work in the mayor's office in the 1990s. She was Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard Daley, during which time (1991) she hired Michelle Robinson, then engaged to Barack Obama, away from a private law firm. Jarrett served as Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development from 1992 through 1995, and was Chair of the Chicago Transit Board from 1995 to 2005.^[9]

Business administration[link]

Until joining the Obama Administration, Jarrett was the CEO of The Habitat Company, a real estate development and management company^[10] which she joined in 1995. She has been replaced by Mark Segal, a lawyer who joined the company in 2002, as CEO. Daniel E. Levin is the Chairman of Habitat, which was formed in 1971.^[11] Jarrett was a member of the board of Chicago Stock Exchange (2000–2007, as Chairman, 2004–2007).

She is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago Medical Center,^[9] Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago and a Trustee of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.^[12] Jarrett serves on the board of directors of USG Corporation, a Chicago based building materials corporation.

Jarrett's previous year's income, in a 2009 report, was a $300,000 salary and $550,000 in deferred compensation from The Habitat Executive Services, Inc. The Wall Street Journal also reported she disclosed payments of more than $346,000 for service on boards of directors that reflect her political ties, and work in Chicago real estate and community development. She was paid $76,000 for service as a director of Navigant Consulting, Inc. a Chicago-based global consulting group with governmental clients. She received $146,600 from USG, and $58,000 to serve on the board of Rreef American REIT II, a real estate investment trust based in San Francisco. The Chicago Stock Exchange, Inc., paid her $34,444.^[13]

Despite her impeccable social credentials, Jarrett’s record before she went to Washington was spotty at best. After Mayor Daley made her commissioner of planning, she became embroiled in a massive screw-up in the city’s public housing revitalization plan, which cost Chicago millions of dollars in overruns. Daley fired her without explanation.

After she left city hall, Jarrett became CEO of Habitat Executive Services, where she earned $300,000 in salary and $550,000 in deferred compensation. She managed a federally subsidized housing complex that was seized by the government after inspectors found crime-infested slum conditions and widespread blight.

Throughout her career, Jarrett has failed upward. ^[14]

Advisor to Barack Obama[link]

Obama speaks to Jarrett and other aides during a senior staff meeting in August 2009.

Barack Obama chats with Valerie Jarrett in the Blue Room, White House, 2010.

Jarrett is one of President Obama's longest serving advisors and confidantes and was "widely tipped for a high-profile position in an Obama administration."^[15][16]

On November 14, 2008, President-elect Obama selected Jarrett to serve as White House Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison.^[17]

She has also been responsible for much of the incompetence and amateurism that have been the hallmarks of Obama’s time in office. Indeed, Jarrett has been on the wrong side of practically every consequential issue to come across the president’s desk. Some examples of her advice:

● Though both Emanuel and political strategist David Axelrod warned Obama time and again that he didn’t have the votes to ram a comprehensive healthcare bill through Congress, Jarrett was among those who persuaded the president to ignore their advice and go for broke. The result: the hugely expensive, unworkable, unpopular, and probably unconstitutional program known as Obamacare.

● Emanuel tangled with Jarrett over her effort to put the prestige of the presidency behind Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Emanuel believed that Jarrett was working on behalf of her old boss, Mayor Daley, and his political cronies, who stood to benefit from the billions of dollars that would be spent on the Olympics. That idea seemed to be lost on the president, who went to Copenhagen to make an impassioned plea for the Olympics, and came back home with egg on his face.

● Jarrett gave her stamp of approval for the $535 million taxpayer-funded loan guarantee to Solyndra, the California solar company that went belly up. Jarrett had close ties to the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which controlled 35.7 percent of Solyndra. The foundation had made a sizable donation to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where Jarrett once served as chairwoman and where one of Obama’s best friends, Eric Whitaker, is currently executive vice president.

● When Jarrett pushed Obama’s proposal to require church-run hospitals and universities to give their employees free contraception, chief of staff Bill Daley secretly arranged an Oval Office meeting between the president and New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops, who argued that the policy violated the principle of religious freedom. When Jarrett learned about Daley’s end-run, she went to the president and vented her anger. After that, Daley realized his days were numbered and resigned.

● Like Obama, Jarrett has a fundamental lack of respect for businessmen. In a typical blunder that sent shudders through the business community, she dismissed Tom Donohue, the highly regarded CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as irrelevant, saying that she preferred to deal with “real” industry executives.

● Jarrett’s lack of judgment in domestic affairs has been matched by her inexperience in international and military affairs. She urged the president not to send in a Navy SEAL team to get Osama bin Laden — the one time that we know of when Obama failed to take Jarrett’s advice.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/22/who-is-valerie-jarrett/#ixzz1wZ824DWa ^[18]

Jarrett is one of three Senior Advisors to President Obama.^[19] She holds the retitled position of Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement,^[19] managing the White House Office of Public Engagement, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, Office of Urban Affairs, and Chairs the White House Council on Women and Girls, and White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic, and Youth Sport.^[20] She said that the 2011 report Women in America which the administration produced for the Council on Women and Girls would be used to guide policy-making.^[21]

The New York Times said that while there is no evidence of political favoritism, that Gregory Nelson, an aide to Jarrett, met with lobbyists from Solyndra at least three times. The company's failure could cost taxpayers more than a half-billion dollars.^[22]

Relationship with President Obama[link]

Obama speaks with Jarrett in a West Wing corridor.

In 1991, as Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor Richard Daley, she interviewed Michelle Robinson for an opening in the mayor’s office, and offered her the job immediately.^[23] Michelle Robinson asked for time to think and also asked Jarrett to meet her fiancé, Barack Obama. The three ended up meeting for dinner. After the dinner, Michelle took the job with the mayor's office, and Valerie Jarrett reportedly took the couple under her wing and “introduced them to a wealthier and better-connected Chicago than their own,” and taking Michelle with her when she left the mayor's office to head Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development.^[24]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Valerie Jarrett

• Valerie Jarrett at Whitehouse.gov
• Valerie Jarrett at WhoRunsGov at The Washington Post
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Valerie Jarrett on Charlie Rose
• Valerie Jarrett collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about Valerie Jarrett in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Valerie Jarrett at the Notable Names Database
• Obama's keeper: Valerie Jarrett, The Independent, 10 August 2009

v t e Assistant to the President for Public Liaison Special Counsel to the President, Special Assistant to the President, Assistant to the President for Public Liaison, Assistant to the President for Public Outreach, Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs Charles Colson · William J. Baroody, Jr. · Midge Costanza · Anne Wexler · Elizabeth Dole · Faith Whittlesey · Linda Chavez · Mari Maseng · Rebecca Range · Bobbie Kilberg · Cecile B. Kremer · Alexis Herman · Maria Echaveste · Minyon Moore · Mary Beth Cahill · Lezlee Westine · Rhonda Keenum · Julie E. Cram · Valerie Jarrett

Michelle Malkin
At the RightOnline Summit in Dallas, Texas (2008)
Born	Michelle Marie Maglalang (1970-10-20) October 20, 1970 (age 41) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Residence	Colorado Springs, Colorado
Ethnicity	Filipino
Citizenship	American
Alma mater	Oberlin College - (B.A., 1992)
Occupation	Author, syndicated columnist, television personality and blogger
Religion	Roman Catholic[1]
Spouse	Jesse D. Malkin (1993–present)
Children	2
Website
Michelle Malkin

Michelle Malkin (née Maglalang; born October 20, 1970) is an American conservative blogger, political commentator and author.^[2][3] Her weekly syndicated column appears in a number of newspapers and websites.^[2] She is a Fox News Channel contributor and has been a guest on MSNBC, C-SPAN, and national radio programs. Malkin has written four books published by Regnery Publishing.

Early life[link]

Malkin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Philippine citizens Rafaela (née Perez) – a homemaker and teacher – and Apolo DeCastro Maglalang, who was then a physician-in-training.^[1] Several months prior to Malkin's birth, her parents had immigrated to the United States on an employer-sponsored visa.^[4] After her father finished his medical training, the family moved^[5] to Absecon, New Jersey. Malkin has a younger brother.^[6] She has described her parents as Reagan Republicans who were "not incredibly politically active."^[1]

Malkin, a Roman Catholic,^[1][7] attended Holy Spirit Roman Catholic High School, where she edited the school newspaper and aspired to become a concert pianist.^[1] Following her graduation in 1988, she enrolled at Oberlin College.^[1] Malkin originally planned to pursue a bachelor's degree in music, but changed her major to English.^[1] During her college years, she worked as a press inserter, tax preparation aide, and network news librarian.^[8] While attending Oberlin, Malkin was hired to write for an independent, right-of-center student newspaper by fellow student Jesse Dylan Malkin. Her first article for the paper heavily criticized Oberlin's affirmative action program and received a "hugely negative response" from other students on campus.^[1] She graduated in 1992^[9] and later described her alma mater as "radically left-wing."^[1][10]

Career[link]

Malkin began her journalism career at the Los Angeles Daily News, working as a columnist from 1992 to 1994. In 1995, she worked in Washington, D.C., as a journalism fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute,^[11] a free-market, anti-government regulation, libertarian think tank.^[12][13] In 1996, she moved to Seattle, Washington, where she wrote columns for The Seattle Times. Malkin became a nationally-syndicated columnist with Creators Syndicate in 1999.^[14][15]

For many years, Malkin was a frequent commentator for Fox News Channel and a regular guest host of The O'Reilly Factor. In 2007, she announced that she would not return to The O'Reilly Factor, claiming that Fox News had mishandled a dispute over derogatory statements made about her by Geraldo Rivera in a Boston Globe interview.^[16] Since 2007, she has concentrated on her writing, blogging and public speaking, although she still appears on television occasionally, especially with Sean Hannity on Fox News and Fox & Friends once a week. In December 2009, Malkin began writing for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

In August 2004, following claims by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that presidential candidate John Kerry had exaggerated his record during the Vietnam War, Malkin appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews and stated that there were "legitimate questions" over whether Kerry's wounds were "self-inflicted." When host Chris Matthews asked her eleven times whether she meant Kerry had shot himself on purpose, she dodged the question,^[17] but ultimately said that other soldiers had made this claim.^{[citation needed]} Malkin criticized Matthews and the MSNBC staff in her blog the following day.^[17] Georgia Senator Zell Miller accused Matthews of "browbeating" Malkin.^[18]

Books[link]

Malkin has written four books, all published by Regnery Publishing.

• Her first book, Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces (2002)^[19] was a New York Times bestseller.

• In 2004, she wrote In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror,^[20] defending the U.S. government's internment of 112,000 Japanese Americans in prison camps during World War II, and arguing that the same procedures could be used on Arab- and Muslim-Americans today. The book engendered harsh criticism from several Asian American civil rights organizations.^[21] The "Historians' Committee for Fairness", a group of professors, condemned the book for not having undergone peer review and argued that its central thesis is false.^[22][23] As a result of the controversy, the Hawaii-based newspaper MidWeek dropped her column in August 2004;^[24] The Virginian-Pilot called her "an Asian Ann Coulter" and dropped her column in November 2004.^[25] Malkin responded: "I'm not Asian, I'm American," and described the comparison to Coulter as, "a compliment."^[26] Critics of Malkin's theory attempted to get the Manzanar National Historic Site, (a former relocation and internment camp), to ban her book from its' store, but failed.^[27]

• Malkin's third book, Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild, was released in October 2005.^[28]

• Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies, Malkin's fourth book, was released in July 2009^[29] and was a The New York Times Non-Fiction, Hardcover Best Seller for six weeks.^[30][31][32] Malkin said she hoped the book would, "shatter completely the myths of hope and change in the new politics in Washington," described the Obama administration as run by, "influence peddlers, power brokers and very wealthy people," and called it, "one of the most corrupt administrations in recent memory."^[33] She later discussed chapter two of the book, "Bitter Half: First Crony Michelle Obama," on NBC's Today show. She described Michelle Obama as, "steeped in the politics of the Daley machine," and as having based her professional career on nepotism and "old white boy" network connections.^[34]

Blogging[link]

MichelleMalkin.com[link]

In June 2004 she launched a political blog, MichelleMalkin.com.^[35] A 2007 memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee described Malkin as one of the five "best-read national conservative bloggers",^[36] and Technorati ranks MichelleMalkin.com consistently in its "Top 100 blogs of all types".^[37] The people search company PeekYou claims Malkin has the largest digital footprint of any political blogger.^[38]

After Malkin criticized hip hop artist Akon for "degrading women" in a Vent episode, Akon's record label, Universal Music Group, forced YouTube to remove the video by issuing a DMCA takedown notice,^[39] but decided to retract this notice^[40] after the Electronic Frontier Foundation joined Malkin and Hot Air in contesting the removal as a misuse of copyright law.^[41]

In an interview with BusinessWeek magazine in July 2007, Malkin said, "We’re doing what few other blogs can do. We serve up terabytes of bandwidth... I'm shelling out for gold-plated servers. That's expensive, and we want to be able to withstand huge traffic surges."^[42]

She continued to contribute frequently to MichelleMalkin.com, and in June 2007, she revamped it, moving it to a larger server on WordPress.^[43] With the new redesign, she re-enabled comments on her blog, which she said she had disallowed after February 2005 due to a high level of obscene and racist comments.^[44] Subscribed readers could once again post comments, although registration for the comments is rarely open. Malkin states her policy thus: "I may allow as much or as little opportunity for registration as I choose, in my absolute discretion, and I may close particular comment threads."^[45]

Jamil Hussein[link]

Malkin was one of several bloggers who questioned the credibility and even the existence of Iraqi police Captain "Jamil Hussein" who had been used as a source by the Associated Press in over 60 stories about the Iraq war. The controversy started in November 2006 when the AP reported that six Iraqis had been burned alive as they left a mosque and that four mosques had been destroyed, citing Hussein as one of its sources. In January 2007, Malkin visited Baghdad, and stated, "the Iraqi Ministry of Interior says disputed Associated Press source Jamil Hussein does exist. At least one story he told the AP just doesn’t check out: The Sunni mosques that as Hussein claimed and AP reported as 'destroyed,' 'torched' and 'burned and blown up' are all still standing. So the credibility of every AP story relying on Jamil Hussein remains dubious."^[46] Malkin has issued a correction for her denial of Capt. Hussein's existence.^[47]

Students Against War controversy[link]

In April 2006, Students Against War (SAW), a campus group at University of California, Santa Cruz, staged a protest against the presence of military recruiters on campus, and sent out a press release containing contact details (names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses) of three student leaders for use by reporters. Malkin included these contact details in a blog column entitled "Seditious Santa Cruz vs. America".^[48] Malkin claimed the contact information was originally taken from SAW's own website, but that later SAW had removed it and had "wiped" the "cached version".^[49] The students asked Malkin to remove the contact details from her blog, but Malkin reposted them several times^[50] writing in her blog: "I am leaving it up. If you are contacting them, I do not condone death threats or foul language. As for SAW, my message is this: You are responsible for your individual actions. Other individuals are responsible for theirs. Grow up and take responsibility."^[48]

SAW remarked: "Due to the continued irresponsible actions of some bloggers, members of the group have received numerous death threats and anti-Semitic comments through phone calls and emails."^[51] A blog war ensued. Malkin claimed that she received hostile e-mails^[52] then her private home address, phone number, photos of her neighborhood and maps to her house were published on several websites. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported receiving an email from Malkin saying that this forced her to remove one of her children from school and move her family.^[53]

Another controversy involving private addresses began on July 1, 2006, when Malkin and other bloggers commented on a New York Times Travel section article that had featured the town where Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld owned summer homes. The article included a picture of Rumsfeld's long tree-lined driveway that showed a birdhouse and small portion of the housefront.^[54] Malkin declared that this story was part of "a concerted, organized effort to dig up and publicize the private home information of prominent conservatives in the media and blogosphere to intimidate them." In fact, the photos of Rumsfeld's house were taken with Rumsfeld's permission.^[55]

[edit] Hot Air

On April 24, 2006, Hot Air, a "conservative Internet broadcast network" went into operation, with Malkin as founder/CEO.^[56] She intended the blog to provide "content and analysis you can't get anywhere else on a daily basis–both on the blog and in our original video features".^[57] Her staffers included 'Allahpundit' and Bryan Preston, though the latter was replaced by Ed Morrissey on February 25, 2008.^[58] In February 2010, Hotair.com was bought by Salem Communications and is no longer administered by Malkin.^[59]

Viewpoints[link]

Citizenship[link]

Malkin believes that the custom of granting automatic U.S. citizenship at birth to children of foreign tourists, to temporary, foreign workers and to "anchor babies" delivered by illegal aliens on American soil undermines the integrity of citizenship. She argues that the custom of blanket birthright citizenship is supported neither by the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment nor by American legal precedent.^[60]

Immigration enforcement[link]

Malkin also opposes sanctuary cities, in which local authorities do not enforce all national immigration laws or coordinate with agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Following the August 2007 execution-style murder of three college students in Newark, New Jersey, she repeated her criticisms of politicians' posture toward sanctuary cities. In particular, she criticized former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's proposal for a tamper-proof identification card with this comment:

"What Rudy-come-lately fails to comprehend is that there are already multiple alien tracking databases mandated by federal law that have yet to be fully implemented, integrated and used. The reason they don’t work is because open-borders interests have sabotaged them by restricting funding for them, objecting to them on civil liberties grounds, and pushing local and state governments to forbid public employees from checking them to verify citizenship status. Ring a bell, Rudy?"^[61]

She supports coordination with federal authorities through the use of Section 287(g) of the IIRIRA to investigate, detain, and arrest aliens on civil and criminal grounds.^[62][63] Malkin supports the detention and deportation of some immigrants, regardless of legal status, on national security grounds.^[21]

Unemployment benefits[link]

During an appearance as a news analyst on the roundtable segment of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos on August 2, 2009, she explained why she opposed another 13-week extension of unemployment benefits: "If you put enough government cheese in front of people they are going to just keep eating it and kicking the can down the road... people will just delay getting a job until the three weeks before the benefits run out."^[64]

Women's issues[link]

In a February 2012 column, Malkin called the "War on Women" a false narrative, arguing rather that, "It's the progressive left in this country that has viciously and systematically slimed female conservatives for their beliefs."^[65]

Personal life[link]

At Oberlin, she began dating Jesse Malkin.^[66] Jesse was granted a Rhodes Scholarship to begin study at Oxford University in 1991.^[67] They married in 1993, and have two children. Jesse worked as an associate policy analyst and economist focusing on healthcare issues for the RAND Corporation.^[68] In 2004, Malkin reported on her website that Jesse had left a "lucrative health-care consulting job" to be a stay-at-home dad.^[66][69]

In 2006, Malkin gave a lecture at her alma mater, Oberlin College, discussing racism, among other topics.^[70] She refuted allegations that she had been insensitive to the "plight of minorities" by listing several racial epithets that had been used against her, and by relating a lesson she learned from her mother for which she is "eternally grateful."^[70] When in kindergarten, Malkin went home in tears one day because her classmates had called her a racist name. But, her mother comforted her with the words, "....Everyone has prejudice."^[70]

The Malkin family lived in North Bethesda, Maryland,^[71] but relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado^[72] in November 2008.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michelle Malkin

• Malkin's official site
• Michelle Malkin Features at Creators Syndicate
• Hot Air
• Archive of Malkin's columns at Townhall.com
• "Columnist isn't smiling over swastika in rally photo". Rocky Mountain News. February 19, 2009.
• "Michelle Malkin: Grace, gratitude, and G-d". Jewish World Review. November 24, 2004.
• Archive of Malkin's columns at Jewish World Review
• Appearances on C-SPAN
  • Booknotes interview with Malkin on Invasion, December 8, 2002.
  • In Depth interview with Malkin, January 3, 2010
• Works by or about Michelle Malkin in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity at King of Prussia Mall (2004)
Born	(1961-12-30) December 30, 1961 (age 50) New York City, New York
Nationality	American
Occupation	Radio host/television host, political commentator, author
Employer	Citadel Broadcasting, Fox News Channel
Known for	Political commentary
Religion	Roman Catholic
Spouse	Jill Rhodes Hannity
Parents	Hugh J. and Lillian F. Hannity
Website
Hannity.com

Sean Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is a television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Hannity also hosts a cable news show, Hannity, on Fox News Channel. Hannity has written three New York Times–bestselling books:^[1][2] Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism, Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism, and Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda.

Personal background[link]

Hannity is the son of Hugh J. and Lillian F. Hannity. His paternal and maternal grandparents immigrated from Ireland. He has two sisters. He grew up in Franklin Square, New York ^[3] and attended Sacred Heart Seminary in Hempstead, New York during his middle school years and St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary high school in Uniondale, New York.^[4] Hannity dropped out of New York University and Adelphi University.^[5][6]

Professional life[link]

Hannity in a radio and television interview with Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney

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;^[7] Regarding his first show, Hannity has said, "I wasn't good at it. I was terrible."^[8] Hannity's weekly show on KCSB was canceled after less than a year by station managers. This was after two shows featuring the book The AIDS Coverup: The Real and Alarming Facts about AIDS by Gene Antonio; among other remarks made during the broadcast, Hannity told a lesbian caller "I feel sorry for your child".^[9] The station later 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.^[10]

After leaving KCSB, Hannity placed an ad in radio publications presenting himself as "the most talked about college radio host in America." Radio station WVNN in Athens, Alabama (part of the Huntsville market) then hired him to be the afternoon talk show host.^[7] 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 co-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").^[11] Alan Colmes was then 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 Christmas week. 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.^[12]

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."^[13]

Television[link]

Hannity was a co-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 presented the conservative point of view with Colmes providing the liberal viewpoint. Critics argued that the show highlighted Hannity's views and those of conservative guests over Colmes' and those of liberal guests.^[14]

Hannity 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 stated that if the Catholic Church were to excommunicate him over the issue, he would join Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church.^[17]

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

In November 2008, Colmes announced his departure from Hannity & Colmes. After the show's final broadcast on January 9, 2009, Hannity took over the time slot with his own new show, Hannity, which has a format similar to Hannity's America

Radio[link]

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.^[18] As of spring 2008, the program is heard by over 13.25 million listeners a week.^[19] In 2004, Hannity signed a $25 million five-year contract extension with ABC Radio (now Citadel Media) to continue the show through 2009.^[20] The program was made available via Armed Forces Radio Network in 2006.^[21] In June 2007, ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Communications^[22] and in the summer of 2008, Hannity was signed for a $100 million five-year contract.^[23]

In January 2007, Clear Channel Communications signed a groupwide three-year extension with Hannity on over 80 stations.^[24] 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.

The opening theme music for the Sean Hannity Show is "Independence Day" by Martina McBride followed by "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor.

Books[link]

Hannity is the author of three books. The first two, Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism and Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism, were published through ReganBooks. Both of these books reached the nonfiction New York Times bestseller list, the second of which stayed there for five weeks.^[25][26] Hannity has stated that he is too busy to write many books,^[25] and dictated a lot of his own two books into a tape recorder while driving in to do his radio show.^[27]

Hannity wrote his third book, Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda, which was released by HarperCollins on March 30, 2010.^[28] The book became Hannity's third New York Times Bestseller.^[29]

Freedom Concerts[link]

Since 2003, Hannity has hosted country music–themed "Freedom Concerts" to raise money for charity.^[30] According to WHIO, more than $9 million has been raised by the concerts and by WHIO listeners as of 2009.^[31]

Artists such as Charlie Daniels,^[32][33] Billy Ray Cyrus,^[32] Hank Williams, Jr., Ted Nugent, Montgomery Gentry,^[33][34] Martina McBride, Buddy Jewell, LeAnn Rimes, Lee Greenwood,^[32][33] Michael W. Smith,^[32] and Avalon^[33] have headlined at these concerts. Between musical sets, the concerts include short intermissions with politically conservative speakers such as Oliver North, G. Gordon Liddy, Mark Levin, Newt Gingrich, Jon Voight, and Rudy Giuliani. Headlining names for the 2010 concert series were Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels, and Michael W. Smith.^[31][35]

Awards and honors[link]

• Hannity received a Marconi Award in 2003 and 2007 as the Network Syndicated Personality of the Year from the National Association of Broadcasters.^[36]
• In 2009, Talkers Magazine listed Hannity as #2 on their list of the 100 most important radio talk show hosts in America.^[37] The same magazine gave Hannity their Freedom of Speech Award in 2003.^[38]
• In 2005, Jerry Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University, awarded Hannity an honorary degree.^[39]
• Radio and Records magazine has honored Hannity with the National Talk Show Host of the Year Award for three consecutive years.^[40]

Bibliography[link]

• Hannity, Sean (2002). Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism, ReganBooks, ISBN 0-06-051455-8.
• Hannity, Sean (2004). Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism, ReganBooks, ISBN 0-06-058251-0.
• Hannity, Sean (2010). Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda, Harper Paperbacks, ISBN 0-06-200305-4.

References[link]