The Radio Equalizer: Brian Maloney

12 September 2007

Sean Hannity Freedom Concert Reaction, Sen Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Freedom Concert A Roaring Success, Libs Angry







With as many as 15,000 thrilled fans attending, Sean Hannity's sixth annual Freedom Concert could only be considered a roaring success.

Featuring Newt Gingrich, Ann Coulter, Oliver North, Mark Levin, country superstars Montgomery Gentry, Oscar winner Jon Voight and others, the turnout represents a "mission accomplished" for the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, which will receive a donation from the event.

As an added plus, a second mission was accomplished: it has infuriated the left. One key reason: the presence of US Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT). More on that in a moment.


First, National Review Online Editor Kathryn Jean Lopez has provided these particularly astute observations regarding the concert's true impact:


I’ll admit I’m writing this piece in part because I’m jealous. To hear participants talk about the Hannity Freedom Concerts in vague terms, it sounds a bit like a religious experience.

“Phenomenal,” Tom Kilgannon, president of Freedom Alliance (founded by Oliver North), tells me. The Freedom Concerts are “the best nights of my life,” Sean Hannity raves to his radio audience. An “extraordinarily happy and uplifting event,” Newt Gingrich said on Hannity’s radio show, en route to the fifth and last concert of the summer, at the Great Adventure theme park in Jackson, N.J.

On the same show, Oscar-winner Jon Voight cried while thanking Hannity for the service he has done our nation, via these events.

You start to wonder whether they’re not passing out some Hannitization Kool-Aid at the concerts.

But dismissing the Hannity Freedom Concerts, now in their fifth year, as a right-wing event would be a mistake. And it would be to miss out on an opportunity to be a part of something great.


The concerts raise money for the Freedom Alliance Scholarships, which, according to the Freedom Alliance, “honor[ ] the bravery and dedication exhibited by Americans in our Armed Forces who have sacrificed life or limb defending our country by providing educational scholarships to their children. In the last 20 years, over 15,000 service members have given their lives defending our country. More than 3,400 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Guardsmen have been killed in the war in Iraq, leaving behind approximately 2,000 children.”

Voight’s emotional tribute was one Hannity very quickly, emphatically, and humbly dismissed. How — he must have been thinking — can someone accept thanks for serving America, while in the presence of such heroes and patriots? The concerts tend to be full of veterans, families of the fallen, and families of currently active servicemen.

But in truth, Hannity is making a huge difference by lending his name, time, energy, and talents to the concert series.

As Kilgannon tells National Review Online: “Sean is a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform. He is an extraordinary person who is using his God-given gifts to really help the families of those who serve.”


To your Radio Equalizer, these events demonstrate that supposedly downbeat and dejected conservatives are in fact still organized and enthusiastic about the future. Don't we need to see that kind of image more often?


From the left, meanwhile, reaction was even more negative than could be expected, with "progressive" sites and their chattering comment posters slamming the concert. In particular, the presence of Lieberman seemed to truly rattle their cages.

From Think Progress:


Lieberman Decries ‘Terrible, Partisan, Political Sniping,’ Then Rocks Out With Hannity, Coulter


On Fox News this morning, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) used a moment of silence commemorating 9/11 to decry the “terrible, partisan political sniping” that he says ruined the “unity that we felt after September 11″:

Let me just say in response to the moment of silence we just were part of, that that unity that we felt after September 11, we have to find a way to get it back because we’ve descended into terrible, partisan political sniping.


Lieberman’s exhaltation that “we have to find a way to get” America’s post-9/11 unity “back” is undermined by his plans for later this evening, when he mingles with some of the most divisive personalities in America today at Sean Hannity’s “Freedom Concert.”

Attending the concert along with the Connecticut Senator are some of the guiltiest culprits of the “terrible, partisan political sniping” that Lieberman professes to decry: Ann Coulter, Oliver North, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, and Hannity himself.


And from Think Progress commenters:


Joe’s a well-meaning dufus, who hangs out with right wing hate mongers, praying for another attack.

Comment by kcussllorT — September 11, 2007 @ 1:31 pm


i don’t doubt that the neokkkons want their blind goosestepping back. sorry Joe, your ilk will be more concerned about jail time in the future than anything else.

Comment by rasta — September 11, 2007 @ 1:33 pm


KY Jelly: You should be ashamed of the wingtards, spreading hate like manure all over America.

Comment by Therightiswrong — September 11, 2007 @ 1:35 pm


Fox network is not the place to talk about ‘unity’ non partisan ,and sniping.
Lieberrman is a joke when he goes to Fox wondering and qustioning about issues like unity, political sniping that has ruined the country ..etc..etc.

That’s what Fox do all day…being partisan on all issues. What is Lieberman doing going there, chatting with Hannity and Coulter who mastered the art of division and political sniping.

Comment by tarazan — September 11, 2007 @ 1:37 pm


And, at the Huffington Post, their coverage resulted in even more delightful comments:


Giuliani and Lieberman making a Coulter sandwich?

Thanks for the image. Now I've got to go boil up a kettle of bleach and soak my brain all day.

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DOESN'T THIS F--KING SAY IT ALL.

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Giuliani, Lieberman To Commemorate 9/11 With Ann Coulter

My thoughts exactly! I'm as into a little MMF as the next guy, but that's the LAST image I needed bouncing round my brain this afternoon.
Log in | Parent | posted 06:01 pm on 09/11/2007

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Why does any one care to hear from the scanky, blond bigot concerning 9/11 or anything, unless she starts being a human being. She is herself.
Log in | posted 10:42 am on 09/11/2007

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A "freedom" concert from the king of glittering generalities. A lot of patriot poseurs pretending to be principled.
Log in | posted 10:47 am on 09/11/2007


Hey, with reactions like that, Hannity & Co must be doing something right.


FOR Boston- area talk radio updates, see our other site. New: the uphill battle to hold Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA) accountable for his asinine 9-11 remarks

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11 Comments:

  • "...the turnout represents a "mission accomplished" for the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, which will receive a donation from the event..."

    What percentage of the proceeds will the recipients of this charity actually receive?

    By Blogger hashfanatic, at 12 September, 2007 16:59  

  • How occupied were the stalls in the men's room, I heard it sounded like a bathhouse on Christopher St. with all the slurping and sucking sounds.

    i heard, people made thousands of $$$ selling Oxycotin in the parking lot. " who needs oxy man?' Imagine a Right wing "shake down street" like at a dead concert. "get your heady Limbaugh tie dye", "heady Hannity burgers", you get the joke if you have been to a dead show.

    Seriously, the "freedom concert" sounds like one of the lamest events of all time. If 15,000 attended, Im sure 80% of the tickets were comped by WABC 770AM.

    Filling a freedom concert with 10,000 complimentary tickets, will not get the radical, Anti-Americn right the house or the senate back, nor will it help Mr. Face on the bottle of poison Guiliani win in 2008.

    Maloney, by far this was the most pathetic posting of all time.

    Did they sing "all we are saying give war a chance"? A record breaking amount of chicken-hawks in one area, ohhhh wait that happened in NYC in 2004 at the RNC klan meeting

    and how much went to charity?
    1 cent on every $500?

    By Blogger Minister of Propaganda, at 12 September, 2007 17:14  

  • A little more from the National Review Online Article:

    If there is one thing that bothers me about the Freedom Concerts, it’s that they weren’t the concert event of the summer. With 10-15,000 attending, according to Freedom Alliance’s count, they are no small thing — but next summer, I’d like them to get something like the same p.r. that Al Gore’s overhyped, underwatched Live Earth did.

    The operative word here is "Concerts." There were five of these shows and, unless the author is just a poor writer, that is the total audience for five shows.

    So, being generous, NRO is telling us that Sean's draw was little more than 2,000-3,000 per show? In major markets?

    Either NRO should make sure that their writers write more clearly or they have eloquently illustrated the waning interest in everything that Hannity represents.

    By Blogger Dave Carroll, at 12 September, 2007 18:56  

  • MOP you are an idiot.

    Atleast you are making money for brian. Sucker

    By Blogger pf1, at 13 September, 2007 01:22  

  • Anyone else curious as to what percentage of the proceeds these "kids" will actually receive?

    By Blogger hashfanatic, at 13 September, 2007 07:13  

  • More than the libs would contribute

    By Blogger pf1, at 13 September, 2007 08:15  

  • Bzzzz! Wrong answer...

    By Blogger hashfanatic, at 13 September, 2007 08:56  

  • Found it!

    http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/6/6165/93743

    By Blogger hashfanatic, at 13 September, 2007 09:02  

  • So in essance Hash,$4 of each ticket went to Ollie North's group which in term gave a couple cents of each ticket to the military parents. A couple hundered a concert, the same amount you can raise on the street with a "Support the troops "drive. The concert is mainly advertised as a charity event to the troops, when financially, the charity is an after thought. What would you expcet from slime like Ollie North anyway..

    Remember this right wingers?

    The Kerry subcomitiee did not report that U.S. government officials ran drugs, but rather, that Mr. North, then on the National Security Council staff at the White House, and other senior officials created a privatized contra network that attracted drug traffickers looking for cover for their operations, then turned a blind eye to repeated reports of drug smuggling related to the contras, and actively worked with known drug smugglers such as Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to assist the contras. The report cited former Drug Enforcement Administration head John Lawn testifying that Mr. North himself had prematurely leaked a DEA undercover operation, jeopardizing agents' lives, for political advantage in an upcoming Congressional vote on aid to the contras



    Walk down memory lane, a scam concert giving money to a criminal and using the troops to furthur their profit driven Anti-American agenda.




    Later, you 3 right wing hacks and my friend HAsh.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 13 September, 2007 12:39  

  • Sure, we all remember Oliver North. And who can possibly forget his secretary Fawn Hall!

    On July 20, 1990, with the help of the ACLU, North's convictions were vacated.

    The Supreme Court declined to review the case, and Judge Gesell dismissed all charges against North on September 16, 1991, after hearings on the immunity issue, on the motion of the independent counsel.

    This pissed off the wacko left to no end. They are still whining about it today.

    By Blogger The Benson Report, at 13 September, 2007 13:06  

  • "On July 20, 1990, with the help of the ACLU, North's convictions were vacated."

    Simpson got off, too.

    Do you believe he is an innocent man?

    What a joke this friggin' concert must have been. On this supposedly holy day of mourning and observance, a few thousand white trash journey on a cold, damp day, to a cheesy amusement park that they'd never have the guts to enter if the usual savages were present, to listen to washed-up, has-been performers (vs artists), and try to envelop a culture as foreign to them, hush puppies and NASCAR, as any of the foreign lands they purport to want to see destroyed.

    To see a punk from Long Island receive accolades.

    To see Joe (shudders in revulsion) Lieberman.

    And Rudy.

    So they can tell their neighbors back home in the neighborhood that they did it for charity.

    One friggin' percent of total.

    While the other prostitutes lined up for the lions' share.

    May God merit that we should never again bear witness to such a spectacle in our lifetimes.

    They CHOSE to go.

    By Blogger hashfanatic, at 15 September, 2007 01:34  

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