A great American: defending Sean Hannity

To be honest, I had never even heard of Deborah Schlussel before today.  In fairness, I'm quite sure she has never heard of me either.  But I couldn't sit by while she launched unfounded and ill-researched attacks on the philanthropic work of Sean Hannity.  I won't reproduce her slander, but you can read it for yourself here.  The gist of her post is that Sean's Freedom Concert fundraisers are a scam and that Sean bilks the non-proft Freedom Alliance for expenses and private jet flights around the country.

John Tabin at The American Spectator has risen to Sean's defense:

Regarding this morning's item on Sean Hannity's Freedom Concerts, it seems that much of Debbie Schlussel's report was very misleading. A knowledgeable source tells me: "The reason so little has been paid out from the charity is that the vast majority of the kids the money WILL go to are right now not in college. When they turn 18 they will get the money for college. But because these are the children of Iraq and Afghanistan vets, their kids are mostly not of college age yet."

As for Hannity's private plane, my source says "he pays for it himself," and adds that "he personally has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to the Freedom Alliance."

The Freedom Alliance issued a response to the allegations on its website here.  It states, in part:

1. The blog posting accuses our friend Sean Hannity of personally benefiting from Freedom Alliance. This is FALSE. Freedom Alliance has never provided planes, hotels, cars, limos, or anything else to Sean. Sean gets nothing from Freedom Alliance except our gratitude for his personal generosity and for all he has done to help the troops and our organization. We have never had to ask Sean for anything, he always generously offers his help before we have a chance to ask him. But to be clear Sean pays for all his own transportation, hotels, and all related expenses for himself and his family and friends and staff, which over the years has added up to tens of thousands of dollars. He does not use any Freedom Alliance Funds or Concert funds in any way, period.

2. Sean Hannity has contributed $100,000 to the Wounded Warriors Foundation, over $200,000 to the Freedom Alliance, and over tens of thousands of dollars to other military charities and individuals. We only make this information public because of the outrageous slander against him. Sean has no management or operational involvement in, or control over, Freedom Alliance. He has been a selfless patriot in his efforts to raise funds for the education of children of armed services personnel.

The letter goes on to discredit Schlussel's accusations point by point.  Read the whole thing.