In physiology, body water is the water content of an animal body that is contained in the tissues, the blood, the bones and elsewhere. The percentages of body water contained in various fluid compartments add up to total body water (TBW). This water makes up a significant fraction of the human body, both by weight and by volume. Ensuring the right amount of body water is part of fluid balance, an aspect of homeostasis.
Location
By weight, the average human adult male is approximately [1]60% water and the average adult female is approximately 55%. There can be considerable variation in body water percentage based on a number of factors like age, health, water intake, weight, and sex. In a large study of adults of all ages and both sexes, the adult human body averaged ~65% water. However, this varied substantially by age, sex, and adiposity (amount of fat in body composition). The figure for water fraction by weight in this sample was found to be 58 ±8% water for males and 48 ±6% for females.[2] The body water constitutes as much as 93% of the body weight of a newborn infant, whereas some obese people are as little as 15% water by weight.[3] This is due to how fat tissue does not retain water as well as lean tissue. These statistical averages will vary with factors such as type of population, age of people sampled, number of people sampled, and methodology. So there is not, and cannot be, a figure that is exactly the same for all people, for this or any other physiological measure.
Most of animal body water is contained in various body fluids. These include intracellular fluid; extracellular fluid; plasma; interstitial fluid; and transcellular fluid.[4]  Water is also contained inside organs, in gastrointestinal, cerebrospinal, peritoneal, and ocular fluids.  Adipose tissue contains about 10% of water, while muscle tissue contains about 75%.[5][6]
In Netter's Atlas of Human Physiology, body water is broken down into the following compartments:[4]
Intracellular fluid (2/3 of body water) is fluid contained within cells. In a 72-kg body containing 40 litres of fluid, about 25 litres is intracellular,[7] which amounts to 62.5%. Jackson's texts states 70% of body fluid is intracellular.[8]
Extracellular fluid (1/3 of body water) is fluid contained in areas outside of cells. For a 40-litre body, about 15 litres is extracellular,[7] which amounts to 37.5%.
Plasma (1/5 of extracellular fluid). Of this 15 litres of extracellular fluid, plasma volume averages 3 litres,[7] or 20%.
Interstitial fluid (4/5 of extracellular fluid)
Transcellular fluid (a.k.a. "third space," normally ignored in calculations) contained inside organs, such as the gastrointestinal, cerebrospinal, peritoneal, and ocular fluids.
Measurement
Dilution and equilibration
Total body water can be determined using Flowing afterglow mass spectrometry measurement of deuterium abundance in breath samples from individuals.  A known dose of deuterated water (Heavy water, D2O) is ingested and allowed to equilibrate within the body water. The FA-MS instrument then measures the deuterium-to-hydrogen (D:H) ratio in the exhaled breath water vapour.  The total body water is then accurately measured from the increase in breath deuterium content in relation to the volume of D2O ingested.
Different substances can be used to measure different fluid compartments:[9]
total body water: tritiated water or heavy water.
extracellular fluid: inulin
blood plasma: Evans blue
Intracellular fluid may then be estimated by subtracting extracellular fluid from total body water.
Bioelectrical impedance analysis
Another method of determining total body water percentage (TBW%) is via Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA). In the traditional BIA method, a person lies on a cot and spot electrodes are placed on the hands and bare feet. Electrolyte gel is applied first, and then a weak current of frequency 50kHz is introduced. This AC waveform allows the creation of a current inside the body via the very capacitive skin without causing a DC flow or burns, and limited in the ~20mA range current for safety.[10]
BIA has emerged as a promising technique because of its simplicity, low cost, high reproducibility and noninvasiveness. BIA prediction equations can be either generalized or population-specific, allowing this method to be potentially very accurate. Selecting the appropriate equation is important to determining the quality of the results.
For clinical purposes, scientists are developing a multi-frequency BIA method that may further improve the method's ability to predict a person's hydration level. New segmental BIA equipment that uses more electrodes may lead to more precise measurements of specific parts of the body.
Calculation
In humans, total body water can be estimated based on the premorbid (or ideal) body weight and correction factor.

T
B
W
=
w
e
i
g
h
t
∗
C

{\displaystyle TBW=weight*C}

.
C is a coefficient for the expected percentage of weight made up of free water. For adult, non-elderly males, C = 0.6. For adult elderly males, malnourished males, or females, C = 0.5. For adult elderly or malnourished females C = 0.45. A total body water deficit (TBWD) can then be approximated by the following formula:

T
B
W
D
=
T
B
W
∗
(
1
−
[
N
a
]
t

/

[
N
a
]
m
)

{\displaystyle TBWD=TBW*(1-[Na]t/[Na]m)}

Where [Na]t = target sodium concentration (usually 140 mEq/L), and [Na]m = measured sodium concentration.
The resultant value is the approximate volume of free water required to correct a hypernatremic state. In practice, the value rarely approximates the actual amount of free water required to correct a deficit due to insensible losses, urinary output, and differences in water distribution among patients. [11]
Functions
Water in the animal body performs a number of functions: as a solvent for transportation of nutrients; as a medium for excretion; a means for heat control; as a lubricant for joints; and for shock absorption.[5]
Changes
The usual way of adding water to a body is by drinking.  Water also enters the body with foods, especially those rich in water, such as plants, raw meat, and fish.
The amount of this water that is retained in animals is affected by several factors. Water amounts vary with the age of the animal. The older the vertebrate animal, the higher its relative bone mass and the lower its body water content.
In diseased states, where body water is affected, the fluid compartment or compartments that have changed can give clues to the nature of the problem, or problems. Body water is regulated by hormones, including anti-diuretic hormone, aldosterone and atrial natriuretic peptide.
Loss of water

Volume contraction is a decrease in body fluid volume, with or without a concomitant loss of osmolytes. The loss of the body water component of body fluid is specifically termed dehydration.[12]
Sodium loss approximately correlates with fluid loss from extracellular fluid, since sodium has a much higher concentration in extracelluliar fluid (ECF) than intracellular fluid (ICF). In contrast, K+ has a much higher concentration in ICF than ECF, and therefore its loss rather correlates with fluid loss from ICF, since K+ loss from ECF causes the K+ in ICF to diffuse out of the cells, dragging water with it by osmosis.

Further reading

 at the US National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
 at the US National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)


Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini (Italian:[ni(k)koˈlɔ ppaɡaˈniːni](listen); 27 October 1782–27 May 1840) was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin Op. 1 are among the best known of his compositions, and have served as an inspiration for many prominent composers.
Biography

Childhood
Niccolò Paganini was born in Genoa, then capital of the Republic of Genoa, the third of the six children of Antonio and Teresa (née Bocciardo) Paganini. Paganini's father was an unsuccessful trader, but he managed to supplement his income through playing music on the mandolin. At the age of five, Paganini started learning the mandolin from his father, and moved to the violin by the age of seven. His musical talents were quickly recognized, earning him numerous scholarships for violin lessons. The young Paganini studied under various local violinists, including Giovanni Servetto and Giacomo Costa, but his progress quickly outpaced their abilities. Paganini and his father then traveled to Parma to seek further guidance from Alessandro Rolla. But upon listening to Paganini's playing, Rolla immediately referred him to his own teacher, Ferdinando Paer and, later, Paer's own teacher, Gasparo Ghiretti. Though Paganini did not stay long with Paer or Ghiretti, the two had considerable influence on his composition style.
Early career
The French invaded northern Italy in March 1796, and Genoa was not spared. The Paganinis sought refuge in their country property in Romairone, near Bolzaneto. It was in this period that Paganini is thought to have developed his relationship with the guitar.[1] He mastered the guitar, but preferred to play it in exclusively intimate, rather than public concerts.[2] He later described the guitar as his "constant companion" on his concert tours. By 1800, Paganini and his father traveled to Livorno, where Paganini played in concerts and his father resumed his maritime work. In 1801, the 18-year-old Paganini was appointed first violin of the Republic of Lucca, but a substantial portion of his income came from freelancing. His fame as a violinist was matched only by his reputation as a gambler and womanizer.
In 1805, Lucca was annexed by Napoleonic France, and the region was ceded to Napoleon's sister, Elisa Baciocchi. Paganini became a violinist for the Baciocchi court, while giving private lessons to Elisa's husband, Felice. In 1807, Baciocchi became the Grand Duchess of Tuscany and her court was transferred to Florence. Paganini was part of the entourage, but, towards the end of 1809, he left Baciocchi to resume his freelance career.
Travelling virtuoso

For the next few years, Paganini returned to touring in the areas surrounding Parma and Genoa. Though he was very popular with the local audience, he was still not very well known in the rest of Europe. His first break came from an 1813 concert at La Scala in Milan. The concert was a great success. As a result, Paganini began to attract the attention of other prominent, though more conservative, musicians across Europe. His early encounters with Charles Philippe Lafont and Louis Spohr created intense rivalry. His concert activities, however, were still limited to Italy for the next few years.
In 1827, Pope Leo XII honoured Paganini with the Order of the Golden Spur.[3][4] His fame spread across Europe with a concert tour that started in Vienna in August 1828, stopping in every major European city in Germany, Poland, and Bohemia until February 1831 in Strasbourg. This was followed by tours in Paris and Britain. His technical ability and his willingness to display it received much critical acclaim. In addition to his own compositions, theme and variations being the most popular, Paganini also performed modified versions of works (primarily concertos) written by his early contemporaries, such as Rodolphe Kreutzer and Giovanni Battista Viotti.
Paganini's travels also brought him into contact with eminent guitar virtuosi of the day, including Ferdinando Carulli in Paris and Mauro Giuliani in Vienna.[5] But this experience did not inspire him to play public concerts with guitar, and even performances of his own guitar trios and quartets were private to the point of being behind closed doors.

Late career and health decline
Throughout his life, Paganini was no stranger to chronic illnesses. Although no definite medical proof exists, he was reputed to have been affected by Marfan syndrome[6][7] or Ehlers–Danlos syndrome.[8] In addition, his frequent concert schedule, as well as his extravagant lifestyle, took their toll on his health. He was diagnosed with syphilis as early as 1822, and his remedy, which included mercury and opium, came with serious physical and psychological side effects. In 1834, while still in Paris, he was treated for tuberculosis. Though his recovery was reasonably quick, after the illness his career was marred by frequent cancellations due to various health problems, from the common cold to depression, which lasted from days to months.
In September 1834, Paganini put an end to his concert career and returned to Genoa. Contrary to popular beliefs involving his wishing to keep his music and techniques secret, Paganini devoted his time to the publication of his compositions and violin methods. He accepted students, of whom two enjoyed moderate success: violinist Camillo Sivori and cellist Gaetano Ciandelli. Neither, however, considered Paganini helpful or inspirational. In 1835, Paganini returned to Parma, this time under the employ of Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, Napoleon's second wife. He was in charge of reorganizing her court orchestra. However, he eventually conflicted with the players and court, so his visions never saw completion. In Paris, he befriended the 11-year-old Polish virtuoso Apollinaire de Kontski, giving him some lessons and a signed testimonial. It was widely put about, falsely, that Paganini was so impressed with de Kontski's skills that he bequeathed him his violins and manuscripts.
Final years, death, and burial

In 1836, Paganini returned to Paris to set up a casino. Its immediate failure left him in financial ruin, and he auctioned off his personal effects, including his musical instruments, to recoup his losses. At Christmas of 1838, he left Paris for Marseilles and, after a brief stay, travelled to Nice where his condition worsened. In May 1840, the Bishop of Nice sent Paganini a local parish priest to perform the last rites. Paganini assumed the sacrament was premature, and refused.[3]
A week later, on 27 May 1840, Paganini died from internal hemorrhaging before a priest could be summoned. Because of this, and his widely rumored association with the devil, the Church denied his body a Catholic burial in Genoa. It took four years and an appeal to the Pope before the Church let his body be transported to Genoa, but it was still not buried. His body was finally buried in 1876, in a cemetery in Parma. In 1893, the Czech violinist František Ondříček persuaded Paganini's grandson, Attila, to allow a viewing of the violinist's body. After this episode, Paganini's body was finally reinterred in a new cemetery in Parma in 1896.
Personal and professional relationships
Though having no shortage of romantic conquests, Paganini was seriously involved with a singer named Antonia Bianchi from Como, whom he met in Milan in 1813. The two gave concerts together throughout Italy. They had a son, Achille Ciro Alessandro, born on 23 July 1825 in Palermo and baptized at San Bartolomeo's. They never legalized their union and it ended around April 1828 in Vienna. Paganini brought Achille on his European tours, and Achille later accompanied his father until the latter's death. He was instrumental in dealing with his father's burial, years after his death.
Throughout his career, Paganini also became close friends with composers Gioachino Rossini and Hector Berlioz. Rossini and Paganini met in Bologna in the summer of 1818. In January 1821, on his return from Naples, Paganini met Rossini again in Rome, just in time to become the substitute conductor for Rossini's opera Matilde di Shabran, upon the sudden death of the original conductor. Paganini's efforts earned gratitude from Rossini.
Paganini met Berlioz in Paris, and was a frequent correspondent as a penfriend. He commissioned a piece from the composer, but was not satisfied with the resultant four-movement piece for orchestra and viola obbligato Harold en Italie. He never performed it, and instead it was premiered a year later by violist Christian Urhan. He did however write his own Sonata per Gran Viola Op. 35 (with orchestra or guitar accompaniment). Despite his alleged lack of interest in Harold, Paganini often referred to Berlioz as the resurrection of Beethoven and, towards the end of his life, he gave large sums to the composer. They shared an active interest in the guitar, which they both played and used in compositions. Paganini gave Berlioz a guitar, which they both signed on its sound box.
Instruments

Paganini was in possession of a number of fine string instruments. More legendary than these were the circumstances under which he obtained (and lost) some of them. While Paganini was still a teenager in Livorno, a wealthy businessman named Livron lent him a violin, made by the master luthier Giuseppe Guarneri, for a concert. Livron was so impressed with Paganini's playing that he refused to take it back. This particular violin came to be known as Il Cannone Guarnerius.[9] On a later occasion in Parma, he won another valuable violin (also by Guarneri) after a difficult sight-reading challenge from a man named Pasini.

Other instruments associated with Paganini include the Antonio Amati 1600, the Nicolò Amati 1657, the Paganini-Desaint 1680 Stradivari, the Guarneri-filius Andrea 1706, the Le Brun 1712 Stradivari, the Vuillaume c.1720 Bergonzi, the Hubay 1726 Stradivari, and the ComteCozio di Salabue 1727 violins; the Countess of Flanders 1582 daSalò-diBertolotti, and the Mendelssohn 1731 Stradivari violas; the Piatti 1700 Goffriller, the Stanlein 1707 Stradivari, and the Ladenburg 1736 Stradivari cellos; and the Grobert of Mirecourt 1820 (guitar).[10][11] Four of these instruments were played by the Tokyo String Quartet.
Of his guitars, there is little evidence remaining of his various choices of instrument. The aforementioned guitar that he gave to Berlioz is a French instrument made by one Grobert of Mirecourt. The luthier made his instrument in the style of René Lacote, a more well-known Paris-based guitar-maker. It is preserved and on display in the Musée de la Musique in Paris.
Of the guitars he owned through his life, there was an instrument by Gennaro Fabricatore that he had refused to sell even in his periods of financial stress, and was among the instruments in his possession at the time of his death. There is an unsubstantiated rumour that  he also played Stauffer guitars; he may certainly have come across these in his meetings with Giuliani in Vienna.
Compositions

Paganini composed his own works to play exclusively in his concerts, all of which profoundly influenced the evolution of violin technique. His 24 Caprices were likely composed in the period between 1805 and 1809, while he was in the service of the Baciocchi court. Also during this period, he composed the majority of the solo pieces, duo-sonatas, trios and quartets for the guitar, either as a solo instrument or with strings. These chamber works may have been inspired by the publication, in Lucca, of the guitar quintets of Boccherini. Many of his variations, including Le Streghe, The Carnival of Venice, and Nel cor più non mi sento, were composed, or at least first performed, before his European concert tour.
Generally speaking, Paganini's compositions were technically imaginative, and the timbre of the instrument was greatly expanded as a result of these works. Sounds of different musical instruments and animals were often imitated. One such composition was titled Il Fandango Spanolo (The Spanish Dance), which featured a series of humorous imitations of farm animals. Even more outrageous was a solo piece Duetto Amoroso, in which the sighs and groans of lovers were intimately depicted on the violin. There survives a manuscript of the Duetto, which has been recorded. The existence of the Fandango is known only through concert posters.
However, his works were criticized for lacking characteristics of true polyphonism, as pointed out by Eugène Ysaÿe.[12] Yehudi Menuhin, on the other hand, suggested that this might have been the result of his reliance on the guitar (in lieu of the piano) as an aid in composition.[9] The orchestral parts for his concertos were often polite, unadventurous, and clearly supportive of the soloist. In this, his style is consistent with that of other Italian composers such as Giovanni Paisiello, Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti, who were influenced by the guitar-song milieu of Naples during this period.[13]
Paganini was also the inspiration of many prominent composers. Both "La Campanella" and the Aminor Caprice (No.24) have been an object of interest for a number of composers. Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Boris Blacher, Andrew Lloyd Webber, George Rochberg and Witold Lutosławski, among others, wrote well-known variations on these themes.
Violin technique

The Israeli violinist Ivry Gitlis once referred to Paganini as a phenomenon rather than a development. Though some of the techniques frequently employed by Paganini were already present, most accomplished violinists of the time focused on intonation and bowing techniques. Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713) was considered a pioneer in transforming the violin from an ensemble instrument to a solo instrument. In the meantime, the polyphonic capability of the violin was firmly established through the Sonatas and Partitas BWV 1001–1006 of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). Other notable violinists included Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) and Giuseppe Tartini (1692–1770), who, in their compositions, reflected the increasing technical and musical demands on the violinist. Although the role of the violin in music drastically changed through this period, progress in violin technique was steady but slow. Techniques requiring agility of the fingers and the bow were still considered unorthodox and discouraged by the established community of violinists.
Much of Paganini's playing (and his violin composition) was influenced by two violinists, Pietro Locatelli (1693–1746) and August Duranowski (Auguste Frédéric Durand) (1770–1834). During Paganini's study in Parma, he came across the 24 Caprices of Locatelli (entitled L'arte di nuova modulazione – Capricci enigmatici or The art of the new style – the enigmatic caprices). Published in the 1730s, they were shunned by the musical authorities for their technical innovations, and were forgotten by the musical community at large. Around the same time, Durand, a former student of Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755–1824), became a celebrated violinist. He was renowned for his use of harmonics and the left hand pizzicato in his performance. Paganini was impressed by Durand's innovations and showmanship, which later also became the hallmarks of the young violin virtuoso. Paganini was instrumental in the revival and popularization of these violinistic techniques, which are now incorporated into regular compositions.
Another aspect of Paganini's violin techniques concerned his flexibility. He had exceptionally long fingers and was capable of playing three octaves across four strings in a hand span, an extraordinary feat even by today's standards. His seemingly unnatural ability may have been a result of Marfan syndrome.[14]
Inspired works

Notable works inspired by compositions of Paganini include:
Jason Becker – Caprice No. 5
Mike Campese – "Paganini", arrangement of Caprice No. 16 and various works.
Julián Carrillo – "6 Sonatas dedicadas a Paganini" for solo violin.
Alfredo Casella – Paganiniana Op. 65 (1942)
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco – Capriccio Diabolico for classical guitar is a homage to Paganini, and quotes "La campanella"
Frédéric Chopin – Souvenir de Paganini for solo piano (1829; published posthumously)
Ivry Gitlis – Cadenza for the 1st movement of Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 2 Op. 7 "La Campanella" (1967)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel – Fantasia for piano in C major "Souvenir de Paganini", WoO 8, S. 190.
Fritz Kreisler – Paganini Concerto in D major (recomposed paraphrase of the first movement of the Op. 6 Concerto) for violin and orchestra
Franz Lehár – Paganini, a fictionalized operetta about Paganini (1925)
Franz Liszt – Six Grandes Études de Paganini, S. 141 for solo piano (1851) (virtuoso arrangements of 5 caprices, including the 24th, and La Campanella from Violin Concerto No.2)
Yngwie Malmsteen – Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 4 is used in the opening of "Far Beyond the Sun" in Trial by Fire. Caprice No. 24 was used as a part of the solo in the song "Prophet of Doom" from the album War to End All Wars.
Nathan Milstein – Paganiniana, a set of variations based on the theme from Paganini's 24th Caprice in which the variations are based on motifs from other caprices
Cesare Pugni – "Le Carnaval de Venise" pas de deux (aka "Satanella" pas de deux). Based on airs from Paganini's Il carnevale di Venezia, op. 10. Originally choreographed by Marius Petipa as a concert piece for himself and the ballerina Amalia Ferraris. First performed at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre of Saint Petersburg on 24February[O.S. 12 February]1859. The pas de deux was later added to the ballet Satanella in 1866 where it acquired its more well-known title, the "Satanella" pas de deux.
George Rochberg – Caprice Variations (1970), 50 variations for solo violin
Michael Romeo – "Concerto in B Minor" is an adaptation of Allegro Maestoso (first movement) of Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 7.
Uli Jon Roth – "Scherzo alla Paganini" and "Paganini Paraphrase"
Robert Schumann – Studies after Caprices by Paganini, Op. 3 (1832; piano); 6 Concert Studies on Caprices by Paganini, Op. 10 (1833, piano). A movement from his piano work Carnaval (Op. 9) is named for Paganini.
Johann Sedlatzek (19th-century Polish flautist known as "The Paganini of the Flute") – "Souvenir à Paganini" Grand Variations on "The Carnival of Venice"
Marilyn Shrude – Renewing the Myth for alto saxophone and piano
Steve Vai – "Eugene's Trick Bag" from the movie Crossroads. Based on Caprice Nr. 5
Philip Wilby – Paganini Variations for both wind band and brass band
August Wilhelmj – Paganini Concerto in D major (recomposed paraphrase of the first movement of the Op. 6 Concerto) for violin and orchestra
Eugène Ysaÿe – Paganini Variations for violin and piano
The Caprice No. 24 in A minor, Op. 1, (Tema con variazioni) has been the basis of works by many other composers. Notable examples include Brahms's Variations on a Theme of Paganini and Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
Memorials

The Paganini Competition (Premio Paganini) is an international violin competition created in 1954 in his home city of Genoa and named in his honour.
In 1972 the State of Italy purchased a large collection of Niccolò Paganini manuscripts from the W. Heyer Library of Cologne. They are housed at the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome.[15]
In 1982 the city of Genoa commissioned a thematic catalogue of music by Paganini, edited by Maria Rosa Moretti and Anna Sorrento, hence the abbreviation "MS" assigned to his catalogued works.[16]
A minor planet 2859 Paganini discovered in 1978 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Chernykh is named after him.[17]
Fiorini daguerreotype
Although no photographs of Paganini are known to exist, in 1900 Italian violin maker Giuseppe Fiorini forged the now famous fake daguerreotype of the celebrated violinist.[18] So well in fact, that even the great classical author and conversationalist Arthur M. Abell was led to believe it to be true, reprinting the image in the 22 January 1901 issue of the Musical Courier.[19]
Dramatic portrayals

Paganini has been portrayed by a number of actors in film and television productions, including Stewart Granger in the 1946 biographical portrait The Magic Bow, Roxy Roth in A Song to Remember (1945), Klaus Kinski in Kinski Paganini (1989) and David Garrett in The Devil's Violinist (2013).
In the Soviet 1982 miniseries Niccolo Paganini the musician is portrayed by the Armenian actor Vladimir Msryan. The series focuses on Paganini's relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. Another Soviet actor, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, plays Paganini's fictionalized arch-rival, an insidious Jesuit official. The information in the series is generally spurious and it also plays to some of the myths and legends rampant during the musician's lifetime. One memorable scene shows Paganini's adversaries sabotaging his violin before a high-profile performance, causing all strings but one to break during the concert. An undeterred Paganini continues to perform on three, two, and finally on a single string. In actuality, Paganini himself occasionally broke strings during his performances on purpose so he could further display his virtuosity.[20] He did this by carefully filing notches into them to weaken them, so that they would break when in use.
In Don Nigro's satirical comedy play Paganini (1995), the great violinist seeks vainly for his salvation, claiming that he unknowingly sold his soul to the Devil. "Variation upon variation," he cries at one point, "but which variation leads to salvation and which to damnation? Music is a question for which there is no answer." Paganini is portrayed as having killed three of his lovers and sinking repeatedly into poverty, prison, and drink. Each time he is "rescued" by the Devil who appears in different guises, returning Paganini's violin so he can continue playing. In the end, Paganini's salvation—administered by a god-like Clockmaker—turns out to be imprisonment in a large bottle where he plays his music for the amusement of the public through all eternity. "Do not pity him, my dear," the Clockmaker tells Antonia, one of Paganini's murdered wives. "He is alone with the answer for which there is no question. The saved and the damned are the same."

Bibliography
Angelo Boscassi, Il Violino di Niccolò Paganini conservato nel Palazzo Municipale di Genova, Fratelli Pagano, 1909
Leopold Auer, Violin playing as I teach it, Stokes, 1921 (reprint Dover, 1980)
Alberto Bachmann, An Encyclopedia of the violin, Da Capo, 1925
Jeffrey Pulver, Paganini: The Romantic Virtuoso, Herbert Joseph, 1936 (reprint Da Capo, 1970)
Geraldine I. C. de Courcy, Paganini the Genoese, University of Oklahoma, 1957 (reprint Da Capo, 1977)
Yehudi Menuhin and William Primrose, Violin and viola, MacDonald and Jane's, 1976
Yehudi Menuhin and Curtis W. Davis, The Music of man, Methuen, 1979
John Sugden, Paganini, Omnibus Press, 1980
Philippe Borer, The Twenty-Four Caprices of Niccolò Paganini. Their significance for the history of violin playing and the music of the Romantic era, Zurich, 1997
Bruno Monsaingeon,The Art of violin, NVC Arts (on film), 2001
Masters of the Nineteenth Century Guitar, Mel Bay Publications
Philippe Borer, "Some reflections on Paganini's violin strings", in: Proceedings of the international conference Restoration and Conservation of the Guarneri del Gesù known as Cannone, Genoa, 2004
Danilo Prefumo, Niccolò Paganini, L'Epos, 2006, ISBN978-88-8302-302-6
Tatiana Berford, Николо Паганини: стилевые истоки творчества [=The stylistic sources of Niccolò Paganini's work], Saint Petersburg, Novikova, 2010

 at the Encyclopædia Britannica
Free scores by Main Page at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
 – Niccolò Paganini

The Mutopia Project has compositions by
 (Royal Academy of Music)
Images
 (Gallica)


Heart arrhythmia (also known as arrhythmia, dysrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat) is a group of conditions in which the heartbeat is irregular, too fast, or too slow.[2] A heart rate that is too fast – above 100 beats per minute in adults – is called tachycardia and a heart rate that is too slow – below 60 beats per minute – is called bradycardia.[2] Many types of arrhythmia have no symptoms.[1] When symptoms are present these may include palpitations or feeling a pause between heartbeats.[1] In more serious cases there may be lightheadedness, passing out, shortness of breath, or chest pain.[1] While most types of arrhythmia are not serious, some predispose a person to complications such as stroke or heart failure.[2][3] Others may result in cardiac arrest.[3]

There are four main types of arrhythmia: extra beats, supraventricular tachycardias, ventricular arrhythmias, and bradyarrhythmias.[3] Extra beats include premature atrial contractions, premature ventricular contractions, and premature junctional contractions.[3] Supraventricular tachycardias include atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia.[3] Ventricular arrhythmias include ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia.[3][7] Arrhythmias are due to problems with the electrical conduction system of the heart.[2] Arrhythmias may occur in children; however, the normal range for the heart rate is different and depends on age.[3] A number of tests can help with diagnosis including an electrocardiogram (ECG) and Holter monitor.[5]

Most arrhythmias can be effectively treated.[2] Treatments may include medications, medical procedures such as inserting a pacemaker, and surgery.[6] Medications for a fast heart rate may include beta blockers or agents that attempt to restore a normal heart rhythm such as procainamide.[6] This latter group may have more significant side effects especially if taken for a long period of time.[6] Pacemakers are often used for slow heart rates.[6] Those with an irregular heartbeat are often treated with blood thinners to reduce the risk of complications.[6] Those who have severe symptoms from an arrhythmia may receive urgent treatment with a controlled electric shock in the form of cardioversion or defibrillation.[6]

Arrhythmia affects millions of people.[4] In Europe and North America, as of 2014, atrial fibrillation affects about 2% to 3% of the population.[8] Atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter resulted in 112,000 deaths in 2013, up from 29,000 in 1990.[9] Sudden cardiac death is the cause of about half of deaths due to cardiovascular disease or about 15% of all deaths globally.[10] About 80% of sudden cardiac death is the result of ventricular arrhythmias.[10] Arrhythmias may occur at any age but are more common among older people.[4]

Classification
Arrhythmia may be classified by rate (tachycardia, bradycardia), mechanism (automaticity, re-entry, triggered) or duration (isolated premature beats; couplets; runs, that is 3 or more beats;  non-sustained= less than 30 seconds or sustained= over 30 seconds).
It is also appropriate to classify by site of origin:
Atrial
Sinus bradycardia
Premature atrial contractions (PACs)
Wandering atrial pacemaker
Atrial tachycardia
Multifocal atrial tachycardia
Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT)
Atrial flutter
Atrial fibrillation (Afib)
Junctional arrhythmias
AV nodal reentrant tachycardia
Junctional rhythm
Junctional tachycardia
Premature junctional contraction
Ventricular
Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), sometimes called ventricular extra beats (VEBs)
Premature ventricular beats occurring after every normal beat are termed "ventricular bigeminy"
PVCs that occur at intervals of 2 normal beats to 1 PVC are termed "PVCs in trigeminy"
Three premature ventricular grouped together is termed a "run of PVCs" in general, runs lasting longer than three beats with an increased heart rate are referred to as ventricular tachycardia
Accelerated idioventricular rhythm
Monomorphic ventricular tachycardia
Polymorphic ventricular tachycardia
Ventricular fibrillation
Torsades de pointes
Heart blocks
These are also known as AV blocks, because the vast majority of them arise from pathology at the atrioventricular node.  They are the most common causes of bradycardia:
First degree heart block, which manifests as PR prolongation
Second degree heart block
Type 1 Second degree heart block, also known as Mobitz I or Wenckebach
Type 2 Second degree heart block, also known as Mobitz II
Third degree heart block, also known as complete heart block.
First, second and third degree block also can occur at the level of the sinoatrial junction. This is referred to as sinoatrial block typically manifesting with various degrees and patterns of sinus bradycardia.
Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome
Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS), is a term used as part of sudden unexpected death syndrome to describe sudden death due to cardiac arrest brought on by an arrhythmia in the presence or absence of any structural heart disease on autopsy. The most common cause of sudden death in the US is coronary artery disease specifically because of poor oxygenation of the heart muscle, that is myocardial ischemia or a heart attack [11] Approximately 180,000 to 250,000 people die suddenly of this cause every year in the US. SADS may occur from other causes. There are many inherited conditions and heart diseases that can affect young people which can subsequently cause sudden death without advance symptoms.[12]
Causes of SADS in young people include viral myocarditis, long QT syndrome, Brugada syndrome, Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia.[13][14]
Signs and symptoms
The term cardiac arrhythmia covers a very large number of very different conditions.
The most common symptom of an arrhythmia is an awareness of an abnormal heartbeat, called palpitations. These may be infrequent, frequent, or continuous. Some of these arrhythmias are harmless (though distracting for patients) but some of them predispose to adverse outcomes.
Some arrhythmias do not cause symptoms, and are not associated with increased mortality.  However, some asymptomatic arrhythmias are associated with adverse events.  Examples include a higher risk of blood clotting within the heart and a higher risk of insufficient blood being transported to the heart because of weak heartbeat. Other increased risks are of embolisation and stroke, heart failure and sudden cardiac death.
If an arrhythmia results in a heartbeat that is too fast, too slow or too weak to supply the body's needs, this manifests as a lower blood pressure and may cause lightheadedness or dizziness, or syncope (fainting).
Some types of arrhythmia result in cardiac arrest, or sudden death.
Medical assessment of the abnormality using an electrocardiogram is one way to diagnose and assess the risk of any given arrhythmia.
Differential diagnosis
Normal electrical activity

Each heart beat originates as an electrical impulse from a small area of tissue in the right atrium of the heart called the sinus node or Sino-atrial node or SA node. The impulse initially causes both atria to contract, then activates the atrioventricular (or AV) node, which is normally the only electrical connection between the atria and the ventricles (main pumping chambers).  The impulse then spreads through both ventricles via the Bundle of His and the Purkinje fibres causing a synchronised contraction of the heart muscle and, thus, the pulse.
In adults the normal resting heart rate ranges from 60 to 90 beats per minute. The resting heart rate in children is much faster. In athletes, however, the resting heart rate can be as slow as 40 beats per minute, and be considered as normal.
The term sinus arrhythmia [15] refers to a normal phenomenon of alternating mild acceleration and slowing of the heart rate that occurs with breathing in and out respectively.  It is usually quite pronounced in children and steadily decreases with age. This can also be present during meditation breathing exercises that involve deep inhaling and breath holding patterns.[16]
Bradycardias

A slow rhythm (less than 60 beats/min) is labelled bradycardia. This may be caused by a slowed signal from the sinus node (sinus bradycardia), by a pause in the normal activity of the sinus node (sinus arrest), or by blocking of the electrical impulse on its way from the atria to the ventricles (AV block or heart block). Heart block comes in varying degrees and severity. It may be caused by reversible poisoning of the AV node (with drugs that impair conduction) or by irreversible damage to the node. Bradycardias may also be present in the normally functioning heart of endurance athletes or other well-conditioned persons. Bradycardia may also occur in some types of seizures.
Tachycardias
In adults and children over 15, resting heart rate faster than 100 beats per minute is labelled tachycardia.  Tachycardia may result in  palpitation; however, tachycardia is not necessarily an arrhythmia. Increased heart rate is a normal response to physical exercise or emotional stress.  This is mediated by the sympathetic nervous system on the sinus node and called sinus tachycardia.  Other conditions that increase sympathetic nervous system activity in the heart include ingested or injected substances, such as caffeine or amphetamines, and an overactive thyroid gland (hyperthyroidism) or anemia.
Tachycardia that is not sinus tachycardia usually results from the addition of abnormal impulses to the normal cardiac cycle.  Abnormal impulses can begin by one of three mechanisms: automaticity, re-entry or triggered activity.  A specialised form of re-entry which is both common and problematic is termed fibrillation.
Although the term "tachycardia" has been known for over 160 years, bases for the classification of arrhythmias are still being discussed.[17]
Heart defects
Congenital heart defects are structural or electrical pathway problems in the heart that are present at birth.  Anyone can be affected with this because overall health does not play a role in the problem.  Problems with the electrical pathway of the heart can cause very fast or even deadly arrhythmias.  Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome is due to an extra pathway in the heart that is made up of electrical muscle tissue.  This tissue allows the electrical impulse, which stimulates the heartbeat, to happen very rapidly.  Right ventricular outflow tract tachycardia is the most common type of ventricular tachycardia in otherwise healthy individuals.  This defect is due to an electrical node in the right ventricle just before the pulmonary artery.  When the node is stimulated, the patient will go into ventricular tachycardia, which does not allow the heart to fill with blood before beating again.  Long QT syndrome is another complex problem in the heart and has been labeled as an independent factor in mortality.    There are multiple methods of treatment for these including cardiac ablations, medication treatment, or lifestyle changes to have less stress and exercise.
Automaticity

Automaticity refers to a cardiac muscle cell firing off an impulse on its own.  All of the cells in the heart have the ability to initiate an action potential; however, only some of these cells are designed to routinely trigger heart beats.  These cells are found in the conduction system of the heart and include the SA node, AV node, Bundle of His and Purkinje fibers.  The sinoatrial node is a single specialized location in the atrium that has a higher automaticity (a faster pacemaker) than the rest of the heart and, therefore, is usually responsible for setting the heart rate and initiating each heart beat.
Any part of the heart that initiates an impulse without waiting for the sinoatrial node is called an ectopic focus and is, by definition, a pathological phenomenon. This may cause a single premature beat now and then, or, if the ectopic focus fires more often than the sinoatrial node, it can produce a sustained abnormal rhythm. Rhythms produced by an ectopic focus in the atria, or by the atrioventricular node, are the least dangerous dysrhythmias; but they can still produce a decrease in the heart's pumping efficiency, because the signal reaches the various parts of the heart muscle with different timing than usual and can be responsible for poorly coordinated contraction.
Conditions that increase automaticity include sympathetic nervous system stimulation and hypoxia. The resulting heart rhythm depends on where the first signal begins: If it is the sinoatrial node, the rhythm remains normal but rapid; if it is an ectopic focus, many types of dysrhythmia may ensue.
Re-entry
Re-entrant arrhythmias occur when an electrical impulse recurrently travels in a tight circle within the heart, rather than moving from one end of the heart to the other and then stopping.[18][19]
Every cardiac cell is able to transmit impulses of excitation in every direction but will do so only once within a short time. Normally, the action potential impulse will spread through the heart quickly enough that each cell will respond only once.  However, if there is some essential heterogeneity of refractory period or if conduction is abnormally slow in some areas (for example in heart damage) so the myocardial cells are unable to activate the fast sodium channel, part of the impulse will arrive late and potentially be treated as a new impulse. Depending on the timing, this can produce a sustained abnormal circuit rhythm.
As a sort of re-entry, vortices of excitation in the myocardium (autowave vortices) are considered to be the main mechanism of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias.[20] In particular, the autowave reverberator is common in the thin walls of the atria, sometimes resulting in atrial flutter. Re-entry is also responsible for most paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, and dangerous ventricular tachycardia. These types of re-entry circuits are different from WPW syndromes, which utilize abnormal conduction pathways.
Although omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil can be protective against arrhythmias, they can facilitate re-entrant arrhythmias.[21]
Fibrillation
When an entire chamber of the heart is involved in multiple micro-reentry circuits and is therefore quivering with chaotic electrical impulses, it is said to be in fibrillation.
Fibrillation can affect the atrium (atrial fibrillation) or the ventricle (ventricular fibrillation): ventricular fibrillation is imminently life-threatening.
Atrial fibrillation affects the upper chambers of the heart, known as the atria. Atrial fibrillation may be due to serious underlying medical conditions and should be evaluated by a physician. It is not typically a medical emergency.
Ventricular fibrillation occurs in the ventricles (lower chambers) of the heart; it is always a medical emergency. If left untreated, ventricular fibrillation (VF, or V-fib) can lead to death within minutes. When a heart goes into V-fib, effective pumping of the blood stops. V-fib is considered a form of cardiac arrest. An individual suffering from it will not survive unless cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation are provided immediately.
CPR can prolong the survival of the brain in the lack of a normal pulse, but defibrillation is the only intervention that can restore a healthy heart rhythm. Defibrillation is performed by applying an electric shock to the heart, which resets the cells, permitting a normal beat to re-establish itself.
Triggered beats
Triggered beats occur when problems at the level of the ion channels in individual heart cells result in abnormal propagation of electrical activity and can lead to sustained abnormal rhythm. They are relatively rare and can result from the action of anti-arrhythmic drugs. See early and delayed Afterdepolarizations.
Mechanism
Tachyarrhythmias are the result of spontaneous action potentials arise from cardiac muscle cells.[22]
Diagnostic approach
Cardiac arrhythmia are often first detected by simple but nonspecific means: auscultation of the heartbeat with a stethoscope, or feeling for peripheral pulses. These cannot usually diagnose specific arrhythmia but can give a general indication of the heart rate and whether it is regular or irregular. Not all the electrical impulses of the heart produce audible or palpable beats; in many cardiac arrhythmias, the premature or abnormal beats do not produce an effective pumping action and are experienced as "skipped" beats.
The simplest specific diagnostic test for assessment of heart rhythm is the electrocardiogram (abbreviated ECG or EKG). A Holter monitor is an EKG recorded over a 24-hour period, to detect arrhythmias that may happen briefly and unpredictably throughout the day.
A more advanced study of the heart's electrical activity can be performed to assess the source of the aberrant heart beats. This can be accomplished in an electrophysiology study, an endovascular procedure that uses a catheter to "listen" to the electrical activity from within the heart, additionally if the source of the arrhythmias is found, often the abnormal cells can be ablated and the arrhythmia can be permanently corrected. Transesophageal atrial stimulation (TAS) instead uses an electrode inserted through the esophagus to a part where the distance to the posterior wall of the left atrium is only approximately 5–6mm (remaining constant in people of different age and weight).[23] Transesophageal atrial stimulation can differentiate between atrial flutter, AV nodal reentrant tachycardia and orthodromic atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia.[24] It can also evaluate the risk in people with Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome, as well as terminate supraventricular tachycardia caused by re-entry.[24]
Management
The method of cardiac rhythm management depends firstly on whether the affected person is stable or unstable. Treatments may include physical maneuvers, medications, electricity conversion, or electro- or cryo-cautery.
In the United States, people admitted to the hospital with cardiac arrhythmia and conduction disorders with and without complications were admitted to the intensive care unit more than half the time in 2011.[25]
Physical maneuvers
A number of physical acts can increase parasympathetic nervous supply to the heart, resulting in blocking of electrical conduction through the AV node.  This can slow down or stop a number of arrhythmias that originate above or at the AV node (see main article: supraventricular tachycardias).  Parasympathetic nervous supply to the heart is via the vagus nerve, and these maneuvers are collectively known as vagal maneuvers.
Antiarrhythmic drugs

There are many classes of antiarrhythmic medications, with different mechanisms of action and many different individual drugs within these classes.  Although the goal of drug therapy is to prevent arrhythmia, nearly every anti arrhythmic drug has the potential to act as a pro-arrhythmic, and so must be carefully selected and used under medical supervision.
Other drugs
A number of other drugs can be useful in cardiac arrhythmias.
Several groups of drugs slow conduction through the heart, without actually preventing an arrhythmia.  These drugs can be used to "rate control" a fast rhythm and make it physically tolerable for the patient.
Some arrhythmias promote blood clotting within the heart, and increase risk of embolus and stroke.  Anticoagulant medications such as warfarin and heparins, and anti-platelet drugs such as aspirin can reduce the risk of clotting.
Electricity
Arrhythmias may also be treated electrically, by applying a shock across the heart— either externally to the chest wall, or internally to the heart via implanted electrodes.
Cardioversion is either achieved pharmacologically or via the application of a shock synchronised to the underlying heartbeat.  It is used for treatment of supraventricular tachycardias. In elective cardioversion, the recipient is usually sedated or lightly anesthetized for the procedure.
Defibrillation differs in that the shock is not synchronised.  It is needed for the chaotic rhythm of ventricular fibrillation and is also used for pulseless ventricular tachycardia. Often, more electricity is required for defibrillation than for cardioversion. In most defibrillation, the recipient has lost consciousness so there is no need for sedation.
Defibrillation or cardioversion may be accomplished by an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD).
Electrical treatment of arrhythmias also includes cardiac pacing. Temporary pacing may be necessary for reversible causes of very slow heartbeats, or bradycardia (for example, from drug overdose or myocardial infarction). A permanent pacemaker may be placed in situations where the bradycardia is not expected to recover.
Electrical cautery
Some cardiologists further sub-specialize into electrophysiology.  In specialized catheter laboratories, they use fine probes inserted through the blood vessels to map electrical activity from within the heart.  This allows abnormal areas of conduction to be located very accurately and subsequently destroyed by heat, cold, electrical, or laser probes in a process called catheter ablation.
This procedure may be completely curative for some forms of arrhythmia, but for others, the success rate remains disappointing. AV nodal reentrant tachycardia is often curable by ablating one of the pathways in the AV node (usually the slow pathway). Atrial fibrillation can also be treated, by performing a pulmonary vein isolation, but the results are less reliable.
Research
Arrhythmias due to medications have been reported since the 1920s with the use of quinine.[26] In the 1960s and 1970s problems with antihistamines and antipsychotics were discovered.[26] It was not until the 1980s that the underlying issue, QTc prolongation was determined.[26]

 at Curlie

What happens when your heart is in arrhythmia?


Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American talk show host and conservative political commentator. Hannity is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show. He also hosts a cable news show, Hannity, on Fox News.
He worked as a general contractor, and volunteer talk show host at UC Santa Barbara in 1989. He later joined WVNN in Athens, Alabama, and shortly afterward, WGST in Atlanta. In 1996, he was hired by Fox and was accompanied by Alan Colmes when he received his show Hannity & Colmes. Leaving WGST, he worked at WABC in New York until 2013, where he was on air full-time. Since 2014, he has worked at WOR. After Colmes announced his departure in January 2008, he merged his Hannity & Colmes show into Hannity.
Hannity has received several awards and honors, including an honorary degree from Liberty University. He has written three best-selling books: 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.
Hannity has promoted falsehoods and conspiracy theories, such as casting doubt on Barack Obama's birthplace, promoting conspiracy theories about the murder of Seth Rich, and reporting false stories about Hillary Clinton's health. He was an early supporter of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Since Trump's election, Hannity has often acted as a conduit for Trump's messaging, criticizing the media and attacking the special counsel inquiry. Some White House advisors have characterized Hannity as the "shadow" chief-of-staff.[4] According to Forbes, by 2018 Hannity had become one of the most-watched hosts in cable news and most-listened-to hosts in talk radio due to his close friendship and access to President Donald Trump.[5]
Early life and education
Sean Patrick Hannity was born in New York City, New York, the son of Lillian (Flynn) and Hugh Hannity.[6] Lillian worked as a stenographer and a corrections officer at a county jail, while Hugh was a family-court officer.[7] He is the youngest of four siblings.[7] All of his grandparents immigrated to the United States from Ireland. He grew up in Franklin Square, New York.[7]
Hannity 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.[8] He attended New York University, UC Santa Barbara, and Adelphi University, but did not graduate.[7][9][10] Hannity attended college for two years, dropping out due to financial issues.
Career

In 1982, he started a house-painting business and a few years later, worked as a building contractor in Santa Barbara, California.[11] He 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.[12] Regarding his first show, he said, "I wasn't good at it. I was terrible."[13]
Radio
Hannity's weekly show on KCSB was canceled after less than a year. This was after two shows in which gay and lesbian rights were discussed in what was considered to be a contentious manner. (See LGBT issues below.) The university board that governed the station later reversed its decision due to a campaign conducted on Hannity's behalf by the Santa Barbara chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued that the station had discriminated against Hannity's First Amendment rights. When the station refused to give him a public apology and more airtime, Hannity decided against returning to KCSB.[14][15]
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.[12] 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").[16] 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 was on WABC's afternoon time slot from January 1998.[17]
In their 2007 book Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America, conservative Cal Thomas and liberal Bob Beckel 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."[18] The WABC slot continued until the end of 2013. Since January 2014, Hannity has hosted the 3–6 p.m. time slot on WOR in New York City.[19]

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.[20] In 2004, Hannity signed a $25-million five-year contract extension with ABC Radio (now Citadel Media) to continue the show until 2009.[21] The program was made available via Armed Forces Radio Network in 2006.[22] In June 2007, ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Communications[23] and in the summer of 2008, Hannity was signed for a $100- million five-year contract.[24] As of March 2018, the program is heard by over 13.5 million listeners a week.[25]  Hannity was ranked No. 2 in Talker Magazine</i>'s 2017 Heavy Hundred[26] and was listed as No. 72 on Forbes' "Celebrity 100" list in 2013.[27]
In January 2007, Clear Channel Communications signed a groupwide three-year extension with Hannity on over 80 stations.[28] 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.
Hannity signed a long-term contract to remain with Premiere Networks in September 2013.[29]
At the beginning of 2014, Hannity signed contracts to air on several Salem Communications stations including WDTK Detroit, WIND Chicago, WWRC Washington, D.C., and KSKY Dallas.[30]
Television

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.
Hannity stated that if the Catholic Church were to excommunicate him over his support for contraception he would join Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church.[31]
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.
Books
Hannity is the author of three books. Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism was published in 2002, and Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism was published in 2004 through ReganBooks. Both of these books reached the nonfiction New York Times bestseller list, the second of which stayed there for five weeks.[32][33] Hannity has stated that he is too busy to write many books,[32] and dictated a lot of his own two books into a tape recorder while driving in to do his radio show.[34]
Hannity wrote his third book, Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama's Radical Agenda, which was released by HarperCollins in March 2010.[35] The book became Hannity's third New York Times Bestseller.[36]

Movies
Hannity executive produced and appeared in the 2017 film Let There Be Light, which also stars Kevin Sorbo.[37]
Freedom Concerts
From 2003 until 2010, Hannity hosted country music-themed "Freedom Concerts" to raise money for charity.[38] In 2010, conservative blogger Debbie Schlussel wrote that only a small percentage of the money raised by the concerts goes to the target charity, Freedom Alliance.[39] The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), also in 2010. THE FTC complaint alleges that Hannity was "falsely promoting that all concert proceeds would be donated to a scholarship fund for the children of those killed or wounded in war."[40] The complaint filed with the IRS claims that Freedom Alliance has violated its 501(c)3 charity status.[41][42] The concerts stopped around the same year.[43]
Real estate holdings
As of April 2018 Hannity owned at least 877 residential properties, which were bought at nearly $89 million. He purchased some of the homes with the help of loans from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).[44]
Political commentary, controversies, and criticism
Hannity has been criticized for promoting birtherism, among other conspiracy theories, and has disputed claims regarding voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election. He has also been criticized for being overly supportive of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Hannity has promoted the idea of a "deep state", which he describes as a "Shadow Government" – a network of government officials that is working to hinder the Trump administration.
According to The Washington Post, Hannity "repeatedly embraces storylines that prove to be inaccurate" and takes positions that change over time.[15] According to The New York Times, Hannity is "barreling headfirst into the murky territory between opinion and out-and-out conspiracy theorism."[7] Hannity often promotes conspiracy theories without explicitly endorsing them, unlike Alex Jones; The New York Times wrote that this "has the effect of nourishing the more wild-eyed beliefs of his fans while providing Hannity a degree of plausible deniability."[7]
During the Bush years, Hannity "loyally supported the president's policies."[15] During the Obama administration, Hannity "leaned more heavily on stories he believed were being given short shrift by the 'liberal media' — stories about whereObama was born, and who deserved blame for the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya."[15] In 2017, The Washington Post wrote that "what Hannity has stood for — at least for the past couple of years — is Trump."[15]
Birtherism
Though he said that he believed that President Barack Obama was born in the United States, Hannity brought up the issue of whether Obama was born in the United States and repeatedly called on Obama to release his birth certificate.[45][46] Hannity also defended and promoted those who questioned Obama's citizenship of the United States, such as Donald Trump. Hannity invited Trump to his show at the same time that Trump was a leader in the birther movement; during an interview with Hannity, Trump said that Obama "could have easily have come from Kenya, or someplace."[7] To which Hannity responded, "The issue could go away in a minute. Just show the certificate."[7] After Obama in 2008 produced what the state of Hawaii certified as a legitimate birth certificate, Hannity kept calling on Obama to release his birth certificate, asking, if there was a birth certificate, why did he not "just produce it and we move on?"[47] In October 2016, Hannity offered to purchase a one-way ticket to Kenya for Obama, harking back to the controversy.[48]
2016 presidential campaign
Candidacy of Donald Trump

Hannity is known for his pro-Trump coverage.[7][15][49] According to The Washington Post, "Hannity's comeback coincided with his early, eager embrace of his fellow New Yorker... Trump attacked the Gold Star father, and Hannity stood by him. Trump went after a federal judge of Mexican descent, and Hannity backed him. Even after the Access Hollywood tape emerged of Trump making lewd comments about inappropriate sexual behaviour towards women, Hannity defended him: "King David had 500 concubines, for crying out loud."[50] After the inauguration, the first interview the new president gave to a cable news channel went to Hannity."[15] Hannity also defended the Trump administration's false claim that Trump's inauguration crowd was the biggest ever.[15]
Hannity has been criticized as being overly favorable to the candidacy of Donald Trump and granting Trump more airtime than other presidential candidates during the 2016 primaries. Hannity, for instance, let Trump promote the false claim that Rafael Cruz, father of Trump's rival presidential candidate Ted Cruz, was involved in the John F. Kennedy assassination.[15] During interviews, Hannity "frequently cites areas where he agrees with Trump, or where he thinks Trump was right about something, then asks him to expand on it", and "often ignores or defends Trump from criticism," according to a CNN report.[51]
Tensions between Cruz and Hannity appeared to reach a boiling point during a contentious April 2016 radio interview, during which Cruz implied Hannity was a "hard-core Donald Trump supporter" and Hannity responded by accusing Cruz of "throw[ing] this in my face" every time he asked a "legitimate question".[52] Jim Rutenberg reported in August 2016 that Hannity is "not only Mr. Trump's biggest media booster; he also veers into the role of adviser," citing sources who said Hannity spent months offering suggestions to Trump and his campaign on strategy and messaging. Hannity responded to the report by saying, "I'm not hiding the fact that I want Donald Trump to be the next President of the United States. ...I never claimed to be a journalist."[53]  (In an article published in December 2017, Hannity said "I'm a journalist. But I'm an advocacy journalist, or an opinion journalist."[7]) Hannity has feuded with several conservatives who oppose Trump, including National Review's Jonah Goldberg,[54][55] Wall Street Journal foreign affairs columnist Bret Stephens,[56] and National Review editor Rich Lowry.[57]
Conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton
During the 2016 presidential election, Hannity periodically promoted conspiracy theories regarding Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.[58][59][60][61] Hannity repeatedly claimed that Clinton had very serious medical problems and that the media was covering them up.[15][58][62][63] He misrepresented photos of Clinton to give the impression that she had secret medical problems.[58][60] He shared a photo from the fringe news site Gateway Pundit and falsely claimed that it showed her Secret Service agent holding a diazepam pen intended to treat seizures, when he in fact was holding a small flashlight.[58] He booked doctors on his show to discuss Clinton's health; although these people had never personally examined Clinton, they made alarmist statements about her state of health which turned out to be false.[58][60] At one point, Hannity promoted an unsubstantiated report that Clinton was drunk at a rally; at another point, he suggested that Clinton was drunk and that her campaign needed to "sober her up".[64]
In October 2016, Hannity claimed that WikiLeaks has revealed that "everything that conspiracy theorists have said over the years" about Clinton is true.[65]
Murder of Seth Rich conspiracy theories
In May 2017, Hannity became a prominent promoter of the conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party had a DNC staffer killed.[66][67][68][69][70][15] Shortly afterward, he faced backlash from both left- and right-wing sources and lost several advertisers, including Crowne Plaza Hotels, Cars.com, Leesa Mattress, USAA, Peloton and Casper Sleep deciding to pull their marketing from his program on Fox News.[71][72][73] However, USAA decided to return to the show shortly after following a negative outcry against its decision to pull out.[74] Conservative magazine National Review compared the story to a flat earth video, called it a "disgrace" that Hannity and other conspiracy theorists were hyping the story, and called for them to stop.[75]
In March 2018, Seth Rich's parents filed a lawsuit against Fox News for pushing conspiracy theories about their son's death. The suit alleges that the network "intentionally exploited" the tragedy for political purposes.[76]
Claims about election fraud
Hannity came under criticism during the 2016 presidential election for false claims about election rigging during interviews. Hannity responded to this by citing Mitt Romney's failure in 2012 to obtain any votes in 59 of 1,687 Philadelphia voting districts as proof of election rigging. However, Factcheck.org and PolitiFact found that it was not unusual at all for this to occur, as those districts are heavily African-American. Philadelphia elections inspector Ryan Godfrey also refuted Hannity's claim.[77][78]
WikiLeaks
In 2010, Sean Hannity said that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was waging a "war" on the United States, and that Wikileaks put American lives in "jeopardy" and "danger" around the world. He also criticized the Obama administration for failing to apprehend Assange.[79][80] In 2016, after Wikileaks published leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee, Hannity praised Assange for showing "how corrupt, dishonest and phony our government is".[80][81] He told Assange in a September 2016 interview, "I do hope you get free one day. I wish you the best."[82] In May 2017, Hannity made an offer to Assange to guest host his Fox News TV show.[83]
In February 2017, Hannity retweeted a WikiLeaks tweet linking to an article by Gateway Pundit, claiming that John McCain was a "globalist war criminal". McCain's spokeswoman called Hannity out on it, asking him to "correct the record." Hannity later deleted the tweet.[84]
Relationship with Donald Trump and Michael Cohen
Hannity developed a close relationship with Trump during the election and has become even closer during his presidency. They speak on the phone multiple times a week, discussing Hannity's show, the special counsel investigation, even evaluating White House staff.[85][86] In 2017, Trump was reported by the Los Angeles Times to often call Hannity after his nightly Fox program.[87] Hannity shares what The Economist calls "Mr Trump's love of conspiracy theories and hatred of snooty elites".[88] They speak so often that one Trump adviser has said that Hannity "basically has a desk in the place."[85] On the air, Hannity echoes Trump's attacks on the media and Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[89] Trump sometimes quotes Hannity to others or promotes the show to his Twitter followers.[85]
According to a report by New York magazine, Hannity frequently talks to Trump by telephone after Hannity's weekday broadcasts, and on other occasions,[90][91] and Hannity is one of several dozen cleared callers whose calls to the White House public switchboard can be connected directly to the president.[90]
Hannity stirred controversy in April 2018 when it was revealed that he shared a lawyer, Michael Cohen, with President Trump. In a breach of journalistic ethics, Hannity had failed to disclose that Cohen was his lawyer while at the same time taking to the Fox airwaves to defend Cohen and criticize those who investigated him.[92][93][94][95]
On April 9, 2018, federal agents from the U.S. Attorney's office served a search warrant on the office and residence of Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney.[96] On the air, Hannity defended Cohen and criticized the federal action, calling it "highly questionable" and "an unprecedented abuse of power".[97] On April 16, 2018, in a court hearing, Cohen's lawyers told the judge that Cohen had ten clients in 2017-2018 but did "traditional legal tasks" for only three: Trump, Elliott Broidy, and a "prominent person" who did not wish to be named for fear of being "embarrassed".[98][99][100]  The federal judge ordered the revelation of the third client, whom Cohen's lawyers named as Hannity.[98] Although Hannity has covered Cohen on his show, he did not disclose that he had consulted with Cohen.[101]
Fox News released a statement on April 16, 2018, attributed to Hannity: "Michael Cohen has never represented me in any matter. I never retained him, received an invoice, or paid legal fees. I have occasionally had brief discussions with him about legal questions about which I wanted his input and perspective. I assumed those conversations were confidential, but to be absolutely clear they never involved any matter between me and a third party."[102] Also, NBC News quoted Hannity as saying: "We definitely had attorney-client privilege because I asked him for that",[103] while Hannity said on his radio show that he "might have handed him 10 bucks" for the attorney-client privilege.[102][98] Lastly, Hannity tweeted that his discussions with Cohen were "almost exclusively" about real estate.[104]
The following day, news reports revealed that Hannity had shared another lawyer with Trump, Jay Sekulow. Sekulow had written a cease-and-desist letter to KFAQ on Hannity's behalf in May 2017, and later represented Trump in connection with the Mueller investigation.[105][106]
In August 2018, Hannity allowed Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani, another personal lawyer for Trump, to host Hannity's radio show; the duo proceeded to defend Trump and promote arguments made by the Trump administration.[107]
Criticism of FBI, DOJ, and special counsel
During President Trump's administration, Hannity has repeatedly been highly critical of the FBI, DOJ, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and others investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.[108] According to a review by Media Matters of all transcripts from the 254 episodes of Hannity's show from Mueller's appointment (May 17, 2017) to May 16, 2018, Hannity had 487 segments substantially devoted to Mueller (approximately two per episode), opened his program with Mueller 152 times (approximately three times per week), and the content of his show was highly critical of the probe and the media's coverage of the probe.[109] He has called the Russia inquiry a "witch hunt", an "utter disgrace", and "a direct threat to you, the American people, and our American republic."[108] Hannity has expressed skepticism of the U.S. intelligence community's view that Russia hacked the Democratic National Convention's emails during the 2016 election and has promoted various conspiracy theories. In March 2017 he publicized a theory, first proposed at the Wikileaks Twitter account, that the CIA could have done the hacking while making it look like Russia did it.[110] In August he suggested that Seth Rich may have been the leaker.[111]
Hannity has described the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well as James Comey's tenure as FBI Director, as "one giant incestuous circle of corruption."[112] In April 2018, Hannity ran a segment where he claimed that there were "criminal" connections between Bill and Hillary Clinton, Mueller, and Comey.[112] Hannity asserted that there were three connected "Deep State crime families" actively "trying to take down the president."[113][112] A guest on the segment, attorney Joseph DiGenova, called Mueller's team "legal terrorists" and referred to Comey as a "dirty cop".[114]
Hannity also claimed that Mueller had been involved in the corrupt dealings of several FBI agents in connection with Boston, Massachusetts crime boss Whitey Bulger.[115] The federal judge who presided over a lawsuit concerning the corrupt dealings said Hannity's claims were unsubstantiated and that Mueller was never accused of any wrongdoing nor even mentioned during the proceedings.[115]
In June 2018, after reports that Special Counsel Mueller's probe had asked witnesses to turn their personal phones over to investigators for examination, Hannity sarcastically suggested on air to the witnesses that they "follow Hillary Clinton's lead" and destroy their personal phones so that they cannot be examined.[116][117]
Uranium One
From 2015 into 2018, Fox News broadcast extensive coverage of an alleged scandal surrounding the sale of Uranium One to Russian interests, which  Hannity characterized as "one of the biggest scandals in American history."[118] The Fox News coverage extended throughout the programming day, with particular emphasis by Hannity.[119] The network promoted a narrative asserting that, as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton personally approved the Uranium One sale in exchange for $145 million in bribes paid to the Clinton Foundation. Donald Trump repeated these allegations as a candidate and as president.[120] No evidence of wrongdoing by Clinton had been found after three years of allegations, an FBI investigation, and the 2017 appointment of a Federal attorney to evaluate the investigation. In November 2017, Fox News host Shepard Smith concisely debunked the alleged scandal, including stating that Clinton did not personally approve the sale, infuriating viewers who suggested he should work for CNN or MSNBC.[121][122] Hannity later called Smith "clueless," while Smith stated, "I get it, that some of our opinion programming is there strictly to be entertaining. I get that. I don’t work there. I wouldn’t work there."[123][124]
Deep state
Hannity promoted the idea that there is a "deep state" – a network of individuals within government that is working to hinder the Trump administration. He has described the deep state as a "Shadow Government" and "Deep state swamp of Obama holdovers and DC lifers".[125][126] In March 2017, he called for a "purge" of Obama-era bureaucrats and appointees in government.[127]  In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, conservative columnist Bret Stephens disputed Sean Hannity's deep state allegations, saying they were an example of the "paranoid style in politics".[128] Later that month, Hannity said that NBC News was part of the deep state.[129] In May 2017, he reiterated that deep state/intelligence operatives were trying to destroy the Trump presidency.[130]
In March 2018, Hannity attacked Special Counsel Robert Mueller, saying that his career was "anything but impeccable."[131] Hannity asserted that Mueller was friends with former FBI Director James Comey and current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and that he "cannot be expected to honestly investigate scandals that his friends are directly involved in."[132] He said that these individuals were involved in "one massive, huge, deep-state conflict of interest after another. Now they're protecting themselves. They're trying to preserve their own power."[112]
Comments on sexual harassment
In 2016, Hannity vociferously defended Roger Ailes when he was accused by multiple women of sexual harassment.[7] In May 2017, Hannity paid a tribute to Ailes after his death.[133] Hannity called him "a second father" and said to Ailes's "enemies" that he was "preparing to kick your a** in the next life".[133]
In April 2017, Hannity came to the defense of Fox News co-president Bill Shine after it was reported that Shine's job was at risk.[134][135] At least four lawsuits alleged that Shine had ignored, enabled or concealed Roger Ailes' alleged sexual harassment.[134][135][136]
In September 2017, several months after Bill O'Reilly was fired from Fox News in the wake of a number of women alleging that he sexually harassed them, Hannity hosted O'Reilly on his show.[137][138][139] Some Fox News employees criticized the decision.[138] In the interview, O'Reilly attacked liberal media watchdog groups and said that he should have fought harder when those groups targeted his advertisers.[138] According to CNN, during the interview, Hannity found kinship with O'Reilly as he appeared "to feel that he and O'Reilly have both become victims of liberals looking to silence them."[138]
Hannity came under criticism in October 2017 when he attacked Democrats after it became known that a large number of women had accused Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer and donor to Democratic causes, of sexual harassment.[140] Critics noted that Hannity had weeks earlier defended and hosted his coworker Bill O'Reilly who was fired following a number of sexual harassment allegations.[140][141]
LGBT rights
In the radio show for KCSB, which was the subject of controversy in 1989, Hannity made anti-gay comments.[142][143] He called AIDS a "gay disease" and said that the media was hiding salient information from the public.[15][143] Two editions featured anti-gay activist Gene Antonio, a Lutheran minister,[144] discussing his book The AIDS Coverup: The Real and Alarming Facts about AIDS. In the book, Antonio claims that AIDS can be spread by people sneezing in close proximity to each other. Hannity encouraged Antonio when he said that AIDS spread when gay men consumed each other's feces,[15] said that homosexuality was a "lower form of behavior", compared homosexual sex lives to "playing in a sewer" and gay people of being "filled with hatred and bigotry".[142] When a lesbian, another broadcaster at the station, called into the show, Hannity said "I feel sorry for your child".[7][142][145] Hannity was quoted at the time as saying that "anyone listening to this show that believes homosexuality is a normal lifestyle has been brainwashed".[7][15][146] The ACLU opposed his firing and petitioned the station to reverse their decision. Hannity demanded a formal apology and double the airtime. While the station did offer to allow Hannity to return, they would not meet Hannity's additional demands and he declined to return.
In 2017, Hannity said that he regretted the comments and that they were "ignorant and embarrassing".[5][142]
Immigration
Hannity opposed amnesty, then he said in 2012 that he had evolved on the issue and favored a "pathway to citizenship".[147][15] Later, he opposed that idea.[15] By 2018, he was described as an immigration hardliner by CNN, The Washington Post, and New York magazine.[148][149][150] In August 2018, President Trump suggested that he might shut down the government to force Congress to fund his border wall, boasting that Sean Hannity agreed with the action.[151]
Islam
Hannity has warned of sharia law coming to the United States.[152] Hannity opposed the building of Park51, a mosque two blocks from the World Trade Center site.[152]
Hannity promoted the idea of "Islamic training camps right here in America", which were based on an unsubstantiated "documentary" by the Christian Action Network.[153]
In 2006, Hannity was critical of Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to U.S. Congress, being sworn into office with an oath on a Quran. Hannity equated the Quran with Mein Kampf, asking a guest on his show whether he would have allowed Ellison "to choose, you know, Hitler's Mein Kampf, which is the Nazi bible?"[154][155]
Torture
In 2009, Hannity said that he supported enhanced interrogation, a euphemism for torture. He also volunteered to be waterboarded for charity.[156][157] In response, Keith Olbermann pledged to donate $1,000 for every second of waterboarding Hannity underwent. Hannity had not been waterboarded as of 2016.[158] In 2017, Hannity continued to advocate for waterboarding, raising the example of using it against a kidnapper.[159]
Climate change
In 2001, Sean Hannity described the scientific consensus on climate change as "phony science from the left."[160] In 2004, he falsely claimed that scientists couldn't agree on whether global warming was "scientific fact or fiction".[160] In 2010, Hannity falsely stated that so-called "Climategate" – the leaking of e-mails written by climate scientists that climate change skeptics said demonstrated scientific misconduct, but which all subsequent inquiries found to show no evidence of misconduct or wrongdoing – was a scandal that "exposed global warming as a myth cooked up by alarmists."[161] Hannity frequently invites critics of climate science onto his shows.[162]
Death panels
Hannity promoted the falsehood that the Affordable Care Act would create so-called "death panels".[163][164][165] According to a study by Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan, Hannity's show, along with the Laura Ingraham Show, were the first major conservative media personalities to latch onto the false claim of Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York, that the Affordable Care Act contained death panels.[164] When Sarah Palin stirred controversy by promoting the death panels myth, and argued her case in a Facebook post, Hannity defended her and said, "I agree with everything that she wrote".[166] Hannity also claimed that he found the specific pages in the Affordable Care Act containing provisions on death panels.[166]
A 2016 study found that Hannity promoted a number of falsehoods about the Affordable Care Act.[166] For instance, Hannity falsely alleged several times that Democratic Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus had said Social Security could be "insolvent in two years" due to the Affordable Care Act.[166] According to the study, Hannity, unlike other Fox News hosts such as Bill O'Reilly and Greta Van Susteren, "took a more direct approach, aggressively supporting Republicans and conservatives and attacking Democrats and liberals, endorsing the more spurious claims long after they were proven incorrect, and putting advocacy above accurate reporting, to further the network's themes opposing reform."[166]
Roy Moore comments and advertiser boycott
In November 2017, Hannity interviewed the Alabama senate candidate Roy Moore, who was facing accusations of sexual assault and harassment of teenage girls while he was in his thirties. Hannity stated that Moore "deserves the presumption of innocence" and that "none of us know the truth".[167] After criticism from Media Matters for America, which had been promoting a boycott since May 2017 over previous controversial comments by Hannity,[168] some major advertisers pulled their advertising from Hannity's show.[169][5] These actions were met with counter boycotts by Hannity's fans who destroyed products made by the companies who removed their promotions from the show and pledged to stop buying their products until the decisions were reversed, causing the CEO of one of the companies to publicly state that the public announcement of his company's removal of advertisements was "unacceptable" and that his company did not intend to take sides in the matter.[170]
Jake Tapper
In November 2017, Fox News distorted a statement by Jake Tapper to make it appear as if he had said that "Allahu Akbar" can be used under the most "beautiful circumstances" in the immediate aftermath of the 2017 New York City truck attack wherein a terrorist shouted "Allahu Akbar".[171] Fox News omitted that Tapper had said that the use of "Allahu Akbar" in the terrorist attack was not one of these beautiful circumstances.[171] A headline on FoxNews.com was preceded by a tag reading "OUTRAGEOUS".[171] The Fox News Twitter account distorted the statement even more, saying "Jake Tapper Says 'Allahu Akbar' Is 'Beautiful' Right After NYC Terror Attack" in a tweet that was later deleted.[171]
Even after the Fox News twitter account had deleted the tweet on Tapper's out-of-context comments, Hannity repeated the out-of-context comments to his viewers, calling Tapper "liberal fake news CNN's fake Jake Tapper" and mocking his ratings.[172][173]
Appearance at November 2018 Trump rally
On November 4, 2018, Trump's website, DonaldJTrump.com, announced in a press release that Hannity would make a "special guest appearance" with Trump at a midterm campaign rally the following night in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.[174] The following morning, Hannity tweeted "To be clear, I will not be on stage campaigning with the President."[175] Hannity appeared at the president's lectern on stage at the rally, immediately mocking the "fake news" at the back of the auditorium, Fox News reporters among them. Several Fox News employees expressed outrage at Hannity's actions, with one stating, "a new line was crossed."[176] Hannity later asserted that his action was not pre-planned, and Fox News stated it "does not condone any talent participating in campaign events."[177] Fox News host Jeanine Pirro also appeared on stage with Trump at the rally. The Trump press release was later removed from Trump's website.[174][178]
Personal life
Hannity has been married to Jill Rhodes since 1993. They have two children and live on Long Island, New York.[11] In 2018, Forbes estimated that Hannity's annual income was $36 million.[5] In 2014 he said that he has carried a weapon "more than half my adult life".[179]
Awards and honors
Hannity received a Marconi Award in 2003 and 2007 as the Network Syndicated Personality of the Year from the National Association of Broadcasters.[180]
In 2009, Talkers Magazine listed Hannity as #2 on their list of the 100 most important radio talk show hosts in America.[181] The same magazine gave Hannity their Freedom of Speech Award in 2003.[182]
In 2005, Jerry Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University, awarded Hannity an honorary degree.[183]
Hannity was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in November 2017.[184]
Bibliography
Hannity, Sean (2002). Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism, ReganBooks, ISBN0-06-051455-8.
Hannity, Sean (2004). Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism, ReganBooks, ISBN0-06-058251-0.
Hannity, Sean (2010). Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama's Radical Agenda, Harper Paperbacks, ISBN0-06-200305-4.
See also
New Yorkers in journalism

 on C-SPAN