PPC Homepage

Debbie Schlussel: Sean Hannity’s Freedom Concert scam

by | 9:54 am, March 19, 2010 | 4 Comments

UPDATE: Hannity pushes back:
http://biggovernment.com/falliance/2010/03/19/freedom-alliance-responds-to-allegations-against-sean-hannity/

UPDATE 2: For Debbie Schlussel’s response to the Freedom Alliance, please see the end of this note.

In a remarkable piece of investigative reporting, blogger Debbie Schlussel tells us that Sean Hannity’s Freedom Concerts, which are supposedly raising money for injured veterans and the families of veterans killed in action, give an almost-criminally low percentage of its donations to these veterans or their families.  Instead, it spends the vast majority of the donations on expenses and salaries, on consultants and on private jets for Hannity and his family.

I’ve never been an enormous fan of Hannity’s even though I appreciate anyone who effectively promotes a message of liberty.  To me, he’s rather superficial and rarely seems to do innovative or ground-breaking work.  He’s a conservative populist and I generally don’t like populists but I always thought he was doing yeoman’s work with the millions of dollars he raised for dead or injured veterans and their families.

Now, even that reason to like Hannity appears to be gone.

It’s a remarkable story and I urge you to read it:
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/6938/sean-hannitys-freedom-concert-scam-only-7-of-charitys-money-went-to-injured-troops-kids-of-fallen-troops-g5s-g6s-for-vannity/

For those of you who don’t know Schlussel, she’s no liberal.  She’s run for office as a Republican and has received death threats for her hard-hitting attacks against radical Islam in the US.

 

————–

Debbie Schlussel’s response to Freedom Alliance’s post in their defense:

In fact, the Freedom Alliance “response” doesn’t answer any of the questions I raised and goes on to lie more. They don’t address why they gave a triple amputee only $200—and in fact there are many of these examples provided in their tax return addendum, but I only cited a few for brevity’s sake. They also lie and claim that they gave a lot more money to charity b/c they categorize it as “program expenses.” But I’m sorry—calling $3 million in consulting fees, printing, and postage “program expenses” doesn’t change the fact that it still went to their cronies, not to a fund and not the soldiers who only got on average less than $900 apiece. It also doesn’t change the fact that out of the money spent (I didn’t use the money they claim they raised for their scholarship fund) the vast majority goes to those kinds of expenses.

Also, the “scholarship fund” is really a war chest for something else. We’ve been at war since 2001, when we went into Afghanistan, and we’re winding down in Iraq. Unless the kids were born in 2001 or thereafter, many of these kids are in college now and Freedom Alliance is giving them a pittance toward their college tuition, while they continue to build this massive warchest. With a giant multi-million dollar fund, why aren’t they giving the kids a free, complete ride to college? And how many kids of deceased troops will there be in the future? Enough to exhaust a multi-million dollar fund? Doubtful.

Moreover, because they hoarded millions of dollars, their returns show the fund shrunk by several million dollars with bad investments and market losses. That money could have put these kids through college for the entire time. What’s their excuse for the soldiers with no limbs and with severe burns? Are they waiting for two decades from now when technology is better? $165 for a soldier who is blind and his face blew up? No excuse for that. Their “response” is simply a non-response and an attempt to cover up the fraud.

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

Share
Category: Syndicated
Tags: >

Comments

  1.   Donald Johnson
      March 19th, 2010 @ 9:59 am

    Great post. Hannity is so superficial that he says the same thing over and over again for days and weeks. The guy seems to think he’s a politician who has to repeat his message until people believe it. The problem is that his message usually is so off target and partisan that even those of us who want to agree with him often can’t. I think the guy is a jerk.

  2.   Zundfolge
      March 19th, 2010 @ 1:23 pm

    Freedom Alliance says Schlussel is full of it.

    http://biggovernment.com/falliance/2010/03/19/freedom-alliance-responds-to-allegations-against-sean-hannity/

    So this will be an interesting one to watch.

  3.   Rossputin
      March 19th, 2010 @ 2:05 pm

    Schlussel says Freedom Alliance is full of it. See her response in the comments to the Freedom Alliance piece or read or on my blog page at http://rossputin.com/blog/index.php/debbie-schlussel-sean-hannity-s-freedom-concert-scam

  4.   akw
      March 24th, 2010 @ 8:49 am

    Debbie Schlussel has zero credibility on this issue. She intentionally omitted the fact that Sean Hannity has no role of authority at Freedom Alliance. He is not on the board of directors, he is not on staff, and he is not paid or reimbursed for anything related to the charity. She cherry-picked her “facts” in order to write a hit piece on Sean Hannity. This is not the first time she’s done it. I’ve studied the 990 forms from Freedom Alliance, and she has twisted and distorted their information until it does not represent the truth. Shame on Debbie Schlussel.

Praise for PPC From Our Lefty "Fan"

  • "Zany-ass bombast-entertainment...Hackneyed weirdo communist pseudo-nostalgia" --Alan Franklin, ProgressNow

Featured Posts




  • When a young girl gets close to the truth about a long-forgotten mystery, a harmless adventure becomes a threat to the future of the independent commercial settlements on Mars.

  • Advertise Here!

    info-at-peoplespresscollective-dot-org

  • Categories

  • Archives

  • Meta




  • Buy a Tea Party Poster!