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The news that conservative talk radio and TV host Sean Hannity was going to be the second interview for Gov. Sarah Palin really got my attention. I met Sean Hannity 5 years ago and it was one of those encounters I will never forget. And not in a good way.
My four sisters and I host a talk show called Satellite Sisters and we'd just been signed to ABC Radio for a 5 year deal. We'd spent three great years on Public Radio, producing award-wining talk radio that focused on news, issues, and the lives of women. We had been on about 70 stations with a loyal listenership. We were thrilled to be moving to do live radio and to be with a company like ABC, the network of legend Paul Harvey and rising star Sean Hannity. Our boss at ABC wanted to introduce us to our new colleagues in a grand fashion at an industry luncheon. Paul Harvey was getting an award, so too, Sean Hannity. We were at Table One. Though we may have been relatively new to radio, we were not new to professional luncheons. Between the five of us, we had decades of experience in business and academics, racking up some decent credentials. We thought of our tablemate Sean Hannity as a colleague, not a celebrity. Apparently, he did not think of us as collegues.
The first words out of Sean Hannity's mouth after the introductions were, "So, what do you talk about on your show? Sex?" You have never seen the mouths of five Irish Catholic girls from Connecticut drop faster. Sex? We've never talked to each other about sex in our lives, nevermind on the air . We were mothers, teachers, nurses, academics, and business executives and Sean Hannity thinks all we could possible talk about on the air was sex? An Irish Catholic boy from New York should have known better. Would you talk to your sisters like this, I thought.
But really, the moment was one that almost every woman I know can picture: an incident when a collegue says something so sexist, so humiliating that you are stunned into silence by its inappropriateness. That is why the moment is so memorable to me. The sheer disrespect for the accomplished women at the table, my sisters and me, was stunning.
Sean went onto to assume that we were "all liberals" because we came from public radio ( For the record, Satellite Sisters is not a political show but when we do talk about issues and headlines, we represent a spectrum of political viewpoints.) Then Sean Hannity revealed he had never listened to public radio ever. That struck me as absurd. Wouldn't you at least be professionally curious about a show like "Morning Edition" that attracts ten million listeners? That's like a Coke exec never taking a sip of Pepsi! And for a guy that makes his living bashing the "liberal media" , his lack of research was astounding. Later on in the luncheon, as Sean Hannity accepted his award for "Radio Personality of the Year", he took a very public and unnecessary swipe at us, his colleagues, in front of hundreds of program directors. And then he was off on his private plane to "catch his son's hockey game."
I don't tell that Sean Hannity story much because it was so uncomfortable , but his upcoming interview with Gov. Palin had me thinking about that conversation. Sure, on the air, Sean Hannity spends 3 hours a day demeaning Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi and Michelle Obama , but you think that off the air he may be different. I know better. Sean Hannity will show Sarah Palin all the deference that the McCain campaign is demanding because he's a good soldier. He'll afford her respect because she is the Republican candidate for Vice President but not because he is actually respectful of her role as an executive or leader or working mother. I know this because when he had the chance to ask five women with a wide range of expertise any question he wanted, Sean Hannity wanted to talk about sex.
My sister Liz spent a decade as a senior executive at Nike, including 5 years as the Global Marketing Director. She ran a giant worldwide division with a huge budget and hundreds of employees. She travelled extensively working with business leaders around the world. She was one of very few senior female executive at that level in a Fortune 500 company. Her marketing initiatives in the areas women's team sports changed the future for many young female athletes today. In addition to her corporate life, she
