Hannity Debates Founder of Cheating Website

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 12, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Unlike Match.com or Eharmony.com or Hannidate on Hannity.com, AshleyMadison.com isn't just another dating Web site for singles. It is a dating Web site for married people. Now not only do they actually encourage cheating on your spouse, the company proudly acts as the vehicle to help make that happen.

Now, after disappointing displays of affection from their husbands this past Mother's Day, over 31,000 women signed up for the service the very next day. Now that's 10 times the average number who typically sign up on any given Monday.

According to AshleyMadison, now their slogan, it says it all: "Life is short, have an affair."

Now let's take a look at how they are persuading people to join this Web site.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, ASHLEYMADISON.COM)

GRAPHIC: This couple is married. But not to each other. Life is short. Have an affair.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: As if it's not disturbing enough that a service like that exists in the first place, well, now it's actually is gaining popularity.

America, what has happened to our morals?

Here with reaction is founder and CEO of AshleyMadison.com Noel Biderman and columnist Jedediah Bila is with us.

So, guys, welcome to the program. All right, so you are the founder and CEO of this thing. You start this thing. And it —

NOEL BIDERMAN, CEO OF ASHLEYMADISON.COM: Right.

HANNITY: I'm looking at your Web site and looking it right here. And there's your motto, "Life is short, have an affair." You think it's good for people to have affairs? Do you think that's something that's good for people?

BIDERMAN: I think ultimately, Sean, if they are totally unhappy with their relationship and that is the avenue they need to pursue to preserve their marriage, absolutely. That's what they should do.

HANNITY: But you're assuming it preserves their marriage. And I'm assuming that if the spouses find out that this is happening, that it's going to break up a lot of marriages. And you're facilitating that. You are assisting, you're helping, you're making money off the breakup of some marriages.

Now, granted they're going to make their own choices, they have their responsibility, but you're profiting from it. You're sort of like, you know, you remind me of a pimp. You know what? You remind me of a drug dealer.

You know what? Let's say selling crack was legal, I wouldn't sell crack because I know it would destroy people's lives.

Why would you not have a conscience bother you that this might hurt people's marriages?

BIDERMAN: You know, Sean, we're different people. I would build a service for same-sex couples. You probably wouldn't approve of that, but I did. It's called ManCrunch, and I'm proud of it. Same way that entrepreneurs like me are needed all the time.

I'm at the cutting-edge of what society needs. You want to preserve the status quo. We're just different. We're both valuable, but we're different.

HANNITY: Yes, I guess, and maybe, Jedediah, we can talk to the children of these couples that end up getting divorced because there are sites like this that help facilitate, you know, these hook-ups and rendezvous.

JEDEDIAH BILA, THE DAILY CALLER: I think that what immediately struck me about the videos was that marriage is treated as something that you want to rush out of, that you're miserable in, and the affair is treated as something wonderful and fulfilling.

And the reality is that in our society right now it would be a really unfortunate circumstance that the values of fidelity and loyalty and commitment were thrown under the bus.

HANNITY: Look at this ad which we just showed earlier here. OK, so there it is. These two — these two people are married. This couple is married. But by the way, not to each other. As if this is, you know, something to glorify and you know what do you have to say to this guy? He's the founder, he's making money, he's proud of this.

BILA: Well, the reality is that just because something exists in our society — yes, people do cheat. That's an unfortunate reality. That doesn't mean that we should promote it or that we should create a platform for ourselves to sort of revere it.

And that's precisely what's happening in these videos.

HANNITY: That's the thing. I guess at some point you got to decide, you know, how do you want to make your money in life? I mean if you could make a lot of —

BIDERMAN: It's about creating a platform.

HANNITY: It's what?

BIDERMAN: The platform is important. It's important to create a platform for these people because having them utilize a single dating site and meet an unsuspecting single, that's inappropriate. Having an affair in the workplace and risk you losing your job, that's inappropriate. What is so wrong with having a social network of their own?

HANNITY: Now, you are rationalizing —

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: You have compartmentalized, you're rationalizing your contribution to the potential break up of marriages which, by the way, will not only affect the two people involved, but also the children that will no longer see their spouse.

Now maybe that's the way you want to make your money in life. But I think people that have a conscience and a soul don't want to make their money this way. In other words, you might make money selling drugs, but I wouldn't want to contribute to somebody's death and demise.

Where is your soul in this? Where is your conscience?

BIDERMAN: It's the same argument —

HANNITY: You want to look these kids —

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Do you want to look the young kids in the eye when his parents get a divorce?

BIDERMAN: It's the same argument you can make and say, "Oh, divorce attorneys are profiting from divorce, and we should get rid of divorce attorneys."

HANNITY: It's not the same thing.

BIDERMAN: It's not logical, your flawed logic in your point. It's exactly the same thing. We know this happens. I didn't invent infidelity. It was around a lot longer.

HANNITY: No, you are pimping it! You are — you're pimping this whole thing for money.

BIDERMAN: You are giving me too much credit, Sean. You're making — you're making it sound like I can persuade a happily married couple to go cheat on each other based on my TV commercial.

HANNITY: I'm saying, listen, people will make their choices. But if they're going to make bad choices, I'm not going to facilitate it, because I have a moral foundation that obviously you're lacking.

BILA: And just because you don't create something...

BIDERMAN: Are you going after Disney for creating "Desperate Housewives" or Hollywood for making all these movies?

HANNITY: Not the same thing. Go ahead.

BIDERMAN: They're going to be up for an Academy Award this year.

BILA: Just because — just because you don't create something in our society doesn't mean that you should be promoting it. There are plenty of negative things in our society that maybe we didn't create. But they exist, and that doesn't mean that we should be elevating them to a stature.

BIDERMAN: Correct. Correct.

What we should be teaching our children is that, when a couple has a problem in their relationship they should work together, fight through those obstacles. Not that they should, you know, run away and cheat and take some sort of easy way out. It's not a good message for young girls. It's not a good message for young boys. And it's not a good message for people in general.

HANNITY: Would you have...

BIDERMAN: It's not a good idea to stick your head in the sand either. It's not a good idea to stick your head in the sand. Address issues. Address issues.

HANNITY: And how would you — wait a minute. How would you feel, you took a vow, love, honor, cherish, be faithful to, forsake all others, I assume?

BIDERMAN: Absolutely. I'm a married man. She's probably watching right now.

HANNITY: And most married men also took that vow. But there's people like you trying to help them get out of that vow.

BIDERMAN: I'm trying to help them find some happiness that's missing in their relationship, yes.

HANNITY: You know what? You're a saint; you're a martyr.

BILA: Let's help them find happiness in their relationship, then, the relationship that they — you know, you don't need to get married.

BIDERMAN: The bottom line is —

BILA: People don't need to get married. If they don't want to be involved in fidelity, they don't need to be married.

HANNITY: I know. You're doing this — you're doing this for the good of society.

BIDERMAN: No. You're not looking at society accurately. There's prohibitions all the time. You can't stop people from drinking alcohol. So hat we do is we regulate it. It's no different.

HANNITY: No, you're facilitating it —

(CROSSTALK)

BIDERMAN: — address it effectively. I'm addressing it effectively.

HANNITY: No, you're — and you're making money off it. You're no different than a pimp.

BIDERMAN: That's not a crime in America, at least not that I'm aware of.

HANNITY: Alright. Thank you for being with us. Jedediah, good to see you.

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