Alan Colmes answers his critics…
Alan Colmes answered some of his critics today…
I don’t recall sitting on the set and waving a white flag, or rolling over and playing dead for a guest. Why, then are so many conservatives angry with me. (See some of the email posts).
I’m also hounded (no pun intended) by the fact that I used to be a comedian. God forbid I was once funny. I happen to be tall and thin, and liberal, which must mean I’m dying of AIDS. And we do put lots of conservatives on our show. MSNBC and CNN put on lots of liberals. And I shouldn’t be there because there are lots of guests who don’t agree with me? That would make it better? I guess this all means I’m a whore who does it only for the money. In fact, I’m probably a conservative acting as a secret agent to make liberals look bad.
Update: Colmes posted a follow up…
Here is what I am talking about in the post just below. In spite of the fact that last night I confronted Ari Fleischer, who was mentioned in the Center for Public Integrity Report as having been one of the perpetrators of the 935 administration lies leading up the the Iraq war, that is still not good enough for some liberals. Think Progress wrote it up nicely, and Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars even, in her words, ate crow about previous comments she made about me as she kindly mentioned the confrontation. But, I failed to create bloodshed on the set, and Ari Fleischer was still alive after the interview, and so the commenters say things like:
If he doesn’t remember rolling over and playing dead, I’m certain I could get a few examples by watching the show tonight.
Comment by Cory!! Strode — January 24, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
Alan Colmes debates people. He gets my respect just for that. Cory, Find me some examples of Olby standing up to some conservative commentator. lol
Guy is such a fraud and coward.
Comment by Lurker — January 24, 2008 @ 3:23 pm
Cory: If you watch tonight, you may be surprised.
Over the past few days, Colmes has been as tough on the GOP candidates (Romney last night) as anybody on any other network! He also did not pull any punches in asking Ari Fleischer about the Soros-funded “Bush lied” report.
Comment by Ira — January 24, 2008 @ 3:35 pm
So Alan Colmes has a few faults, so do we all. Btu over the past few months Alan has been tougher and tougher on conservatives and that has only made H&C better. Kudos to Colmes for firing back against his critics.
Comment by Aaron — January 24, 2008 @ 3:51 pm
“Find me some examples of Olby standing up to some conservative commentator. lol”
Fine me some conservative commentator that has actually been invited and appeared on the show…don’t see any. Wonder why…?
Comment by Kris — January 24, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
What drives liberals nut about FoxNew is they have both liberals and conseratives on unlike like MSNBC or CNN.
Comment by Kirk G — January 24, 2008 @ 4:17 pm
I cannot say that I always agree with Alan Colmes. In fact, I disagree with him far more often then I agree. Nevertheless, he consistently makes articulate, logical, and fact-based points in support of his positions, and I have never once heard him make an ad hominem attack. In my view, his approach raises the level of discourse and contributes to a meaningful debate of the issues. I find it puzzling that many of my liberal friends believe that he is a weak advocate for liberal positions. I personally believe that he is a better advocate for his position than many of the better-known liberal commentators. I am glad to see him answering his critics.
Comment by Mike R — January 24, 2008 @ 5:00 pm
We try to follow H&C every night sometime i thank God Alan is there I might not agree with his ideology but Sean at times i think goes over the top.
Those times is when i see the balance of Alan coming in.
Comment by lynn — January 24, 2008 @ 6:15 pm
IMO, the reason Alan catches so much slack is because he’s simply sapless compared to Hannity. I mean, how can you have a program which is supposed to represent both sides when one of them is so obviously impotent? FNC has no intention of putting someone on who can go “toe to toe” with Hannity.
Comment by Terance — January 24, 2008 @ 6:46 pm
At one time, Colmes may have been more passive. But for the last three years or so, he has infuriated me (a conservative) almost nightly. So to you liberals, there is NO WAY I would classify Colmes as giving a pass to anyone on his shown.
Comment by Missy — January 24, 2008 @ 7:04 pm
Terance: Love how you ignored everybody else’s posts here.
Lynn: Couldn’t have said it any better!
Comment by Ira — January 24, 2008 @ 7:39 pm
Ira, shame on me! How dare I address the topic without quoting another commenter.. If you’d like me to comment on a specific post (even though I’ve already addressed the topic) or would like to ask a question, fire away.
Comment by Terance — January 24, 2008 @ 7:48 pm
Lurker,
Did I bring up Olby? Nope. I don’t feel it’s a good ideas to debate someone who brings in their outside obsessions.
Kirk G.,
I’m not nuts about FOX, I just think they need to quit calling the vast majority of their shows news. They’re talk radio on TV and quite successful at it. As for having both liberals and conservatives, other than Colmes, what liberal of Fox has their own show?
One of the reasons I quit watching H & C a few years ago is that it was painfully clear that H&C was as fair a debate show as the Harlem Globetrotters vs the Washington Generals. If they got a liberal who was just a boisterous as Hannity, I’d be interested…but Colmes? He has said he voted for Rudy for mayor of NYC. I’d rather they got someone with some real left leaning cred.
But Fox doesn’t want me as a viewer anyway.
Comment by Cory!! Strode — January 24, 2008 @ 8:28 pm
Honestly, I respect Alan a lot more than I used to on the network, I mean, he actually does something now compared to when I began watching H&C back in late ‘04. My main problem with FNC is how the “debates” commonly turn into shouting matches on a good number of occasions, one screaming over the other and the actual reasons of the debate getting forgotten.
The odd thing now is even Shepard is getting into the mix and it kinda both interests and urks me at the same time. I trust him for general news coverage, and I find the pundits talking on his show standable with him making a minor comment or two, but it still seems odd seeing him watch over these things and some of the commentators acting like they are on some late night show, yelling when Shep just kinda sits there and watches.
Comment by Chris — January 24, 2008 @ 8:52 pm
True, Chris. A lot of the time on H&C its 3 minutes of shouting and a commercial break followed by 4 minutes of shouting and a commercial break before the next “segment”
Comment by Aaron — January 24, 2008 @ 9:15 pm
Terance: Besides myself; Aaron, Mike R, Lynn, Missy and later Chris have all said the same thing; that Colmes has become a much tougher interviewer than in the past yet you call him “impotent.” All five of us cannot be wrong.
Chris: You need to differentiate “Studio B” which has guests with the “Fox Report.” Personally, I’m not crazy about Shep spotlighting the “American Idol” rejects, on “Studio B,” especially this early in the season.
Comment by Ira — January 24, 2008 @ 10:34 pm
I watch Hannity & Colmes almost every night and I guess what drives some liberals to lash out Colmes is the style of H&C. Right-wing producers including Hannity are in control of the agenda on that show. They ignore Republican scandals and put a huge spotlight on Democrats scandals. They ignore stories that would make Republicans and Bush look bad to cover stories that aren’t that important. I can go down the list of the stories they haven’t covered that would make the GOP look bad and in fact I have called Colmes on his Radio show, The Alan Colmes Show, to confront on why there don’t mention republican scandals and Colmes usually spins his answer. That is what Liberals lash out at Colmes, that is why Democrats won’t come on H&C. Colmes isn’t man enough to confront his right-wing producers on Foxnews so he will be hammered for it.
Comment by Louie The Liberal — January 24, 2008 @ 11:06 pm
H&C is a show run by right-wing producers and Hannity and they control the agenda on that show. Only stories to smear Democrats and ignore Republican scandals. For example, no segments on the over 900 false statements on the Bush Administration, Colmes did bring it up, but no segments on the show. Bush veto on Children’s healthcare, The ex-GOP indicted with terror ties, ETC.. I can go down the list of stories IGNORED by H&C. Since Colmes won’t confront his GOP bosses at Foxnews, he will be confronted by liberals and ignored by the Democratic Party.
Comment by Louie The Liberal — January 24, 2008 @ 11:09 pm
Louie, you are dead on! In March 2006, Hannity & Colmes put out all the stops to cover the Duke rape case… a case in which Hannity passionately argued for the defense every night. Colmes was less interested, but he still covered it nevertheless. It turned out, in my opinion, the only reason they covered this story (most nights devoting the top 2 segments of the show to it) was because at the time, the Iraq war was going horribly and was getting really bloody. The fact that Colmes put up with that piece of distraction, tragedy TV trash irritates me. But when hes actually allowed to debate politics and world events, he does bring up some good points. You are so right about them bringing out all the stops to cover democratic scandals and then ignoring republican ones. Why Alan doesn’t express outrage about that, I don’t know.
All I can say is that I’d rather have Colmes there along with Hannity than it be “Hannity & Company.”
Comment by Paco — January 25, 2008 @ 1:18 am
“Besides myself; Aaron, Mike R, Lynn, Missy and later Chris have all said the same thing; that Colmes has become a much tougher interviewer than in the past yet you call him “impotent.” All five of us cannot be wrong.”
Ira — Colmes is “impotent” when compared to Hannity. Whether you like it or not, Colmes will continue to be directly compared to his co-host and come up short every single time.
Comment by Terance — January 25, 2008 @ 8:18 am
Terance, I love Hannity but I admit it’s primarily because I agree with him ideologically. But just observing the two of the with their “debate” or interrogation tactics, Colmes seems at least as competent and avid as does Hannity.
Comment by Missy — January 25, 2008 @ 9:31 am
I used to watch H&C more often… but now I only catch it once in a while. But I do have agree with some of the other posters, Colmes has become a lot more forceful in his debating. But let us not forget, that the show isn’t simply Hannity and Colmes talking for an hour, they have guests on, of varying points of view who also get in on the debate.
The Liberal Left doesn’t like H&C because it ruins their arguments against FOX being only a Republican outfit. For example, when they said they wouldn’t debate on FOX because it was biased, having a well known liberal to say “That’s just dumb,” doesn’t help their interests. Additionally, they hate Hannity… for the same reasons they hate O’Reilly and Rush; he’s a successful Republican/Conservative/Non-Left-Wing commentator. And anyone that would help Hannity get more money or more ratings is bad. The debate aspect is minimal… especially because there are other liberal commentators who don’t debate well, or at all… it’s that he hurts their arguments against FOX, that’s the real problem.
Comment by ImNotBlue — January 25, 2008 @ 11:03 am
Missy: As a side issue, the latest “Hannity’s America” was very disappointing.
First off, there was the return of the ridiculous “2 on 2″ segment where Sean doesn’t give the other side, in this case, Kirsten Powers and Jane Fleming, an opportunity to speak. Then while they publicized Sylvester Stallone, that segment was near the end of the show and lasted maybe three minutes. I would have done half the show with Sly; he is always a great interviewee.
Paco: Nice to see the improved spelling but your reasoning remains poor. The Duke Rape case was a national story because of the racial and sexual overtones and was extensively covered by everybody in TV news.
Comment by Ira — January 25, 2008 @ 12:19 pm
Paco: I’ll add that Colmes actually went to Aruba for a few days to cover the Natalee Holloway case. Now you might argue that the producers forced him to go, but it seems that Alan is a big boy who could have refused the assignment.
Comment by Ira — January 25, 2008 @ 12:32 pm
No, the Duke rape case was national story because it distracted from the Dubai ports deal and Natalee Holloway was a story because it distracted from Iraq and the miserable relief failures of Hurricane Katrina.
Comment by Paco — January 26, 2008 @ 6:06 am
i think that allan colmes is a good journalist, you may or may not agree with his comments but at least he is real and that is what you need a debate of ideas.
Comment by kopke-4 — January 26, 2008 @ 12:44 pm
i think allan colmes is a good journalist, he debates people with what he thinks is the true, you may or may not agree with him but at least he is honest, good work allan.
Comment by kopke-4 — January 26, 2008 @ 12:47 pm