Alan Colmes died a few days ago but moments after his death, Slate’s contributor, Isaac Chotiner, said that because Colmes was “a nice guy and a liberal” who worked on Fox News, he was a “Buffoon” used by the conservative network.
“Alan Colmes, Buffoon and Patsy, Was Fox News’ Original Liberal Weakling,” wrote Slate’s Isaac Chotiner [Editor’s note: Nope, not going to link to it]. Chotiner doesn’t take exception to Colmes’ politics, but complained that he was not good enough at advocating for liberal positions.
“Colmes was the most absurd, useless, and mocked television personality in America for many years, precisely because he was nice. In the context of Fox News, being a nice guy — and a “liberal” nice guy at that — meant being a buffoon, and a patsy. Colmes not only played the part to perfection — he defined it,” Chotiner wrote.
Chotiner’s biggest beef was with Colmes’ role on Hannity and Colmes. “Yes, the two men appeared to have equal time during each segment, and yes, there was often a liberal guest and a conservative one…” he admits. “But the show, by design, was conservative, and often in racist or homophobic or Islamophobic ways.”
“While Colmes may not have been a genius, he wasn’t a complete moron either; in short, he was smart enough to know he was being used, and to take the money that his services demanded. If this is something less than morally reprehensible, it is still pretty gross,” he writes.
