Fox News contributor - and probably its most muscular liberal - Alan Colmes got into some political hot water Monday (1/2/12) over his comments on Happening Now about the surging presidential candidacy of Rick Santorum. Colmes was trying to make the argument that Santorum's popularity would likely wither under the ensuing media scrutiny. “Once (voters) get a load of some of the crazy things he’s said and done, like taking his two hour-old baby, who died right after childbirth, home and played with it for a couple of hours so his other children would know that the child was real,” Colmes said. The other guest, conservative Rich Lowry, became outraged at the “cheap shot” and the debate remained heated throughout the rest of the eight-minute segment.
Colmes probably did not choose the best instance of Santorum craziness to highlight given that it involved a family grieving over a dead child. But considering the kinds of attacks against Democrats that are the usual fare on Fox News, it’s hard for me to feel that Colmes was too far out of bounds.
Here’s the incident Colmes was talking about as it was written up in the New York Times in 2005:
The childbirth in 1996 was a source of terrible heartbreak -- the couple were told by doctors early in the pregnancy that the baby (wife) Karen was carrying had a fatal defect and would survive only for a short time outside the womb. According to Karen Santorum's book, ''Letters to Gabriel: The True Story of Gabriel Michael Santorum,'' she later developed a life-threatening intrauterine infection and a fever that reached nearly 105 degrees. She went into labor when she was 20 weeks pregnant. After resisting at first, she allowed doctors to give her the drug Pitocin to speed the birth. Gabriel lived just two hours.
What happened after the death is a kind of snapshot of a cultural divide. Some would find it discomforting, strange, even ghoulish -- others brave and deeply spiritual. Rick and Karen Santorum would not let the morgue take the corpse of their newborn; they slept that night in the hospital with their lifeless baby between them. The next day, they took him home. ''Your siblings could not have been more excited about you!'' Karen writes in the book, which takes the form of letters to Gabriel, mostly while he is in utero. ''Elizabeth and Johnny held you with so much love and tenderness. Elizabeth proudly announced to everyone as she cuddled you, 'This is my baby brother, Gabriel; he is an angel.' ''
Lowry, ordinarily one of the milder-mannered of the Fox News stable of conservative pundits, perfectly exemplified that cultural divide. He repeatedly interrupted and lambasted Colmes – who refused to be silenced. Unfortunately, with all the fireworks, Colmes’ larger point - that Santorum is “so far outside the mainstream that he is not, he can’t be taken seriously as a candidate” – got a bit lost.
Several hours later, after a tearful response from Karen Santorum, Colmes tweeted that he had apologized to the family for his “hurtful comment” and that his apology had been “graciously accepted." The matter was later discussed briefly on Hannity where Santorum reiterated his acceptance of the apology.
Colmes did the right thing by apologizing. But the wrath he’s facing over at Fox Nation – where the Colmes/Lowry debate is currently the top story – is more than a little hypocritical. After all, this is the same group of chatters who regularly discuss murdering liberals and Democrats.
And let’s not forget what sort of things are said on the air on Fox about Democrats:
“Most blacks, not all but most in Tennessee, especially in the Memphis, Tennessee area, are still living in the 50’s and 60’s. They are so racist that they don’t even realize that white Americans have moved on. And so whenever there’s a campaign like this, such as this, they always use racism in order to intimidate white America.” (8/6/08)
“I think we all agree that Barack Obama was elected by, mostly by black racists and white guilty people. Most black Americans, 96 percent of them, are racists who (unintelligible) white Americans.” (2/3/09)
If you think about liabilities for President Obama that are close to him, Joe Biden is up there. But Michelle Obama's right there. Michelle Obama, you know she's got the Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going. (1/26/09)
Is there anything that (Obama) likes about this country? (8/24/11)
“It’s clear that the Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry wing of the Democratic Party has a visceral loathing for the American military and for, frankly, America as a country in the world… I think it tells you how deep the sickness is in the left wing of the Democratic Party.” (11/1/06)
Every one of the people who spoke those remarks is a regular on Fox News.
So you’ll have to forgive me for not feeling too concerned about the suddenly tender feelings of the Fox News community.
I have only seen Fox News hosts and contributors who are Democrats apologize or pull a retraction without being forced. And during their forced retraction, they roll their eyes, groan it out like a little kid, then mock the people they apologzed to.
They’re not sorry in the least. But thank you for playing…
When CNN, HLN, MSNBC, Broadcast or NPR apologize/pull retractions, at least you can believe they understand what they did wrong and that they feel some degree of sincere remorse.
And care to explain to me how Fox News is the “diverse” market? Calling on people with differing opinions to tell them to shut up every time they try to talk doesn’t count, hun.
Wanna guess how many hosts only scored off lucky guesses?
Whether it’s slanderous narrative designed to induce hatred (which O’Reilly is well-known for, since you mentioned him) to their viewers using the site to outright discuss murdering regular targets of their bias… it’s there.
Absolutely no denying it’s there.
And once again… how is this article biased? Ellen said Colmes was right to apologize because his actions were out of bounds and she is correct about that with Fox News, it’s kinda funny that only their hosts who are known Democrats can own up to their mistakes without being forced.
Even if we broaden it to include contributors, the Independents, Libertarians and Republicans just look at people who are offended enough to ask for one like they’re stupid.
Hell, A couple of them like Malkin even take it one step further by badmouthing the people she offended in her “apology” then telling them to live with that being the best they’re going to get. Malkin’s about as tactless as they get, but that’s just slimy and there is no bias in pointing that out.
You can’t help me? I think it’s the other way around.
Did O’Reilly apologize for his stunt with the Umbrella or did he just go on the air and try to justify himself, like a Jackass?
Did Glenn Beck ever apologize for his “race relations” comment?
Did Hannity ever apologize for his racist remarks?
Let’s not even go into Megyn Kelly- if she was capable of apologizing (without looking annoyed about it), she’d end he show by apologizing for half of it daily.
Colmes did the right thing- he’s the first (and perhaps only) one who did that without acting annoyed or forced into it. If you wanna find bias in that being pointed out… go for it. Says far more about you than it ever will about this article.
What political viewpoint? She was merely pointing out that those who were so outraged about what Colmes said didn’t seem to have the same level of vitriol about other comments, on Fox, that were equally offensive.
Name calling is easy. Thinking takes more effort, “Rick”.- actually make and defend a point. Any wuss can come here and call people names, but Reason tends to be a good buffer. Say something intelligent and prove to me that you can. Let’s debate something. Right now you are not representing the Right very well, because you don’t make an intelligent case for anything.
They refused to give the dead child to the morgue, and instead went home and gave a baby’s corpse they had been conversing with to their children.
No, that sums it up nicely- My only question is how many calls CPS got about that. Other questions like how many of their neighbors updated their house’s security and told their kids to no longer make eye contact with the Santorums, I’m just gonna assume “All of them”.
But, I can’t criticize the actions of a couple who have lost a baby. Everyone grieves differently.
Seriously? That was just sad, Peters.