Although the Kelly File is touted as a non-opinion show that tells “both sides,” liberal Alan Colmes apparently told the President Obama side of ObamaCare a little too well last night. To protect the Fox News viewers’ ears, guest host Shannon Bream just had to jump in and help her conservative guest drive home some Republican talking points.
The discussion was purportedly about an email from the White House stating that partisan politics on Capitol Hill are “no excuse for inaction.”
“Who should get the blame?” Bream asked, as if we’d never guess the Fox News answer. Just to make sure, she turned to conservative Chris Plante. Unfortunately, he overreached by saying Obama “hasn’t gotten anything done” except ObamaCare.
Colmes grabbed the opening and made a forceful challenge. He said, “How can you saying he’s gotten nothing (done) but ObamaCare? He’s killed more Al Qaeda leaders, he’s reformed Wall Street, he saved the auto industry, he saved GM, he got Bin Laden.” For good measure, Colmes pointed out that Republicans are usually for state control over governmental programs – and that it’s the blue states that are getting the best results from ObamaCare.”
Ruh-Roh! Obama was looking too good! Rather than acknowledge Plante’s mistake, Bream jumped in to denigrate Colmes' argument - by changing the subject. “I mean, Alan, come on!” she sneered, as if he were the one who had just said something untenable. “You have to admit it’s been a pretty rough rollout. Not just the website. …You know, we’re not just talking about Healthcare.gov. This isn’t just the logistics of a website. This is people getting notices in the mail, telling them, ‘You don’t have a policy any more.’ Even though the president repeatedly – and with knowledge of the consequences – told them, ‘You get to keep your doctor, period.’”
Colmes countered, “The other side of the story is that, as we’re approaching the new year, incrementally more and more people are signing up. Two million signups now and it’s increasing every, every, every day.” As he started to explain that “Some states are getting more signups in the last four days than they’ve had in the last two months and that’s what’s going on,” Bream tried – but failed – to interrupt him.
Finally, when Colmes finished, she gave a nudge to Plante about how to rebut: “Let’s bring Chris in and let’s keep noting as we did in the first block of this show that we’re also now at six million canceled.”
Later, when Colmes questioned Plante’s jobless numbers, Bream jumped in to validate them. But, before Colmes could respond further, she said, “We have to leave it there.”
There could be no more vivid example of a Fox host putting her thumb on the scale of “fair and balanced.”
If that’s the case, she just nipped him in the bud right off the bat.
I certainly don’t recall anyone actually coming right out and wishing to kill any of the FoxNoise talking heads (unlike the many FoxNation commenters who routinely discuss killing the President).
But, as you decide. It just seems a bit of overkill (especially as several REGULAR commenters have used the word “whore” in reference to a certain right-wing Snow Queen).
