Ellen, thank you for taking the time to find and post that.

I understand the frustration many here felt about Alan in the early years of the program, so did I, but we need to remember that during that time Sean had a lot of raw meat to chew on. The Monica Lewinsky scandal, the 2000 election and Florida recount, followed by the disappearance of Chandra Levy with Democratic Congressman Gary Condit being the lead suspect, and then of course 9/11. Alan was forced to play defense every night.

It was Sean’s show and he picked Alan to be his partner. After all the show wasn’t called Colmes & Hannity.

Kevin Koster, was there a falling out between the two and that’s the reason why Alan left? I wouldn’t be surprised, but if there was they did a very good job of keeping it quiet, which I understand.

I remember when Alan announced he was leaving the show and many us here were either guessing or wanted to see who Alan’s replacement would be, I think I said Phil Donahue, but looking back we should have seen that Sean was about to go solo since Sean was doing a show on Sundays called Hannity’s America, which at the time I thought he was doing leading up to the 2008 election, when it turned out he was preparing for his solo act.

I was very fond of Alan. He was the only reason I was able to watch Hannity and Colmes. Much love and sympathy to his family and friends.

While I can understand people’s sympathy for Colmes and his family, I’ve never thought of him as particularly left wing. Colmes was a moderate liberal Democrat, nothing more and nothing less. He was hand-picked to be on Hannity’s show as a harmless voice who could be counted on to regularly back down to Hannity’s more forceful personality. Colmes did very well for himself at Fox News by essentially doing what he was told. I agree he was under pressure when he appeared on their airwaves. They were paying him a lot more money than he had received to do his radio show or anything else he’d done – although nothing anywhere near what Hannity was getting. He knew his role and he accepted it. As a result, he and his family made a good living for over a decade. And then Hannity dumped him, figuring he no longer needed the pretense of having a sidekick. He continued to make appearances, usually just on O’Reilly’s show, where O’Reilly would regularly shout at him and castigate him, but also where he did occasionally make a more interesting point than he had been permitted to voice on Hannity. (I note that in the years since Hannity kicked him off the show, Colmes was almost never mentioned – it was as if he’d never been there. Hannity’s sudden show of mourning Colmes’ death today is in direct contrast to his deliberate ignoring of Colmes when he was alive for the past 8 years.)

Many left wingers I know were extremely disappointed in Colmes’ appearances with Hannity while he was on the show. They were incensed that Colmes never called Hannity out for his constant cheap shots, his simmering racism and his inability to see past partisan viciousness. I myself recall being confused when I first heard his name back in 1996. Fox News billed him as a “top liberal voice”, but that was news to any of us who regularly listened to Pacifica Radio or even to NPR. If Fox News had been interested in actually putting an openly left wing voice on the air with Hannity, they would have given that seat to Jeff Cohen of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Instead, they put Cohen on in a much more minor position as part of the panel on their Fox News Watch weekend show. They also could have talked to Amy Goodman or to Larry Bensky or to Alexander Cockburn or to any of a number of truly left wing scholars who would have wiped the floor with Hannity on a regular basis. But that’s not what Fox News wanted. They wanted a nice, easy-going guy who frankly had a more bookish appearance next to the red meat of Hannity. And that’s what they got.

Again, it is sad for Colmes’ family that he has passed away, and I wish them well in this difficult time for them. But I have no sympathy for the purveyors on Fox News who presented him in the manner that they did over the years. Colmes’ own willing participation in the ruse makes this situation even more unfortunate. I realize this gave his family a more lucrative lifestyle, but real left wing journalists like Bensky never prioritized that.

The key to any left winger agreeing to appear on a Fox News show is to be aware of how the hosts will attempt to spin their presentation in a wildly slanted manner, and to be ready to challenge the false premises being offered as “facts”. Tucker Carlson has become a master of the typical Fox News approach – present a “question” to a guest that is in fact a wildly propagandistic right wing opinion and then try to trap the guest in their answer. If the guest accepts the premise, Carlson has already won the debate. If the guest does not accept it, Carlson will then attempt to throw false moral equivalencies or absurd comparisons that may initially sound reasonable but are intended to buttress Carlson’s initial preset hypothesis. If the guest points out what Carlson is sneakily doing, Carlson will then attempt to talk over the guest or make funny faces and pretend to laugh. There’s really only one way to deal with this kind of bullying as practiced by Fox News – and this to directly challenge them on their bias and to point out their behavior. I wish that Colmes had taken much more initiative in this area over the past 20 years.

David Lindsay, Colmes exasperated me at times, too, in the early days of my blogging. But he evolved into a much stronger voice near the end of the H&C days. After H&C, he was really excellent. Unfortunately, he did not get the same exposure and I don’t think he ever fully overcame the “Hannity lapdog” reputation of his early days.

I also came to think that he was probably under tremendous pressure both from Hannity and from Fox to be that Hannity lapdog. So I give him quite a lot of credit for what he was able to do.

That said, I’m sorry he never left Fox and wrote a tell-all about the place and about Sean Hannity.

doors 17,

This is the flag pin episode. Unfortunately, we lost the video but I think my post summed it up pretty well, if I say so myself.
http://www.newshounds.us/2007/10/05/geraldine_ferraro_takes_the_bully_by_the_horns_re_obama_and_the_flag_lapel_pin.php

To me, this was the period in Alan’s life where he came into his own and was pretty effective. Once he split with Hannity, he got even better.

I’m going against the grain a bit and saying that Colmes aggravated the hell out of a lot of us liberals. The word count on H&C was one of first thing my fellow liberals would cite. Hannity out worded Colmes 3 to 1 if not more. But we all knew it was a stacked deck. If any of us with a year of preparation were to step in Colmes stead, the results would have been the same. Colmes did the best with an unfair situation.

I’m interested to see what Stephen Colbert has to say tonight. He was kind of hard on Alan when he left Faux. But Alan Colmes was a sport about it. RIP fellow liberal.

Ellen, I appreciate your personal recollections of Mr. Colme’s early days in stand-up. While I didn’t know him, a close friend, now deceased, was once married to Alan’s cousin, and had told me of his club days. I recall my friend being surprised at his success in talk radio.

Alan played admirably against a stacked deck on KKKlannity and Colmes. Invariably, KKKlannity got the first word and the last word for every segment, plus most of the air time in between. Even when Colmes was speaking, the camera would often focus on KKKlannity. With rare exceptions, the guests would recite the standard right-wing memes which KKKlannity would regurgitate again for emphasis.
Despite all of that, Alan made his points in a forceful but respectful manner.
RIP Mr. Colmes.

Awww. I did like dear Alan, even with his occasional rebuke and one-time banning me on LiberALANd. In retrospect, I think he did a valiant job on Fox, showing anyone with even a modicum of fairness and sense that Hannity and Faux in general were so heavily slanted they could never be relied on for the truth. As for the rest, well, nothing could save them from their dreadfulness.

Vale Alan.

Very sad news of Allen’s passing. May he rest in peace. In his memory, we ask all the masses to continue the fight and carry the torch left by Allen.

I’m going to miss his humor and wit.
RIP, Mr. Colmes.

RIP Mr. Colmes. Nice to see that everyone here is polite and respectful. Condolences to your family.

Rest in peace Allen, I didn’t know you were sick, I click on Liberaland every day. I wonder how much hate and glad you are dead spewing from the right is going to take place.

This is really sad. I remember way back in the day when Fox walked all over him. On behalf of the now-gone KUID-FM news, I extend my sympathies to all.
#waterboardhannity
El84

Rest In Peace Alan. You will be missed.——- What a performance above by Junior O’Reilly. I’m sure Winifred Angela, and the late Bill O’Reilly Sr. tried to instill some manners, and proper deportment in young Junior back in the day. It just didn’t take.

Here in New York, Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby do a 12-3 radio show, right before Slanthead. When I get a chance to listen, its pretty entertaining, with an even back and forth unlike H & C was. Alan is a sometimes guest host with Curtis when Ron is in court or on vacation. Always a good listen. Always enjoyed him going up against O’Loofah and his crazy sister-in-law “Dr,” Crowley. Understood he had a role to play on H & C and is wasn’t pretty to watch. Don’t judge him solely by H and C. Sad news about his passing. I for one, will miss his voice and insight.

I’m very sadden to hear about Alan’s passing. I always felt he did a good job of representing our side against Sean.

It appeared obvious to me that Sean had the power to frame the debate for each show where he always got to play offense and Alan, defense, by Alan having to play George Custer against the Indians, since Sean would have guest that agreed with him, outnumbering Alan.

My best memory of Alan was a show where they were debating wearing that silly flag pin as a sign of patriotism. I don’t remember if it was Al Gore or John Kerry that Sean was having fake outrage and freaking out for not wearing one, but they had on a guest, who I don’t remember who that was on Sean’s side, and once the guest finished with his fire breathing right wing phony talk, very calmly Alan said to him, where’s your flag pin? He wasn’t wearing one. It was hilarious. The guest did a great Jackie Gleason, Ralph Kramden, humana, humana, humana moment.

Rest in Peace Alan and thank you. You’re insights will be missed by many. I always felt better informed listening to you.

The left lost a strong and consistent voice for progressive values with Colmes’ death. FOX News has so few strong, liberal voices and their idea of “fair & balanced” is weak tea at best but at least Alan was on the air trying to get the liberal POV out to the viewers. I tried watching Hannnity after Colmes left but I couldn’t stomach it without him. Even though I sometimes got ticked off that he didn’t always push back as hard as I thought he should have against Hannity, he was still there going at it. And, in the more recent years when he took on O’Reilly’s bullying and wrong-headed attitudes, he won me back as a fan. He was intelligent, a good wit and seemed to enjoy going at it with right-wingers on his radio show.

I had no idea that he was 66 as he always seemed younger than that to me for some reason. I was completely shocked to read of his death as I didn’t know he was dealing with health issues. My sympathies go out to his family and close friends. His listeners and fans will miss him terribly especially in the age of Trump when strong progressive voices are needed. RIP, Alan – you did good.

I first heard Alan Colmes back in 95 when he used to follow Rush Limbaugh on the station that I listened to. He did radio graffiti even back then. He was smart and witty. I’m gong to miss his show. RIP Alan