Via Tengrain, who was invited by the man to be a contributor to Liberaland, Alan Colmes died at the all-too-young age of sixty-six. I primarily knew Mr Colmes through his role as the liberal foil to Sean Hannity on Fox' 'News' Hannity and Colmes.
Being the sole liberal on a Fox talking heads show, Mr Colmes often came across as a punching bag, especially paired with a shouty blockhead like Hannity. He was a quiet, calm presence, trying to use reason and facts to promulgate his point of view. The problem was that Americans, despite what platitudes they mouth, tend to side with the bullies. Sure, Mr Colmes came across as a punching bag, but that made Hannity, and the other nutjobs the punchers. Mr Colmes' one failing was precisely his virtue- he brought his brain to a fistfight.
After leaving Fox, Mr Colmes had other media gigs, in which he always came across as a smart, compassionate guy, but I mainly know his oeuvre from his 'Liberaland' site, and a guy who would go out of his way to hire Tengrain is alright with me. Someday, we may value the thinkers over the punchers, but I'm not holding my breath... we put a puncher in the White House. It's just a tragedy that Alan won't be around to participate in the resistance.
Here is a clip of Mr Colmes doing a stand-up routine back in the 1980s:
Back then I bet this stand-up comic didn't know he'd be working with a clown one day.
There's a "Good die young" quality. The thing with Hannity is, I want him to endure being very discredited and humiliated. He fan-serviced the Fox News tribe while Colmes tried to be missionary. I wonder how that serves Hannity in the long run as a person with mortality in mind. Or, with an apparent half-inch alone of forebrain, he even would know the difference in roads traveled.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Hannity has any capacity for self-reflection.
ReplyDeleteProbably not. Only projection and judgment.
ReplyDelete