Alan Colmes, 66, liberal in 'lion's den' of Fox News . By Emily Langer
Washington Post . WASHINGTON - Alan Colmes, a top-rated television
commentator who, as co-host with conservative Sean Hannity of "Hannity
& Colmes," became best known as the liberal in the "lion's den" of Fox
News, has died at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 66. His wife, Jocelyn
Elise Crowley, said that he died late Feb. 22 or early Feb. 23. The
cause was lymphoma. Mr. Colmes joined the fledging Fox News Channel in
1996 and hosted the political talk show with Hannity for 12 years. It
became the channel's longest-running prime time program before Mr.
Colmes's departure from the show in 2008. Mr. Colmes gamely endured
withering criticism from some liberals, who perceived a betrayal in his
presence on Fox, which was founded by Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch as
a counterbalance to what many conservatives saw as the left-wing bias
in the news media. Mr. Colmes was often mocked as too nice and easily
overshadowed by the ever-aggressive Hannity. The liberal media watchdog
Fairness and Accuracy in Media likened him to the hapless Washington
Generals, the dependable losers to basketball's Harlem Globetrotters.
Al Franken, in his best-selling "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell
Them," imagined Mr. Colmes earning his salary by "adding toner to the
copiers and printers, loofah-ing Roger Ailes in his personal steam
room, and ordering Chinese food for editors working on misleading video
packages. Mr. Colmes was aware of the criticism but said that getting
mean was not his style. "People say to me, 'Why don't you fight fire
with fire? " he told the Associated Press in 2003. "You fight fire with
water, not fire. "Even if everything its detractors say about Fox were
true, the most liberal of liberal attitudes would be that one would get
credit for being in the lion's den," Mr. Colmes said in an interview in
the Huffington Post. "After all, I do have the biggest audience of all
the liberals. Alan Samuel Colmes was born on Sept. 24, 1950, and grew
up on Long Island, N.Y. His father, an auctioneer, ran jewelry stores
with his mother. Mr. Colmes graduated in 1971 from Hofstra University
before venturing into radio and then television. He also did stand-up
comedy. Hannity, who knew Mr. Colmes from his own radio work, joined
Fox at its inception and was slated to host a show privately dubbed
"Hannity & LTBD" - "Liberal to Be Determined. The "liberal to be
determined" turned out to be Mr. Colmes. In a statement issued through
Fox, Hannity called Mr. Colmes "one of life's most decent, kind, and
wonderful people. Mr. Colmes's books included "Red, White and Liberal:
How Left Is Right & Right Is Wrong" (2003) and "Thank The Liberals*
*For Saving America (And Why You Should)" (2012). Material from the
Associated Press was used in this obituary.
