Steve Rendall - The false balance of Hannity & Colmes

[realFedUp]

From the Nov/Dec. issue of Extra!

http://www.fair.org/extra/0311/hannity-colmes.html

An Aggressive Conservative vs. a "Liberal to be Determined"

The false balance of Hannity & Colmes

By Steve Rendall

Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel's primetime debate show, figures prominently in the cable network's campaign to market its right leaning programming as "fair & balanced," the network's ever-present slogan. Fox News executives argue that the show, pitting conservative Sean Hannity against liberal Alan Colmes with guests from both right and left, presents a spirited and evenhanded nightly debate.

Fox News president Roger Ailes is clearly riled by those who suggest the show has a slant to it (New York Times, 6/24/01): "I get attacked for putting Sean Hannity on because he's a conservative--even when Alan Colmes, the liberal, is there to balance him!" Ailes is so insistent that Hannity & Colmes plays it "down the middle" that he says producers use a stopwatch to ensure equal time between the two hosts (Washington Post, 2/5/01).

But a systematic review of Hannity & Colmes does reveal a show listing to the right in virtually every respect, from mismatched hosts--the show pairs the aggressive conservative Sean Hannity with the mildly liberal, often conciliatory Alan Colmes--to a format where conservatives out-number, out-talk and out-interrupt their liberal opponents.

The dissimilar circumstances under which the two hosts came to Fox News are revealing. Recruited from Atlanta's talk radio scene by Roger Ailes, Hannity was hired so far in advance of a decision about a co-host that Fox staffers referred to the show as "Hannity & Liberal To Be Determined," or "LTBD." Finally, after auditioning prospective left hosts, Colmes won the job--after Hannity expressed his preference for the mild-mannered New York radio host (Newsday, 10/20/98).

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[Mixxster]

1. Excellent article

Thanks for posting that. Obviously, I knew Hannity was a right-wing simpleton but I was unaware of his outrageous and disgusting behavior prior to the TV show.

[benfranklin1776]

2. Great Article RFU!

No wonder he's the right wing's' "favorite liberal" since as the article indicates he is an obedient, docile punchng bag quicker to heap praise on conservatives than challenge their stream of bilious vitiriol. As the article points out, like the Washington Generals against the Globetrotters he is there for cannon fodder not to win, but sadly even the Wash Generals win a few on occasion.

[Snellius]

3. It's surprising that liberals are still so shocked

There still seems to be this misplaced faith that, at heart, people are still fair and honest and rational and good. That Limbaugh is just an "entertainer". That Ailes at FOX just balances out the Rather at CBS. That Al Franken is just the left version of Ann Coulter. That Drudge is just all in fun.

But anyone with any decency and good sense left has known for years, at least since the impeachment and Florida, that these are not just media whores. These are deeply disturbed and psychotically mean cultural demons that are attempting to ridicule and destroy everything good that they are not. They are ideological Mark David Chapmans trying to kill the John Lennons they envy and hate. Like Gandhi. Like the Kennedys. Like King.

[tom_paine]

4. They are all Julius Streicher: especially Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter

(no surprise they are the favorites of their propagandized Sturmtruppen)

www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Streicher.html

[kskiska]

5. I like how Al Franken refers to them as:

Hannity and Colmes

[realFedUp]

6. That is memorable from his book

[Arbustosux]

7. I laughed for days...

after I read that in his book!