"Hannity and Colmes," of course, is always a surreal proposition even in the best of times. But Wednesday night's installment was downright Kafkaesque. I continue to be amazed that Alan Colmes was able to get through the evening without committing suicide.
Sean Hannity was hosting one of his periodic "freedom concerts," and broadcast live from the event in San Diego along with a group of conservative guests, including Oliver North, Ann Coulter, and Tom DeLay, in front of an audience of 200 fans who cheered every word from each of the righties. But Colmes was broadcasting, alone, from the studio back in New York. Apparently he wasn't invited.
The evening began with Hannity, North, David Jacobson (the American hostage held in Lebanon in the '80s) and the 200 fans, squaring off against Colmes. A fair fight, certainly. And balanced. The argument somehow turned into "Colmes and liberals like him" misrepresenting what had gone on in Iran/Contra, which was North agreeing to sell arms clandestinely to the Islamofascist regime in Iran- something Hannity would certainly be screaming "treason" about 50 times a day if a Democrat ever did it.
I had to turn the show off soon after Coulter joined the festivities for a segment and she and Hannity somehow turned the Mel Gibson arrest story into one about "liberal hypocrisy," since the left hadn't been nearly as mean to Patrick Kennedy when he got arrested for drunk driving. Except for the part about Patrick not being nearly as famous as Mel, and his not saying anything at all about the Jews at the time. Then Ann got a few marriage proposals from crowd members.
Sometimes I feel so sorry for Alan Colmes. Isn't he bound to snap one of these days and try to choke Hannity with one of his ties?
Posted by Stephen Silver at August 3, 2006 11:49 PMDeath to the fascisto-corporate radical-right media disguised as a free press.
Only multi-millionaires have any real voice in the US commercial media, & democracy in which the people have no voice is just an empty word.
Posted by: Dave Darner at August 4, 2006 12:18 AMThat reminds me of the Daily Show segment where they showed Katherine Harris basically propositioning Sean Hannity on a segment of Hannity and Colmes when she announced her Senate run, and then they had the over-the-shoulder graphic showing Alan Colmes with the droopy dog face forced to wait in the car.
Posted by: Dan at August 4, 2006 10:08 AMWe should buy Colmes a Doug Christie jersey.
Posted by: Jeremy Wahlman at August 4, 2006 11:28 AMI laugh everytime I see Tucker Carlson on MSNBC - what happened to his cute bowtie?
Posted by: Jeff S at August 6, 2006 03:27 PM