Slate writer takes heat for Colmes obit
Slate magazine’s obituary for longtime Fox News political commentator Alan Colmes is catching considerable backlash on social media.
“Alan Colmes, Buffoon and Patsy, Was Fox News’ Original Liberal Weakling,” wrote Slate’s Isaac Chotiner, a senior staff writer and former editor of The New Republic.
Colmes died this week at the age of 66 due to lymphoma.
“Colmes was the most absurd, useless, and mocked television personality in America for many years, precisely because he was nice. In the context of Fox News, being a nice guy — and a ‘liberal’ nice guy at that — meant being a buffoon, and a patsy. Colmes not only played the part to perfection — he defined it,” Chotiner wrote.
Chotiner also called Colmes’s former TV partner, Sean Hannity, “racist” and “homophobic.”
“Yes, the two men appeared to have equal time during each segment, and yes, there was often a liberal guest and a conservative one,” wrote Chotiner. “But the show, by design, was conservative, and often in racist or homophobic or Islamophobic ways.”
“While Colmes may not have been a genius, he wasn’t a complete moron either; in short, he was smart enough to know he was being used, and to take the money that his services demanded. If this is something less than morally reprehensible, it is still pretty gross,” he concluded.
Other media members on Twitter quickly responded:
@IChotiner @Slate what happened to you to make you such an awful, hateful human being?
— Jeff Cox (@JeffCoxCNBCcom) February 24, 2017
@IChotiner @Slate If you worked for me, you'd be cleaning out your desk right now. This is shameful.
— Alex Berezow (@AlexBerezow) February 24, 2017
Sick MT: Slate Declares Alan Colmes 'Buffoon,' 'Liberal Weakling' Only Hours After His Death https://t.co/o7WUfoeyBp pic.twitter.com/GMYMHykET2
— Jon Nicosia (@NewsPolitics) February 24, 2017
Alan Colmes died yesterday.
This is how the losers at @Slate respond. Pathetic.
RIP, Mr. Colmes https://t.co/4cG9ZOIBet
— Chet Cannon (@Chet_Cannon) February 24, 2017
@IChotiner @Slate I worked with Alan Colmes for many years. He had more integrity and courage than you'll ever have.
— Charlie Alzamora (@chalzamora) February 24, 2017
The Hill has reached out to Chotiner for comment.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
