Alan Colmes Defends FOX News
to a BuzzFlash Reader

April 30, 2002

One of our readers wrote Alan Colmes the following e-mail:

Alan,

Are you embarrassed at being a freeper favorite liberal, At the same time the freepers are trying to shutdown Crossfire which has real liberals. You should take note your opponents in the debate like you and people on your side of the debate think your taking a dive for Fox. Maybe you should watch Crossfire and see how a true liberal speaks. Carville and Begala speak for us and you are just a shill for Phony Fox. Get a backbone or get out of the game---people like Hannity and Rush need people like you to beat up on so it looks like they are winning the debate---But they don't stand a chance in any fair and balanced debate with a liberal who stands up for himself. They are boycotting crossfire because they can dish it out but can't take it. People like Hannity and Rush could never debate Carville or Begala because they need a rigged debate, much like the one your show provides. You should be liked by liberals not freepers--if you are liked by your opponent it means you're not fighting hard enough. If you like taking dives, perhaps you could try out for the Washington Generals as coach, if not then speak up.

thank you,
stevie gardiner
somerdale, nj

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Stevie Gardiner received an e-mail back from Alan.

To: gardiner stevie
Subject: Re: popularity

I'm sorry to see you jumping on the bandwagon that likes to attack me for working at Fox and come after me because I don't have Republicans boycotting my show. Crossfire is failing in the ratings. We're winning. And it's not because only right-wingers are the watching us. I'm proud of what I do and how I do it. The goal of a host is not to get people to boycott your show.

Alan Colmes

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BuzzFlash E-mailed Alan to get further comments, and he forwarded us this response:

The "jumping on the bandwagon" comment referred to the fact that this is part of a series of e-mails I've received based on criticism on a web site by someone who doesn't particularly like my work. The e-mails all have the same theme: Fox News, they say, is biased, and guests boycotting Crossfire only proves how if they come on Fox they
get softballs. I disagree with the assessment of Fox, and I don't concur that proof of a successful show is that scores of people don't want to go in it. The goal of a show can't be to discourage guests from appearing.

The responses I've received from these postings implies that I'm not good at my job because Republicans agree to come on my show. If I were truly good, it's implied, they'd boycott me, too. Well, they don't boycott me, because I'm truly fair, and I treat guests with respect and dignity, which is what a true liberal should do. The other implication here is that Crossfire stunk until Carville and Bagala came onboard. I like them both, but I also like Bill Press, who is no slouch, and is being demeaned here by default. If Crossfire is
suddenly so wonderful, what was it when Press hosted it? Furthermore, in spite of a first-week spike (normal for a new show with advance publicity), the ratings for the new Crossfire are not appreciably different than the ratings for the old Crossfire, while
our numbers have been consistently strong, as we've been outperforming Crossfire for a very long time. I'm open to constructive dialogue, and I'm always assessing my performance and, hopefully, evolving; but this spate of criticisms is based on emotion, not fact.

Alan Colmes

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