Alan Colmes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alan Samuel Colmes
Born	September 24, 1950 (1950-09-24) (age 57) New York City
Nationality	American
Education	Hofstra University
Occupation	Television personality/host, Talk radio host & Author
Employers	Fox News Channel
Political party	Democratic
Religious beliefs	Jewish
Spouse	Dr. Jocelyn Elise Crowley
Website Alan.com

Alan Colmes (born September 24, 1950) is an American radio/television host and liberal political commentator. He is best known as a co-host on Fox News Channel's political debate program Hannity & Colmes. Colmes also hosts the nationally-syndicated radio show The Alan Colmes Show on Fox News Radio.

1 Early life and education
2 Career
3 Criticisms
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Early life and education

Colmes is a graduate of Hofstra University. He is married to Dr. Jocelyn Crowley, an associate professor in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, where she is also affiliated with the Department of Women’s Studies. She is the sister of Monica Crowley, an occasional replacement host as Colmes' conservative foil on Hannity and Colmes.

[edit] Career

Colmes began his career in stand-up comedy^[1]. He developed his radio career in the Northeast, eventually working at stations like WABC, WNBC, WHN and WEVD in New York and WZLX in Boston.

He is syndicated nationally, starting with his involvement with Daynet, a venture created by Colmes and other regional radio hosts. Daynet was sold to Major Networks Inc in 1994. Colmes kept his own show, which is now distributed by Fox News Radio.^[2] His radio career took off when WABC hired him for the morning drive time slot, billed as "W. Alan B. Colmes", as in the station's call sign. When WNBC let its staff go in 1988, Colmes was the final radio personality to sign off, doing so with the words: "I'm Alan Colmes. Thank you, God bless you, and for the last time, this is 66 WNBC." He was well-known in New York City when he was hired by Fox News CEO Roger Ailes in 1996. Since then, he has been the co-host of Hannity and Colmes, beginning with the Fox News Channel launch on October 6, 1996.

Colmes has written one book, Red, White & Liberal: How Left is Right and Right is Wrong (ISBN 0-06-056297-8) which was published in October 2003. Colmes says that, despite their philosophical and ideological differences, his relationship with Hannity on a personal level is a warm one, and that the reason for the success of Hannity & Colmes is "because of our differences, not in spite of them."^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Criticisms

While Colmes describes himself as a liberal and his Fox News biography describes him as "a hard-hitting liberal," he has sometimes been referred to disparagingly as a "Fox News liberal"^[3] and less telegenic than Hannity.^[4] However, Colmes has also drawn praise from progressive political bloggers for his questioning of conservative guests.^[5]^[6] Also, Colmes is considerably more aggressive in his liberal views on his radio show and in his books.

Bob Garfield, interviewing Colmes for On the Media, asked him if he were "the human straw man" and a "foil" rather than an equal of Hannity. Colmes replied that if the conservative members of the audience saw him that way, that was "their problem," and said "It's more fun for me to be in a situation like this [where much of the audience disagrees with him] than to preach to the choir."^[7]