Alan Colmes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Alan Colmes | |
|---|---|
Colmes in September 2014
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| Born | Alan Samuel Colmes September 24, 1950 New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Hofstra University |
| Occupation | Television and radio host,political commentator, writer,blogger |
| Employer | Fox News Channel |
| Spouse(s) | Jocelyn Elise Crowley |
| Website | www |
Alan Samuel Colmes (born September 24, 1950) is an American radio and television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger. He is the host of The Alan Colmes Show, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show distributed by Fox News Radio that also airs throughout the United States on Fox News Talk on Sirius and XM. From 1996 to 2009, Colmes served as the co-host of Hannity & Colmes, a nightly political debate show on Fox News Channel. Since 2015, Colmes has supplied the voice of The Liberal Panel, an animatronic robot face built into a panelled wall who spouts conventionally liberal political opinions, on Fox News Channel's The Greg Gutfeld Show.
In addition to broadcasting, Colmes runs the Liberaland blog and contributes to AOL News. He is the author of Red, White & Liberal: How Left Is Right and Right Is Wrong (2003) and Thank the Liberals for Saving America (2012).
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[hide]Early life and education[edit]
Colmes was born in New York City. He attended local public schools and went to Hofstra University, where he graduated in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree from its School of Communications.[1] While at Hofstra, he worked at its radio station WRHU.[2]
Career[edit]
Colmes began his career in stand-up comedy.[3] He developed his radio career in the Northeast, eventually working at stations such as WABC, WNBC, WHN, WMCA and WEVD in New York, WNHC in New Haven, and WEZE and WZLX in Boston.
His radio career took off when WABC hired him for the morning drive time slot. He was billed as "W. Alan B. Colmes," as in the station's call sign. He moved to WNBC in 1987, but his tenure there would be short when NBC announced in 1988 it would close its radio division. When WNBC went off the air for the last time on October 7, 1988, Colmes' was the last voice heard. He has been 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 distributed by Fox News Radio.[4] He was hired by Fox News CEO Roger Ailes in 1996. He was the co-host of Hannity and Colmes, beginning with the Fox News Channel launch on October 6, 1996, and ending on January 9, 2009. He also appeared live on Shovio.com's new broadcasting technology, TalkBackTV.
Colmes's debut non-fiction book, Red, White & Liberal: How Left is Right and Right is Wrong (ISBN 0-06-056297-8), was published in October 2003. It tackles issues such as civil rights, the war on terror, and the perceived liberal media bias. Interspersed throughout are actual emails from Hannity & Colmes viewers, reprinted verbatim.
He left Hannity and Colmes at the end of 2008.[5] Fox replaced it with Hannity, premiering in January 2009. Colmes has continued as a commentator on Fox News, most often onThe O'Reilly Factor where he frequently appears with his conservative sister-in-law, Monica Crowley. He is an infrequent guest-panelist on Fox News' late-night satire programRed Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld.
Post-Hannity and Colmes, Colmes has also been a frequent panelist on the news analysis program Fox News Watch alongside Cal Thomas, Judith Miller, and other pundits.
Criticism and satire[edit]
While Colmes describes himself as a liberal and his Fox News biography touts him as "a hard-hitting liberal," he has sometimes been referred to disparagingly as a "token liberal" or a "Fox News liberal".[6] Colmes told USA Today that he considers himself "quite moderate."[7] In an article he wrote in 2013, Colmes described himself as "very liberal".[8]
During his run on Hannity and Colmes, Colmes was criticized for being less charismatic and telegenic than Sean Hannity, and just a "seat-filler" for the liberal side.[9] Some newspapers reported him as being Hannity's "sidekick".[10] Democratic Senator Al Franken criticized Colmes in his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, saying he refused to ask tough questions during debates and neglected to challenge erroneous claims made by Hannity or his guests.[10] Franken claimed that Colmes did not speak as much as Hannity during the show. Some liberal critics questioned whether or not both hosts receive equal time to interview guests.[10] Some of Colmes's liberal critics, notably commentators at Media Matters for America, praised him toward the end of the show's run. He began to cite their reports in interviews with some conservative guests on the program.[11][12]
Bob Garfield, interviewing Colmes for On the Media in 2003, asked him if he was "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 than to preach to the choir."[13]
The Colbert Report[edit]
On January 5, 2009, the beginning of his last week on Hannity and Colmes, Colmes was a guest on The Colbert Report in a spoof called "Colbert & Colmes," which parodied criticisms of H&C. In addition to being given a list of pre-approved responses to Stephen Colbert's opinions and forced to sit on a stool (making him appear shorter than his co-host), Colmes's face was covered by the on-air graphics while Colbert discussed issues of the day.[14] Colbert "fired" Colmes by the end of the show for pointing out fallacies in his logic.
Following Colmes' announcement that he was leaving H&C, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart also paid tribute to him with a guest appearance by legendary rock duo Hall & Oates, who in a parody version of their hit "She's Gone," dubbed him "Tango to his (Hannity's) Cash" and "Laurel to his Hardy."[15]
Remarks on "Dead Baby"[edit]
In January 2012 on Fox News, Colmes was discussing Rick Santorum's 2012 presidential campaign when he brought up the death of Santorum's and his wife's newly born baby. Colmes said people would bail on supporting Santorum once they "get a load of some of the crazy things he’s said and done, like taking his two-hour-old baby when it died right after childbirth home and played with it so that his other children would know that the child was real."[16] National Review editor Rich Lowry, who was on the show with Colmes, immediately went after Colmes for the remark, calling it a "cheap shot".[17] Colmes was criticized by some commentators who viewed his remark as insensitive. He apologized to Santorum and his wife, Karen, the next day. Colmes said they "graciously accepted" his apology.[18]
Personal life[edit]
Colmes is married to Dr. Jocelyn Elise Crowley, a professor of public policy at Rutgers University, whose sister is Monica Crowley, the conservative radio commentator, pundit and television personality.[19]
Weekdays 10pm-5am
George Noory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | This article is outdated. (November 2015) |
| George Noory | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg)
Noory in 2008
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| Born | George Ralph Noory June 4, 1950 Detroit, Michigan |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit (B.A., 1972) |
| Occupation | Talk radio host |
| Known for | Coast to Coast AM |
George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is a radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show Coast to Coast AM.[1] He has also appeared in the History channel series Ancient Aliens and in Beyond Belief, a subscription-based online video series presented by Gaiam TV.
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[hide]Biography[edit]
Noory grew up in Detroit with two younger sisters,[1] the son of a Lebanese Egyptian who worked at Ford Motor Company and aLebanese American mother.[2] He was raised Roman Catholic.[2] He became interested with the paranormal and ufology as a child[3]and joined the UFO organization NICAP as a teenager.[3] He attended the University of Detroit, spending two years in the pre-dental program before switching his major to Communications.[1] He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1972.[1] Noory served nine years in the United States Naval Reserve as a Lieutenant.[3][4]
He began his radio career as a newscaster with Detroit station WCAR-AM.[4] From 1974–1978 he worked as a news producer and executive news producer at WJBK-TV in Detroit.[5] He would later serve as news director for KMSP-TV in Minneapolis[6] and as news director at KSDK-TV in St. Louis. He won three local Emmy Awards for his work in TV news.[4]
In St. Louis, Noory formed Norcom Entertainment, Inc., a company that developed and marketed video training films to law enforcement and security agencies.[7] In 1987, Noory and his partners in Norcom Restaurants, Inc.[8] opened the Café Marrakesh and Oasis Bar in Brentwood, Missouri. The restaurant's theme revolved around a fictional English soldier, Col. William Berry, who opened the establishment following an exciting secret mission to Marrakesh.[9]
In 1996, Noory hosted a late-night radio program called Nighthawk on KTRS in St. Louis, which caught the attention of executives at Premiere Radio Networks, syndicators ofCoast to Coast AM.[1] Coast to Coast AM is a North American (United States and Canada) late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. In April 2001, Noory became a guest host for Coast to Coast AM before replacing Ian Punnett as the Sunday night host.[3] In January 2003, following Art Bell's retirement, Noory took over as weeknight host of Coast to Coast AM.[1]
In December 2012, Gaiam TV launched Beyond Belief with George Noory, a subscription-based webcast exploring the unknown and mysteries of the universe. The one-hour, weekly series features Noory taped in front of a live audience at Gaiam studios in Boulder, Colo., Beyond Belief with George Noory is available exclusively on Gaiam TV.[citation needed]
Reception[edit]
In a 2010 article about Noory published in the magazine The Atlantic, Timothy Lavin wrote: "Noory can be an uneven broadcaster. Sometimes he seems to not pay full attention to his guests, offers strangely obvious commentary, or—and this has alienated some fans—lets clearly delusional or pseudoscientific assertions slide by without challenge. But he listens, with heroic patience, to all of his callers."[2]
Dave Hodges of The Common Sense Show wrote about George Noory, "After a period of prolonged instability following the departure of Art Bell as the primary host of Coast to Coast, George Noory entered the scene in 2003 where he has since remained. However, Noory’s listening numbers are nothing to write home about. Once upon a time, some estimated that Art Bell had somewhere around 6-12 million listeners on any given night. In contrast, Noory’s numbers are a paltry 275,000 to 300,000 listeners per night. However, George Noory is the perfect front man and his numbers take on a secondary level of importance because he is very good at protecting the corporate turf and is very careful to only take risks on subjects that the corporate sponsors do not care about (e.g. crystal skulls, near death experiences, psychic mediums, etc.). Gone are the former days of Art Bell’s hard hitting journalism which made the spooks inside of the alphabet soup agencies very uncomfortable".[10][11]
According to Media Life Magazine, "Noory says it doesn’t matter whether he believes what his callers and guests say. Ultimately, it's about entertainment, creating a show that people will be drawn to."[12] Author and frequent Coast to Coast AM guest Whitley Strieber has commented on Noory's style, saying, "It's not that he's credulous or easily led. He's willing to take these intellectual journeys. He'll have guests on that you think are completely off the wall — nothing they're saying is real — but by the end of the program you will have made a discovery that there is a kernel of a question worth exploring."[13]
Art Bell stated that the decision to come out of retirement was his to start Dark Matter Radio Network, and was a response to Noory having "ruined" the Coast to Coast franchise by taking it in a political talk radio direction, with popular syndicated radio host Alex Jones as a regular guest. Bell wanted to see a return to the open-minded exploration of the supernatural that had defined his own earlier tenure.[14] Noory responded with a show in September 2013, which had as a guest David John Oates. Oates had earlier been banned by Art Bell from Coast to Coast.
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