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DINO stands for Democrat In Name Only, a disparaging term for a member of the modern-day United States Democratic Party whose words and actions are thought to be too fiscally or socially conservative. The term "Fox News liberal" has also been used in this context.
The term was created as an analogous opposite to the acronym RINO (Republican In Name Only), which refers to more liberal members of the United States Republican Party. The acronym is a pun on the popular English-language shortening of the word dinosaur (which is often used metaphorically to refer to a long-obsolete person).
"DINO" is used by more ideological (politically speaking) members of the Democrats to challenge fellow party members for their heterodox or relatively conservative positions. In some cases, the platform of the member in question is not even necessarily close to the opponents—they just do not necessarily follow the party line in every case. Many (but not all) of the DINOs are "conservatives" from Southern states which were predominantly Dixiecrat before they switched en masse to the Republican Party. Unlike those who switched parties, these DINOs are content to remain "Democrats."
Fox News Liberals
The similar term Fox News liberal is used among Democrats and liberals in the U.S. to refer to those commentators and politicians who hold themselves out as liberals and/or Democrats, yet often agree with their conservative and/or Republican counterparts on TV talk shows or in legislative bodies on various issues and positions.
The term is similar to Democrat In Name Only (DINO). It is based on the belief, held by many on the left, that the Fox News Channel has a conservative/Republican bias, and the claim that many supposedly liberal Fox News are straw men hired to ineffectively present liberal viewpoints. (This accusation has also been applied in reverse to the supposed conservative commentators on other networks, such as Tucker Carlson or William Safire.)
The term was first applied in 2004 to Alan Colmes, the liberal co-host to conservative Sean Hannity on the Fox News show Hannity & Colmes. Some liberal viewers find Colmes' quiet, deferential style infuriating, particularly in contrast to the outspoken Hannity; and Colmes himself has sometimes taken more right-leaning positions, such as defending Mississippi Senator Trent Lott after the latter made racially suspect remarks at the 100th birthday party for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond. It hasn't helped Colmes with his liberal critics either that he has also defended Fox's "fair and balanced" slogan as accurate, or that he has been praised by prominent conservatives such as Newt Gingrich and was once chosen as the favorite liberal by posters on a Free Republic forum. Liberal commentator Al Franken lambasted Colmes in his popular book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, accusing him of refusing to ask tough questions during debates and neglecting to challenge alleged erroneous claims made by Hannity or his guests.
Susan Estrich, Ed Koch, and Pat Caddell have also been called Fox News liberals for exhibiting similar tendencies and have faced criticism that they care more that conservatives like them and that they continue to appear on television than defending liberalism and the Democratic Party. Zell Miller, a former Democratic Senator who endorsed George W. Bush for reelection in 2004, has been particularly criticized for his support of Bush's policies.
The 2004 documentary Outfoxed claimed to show that the Fox producers purposely choose unthreatening liberal commentators, both in the interviews with former producers for the network who spoke anonymously and an interview with a former commentator who recalled how he was let go by Fox early in what was supposed to be a long-term arrangement after challenging the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq too forcefully.
See also
Conservative Democrats
- Blue Dog Democrats: A caucus of Democratic Representatives in the House who are generally more conservative
- Conservative Democrat
- Southern Democrats
- Boll weevil (politics)
See also
- Left-Right politics
- Left-wing politics and Right-wing politics
- Party switching
- Republican In Name Only