Ann Coulter's Past Fake Media Firestorms Remembered

You know, it's not for nothing that I say things like, "Let's face it, she's been dining out for years now on the same set of grievances," when I talk about Ann Coulter. The only thing separating the act she takes on the road and that of Arrested Development's Gob Bluth is that you rarely get to hear Europe's "The Final Countdown" played. And some of this microwaved material isn't even her own! Here's a snip from her sit-down with Today's Matt Lauer, today:

MATT LAUER: [In the book] you also say that the liberal media and Democrats are out to accomplish the same thing: they want to destroy America. So, I mean, go ahead: why do liberals and the media want to destroy America?

ANN COULTER: Why? Their motives? Well, I'd have to be their confessor or psychologist to understand that. I'm describing the results. And a beautiful example of this--my Chapter Two of the book--is the exaltation of single-motherhood. It's promoted in the New York Times and in glossy women's magazines and in Hollywood movies. And we now know after 30 years of promoting single-motherhood, of the courts destroying the institution of marriage, that children raised without fathers are filling up the prisons. 70% of the teenage runaways, of teenage pregnancies, of rapists --

Griping about single mothers? Jiminy crickets, y'all! That claptrap was way more trenchant back when Dan Quayle was calling out Murphy Brown on teevee, to the delight of Americans who traveled by zeppelin!

But that's what Coulter is all about, a tireless champion of warmed-over shtick. Why, all of this jujitsu with the Today show is just another example of the tiresome tactics she's used in her quest for self-promotion. At the risk of being the last guy on the internet to quote the Washington Independent's Dave Weigel on the matter, here's the Washington Independent's Dave Weigel on his days as a professional Coulter-wrangler for USA Today:

Coulter handed in her first column closer to the deadline then we'd expected. She also came in short. And she came in ... well, what's the opposite of readable? The column that began "Here at the spawn of Satan convention" was a phoned-in collection of anonymous anecdotes and lazy writing. No problem, we thought: We're editors. My bosses immediately suggested fixes to the column -- some of them asking whether Coulter could touch up her jokes, some correcting bad writing, and some asking for more content.

Coulter flipped. She refused to answer all of the edits. The next thing we knew, she had left Boston. The next thing we knew after that was that Matt Drudge and other conservative news site editors had learned that we had "fired" Coulter. She was in New York hours later to bash us on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes."

This is all a way of saying I don't believe that NBC News "banned Coulter for life" for one second. She doesn't really worry about taking advantage of news organizations' standards and confidentiality to paint herself as a victim.

Precisely. And this week's Grievance Tango is just another example of this: a tired act that would have really played swell back in the days of vaudeville. But vaudeville's dead, dead as disco, dead as doormice.

Comments

[protagonia]

Sick people choose sick heroes.

Bad gravitates to bad.

YOU, below this comment - fall into that category. Your call on the maturity of others is voided inert by what you stand for.

[truth4once]

continuing to call her nasty names is very immature, but expected. Carry on, kids.

[BruceHNV]

To be fair, she called us nasty names first.

But I no more admire the gutter sniping than you do.

It's just proof there are people on both sides of the argument who are incapable of making a cogent argument and resort to belittling the opposition.

Like Ann does.

[JohnBryansFontaine]

Americans Outraged by Ann Coulter"s Liberal Use of Insults

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/6-9-2006-98779.asp


Will NBC once again help Ann Coulter sell books?

http://mediamatters.org/items/200710010001


And at her age of 47 and with her belief in marriage, why hasn't she been ever married?

[JohnBryansFontaine]

Speaking of turning the tables:

Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter

http://www.amazon.com/Brainless-Lies-Lunacy-Ann-Coulter/dp/0061243507/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231461017&sr=8-1

I Hate Ann Coulter!

http://www.amazon.com/I-Hate-Ann-Coulter-Unanimous/dp/1416936599/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231461223&sr=1-12

Soulless: Ann Coulter and the Right-Wing Church of Hate

http://www.amazon.com/Soulless-Coulter-Right-Wing-Church-Hate/dp/B000QW7QCM/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231461223&sr=1-10

[protagonia]

Your ironic handle gives you away, lil' devil.

Oops. You blew it.

[Cassandra2]

Ann Coulter - who knew a female impersonator could suffer from permanent PMS?

[ThomasMc]

Ann Coulter is a pathetic joke, and so is anyone who would give her air time.

[wiseguy77]

Ms. Coulter is very selective in her targets. Sarah Palin's daughter is a single mother - but Coulter seems to think that this condition always results from liberal social engineerinig rather than teen-age sex? Single mothers - from Obama's to Clintons have often done a good job raising their children, not as perfect men, but as caring human beings. Are we to take it that Ms. Couler has become an advocate of abortion as a way to keep down "the criminal class" which comes from a single mother raising her child? Her arguments are made for effect, not for illumination, and there is a strong element of racism in what she says.. More disgraceful than Ms. Coulter is Matt Lauer and the other anchors who allow this woman to spew her hatred on their networks. They know she is a freak show that draws crowds. Even the circus has given up freak shows in our time.

[BruceHNV]

Ann's a real fan of Bill Bennett, who specifically supported this line of thnking.

According to Bennete, if it were your sole purpose to reduce crime, "You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.

"That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down."

[truth4once]

The liberal hate speech toward Ann Coulter is very telling. They hate her for doing as they are doing.

[BruceHNV]

That you even imagine liberals as demonizers of entire undifferentiated segments of society is very telling. You have drunk the Kool Aid.

We do not do what Ann Coulter does.

Hate speech (a la Ann Coulter) would be "Liberals are insane."

Dissent would be "Ann Coulter has it wrong about social justice, and here is why..."

You are unable to see the difference.

There is the occasional "Ann Coulter called me insane. She is an a s s." That, while hardly laudable, is at least understandable.

[protagonia]

Correction to below.

"Every bully wants to do want others cannot."

[Getbent]

She is a narrow minded one trick pony, writing books about one subject. Liberal bashing. She incites controversy and anger then points fingers. All of this starts with her, and her spiteful books attacking fellow Americans. I consider it a public service calling her out.

[protagonia]

truth4once agrees with AC - and what she believes in is pure ev-i!. It bodes poorly for truth4once.

truth4once thinks we should bow to AC's dark words.

Every bully wants to do want others cannot. Fortunately, no matter how eloquent or intelligent the bully may appear to be, they are actually the mean, ignorant children in any encounter.

truth4once !ies for money.

Nobody expects truth4once to admit that.

truth4once !ies.

[truth4once]

Ann confronts the left with the evidence of their failed social engineering and all they can do is attack her personally. Pretty sophomoric response, girls.

[JohnBryansFontaine]

Why should Liberals attack Ms. Coulter? Only because she is vicious, as when she compared Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler in her column ''Dimestore Mein Kampf" and accused the President-elect of being the same on Hannity & Colmes. Out of all the hundreds of conservative columnists, she was the only one who saw any similarities between ''Dreams From My Father" and Hitler's polemic screed. That is viciousness. Considering her fierce, titanic rage, it's easy to see who is the true ''Dimestore Mein Kampf".

[BruceHNV]

Failed social engineering?

Study GDP growth, suicide rates, crime rates, financial growth, deficit spending, wage growth, inflation, etc. under Republican administrations and Democratic administrations. Then get bak to me.

'K?

[asta1968]

Everyone in this country is entitled to their opinion. I'd never deny Miss Coulter hers. I've seen her shout opposing opinions down with unreasonable statements and name calling. What I and many more are sick of is the divisive nature of the language she always uses. When will she start acting her age? (which....let's be real, is well over 40). There are others like her, but thanks to inappropriately short skirts and or low cut tops not to mention flirty behavior with male interviewers, she helps herself to stand out over the rest. You can't behave the way Miss Coulter does and not be criticized for it. Coulter, O'Reilly, Hannity and Limbaugh and I'm sure a few others, are cut from the same cloth, their audience likes them for their childish behaviors and tantrums....The rest of us might be willing to listen if they were capable of actually arguing a point without shouting and pouting.

[LDS50]

Her "evidence" is dubious at best. It all stems from her "personality" of vicious attacks on select groups with anectodal information, no hard facts. She's just wired mean.

[protagonia]

T4O knows precisely what he/she is doing.

T4O is !ying for money as a tro!!.

A paid shill to defend the indefensible.

[protagonia]

"Pretty sophomoric response, girls."???

As if THAT was not sophomoric???

You are a !iar.

[Rule Of Law]

Has she ever seen herself naked?

[Novelene]

The Left is destroying this country promoting single motherhood? Hmmmm. Where does Bristol Palin fit into Coulter's equation?

[CRGirl30]

As a shining example of how shotgun wedding can fix everything.

[Nyla785]

Coulter's schtick is now tired and repetitive and seems like a relic from an earlier time. Only the most diehard right wing hacks are listening now. Most people have moved on to reality.
Bad for book sales, though the right wing will find SOME way of buying up copies to prop the numbers.

[daveincolorado]

If everyone would just ignore her, she would go away more quickly. She's not worth the effort.

[SatinPanties]

Disco is dead?!?!?!

[zest]

What is the point of her? I truly don't get it. Honestly...

[yomamadrama]

Well, her point is to express her opinion in a book form.

[Novelene]

Her point is to continue the Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity mind f***.

[BruceHNV]

Uhmmm, that would not be a "point."

[LCRover001]

Ann seems to buy into the studies showing that the incidence of crime from single mother homes is higher than in traditional homes with which they were compared to.

If crime was a response to living in a single mother family the presence of a stepfather should reduce the criminogenic effects of paternal loss. This does not happen, studies have consistently shown higher rates of crime for children who had substitute fathers than those having no fathers in the home.

Because poverty is related to both crime and single-parent families, studies that confound socioeconomic status and family structures tend to nourish the belief that single-parent families account for crime.

Studies, however, show that children from single-parent homes are no more likely to be criminals than are those from two-parent families. Disruptive parenting practices and behavior account for most of the apparent effects. Studies have shown that children reared by affectionate mothers in broken homes were half as likely to be convicted of serious crimes as children raised in quarrelsome but intact homes. Criminality is no more common among those reared solely by affectionate mothers than among those reared by two parents in tranquil homes.

Recent research has resulted in a considerable amount of evidence to suggest that if single parents provide strong and supportive guidance the children are no more likely to become criminals than if there are two good parents in the home.

[LCRover001]

Ann seems to buy into the studies showing that the incidence of crime from single mother homes is higher than in traditional homes with which they were compared to.

If crime was a response to living in a single mother family the presence of a stepfather should reduce the criminogenic effects of paternal loss. This does not happen, studies have consistently shown higher rates of crime for children who had substitute fathers than those having no fathers in the home.

Because poverty is related to both crime and single-parent families, studies that confound socioeconomic status and family structures tend to nourish the belief that single-parent families account for crime.

Studies, however, show that children from single-parent homes are more likely to be criminals than are those from two-parent families. Disruptive parenting practices and behavior account for most of the apparent effects. Studies have shown that children reared by affectionate mothers in broken homes were half as likely to be convicted of serious crimes as children raised in quarrelsome but intact homes. Criminality is no more common among those reared solely by affectionate mothers than among those reared by two parents in tranquil homes.

Recent research has resulted in a considerable amount of evidence to suggest that if single parents provide strong and supportive guidance the children are no more likely to become criminals than if there are two good parents in the home.

[LCRover001]

Typo fixed in above post :)

[3dtrix]

What isn't fixed is that those with an ideological axe to grind (or merely interested in pandering to them) have no interest in facts. God bless you though, for keeping the faith - hopefully we are emerging from the dark ages.

[DallasWASP]

LCRover, this is balanced and everyone should read it. You make an excellent point.