Ann Coulter Falls For Fake April Fool's Story

God knows that in an Ann Coulter article suggesting that "being named 'Gavin Newsom' should be grounds for dismissal," and that UC-Berkeley's academic mission is "turning out graduates who hate America," it seems redundant to point out the author got something factually incorrect. But, somehow, someone from Media Matters had enough eagle-eyed clarity and intestinal fortitude to wade through Coulter's latest harangue and pick out an instance of her falling for an April Fools Day joke.

It comes in a paragraph buried deep within Coulter's piece:

If Obama can tell GM and Chrysler that their participation in NASCAR is an "unnecessary expenditure," isn't having public schools force students to follow Muslim rituals, recite Islamic prayers and plan "jihads" also an "unnecessary expenditure"? Are all those school condom purchases considered "necessary expenditures"?

As it turns out, that whole thing about President Obama ordering GM and Chrysler out of NASCAR is all a part of an April Fools Day hoax pulled by Car And Driver Magazine. That post has since been removed, but here's a screenshot of what it looked like, just before it was taken down.

According to USA Today, Car And Drive eventually "apologized for 'going too far' while noting the magazine 'has a proud tradition of irreverent editorial and we amplify that each year with our April Fool's Day joke.'" In Coulter's defense, I think that Car And Driver's reputation for April Fools japery isn't as widely known as they perhaps think it is. Naturally, one wonders if this revelation will even matter to Coulter, since an Obama-hates-NASCAR message is something she can just go right on asserting in her credibility-free haunts without fear of being called out for it.

At the same time, it was April Fools Day, and there but for the grace of God and/or talented colleagues go everybody else. In three hundred and sixty-four days, we'll all, once again, be at risk of this sort of thing.

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Comments

[scooterliberal]

Now, I would never actually do this of course (wink wink)....when you see a book by her or O'Reilly at the bookstore or supermarket nonchalantly browse through it and bend a few page corners, maybe put a little rip in the jacket. You can do some serious damage in just a few seconds and make them quite unsaleable.

[morefromLA]

There is something very precious in this country known as freedom of speech and applies most especially to those misguided purveyors of poison (provided within the confines of law) like Ann Coulter.

[24hourrifle]

far right wingnuts make a living taking nonsense stories and running with them.then thoroughly beating them into the ground,along with their favorite line:"if this were george bush..."

the clear and thorough debunking of their attack lines matters little,or not at all in most cases.for example...

the stimulus bill includes a train from disneyland to vegas,put in by harry reid.

the stimulus includes money to save a field mouse in nancy pelosi's district.

the whole ipod controversy-now that we know that the queen actually requested the ipod,i think im going to start holding my breath waiting for every single "reporter" or commentator on fox news to mention this,considering that every single fox presonality has reported on how terrible a gift it was,while wearing a sh** eating grin.

these people cant have it both ways...they still boo hoo about how mean and unfairly bush was treated by the press while focusing on his endless buffoonery,yet these same people cant wait to run fox news alerts every time pres. obama stutters,or gets a piece of spinach caught in his teeth.

conservatism,the entire ideology is built upon little more than hypocricy and nonsense.all we need to know about the repub. party is,micheal steeel is running their party.sarah palin and bobby jindal are "rising stars",and michelle bachman and joe the plumber are routinely taken seriously and looked to for ideas.

[carljr]

Aha!!! Caught red handed! A clear example of Coulter's tenuous relationship with the truth.

[1differentdrummer]

She has an advantage, facts don't confuse her.

[dengal]

what? she is a victim again? poor ann.....

[genia]

She probably knew that it was a joke. Thing is...republicans do this all the time ..they pick up some lie and they put it out there..knowing the uneducated, bitter, gullible etc. will hear it and get into a huff.
Odds are they never hear...that it's a joke or an error or a lie.
It works...repugs bank on the fact that their followers are stupid.

[lmvd3]

Just the fact that she references "Car and Driver" magazine in a book is an astounding measure of bad research. No offense to the magazine, but a scholar she is not.

[h20bird]

No, Ann Coulter's not too bright. But she is media-savvy. Witness the amount of press she gets on this site.

[skyreader7]

On Americans buying her books and making her wealthy: There is a sucker born every minute. Well maybe if it's republicans, every second.

[StellaRay]

I could care less that Ann Coulter got pulled in by Car and Driver magazine, and yes, it seems like it could have happened to anyone in the media.

What's really frightening is this article's quote from Ms. Coulter:

...isn't having public schools force students to follow Muslim rituals, recite Islamic prayers and plan "jihads" also an "unnecessary expenditure"?

Can anyone come up with one example of a public school anywhere in this country that forces students to follow Muslim rituals and plan jihads? Anyone? Anywhere?

The important story here is that this woman proclaims a whopper like this and only gets called out for falling for an April Fool's stunt. The headline of this article should have been "Coulter accuses US education system of forcing students into jihad."

[reasonshouldrule]

I completely agree with you. But maybe people are so used to Coulter's erroneous rants that they don't pay enough attention to her actual erroneous points.

[maigesheng]

Thank you. Just logging in to say the same thing.

I read yesterday that Obama kissed the feet of a Saudi.

Seriously!!!! The opposition is left to making up INCERDIBLE fabrications from thin air. It is sad, funny and FRIGHTENING all at the same time!

[mag68]

that psycho couldn't speak the truth if her life depended upon it. Muslim, islam, jihad in schools? That freak and religinutcases have made sure the public school system brainwashes the little ones right into good ol BS christian hullabaloo. She is absolutely insane by her hateful bias. The skeletons in her closet have eaten her mind away and left a rancid paranoid nutcase blathering away about nothing.

[GlenRast]

Ann Coulter....Evolution's answer to male sex drive. The anti Viagra

[Deluded]

Good One!

[ChiGuy]

Leave it to a right-winger like Tr'ANNie to pounce on anything that might just harm a Democrat without doing the tiniest amount of fact checking.

Grasping at straws, and missing every single one.

[suemag]

Ah, Ann- not the sharpest knife in the drawer...

[tavote08]

That's what happens when you lack the ability to follow-up and do alittle research before you shoot off your mouth, or pen for that matter. Honestly, would she really care if it were true or not?????

[indy girl]

Ha ha!! She would probably have fallen for a fake PePe lePew accent too.