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.
[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]