Last night on Larry King Live I challenged the mainstream media to stop playing both sides of the street when it comes to Ann Coulter: pretending to be shocked -- shocked! -- by her outrageous, over-the-top invective while continuing to give her a platform. And not just giving her a platform, but singing her praises. Indeed, after Coulter called Al Gore a "total fag" on Hardball in July, Chris Matthews told her "you're great" and gushed about how he'd "love to have her back."
Talk about enabling. No wonder she felt free to slime John Edwards at CPAC.
But the tide could finally be turning. Already Anderson Cooper has said "you probably won't get Ann Coulter on this show." Will Chris Matthews make the same pledge? Will Larry King? How about Joe Scarborough? (We know Sean Hannity is too addicted to the Coulter Crack to sign on.)
The good news is that the opprobrium she's facing spans the political spectrum (see this open letter from conservative bloggers).
Ann Coulter is, of course, a serial offender (for a collection of her most noxious statements, see below). It's the reason her CPAC attack on Edwards has gotten so much traction: it fits the larger narrative of Coulter as a spewer of toxic and hateful rhetoric, just as George Allen's Macaca comment fit the larger pattern of racist comments and behavior.
So will this prove to be Coulter's Macaca Moment? Only if the mainstream media stop trying to have their Coulter and beat it too.
"Liberals hate America." -- Slander, p. 6, 2002
"Democrats actually hate working-class people." -- Slander, p. 27, 2002
"Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do." -- Slander, p. 6, 2002
"Liberals can't just come out and say they want to take more of our money, kill babies, and discriminate on the basis of race." -- How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter, 2004
Bill Clinton "was a very good rapist." -- New York Observer, 1-3-05
Islam is "a car-burning cult." -- 2-8-06
"I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East and sending liberals to Guantanamo." -- 12-21-05
"[Democrats like Murtha] long to see U.S. troops shot, humiliated, and driven from the field of battle." -- 11-24-05
"[A] baseball bat is the most effective way [to talk to liberals] these days." -- FOX News Channel, DaySide with Linda Vester, 10-6-04
"Isn't it great to see Muslims celebrating something other than the slaughter of Americans?" -- 2-3-05
"I think our motto should be post-9-11, 'raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.'" -- 2-10-06