Ann Coulter, Porn Star

Everyone likes talking about Ann Coulter - a habit the mainstream media has unfortunately passed on to us to for the best part of a decade.

The shrill blonde can be seen regularly on Fox News, enraging liberals and mouthing off on a variety of pet peeves with her conservative co-hosts. She is occasionally invited on to the 'liberal' media (CNN, MSNBC etc) to take part in debates, but mostly because she drives ratings.

Coulter's fulminations deserve no serious attention, as nothing she says is even vaguely serious. If you see one of her 'books', pick it up and flick through it. You need only read the first few sentences of each chapter to realize she doesn't have clue what she is talking about. Take her analysis of the theory of evolution:

"Liberals' creation myth is Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which is about one notch above Scientology in scientific rigor," she writes in her book 'Godless: The Church of Liberalism'. "It's a make-believe story, based on a theory that is a tautology, with no proof in the scientist's laboratory or the fossil record -- and that's after 150 years of very determined looking. We wouldn't still be talking about it but for the fact that liberals think evolution disproves God."

Anyone vaguely aware of serious science knows that intelligent design (the theory to which she subscribes to) is simply a more advanced version of creationism - a theory no respected scientist pays any attention to. Coulter's list of grievances against liberals is legendary and far too long to go in to, (evolution being the least ridiculous and least offensive).

But Coulter is a phenomenon that says much about our media culture and entertainment. Coulter would be laughed off the air in every other country on earth, but is routinely invited on to American mainstream political shows to rant on about arming unborn fetuses, killing Muslims and preventing women from voting.

Why has this 40-something, blond Neo-Nazi gained so much attention with so little talent?

There is a simple explanation.

Around the mid to late 90's, Coulter's rise to popularity came around at the same time pornography entered mainstream acceptability. As Jenna Jameson brought blow-jobs and plastic breasts to Howard Stern and VH1, Coulter brought brainless right wing fascism to Fox News and MSNBC. Media conglomerates thirst for profit meant ratings trumped standards, and every lowlife idiot was given a show as long as they pulled in the numbers.

Porn became fashionable in the 90's, giving men a bona-fide excuse to head to the Hustler Store and watch Real Sex on HBO. Coulter happily tagged along, flicking her hair, and batting her eyelids while spouting the most offensive, ridiculous nonsense, hoping no one would notice her complete lack of talent.

Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and all the other half witted hacks with multi million dollar contracts aren't serious intellectuals, in the same way Jenna Jameson and Krystal Steal are not award winning actresses. However, they command an audience, and can therefore command serious money. As corporate greed took over, so did any sense of civic duty.

Although Coulter likes to take herself seriously, her entire career is based on pornographic voyeurism. How far would she go? What would she say, and how short would her skirt be? The networks loved it, and Ann was invited back again and again to stupify audiences with her inane ranting. Sex and controversy sell, and Coulter provided a good deal of both.

The fact is, most men between 18 to 55 watch porn, and that same broad demographic will tune in when Ann Coulter is on. The train wreck, shock jock commentary is irresistible to millions of viewers, and the media conglomerates happily package it as political debate.

Other than insulting liberals, gays and Muslims, there is little to point to in the way of talent for Ms Coulter. She is vaguely attractive, has long legs and likes to flirt with male interviewers. In truth, she would probably be just as successful on an episode of Milf Hunter as she is on endless Arab bashing gigs with Fox News.

No self respecting news program would have an idiot like Coulter on their show, and luckily for her, there are no self respecting news programs.

Who is to blame? Well us of course, for even paying attention. But perhaps some deep-seated psychological need to observe the obscene is not entirely our fault. It is exists, to be sure, but has been nurtured by the media like a crack dealer handing out samples to curious teenagers. Ann Coulter will keep shouting, and we could turn off the TV. But maybe the networks could finally take responsibility and let Coulter crawl back up the dingy hole she crawled out of.

Ben Cohen is the editor of www.thedailybanter.com and a contributing writer to www.espn.com. He can be reached at [e-mail]

Follow Ben Cohen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thedailybanter

Comments

[ignrnthllblly]

.....but Ben, Jenna Jameson LIKES women.....

[booksnmore4you]

Yea but she's a bit sexy so people watch her.

Shame men for watching porn and stop watching it yourself then you'll have the moral authority to shame them for watching Coulter.

[goofticket]

As the neocons fade into oblivion, so will Coulter and the rest of the morons, who speak to the ignorant intolerants.

We saw the Lester Maddox's go away, and these temporary 'pet rocks' will also fade.

The fad that was neoconservatism, will be replaced by another equally offensive group with a new and improved package of mental porn to obssess over.

[xhibi]

You're right Ben.

BUT, the funny thing is that you just managed to put a 'shocking' title to your story and mention her name too...kind of like MSM does.
You could have just as well made your point without that, and perhaps even without mentioning her name in the article so many times, since there are plenty of people and things that resemble her in the media.

Perhaps you didn't intend to do this on purpose for the same reasons you rightfully bash the MSM - to get out short-spanned attention.
Perhaps I am reading too much into it. I don't know. It's just quacked like a duck, but maybe it isn't.

[Tator]

204-"Around the mid to late 90's, Coulter's rise to popularity came around at the same time pornography entered mainstream acceptabil­ity."

I stopped reading at that line, becasue nothing could be further than the truth. Maybe in Liberal households Porn is "acceptable" (no real surprise) , but in non-Liberal households we still understand Porn is a business that preys on women and young girls. How so called feminist and the Liberal position Porn is acceptable can coexist in the same belief system is beyond me, but thne again I do not live in Liberal LALA Land.

[jayburd]

Deny all you want but porn has achieved a measure of acceptability the mainstream. And not just your typical boy/girl penetration porn either. Just tune into FOX at 8:00 on any Sunday night and watch "Family Guy" and you might notice that one of the main characters on that show is a sexually aware, ambiguously gay toddler. Then tune into FOX News' "The O'Riley Factor" and listen to Bill's special guest Ann Coulter rant and rave about society's sexual mores and the evils of liberalism.

Then ask yourself honestly if something isn't seriously fucked up about that whore of a network called FOX. Are "Family Guy" and "The O'Riley Factor" really that far removed from what "porn" offers - appealing to our basest instincts?

[littlepuffycloud]

Do people really think Coulter is pretty? She sort of looks like a trannie. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but 'pretty'? Perhaps if she had never opened her mouth to spew her hateful ugliness, but she has, so no, I can't get on the pretty train for her.

[Indoboy7]

Going into a BArnes & Nobles one day, I was facing a pile of books from which the image of a blonde stared me in the face....No­t knowing who she was,I was immediately reminded of one of those blow-up dolls that many frustrated males avail themselves of for hours of" ïntimate"p­leasures..­.....The next time I saw her was on a video clip, making some inane gaseous comments, with the expected result of the liberal press going into orbit, while she had that vacuous smile on her face...Loo­king into those empty eyes, one can almost see the cogs turning ever so smoothly, going towards the pay-off:..­CHA-CHING.­.........b­lah-blah-b­lah,,etc..­....CHA-CH­A-CHING...­...Stop paying atttention to this emptyheaded blonde bimbo, and the world will be so much better.

[Quaoar]

"As Jenna Jameson brought blow-jobs and plastic breasts to Howard Stern and VH1, Coulter brought brainless right wing fascism to Fox News and MSNBC."

Then some bright network executive should hire Jenna Jameson as a political commentator. She's more intelligent and has more palatable politics than Reichstag Annie and would no doubt bring in higher ratings. Most heterosexual men would prefer watching Jenna to watching Ann the Man.

[FreeThinkn1]

Comparing Jenna to Reichstag Annie is insulting to Jenna. She was on the View a few months ago and she's an intelligent and confident person--the polar opposite of Coultergeist.
Here's a link to her segment on the View:

http://showhype.com/video/jenna_jameson_on_the_view/

[AmbivalentGuy]

Aaron MacGruder's Boondocks TV show (Adult swim - cartoon channel) lampoons Coulter in an episode called "The S Word".

It's killer.
Huey asks Ann "Do you really believe what you say"
Ann answer (paraphrased) "Oh, hell no, but a b*tch has gotta sell books,
you don't get rich trying to save the world."

[dadw5boys]

HOW MUCH DID ANN COULTER PAY TO KEEP THE PICS OF HER IN A L.A. GAY NIGHT CLUB OUT OF THE MEDIA?????

OR IS THE MEDIA PROTECING HER LIKE THEY PROTECT BUSH?

[Titonwan]

There's no need to shout. I don't need to read your loud post's from across the room. I'm right here. Quit capitalizing EVERYTHING. It's diminishes what you say and it's a form of rudeness. So if you're against Ann (who is rude), quit being RUDE. see?

[thismachinekillsfascists]

It's ok, he's probably using an old Apple II+ or Atari with only caps

[researcher]

"Anyone vaguely aware of serious science knows that intelligent design (the theory to which she subscribes to) is simply a more advanced version of creationism - a theory no respected scientist pays any attention to"

god is isness not a designer or are we here by chance nor did a human looking god create humans

the universe is intelligent but in our ignorance we dont have a clue

it looks like chaos to us

the intellectuals god is science and they have been wrong more than right when we look back at history

the most resistant to change h as been the scientist well ok the religious folks but hey every body knows that but the religious folks


sorry but the design people the darwinists and the creationists do not have the answers to the origin of life or even the meaning of life or even the purpose of life

we are ignorant beings that pretend we know more than we do lots more than we do

we confuse intellectual capability with intelligence

"god made man in its image and man returned the favor" mark twain

[AmbivalentGuy]

Pure crap.
Scientists admit when they are wrong, and usually "wrong" leads
to a more refined *understanding* of the physical world.
What you call "wrong", scientist call a paradigm shift -
the acceptance of a more accurate *model*.
Yes, Science can't answer spiritual questions.

"we confuse intellectual capability with intelligence",
speak for yourself. There are hollow intellectuals, yes,
and intelligent people who never hit any potential.
But I don't think you'd know either if you saw them.

You are evidently one of those people about whom Dean was speaking.

"sorry but the design people the darwinists and the creationists do not have the answers to the origin of life or even the meaning of life or even the purpose of life

we are ignorant beings that pretend we know more than we do lots more than we do"

I am glad you used "we" there, because you are certainly proof of the existence of an ignorant being. Evolution does not say ANYTHING about the origin of life. Nothing!!! It is a verifiable, observable explanation of how life became so diverse. You are the pretender here.

You are saying "god is isness", besides the fact that that's not a word, I understand your meaning, your need for this self-referential nonsense, and its meaninglessness.

But you're not really sincere anyway - your just a crypto fundie aren't you?

[avraamjack]

.
18 to 55?
.
Under 18 and over 55 have no internet access?
.

[lennix]

ann coulter is what news has become your are right 100% becuase there are no news men any more just a bunch of movie stars getting rich from the puppet master who owns them to fill our head with comic book lies yes this is way i reather watch pbs and bbc news they are the only real news men left and this is way we are being laff at all over the world becuase we have become a nation full of jerks

[pigsatthetrough]

The audience is not just FOX news viewers. The 20 percent or so who firmly believe in Bush, also believe in faux science, and every other foolish word out of the neocons mouths. The choir at FOX keeps on pumping their heads and hands for Coulter. Yet the same has crept in on every other so called News Network. When we first heard the statement, 'News you can trust", we should have known we were about to be lied to. The lies. specifically over the last two years are presented by so called experts and analysts. Their rhetoric is not any better than Coulters, just not as colorful. Perhaps more R rated than X rated keeping in line with this post. Blitzer, Cooper, Beck, and of course all the regulars, being paid by Murdock provide the sex in the city level news hype. Coulter just takes it a step further, and her lack of mental ability is the show all, crude display, at its best.

[morenot]

It is a shame that so many people feel the need to be convinced entirely about all these subjects. I mean science and religion, not whether you think conservative pundits are as tawdry as sex performers. Calling a political foe something sexually offensive is a very old slur.

[lovethesinner]

But, is Pat Buchanan any less pornographic? He's arguably better educated, and certainly more widely accepted. But... less pornographic?

Your statement, "No self respecting news program would have an idiot like Coulter on their show, and luckily for her, there are no self respecting news programs" is the absolute truth, and is a topic for a longer discussion. My fondest hope is that a new administration will reinstate the fairness doctrine, and put someone sane at the head of the FCC.

Obama-Webb '08

[marignymitch]

Coulter has better legs than Buchanan.

[AmbivalentGuy]

Ever hear that Irish saying "she's a sheep trying to look like a lamb".