The Real Ann Coulter Question: Why Does NBC News Give So Much Airtime to This Loon?

When the blogs began circulating harpy pundit Ann Coulter's awful comments about Jewish people on CNBC's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, I was almost amused.

Coulter told Deutsch that America should be a Christian nation, Jews should convert and that Christians "just want Jews to be perfected, as they say."

Deutsch, who is Jewish, seemed flabbergasted by Coulter's comments (see for yourself here). Of course, he wouldn't have been so surprised if he had paid attention to her past pronouncements, in which she said of Muslims "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." She's also defended racial profiling in airport security (one blogger I read wondered if she also supported racially profiling white people who try to rent Ryder trucks); accused the widows of emergency workers killed in 9/11 of enjoying their husband's deaths and claimed liberals do not believe in God.

Deutsch tried to spin it all this morning on the Today Show, admitting his producers didn't want Coulter on his program while claiming he was "trying to celebrate her business model." (making money through prejudiced, hurtful rhetoric?) He then went on to say politicians or other people in the media should take on the issue of celebrities getting attention by acting badly. How about just ignoring her next book?

To be sure, part of this controversy involved Coulter clumsily slinging around the evangelical code language others use more subtly. Someone like Newt Gingrich would have made the same point obliquely enough that Deutsch couldn't have laid a glove on him. But subtlety isn't exactly Coulter's stock in trade.

I'm past the point of shock at her words; Coulter earns her daily bread by saying the stuff most other right wing extremists have the good sense to keep to Klan rallies and white supremacist chat rooms. (scroll to the end of this post on my own blog to see Coulter herself admit insult is te key to her success formula)

What makes this an important story is the access NBC continues to give her to mainstream audiences. (It's also worth asking why Deutsch didn't get upset with Coulter -- who has been on his show before -- until she smacked him right in the face with some fundamentalist Christians' views on Jewish people as failed Christians).

The first time I heard of her latest loony book, If Democrats Had any Brains, They'd Be Republicans, was when Meredith Vieira was interviewing her about it on the Today Show. I can think of 1,000 authors who deserve the wide spotlight of Today more than the woman who called John Edwards a faggot, but there she was, spouting her nonsense to morning TV's largest audience.

There's a hint why Today and NBC News is so willing to give her attention in Howard Kurtz's new book, Reality Show, when the Washington Post media critic recounts an attempt by NBC anchor Brian Williams to call her to task for her comments on the the 9/11 widows.

NBC's piece led with the question on everyone's lips back then: "Have you no shame?"

But Williams got a shock, according to Kurtz: "Williams was deluged with e-mails from angry conservatives...Williams had tried to make the case for civility in public debate, but in an age when anyone could unleash a torrent of shame with the click of a mouse, perhaps it had already vanished."

You'd think Imus would have taught them something. Keep featuring a prejudiced jerk on your air, and soon enough they'll say something that makes you look awful and insults a huge portion of those people you're trying to sell Happy Meals and tennis shoes to.

My only comfort: If Coulter's view of religion is even partly right, she'll be spending most of eternity in an awfully warm place before long.

Follow Eric Deggans on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Deggans

Comments

[JohnnyCNote]

The Coultergeist, along with Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and all the rest are nothing more than prostitutes spelled with a big, capital "W". As far as this paticular witch goes, she has a lot to do with why I'm not a Christian (not that she is) . . .

[PTBartman]

Eric,

You said...

"You'd think Imus would have taught them something. Keep featuring a prejudiced jerk on your air, and soon enough they'll say something that makes you look awful and insults a huge portion of those people you're trying to sell Happy Meals and tennis shoes to."

Well You'ld think by now that Imus and his legion of loyal listeners would have taught you in the mainstream media some thing.

We Americans are perfectly capable of making up our own minds. We don't need you to tell us who to listen to and who not to. More speech is always the answer not less speech.

A journalist in favor of corporate censorship?

Right now I, along with Millions of members of the I-Nation am engaged in boycotts against CBS NBC and there sponosors. Not for What I-Mus (or anybody else) said but cecause of the CorpRATocracies attack on free speech and expression.

[manymoons]

There is much hate expressed here. And that was a low blow to Don Imus. He has a right to a program and he also has a right to speak.

Check out Don Imus' good deeds and you will find many. He has helped many, both black and white. And I ask you, what DEED can you point to that he has done to hurt anyone? And if he inadvertently hurt someone's feeling, he has apologized many times over.

He should have a program.

[paddymick]

This is ridiculous... Why is giving Anne enough airtime to hang herself worse than keeping her off the air? Anyone heard the old addage, "It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."

We need to have Anne on the air MORE. And we need to publicly flay her every time she appears. We need to expose the idiocy and ignorance of those who believe as she does so they will be shamed at least into silence if not a personal change of philosophy.

So I say, PUT HER ON and then BEAT HER DOWN! Publicly and resoundingly!

[BeyondPopper]

Coulter: Tolerance is everyone being and believing exactly like me.

Really?

Plus:

If Christians are "more perfect" because the Jews only believe in the Old Testament and Christians believe in both the Old and New Testaments, then what are Muslims, who accept both the Old and New Testaments, and then accept a book that updates and corrects what they see as the errors (introduced by copyists and other after these texts were revealed) in both? Are not Muslims more perfect, by that reasoning, than Christians?

But, of course, this blog starts with the real question. Why does anyone -- other than idle shut-ins such as myself -- spend two minutes paying the slightest attention to the mad, bad, sad, delusional, hateful maunderings of this stick-figure criminal?

[SamThornton]

Even I'm too old to actually remember listening to the rantings of the notorious anti-semitic, pro-Hitler, pro-Mussolini radio personality, Father Charles Coughlin.

Coughlin made a name for himself -- and a pot of money -- in the 1930s on another national network, CBS.

Like Coulter, he specialized in spewing a really venomous brand of fascist propaganda and attracted a large, national following.

He was finally ordered to knock it off by the Archbishop of Detroit and returned to duties at his church, the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, Michigan in 1942.

Wonder who Coulter's "Bishop" is?

[channelXRFR]

Don Imus has raised money to support sickle cell research. He has invited Black teens suffering from sickle cell and other blood disorders to live with his family at the Imus Ranch in New Mexico every year for the experience of the great american cowboy. Imus fully supported African-American Congressman Harold Ford Jr. for U.S. Senate, in the face of death threats. He was the FIRST white person that I heard say: "President Bush didn't care about the Katrina victims because they were BLACK!" He's featured artists like Aaron Neville and The Blind Boys of Alabama on his show.

If this is prejudice we need more of it!

[Shortyfuse]

Ann Colter makes me miss Madlyn Murry O'Hair. Wouldn't you like to see those two go at each other. They were cut from the same cloth.

[kms34786]

You really have to wonder about the souls of all the the NBC executives. They put flakes on like Coulter to drive their ratings. A few months ago they staged that stunt with Elizabeth Edwards calling in to confront Dolter. She makes more appearances on NBC and its sister stations than any other network, and you really have to wonder why.

But when you remember that NBC is a profit driven company that is only out to boost it's ratings, then it all becomes clear.

The woman is a flake, she (like Rush "give me some more oxycotin" Limbaugh) has staked out a spot on the lunatic fringe, and NBC is one of the megaphones she uses to spew her particular brand of insanity. The fact the Deutsch was talking to her about "branding" and how she has positioned herself says it all.

If the Bible is right then God will judge all by the service and good deeds they do for others. If true she may find that her claim to a spot on the lunatic fringe is really a parcel in hell.

[Jax]

Excellent post. Absolutely spont on!

[HeevenSteven]

I've always thought Coulter is a self-styled cartoon. A sick and tasteless one, but a cartoon never the less, and she's laughing all the way to the bank.

There is only one reason she's on TV: RATINGS! Create controversy and present a faux debate.

Chris Matthews gave her a full hour without disclosing the fact that they had books debuting the same month with the same publisher.

News flash for Donny by the way: Her views on Jews and Christianity are actually shared by many Christians. I was taught similar dogma in Catholic school a long time ago: Only we had a pass to heaven; others had to work especially hard to be considered. That's the problem with most organized religions; they all think only they have the truth.

[therealredstateblues]

She is a car wreck you know you shouldn't look

[jhNY]

They keep putting Ann Coulter on TV because she attacks without restraint and says terrible terrible things about people who aren't around to defend themselves. A guy with a dog is responsible for the dog's actions if the dog bites somebody. It doesn't make much difference if he's on or off the leash when it happens. The guy who was supposed to keep the dog away from his fellow citizens is liable. And no, I'm not saying Ann Coulter is a dog. I like dogs.

But in TV Land, the good kids, our all-grown-up student council members of the press, facilitate and multiply the utterances of Ms. Coulter (bet she hates that) while they titter with the special thrilling pleasure that the fearfully cruel experience whenever they think the blame for the cruelty inflicted will fall on anybody besides themselves. It wasn't them that said it, after all. They just played it over and over and giggled.

Remember them now? They're the nerds on the edge of every schoolyard fight, egging the bully on to beat one of their own, or anybody else who can't fight back. But every once in a while, the fight moves too fast, and before the nerd can skitter away, a stray punch lands square in his face, which of course, was never supposed to happen. In Deutsch's case, Coulter strayed from the bounds he thought she'd stay inside, and managed, as is her specialty, to say something awful that upset him. Not fair!!! Something awful was supposed to happen to somebody else. And Deutsch was supposed to giggle.

If everybody in TV Land stopped watching her, that would only leave the employees of the networks themselves to keep drawing attention to her by re-airing clips and repeating her outrages. And that's just what they do now, and would do in the future, if somehow nobody else watched. Coulter is their creature, and if occasionally she bites her handler du jour... Let him get up by himself. After all, it's only a scratch. He's a big boy. He can take it.

[schmuckwithearlaps]

Eric raises some troubling questions. Today the right wing talk show boys are going to swift boat Al Gore's nobel prize. They do not even need Ann C. to do that. Ann just is icing on the cake. While we can chuckle and call her the pin up girl for the SS, as one Huff Post writer did yesterday, the fact is that Rush, Sean, Matt and the rest of the boys look respectable compared to Ann, and they love it. She is the bad girl compared to their "mainstream" conservativism. Our problem is that nothing can stop this juggernaut. By the end of today, to the average American, who gets his news driving in the Chevy, Al Gore's nobel prize will morph into the Order of Lenin. And that is before Ann even opens her mouth. Hillary, are you listening?

[mommadona]

And she cackles all the way to da bank.
May "she who will remain nameless" get not one more moment of 'exposure'.