Posted on 03/11/2007 9:08:10 AM PDT by doesnt suffer fools gladly
Has Ann Coulter Hit Her Tipping Point?
By DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) - Ann Coulter has been a reliable name for years among people who plan television news shows - an attractive, articulate blonde conservative who's made a living lobbing verbal bombs.
Following her use of a gay slur about Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards this month during remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference, some on TV are wondering whether her shelf life is expiring.
Many were angered by her use of the "f-word". Coulter later said she considered it a "schoolyard taunt." She said it was a joke about "Grey's Anatomy" actor Isaiah Washington saying he would seek counseling after using the word to refer to a fellow actor.
At least four daily newspapers have dropped Coulter as a columnist, citing her comment about Edwards.
Head-turning remarks are hardly anything new for the author of "Godless: The Church of Liberalism" and "How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)." In "Godless" last year, she wrote of World Trade Center widows: "I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much."
"It's a world of 'are you talking about me? are you talking about me?'" said Steve Friedman, executive producer of "The Early Show" on CBS. "And eventually you have to get more and more outrageous to be talked about. One day you cross the line and become persona non grata. I think she's getting close. I think Bill Maher is getting close."
Friedman has no plans to book Coulter on his show, but said he had no plans even before her Edwards comment.
Some people on NBC's "Today" show didn't want to see Coulter before she was booked to talk about "Godless" last summer, said Jim Bell, the show's executive producer.
He overruled them. Having only certain points of view would make for a bland program, he said. Since Coulter is a best-selling author, clearly there's an audience that responds to her. Coulter also appeared on a "Today" segment this Feb. 8, debating a University of Pennsylvania professor.
Bell said last week that Coulter's legitimate points of view are beginning to get lost in the noise of being outlandish.
"She sometimes goes out of her way to push some buttons and tends to generate more heat than light," he said. "We love a lively debate, but we would tend to get people who would generate more light."
Said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism: "You do wonder whether she's destined for 'Dancing With the Stars' at some point."
Several conservatives criticized Coulter for her Edwards remarks. Fellow columnist Michelle Malkin lamented that Coulter had tarred the work of people at the Washington conference. She called Coulter's humor "tired old shtick." Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the Media Research Center, said some conservatives envy the attention she gets and dislike how she distracts from legitimate arguments.
"If you got the sense that she was saying things you thought she believed, it would help," he said.
Still, Graham said it would be "outrageous" if Coulter is blacklisted by networks but Maher isn't. The HBO comic angered some by recent remarks suggesting more people would live if an assassination attempt against Vice President Dick Cheney had been successful.
The liberal organization Media Matters for America, which has long campaigned against Coulter, hopes this is a "defining moment" that causes TV networks to turn their backs on her, said spokesman Karl Frisch.
MSNBC once fired Coulter as a regular contributor after a remark she made to a Vietnam veteran. But Coulter has appeared there as a guest on shows and the network has no policy against her.
The remarks "won't stop conservatives from buying her books and her ability to sell books is what drives her bookings on TV," said MSNBC's "Hardball" host Chris Matthews.
CNN had scheduled Coulter to appear with Paula Zahn last Monday. The network said Coulter canceled her appearance.
"We have and will continue to interview provocative guests and ask them tough questions," CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson said. "We don't have overall bans about anyone. We will book them when we think it is appropriate to do so, on a case by case basis."
The changing nature of cable news may limit Coulter's ability to speak to those who don't already agree with her. Cable talk shows used to be built upon fiery debate, while now there are more shows that take a point of view and depict world events through that prism. Think Lou Dobbs, Keith Olbermann and Glenn Beck.
A spokeswoman for Coulter did not return a call for comment. Coulter, however, did appear on Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" three days after the Edwards remark and belittled the idea that it would do lasting damage to her. It's a cycle, she said: she says something, the same people become hysterical, and that's the end of it.
It's about her 17th allegedly career-ending moment, she said.
"It happens about every six months," Coulter said, "and you're always there to put me on TV, Sean."
Anyone seen Rush with Ann as President and VP on the 1/2 News Hour on Fox. Great stuff. RATS getting what they have been slinging for years and what is great it hit more of the truth than fiction. Great comedy.
>>FReepers defend Ann because she's said 1001 wonderful things correctly, acerbically, cuttingly. She shows the guts and gusto and take-no-prisoners attitude that we wish to God even one or two of our "leaders" would show."
Yes, a thousand times, yes!
>>But no one except God is perfect, and no human being except Jesus has NEVER misspoken, nor needed to reconsider or regroup. Statements like this lessen her effectiveness and derail the discussion.<<
Yes!
>>But you know, no one's always right. Better friends and supporters say, "Hon -- that was dumb. Really. It isn't worth you becoming 'The Faggot Lady' in people's minds. Then they won't hear all the vastly more important stuff you have to say. Don't be the last to admit it was dumb."<<
EXACTLY! Clinton will ALWAYS be known for "I did not have sex with that woman.."
ALgore will always be know for saying he invented the internet.
Is this what Ann wants to be remembered for, seriously? It is Churchillian? Is it Reaganesque?
This entire argument is so gay!
Yup.
Same thing for Rush although his cycle only comes around once every few years.
Might agree with you except we are not dealing with intelligent RAT voters. Someone, once in a while with truth, has to deliver something they understand and does it rattle them? Ever check Rosie lately? That is just one of many that dump on us. If you can't stand it, just ignore it. It has really caused lots of thinking and a few of us red blooded rough and tumble can enjoy it once in a while.
On Friday March 2, after being introduced by Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, Ann Coulter walked to the microphone and uttered the phrase that would shake the political world.
"I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards."
The quote is an obvious joke and a comment on our times. It's even funnier considering how many outraged people now want to send Ann Coulter to rehab for daring to say it. Her comment also held political implications bringing up issues of the first amendment and freedom of speech as well as questioning the integrity of John Edwards himself.
Of course the usual gang of pot smoking, empty headed morons who wouldn't know a thought if it ran over them with a car were outraged. This is "hate speech." These are the same people who have no problem with university professors calling for the death of Americans simply because they are Americans. Good thing I'm here to bring sunshine onto their hypocritical stances once again. You see, there is another medium that has been using the word "faggot" for a long time now. Several years in fact.
Enter the show "South Park." Just a few years ago there was an episode called "Follow that Egg" (first aired Nov. 2nd, 2005) in which a jealous Mrs. Garrison had the following exchange with her gay ex lover Mr. Slave:
Mr. Slave: Mr. Garrison, there's something you should know. Al and I are getting married.
Mrs. Garrison: Married?
Big Gay Al: Yes.
Mrs. Garrison: You can't get married! You're faggots!
Later while trying to get a crowd worked in to a frenzy, Mrs. Garrison says the following:
Mrs. Garrison: Appeal to the governor? Oh, come on! Where's your balls? Fag drag!
From the episode "Mr. Garrison's fancy new vagina" (first aired March 9, 2005) come the following gems:
Mrs. Garrison: I'd rather be a woman who can't have periods than a fag.
From the show called "South Park is totally gay" (first aired Oct 22, 2003) come the following quotes:
Cartman: Yeah, don't be such a fag, dude!
and
Craig: You'll never be as metro-sexual as us! C'mon fags!
All these episodes came out years before Ann made her joke and the left was silent. No calls for boycotts. No demands for apologies. No crude comparisons to dictators and lunatics. Just utter silence. Why? There is no difference between what Ann did and what "South Park" does. Both make jokes of a political nature. You can't even argue that "South Park" only makes gay jokes at the expense of fictional characters. In the episode "Trapped in a Closet" (which first premiered Nov 16, 2005) several people including Tom Cruise and John Travolta literally become trapped in a closet and refuse to come out.
But if this isn't enough for the hypocrites on the left, I call their attention to "Rolling Stone Magazine" March 22, 2007 issue (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/south_park_still_sick_still_wrong/page/1) that features an interview with "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. In it both Stone and Parker loudly tout their thoughts about lefties.
"...while soldiers and policemen protect me so I can say things like 'fudge-packing faggot' on my television show,..."
-Matt Stone
"...to go up to a tattooed, pierced vegan and say, 'Whatever, you tattooed faggot, you're a pierced faggot and whatever.' '' He looks very pleased with himself. "That's hardcore."
-Trey Parker
So admit it: you hate Ann Coulter and that's the only reason you're mad now. Just admit it, if nothing else to yourselves. If it's okay that "South Park" said it two years ago, then it should be okay to say it today. And if it's not okay to say it today, then where is your outrage over Parker and Stone?
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Give it up, Girlymen!!
Ann's a fighter, and we need her!
Frankly, I thought her comment was a hoot, and right on target, even if it did distract attention from the real issue at hand, which is that Edwards is a dangerous fruitcake. (Can I say that?)
I have a large tolerance for edgy comments like hers. It's called freedom of speech.
I was just having fun with one of my favorite photos of her.
In fact, the feigned outrage of people over this innocuous comment, pretty much makes her point.
>>There is no difference between what Ann did and what "South Park" does.<<
Very true. Both employ juvenile humor that a sixth grader could think of.
Has she reached the tipping point? Yes, with me she has.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Memo to M. Malkin et al. who believe this--not one person in a hundred, a thousand even, know that CPAC exists, and half of them are liberals who don't like it anyway. It's a precious basis for objection and further proof that conservatives sometimes take themselves too seriously.
I had to stop reading as soon as the writer called Ann attractive.
I'm not sure. I remember Michelle Malkin when she was a local Seattle columnist on one of the liberal papers. She was a breath of fresh air; brilliant, articulate and pleasant. When she first made her move to the national spotlight she didn't gain much attention. After a while she switched up her format and became more brittle and abrasive, and suddenly took up hot button topics such as illegal immigration whereas before it wasn't a topic that interested her.
It's a common formula. Remember Lou Dobbs before he became an immigration hero? He was a broadcasted cure for insomnia.
I far preferred the original Malkin...she was being herself, not selling herself as a product.
Last I heard, Ann wasn't planning on saving the world, or even running for anything. Get over it. sheesh.
You make valid points. But Ann is now well established. She could tone it down and, with her considerable intellect and knowledge, be a powerful voice in conservatism. As it is, she has become a parody of herself.
>>Last I heard, Ann wasn't planning on saving the world, or even running for anything. Get over it. sheesh.<<
No, just promoting herself at the expense of the conservative movement. Which maybe you don't care about either, I don't know.
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