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."
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing Lyrics
Now look at them yo-yo's that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and chicks for free
Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Lemme tell ya them guys ain't dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Maybe get a blister on your thumb
We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's
See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he's a millionaire
We gotta install microwave ovesns
Custom kitchens deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's
I shoulda learned to play the guitar
I shoulda learned to play them drums
Look at that mama, she got it stickin' in the camera
Man we could have some fun
And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?
Bangin' on the bongoes like a chimpanzee
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Get your money for nothin' get your chicks for free
We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's, Lord
Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and your chicks for free
Money for nothin' and chicks for free
[...explain how this advances conservatism...]
Because Ann got the "meaning" across using words
liberals understand.
Because Ann gets the media's attention, the same
way Patton did. And Patton knew how to win a
war. I think Ann knows how to win as well.
BTW... Ann did not call Edwards a faggot. Read
the transcript. I think it was a brilliant way
to show what hypocritical wimps liberals are. I
think it also showed that being PC is a big stick
beating Republicans into submission.
The gloves should be OFF!
LOL,
I am DELIGHTED to be agreeing with you on something!
(Honestly, I can't remember what it was we disagreed on in the past, but it was something. I'm aging a little).
It always fascinates me how in freespirited debate here on FR, you see people who were once at odds on one issue become allies on another.
Some of the people I am disagreeing with on this issue I will wholeheartedly agree with tomorrow on something else.
:-)
That's right. You don't know. But it doesn't stop you from acting like a sanctimonious twit.
>>BTW... Ann did not call Edwards a faggot.<<
We all got that. The implication was clear, we know what she was trying to do, etc. We all know that.
We want the same end, no PC thought police, etc. We ALL want that here, I think.
We just disagree about tactics. Some of us just don't happen to think that her tactics were effective, mature, or even particularly funny or witty.
Just ignore it and it will go away
BTW, what she said was true.
I don't agree...that's ludicrous...how stupid can you get...moron!
I threw that in just so there wouldn't be any misunderstanding on us agreeing on something. Good day to you.
SerpentDove: For those who care to check out your homepage, perhaps you can explain your Ann-bashing on thread after thread after thread (fussing and fretting over her justified attacks on the faggot policies and effeminate persona of the Breck Girl/the Silky Pony and the party whose nomination he/she/it seeks) while maintaining on your FR homepage a doctored photo of Senator Lindsay Graham with a pink ribbon in his hair. Do you have some sort of PROOF!, PROOF! mind you, (videotapes?, DNA?) of the substance of that suggestion or are you willing to learn to spell "h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e" as a subtitle for you and the fussy, fretting hankie up the sleeve caucus?
If CPAC is "discredited" by Ann's remarks, then CPAC ought to be abolished and a new annual conference of people with spines crated.
Ann has the courage to say something we all know to be true, namely: Edwards' demeanor is unmanly and not fitting of a leader. (Never mind whether he is gay or not; his demeanor is the issue.)
Ann said it clearly and it's true.
If FR people can't accept it, they should give money to Edwards and stop pretending to be outraged conservatives.
#71: crated = created
Because my photo of Lindsey Graham portays him as effeminate, which I believe him to be.
But I did not imply he is a homosexual. Much more serious insinuation.
Get it?
If everyone who disagrees with Ann were to quit the GOP, the GOP would be better for it.
>>I don't agree...that's ludicrous...how stupid can you get...moron!<
Such wit.
Having people who share your "tactics" on "our" side is like being a front line American officer in Vietnam and knowing that bitter, disgruntled, leftist antiwar draftees are behind hs back with M-16s and ammo that will never kill an enemy and will only be aimed at "our" leaders. "Supporting the troops" while thwarting their efforts comes to mind as being about as credible as the anti-Ann whiney caucus being part of "us."
You crack me up when you're hysterical.
Actually, CWO Jackson has such truth! As does Taxgovernment in #75. The conservative movement has gotten all too flabby with Annie's critics claiming to be "conservative" while running amok against her "seventeenth career ending moment." Time to hit the gym before 2008 and rid ourselves of this useless fat.
I totally believe in supporting the troops but when they shoot their mouths off they're on their own.
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