Ann Coulter on liberal bias in the media
June 26, 2002 — “Today” host Katie Couric talks with conservative author Ann Coulter about her book, “Slander,” that talks about liberal bias in the media
Posted on 07/08/2002 6:40:40 AM PDT by Timesink
This isn't an argument, it's mere refutation: Two weeks ago, Today host Katie Couric got into a dispute with her guest Ann Coulter over how many times Today had misleadingly said Reagan biographer Edmund Morris called his subject an "airhead." (What Morris really said was that Reagan had been an "apparent airhead" but that he'd learned this wasn't true.)
Coulter: So for the Today show to be opening three days in a row, Ronald Reagan was an airhead, I'm sorry, that's dishonest.
Couric: It was one day. And also, just for your information it, was one day.
Coulter: No, you said it one day. Matt Lauer said it another day.
Couric: No, it was just one day, and we'll get the transcripts for you
Let's go to NEXIS! Answer: Two days, three times (plus once on "Later Today"). Couric said it on Sept. 27, 1999. The next day, as charged, Lauer opened the show by talking about "the author's assertion that Reagan was a great president but an airhead." NBC's Jamie Gangel repeated the "airhead" charge without the "apparent" later that day in a Today interview with ex-President George H.W. Bush. The winner: Coulter on points. She was closer to the truth than Couric, who picked this particular fact fight and was wrong. ... The account in Coulter's book (which doesn't make the "three days" charge) appears to be completely accurate -- though whether Today was guilty of dishonest liberal bias or dishonest ratings-grubbing hype is a call you, the reader, can make. [Who fed this to you? Coulter?--ed. Senior officials in the Coulter camp. But it checked out.] 1:30 A.M.
en masse!!!
I don't watch her show.
And you can quote me.
If you mean "babe" in the sense of Babe the Pig or Babe the Blue Ox when referring to Couric, then I agree.
What's next?
"Pope outed as Catholic!"
Bear sh*ts in woods!"
I don't get it. To quote Mary McCarthy re: veteran leftist author Lillian Hellman, "Everything she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the' ". You could say the same of perky Katie-and it certainly isn't news.
Ann Coulter on liberal bias in the media
June 26, 2002 — “Today” host Katie Couric talks with conservative author Ann Coulter about her book, “Slander,” that talks about liberal bias in the media
Coulter vs Couric Live Thread
6-26-2002
Posted on 6/26/02 2:54 AM Pacific by BigWaveBetty-- snip --
September 27, 1999, Monday
NBC'S TODAY SHOW, 7:00 AM
KATIE COURIC, co-host:
Good morning. The Gipper was an airhead. That's one of the conclusions of a new biography of Ronald Reagan that's drawing a tremendous amount of interest and fire today, Monday, September the 27th, 1999.
_____________________
September 27, 1999, Monday
REPORTERS: BOB KUR
KATIE COURIC, co-host:
On CLOSE UP this morning, Ronald Reagan. The official biography of the former president 14 years in the making hits book stores this morning. Already "Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan," is raising eyebrows and generating controversy. We asked NBC's Bob Kur to take a look.
BOB KUR reporting:
Pulitzer prize-winning author Edmund Morris had extraordinary access to President Reagan for many years, beginning in 1985 during Reagan's second term. Morris predicts his blunt appraisal of Reagan's intellect, his state of mind in the White House, will disturb some readers, especially Nancy Reagan. He writes, "Dutch remained a mystery to me, and worse still--dare I entertain such a heresy, in the hushed and reverent precincts of his office?--an apparent airhead."
Mr. EDWIN MEESE (Former Reagan Aide): That just was not Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was a very intelligent person. He didn't pretend to be an intellectual.
_____________________
September 28, 1999, Tuesday
KATIE COURIC reporting: Thank you Stone.
(Voiceover) We'll look at the controversial new biography of Ronald Reagan. Does the author go too far? We'll ask him.
___________________
September 28, 1999, Tuesday
MATT LAUER, co-host:
Good morning. For the first time, President Bush is responding to the controversial new biography of Ronald Reagan and, in particular, the author's assertion that Reagan was a great president but an airhead.
President GEORGE BUSH: It is brutal and grossly unfair and untrue. LAUER: And Mr. Bush has more to say today, Tuesday, September 28th, 1999.
Announcer: From NBC News, this is TODAY, with Katie Couric and Matt Lauer, live from Studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza.
___________________
September 29, 1999, Wednesday
COURIC: Then, Matt, another man who's getting a lot of attention. He's written the biography of Ronald Reagan. Edmund Morris was the first writer ever named an authorized biographer of a sitting president. He received unprecedented access to President Reagan in the White House and it took him 14 years to finish the book. But it's taken less than four days for Reagan's friends and associates to assail the author for some of his conclusions. This morning Edmund Morris gets to respond.
LAUER: And apparently, some people think he has some explaining to do.
COURIC: That's true.
__________________
September 29, 1999, Wednesday
EDMUND MORRIS DISCUSSES HIS BOOK, "DUTCH: A MEMOIR OF RONALD REAGAN"
KATIE COURIC, co-host:
On CLOSE UP this morning, the book on Ronald Reagan. The long-awaited biography of the 40th president written by Edmund Morris will be published tomorrow. Already, though, "Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan" is generating a ton of interest and a lot of controversy.
Edmund Morris, good morning. Welcome back to today.
Mr. EDMUND MORRIS (Author, "Dutch"): Thank you, Katie. COURIC: Are you surprised at the--the controversy that has resulted so far from this book?
Mr. MORRIS: I'm not surprised at the controversy. I kind of expected it as far as the technique of the book is concerned, because it is a revolutionary, new advance in biographical technique. What did surprise me was the misquoting that's come about. And that has distressed me somewhat. But I fully expected and welcome the controversy about the technique.
COURIC: There has been a lot of outrage expressed by President Reagan's friends and associates about your use of the word airhead...
Mr. MORRIS: Yes.
COURIC: ...to describe him. George Bush says it's brutal, grossly unfair, untrue. Ed Meese, former attorney general, said it's not fair, not true. Marlin Fitzwater, former press secretary, says it's totally inappropriate to describe the former president that way.
Mr. MORRIS: I agree with every single one of those. It's brutal and grossly unfair. I did not call him an airhead. The quote as published first in The Washington Post dropped the word apparent before head. What I said in the book, what appears plainly on the pages, I found him at first an apparent airhead. And the whole course of the book makes quite obvious that that first impression was wrong.
COURIC: So you do not believe today that Ronald Reagan was an airhead?
Mr. MORRIS: Oh, good God, no. He was a very bright man. At first I was surprised and--and dismayed by the apparent banality of his conversation--I couldn't reconcile this--but the--the--the utter ordinariness of the private man with how magical he became when he stepped out in front of the cameras.
COURIC: In fact, what you say, Mr. Morris, in your words from the book is, quote, "What you see is what you get, several of the above-named intimates had warned me when I asked about his hidden depths. Nevertheless, I could not believe how little one, indeed, got, and how shallow those depths appeared to be." Are you saying now this morning that you found President Reagan to have great intellectual depth?
Mr. MORRIS: Shallow the depths appeared to be. You see, he was all mystery. He seemed to be shallow. He seemed to have no culture. He seemed to have--to be resistant to new ideas from outside. He seemed all these things. One of the reasons it took me 14 years to write the book was to come to grips with this apparent simplicity which concealed depths and depths and depths.
COURIC: So you believe, today, that he is a man of great depth, or was?
Mr. MORRIS: Oh, absolutely. He was a huge and important man. He had a--he had a presidential mind. He was a statesman. He kept himself to himself, which is one of the reasons it was hard to penetrate him.
COURIC: Indeed...-- snip --
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