Ann Coulter GMA Interview With Clueless Bob Woodruff(Analysis and Transcript)

Media Research Center ^ | July 16, 2002

[PJ-Comix]

Bob Woodruff, not the most politically astute bulb at ABC News? A little under three weeks ago Ann Coulter got into a bit of an argument with Katie Couric on the Today show over Coulter’s book, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right. While Couric may have been inaccurate in saying that Coulter was wrong to assert that on three mornings Today picked up on the description of former President Reagan as an “airhead,” Couric clearly understood the conservative points Coulter otherwise made in the interview. For details about that June 26 Today interview: http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2002/cyb20020626.asp#4

     On Monday’s Good Morning America, however, MRC analyst Jessica Anderson noticed that Coulter was confronted with an interviewer who didn’t seem to grasp basic conservative polemical points. She was interviewed not about her book, but about the media-fueled scandals around Bush and Cheney, by Bob Woodruff, the anchor of World News Tonight/Saturday, who is filling in this week for Charles Gibson.

     When Coulter ran down a bunch of names of corporate figures involved in scandal who are big Democratic supporters, Woodruff seemed clueless to Martha Stewart’s political donation record as he seriously asked Coulter to explain her charge: “Let's talk about Martha Stewart for a second. That's a conspiracy against Martha Stewart?"

     At another point, in response to Woodruff’s assertion that Bush should release the Harken Energy records “if in fact there's nothing there,” Coulter quipped, "Well, I don't know, why doesn't the publisher of The New York Times release his SAT scores?” Missing the joke, Woodruff followed up with this non-sequitur: "You've never called on the editors of conservative publications to release any information when you're calling on Bill Clinton, for example, to release information about his past."

     In a moment of standard liberal reasoning, Woodruff declared as fact of Bush’s Harken stock sale: "This is very relevant for a President who is now trying to crack down on insider trading."

     The complete transcript of the in-studio interview which led the 7:30am half hour on July 15:

     Woodruff: "We begin this half hour with a woman who is always provocative, always evocative, and we want to talk to this person who has the number one book in the country right now. We want to focus on the President and Vice President and their stock deals that they have made before coming to the White House with the administration. They are now calling for much tougher penalties for companies and executives who cook their books. And joining us this morning is the conservative political pundit and the author of Slander, Ann Coulter. Welcome to the broadcast."
     Coulter: "Thank you."
     Woodruff: "Let me just start quickly. Do you believe that this scandal that we are now seeing is politically motivated?"
     Coulter: "I think pretty much everything other than the media reporting floods and tornadoes is a political vendetta. All the other news is, so yeah, I mean, the Democrats are trying to use it that way. It plays off something that, I think, is one of the liberal lies about conservatives and that is that conservatives are the party of the powerful and Democrats are the party of the people -- au contraire! I mean, just look at the people involved in this, or the red states and the blue states, or the richest members of the United States Senate."
     Woodruff: "Now, in your book, let me just give a quote that you said: 'The New York Times gave up harping about Bush's handling of the war and gave its full attention to attacking Enron.'"
     Coulter: "Right."
     Woodruff: "At the time your book came out you hadn't seen what had happened afterwards. Given the events now, what we know about Enron and other companies, do you still believe that's the case?"
     Coulter: "Oh, yes. Now they're attacking, you know, all of these corporations as if it's the Republican Party that stands for these bigwigs. What, like Martha Stewart, Sam Waksal, you know, Global Crossing? No, I'm sorry. I mean, by and large, corporations-"
     Woodruff: "Let's talk about Martha Stewart for a second. That's a conspiracy against Martha Stewart?"
     Coulter: "Oh, no, no, no. What I'm saying is that despite, you know, 50 years of contrary evidence, people still seem to associate Republicans as the powerful and Democrats the party of the people. Well, Martha Stewart was one of Bill Clinton's biggest supporters. Corporations generally are whores, you know. They give equally to the Republicans and the Democrats, but I happen to notice that in these scandals, well, an awful lot of them are huge friends of Bill."
     Woodruff, displaying circular reasoning: "But see, these scandals have been focusing largely on what particular players in the administration have been doing. President Bush sold 200,000 shares, made $800,000 on stock he sold at Harken Energy."
     Coulter: "Right."
     Woodruff declared as fact: "This is very relevant for a President who is now trying to crack down on insider trading."
     Coulter: "I don't think so. I think it's another one of these phony media scandals, as I describe in my book, through liberals' childlike fascination with the law. They toss about these legal terms like proprietary interest, conflict of interest, but when you actually go to the trouble of figuring out what it's about, there's nothing there, there's nothing there at all. I mean, only liberals could slander through boredom. No one can follow this story, but when you look, there's nothing there. It's just, you know, Bush's name, it's exactly like I said about Enron and the power of repetition: it's just Harken, Harken, Harken, Harken -- it's all anyone knows."
     Woodruff: "If in fact there's nothing there, why doesn't he release the entire SEC file as so many, even Orrin Hatch has called on him to release the file."
     Coulter, trying to make a bit of a joke: "Well, I don't know, why doesn't the publisher of The New York Times release his SAT scores? There are a lot of things I'd like to see more than this idiotic -- I mean, we know what happened, but if I start describing it, we're going to lose half the viewers. That's what I say about how boring it is. He sells his stock-"
     Woodruff followed up with an impossible to comprehend question: "You've never called on the editors of conservative publications to release any information when you're calling on Bill Clinton, for example, to release information about his past."
     A befuddled Coulter: "Um, what?"
     Woodruff: "Well, I mean, this is the President of the United States."
     Coulter: "No, I wasn't."
     Woodruff: "He needs to reveal information to the people."
     Coulter, referring to Clinton: "We just wanted him to stop committing felonies!"
     Woodruff: "But you're saying that The New York Times should release information about what they did?"
     Since Woodruff wouldn’t let it go, Coulter took advantage to expound on the SAT point in a serious way: "Oh, right, about his SAT scores. Yeah, that's because I don't attack every political opponent for 50 years going back to, you know, Calvin Coolidge by saying, 'He's stupid, he's stupid, he's stupid.' I mean, if that's going to be The New York Times's primary argument against every Republican presidential candidate, I think we should see their SAT scores. As it turns out, you know, despite all of the media calling Bill Bradley 'cerebral, cerebral, cerebral' for 20 years, it seems like it was his first name. He got a 485 on the SAT scores -- that's cerebral for a Democrat? I mean, these are just terms to slander one side and promote the other. 'Bush is stupid': you know, he went to Yale, got an MBA from Harvard, but Bradley, 485 on the SATs, that's cerebral."
     Woodruff: "What about the Vice President, Dick Cheney? He has been completely silent about Halliburton and that is a company that's under investigation and he made a lot of money on the stock, too. Should he reveal the information about his activities with Halliburton?"
     Coulter: "What information? I think it's revealed and we are at war here. No, I think he should not comply with something that is just a synthetic media scandal and I think the American people are getting tired of it, just the power of repetition, over and over and over again. And like I said, if the viewers really care, go to the trouble and look it up and you'll see there's nothing to it."
     Woodruff: "Well, let me give you a quote from Newsweek here about Dick Cheney. It's from the current CEO of Halliburton David Lesar. He says that Dick Cheney was a hands-on leader and, quote, 'was aware of who owed us money and he helped us collect it.' Isn't that relevant?"
     Coulter: "Um, no. I mean, I don't know what that is supposed to prove. People run businesses."
     Woodruff: "Don't we want to know what he knew and when he knew it?"
     Coulter: "About who owed them money and collecting it? Isn't that just capitalism? Somebody owes you money and you -- there's nothing criminal in what you've described. I mean, this is what I mean about just-"
     Woodruff jumped in: "There are allegations of wrongdoing."
     Coulter: "Well, there are always allegations of wrongdoing -- they're Republicans! Of course there are allegations. A tone of voice, saying something, you know, and tossing about these legal terms doesn't, is not evidence of a criminal offense. It is not, technically, as yet, criminal to be a Republican in this country."
     Woodruff: "Alright, Ann Coulter, thank you very much for joining us. As always, it's good to have you here. Thank you very much."
     Coulter: "Thank you."

[PJ-Comix]

Bob Woodruff has got to be the most clueless human being on the planet. Coulter's tongue-in-cheek remark about the publisher of the NY Times releasing his SAT score went right over Woodruff's head. I guess without a teleprompter or that little thingy in his ear telling him what to say, Woodruff is completely lost.

[Conservative Chicagoan]

He is a truely an idiot. Only in journalism or academia could somebody as stupid as him be a sucess like a brillant mind like Coulter is considered out of the mainstream.

[RonDog]

Mandatory posting of an Ann Coulter image:

[Notforprophet]

I just picked up Coulter's new book over the weekend, and so far it is amazing! Footnotes everywhere documenting incredible examples of media and DNC slander towards GOP and conservative pundits and politicians - there's at least 50 pages at the back of the book just in footnote references alone.

Not to mention how ferociously witty and pithy the book is in trashing liberals. I highly recommend it if anyone doesn't have it yet.

[RonDog]

Woodruff: "Let me just start quickly. Do you believe that this scandal that we are now seeing is politically motivated?"
     Coulter: "I think pretty much everything other than the media reporting floods and tornadoes is a political vendetta. All the other news is, so yeah, I mean, the Democrats are trying to use it that way. It plays off something that, I think, is one of the liberal lies about conservatives and that is that conservatives are the party of the powerful and Democrats are the party of the people -- au contraire! I mean, just look at the people involved in this, or the red states and the blue states, or the richest members of the United States Senate."

Gotta love that gal!

[Seeking the truth]

Yeh, but you just don't understand him. He is able to have conversations with comatose people and ficticious people with long esophagi.

[RonDog]

I just picked up Coulter's new book over the weekend, and so far it is amazing! Footnotes everywhere documenting incredible examples of media and DNC slander towards GOP and conservative pundits and politicians - there's at least 50 pages at the back of the book just in footnote references alone. Not to mention how ferociously witty and pithy the book is in trashing liberals. I highly recommend it if anyone doesn't have it yet.

from
www.amazon.com

[harpseal]

It is not, technically, as yet, criminal to be a Republican in this country."

The Democrat Party is seeking to change this

[Airborne Longhorn]

Saw the whole thing.

If anything, MRC understates Woodruff's moronic behavior.

Anyone: is he any relation to that other towering intellect, Judy Woodruff?

[chiefqc]

It's my understanding that during his conversation with the compatose person, he still lost.

[PJ-Comix]

If Coulter were a Latina I would have the hots for her. Any chance she could dye her hair brown and speak to me in Spanish? :-)

[elephantlips]

I also heard that VP Cheny, while at Haliburton, was involved in making some proposals and closing sales! What has he to say to that!!

[ReveBM]

Thank God she is so beautiful. Not that it matters to her argument, but it's so nice to have such a gorgeous conservative. She's my personal Joan of Arc.

Something is bugging me a lot right now. Check out amazon, on the page listing Ann's book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/1400046610/customer-reviews/qid=1026842352/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-9217160-9237711

Both of Amazon's "spotlight reviews" are pans of the book from liberal hatemongers (see the 1 star reviews). This is even though out of 366 reviews the average is 4 stars. This is because liberals are jacking up the reviews they like (the one stars) by clicking "was this review helpful to you", giving the disses 6 of 8 stars or the like.

WE NEED TO FREEP THIS! Click on "list all customer reviews" and find one you like that's a high (4 or 5 stars) number, assuming you like Ann's book. Then click "yes" under "was this helpful to you". If we all vote together, a good review or two of Ann's book should get in the "spotlight" section.

[Semper Paratus]

I thought Bob Schieffer was bad Woodruff takes the cake.

[PJ-Comix]

Here is a pic of clueless Bob Woodruff. I feel a song coming on to the tune of Davy Crockett. Here are a few lyrics. Someone more musically inclined out there, fill in the rest:

Lost without a Teleprompter,
On ABC
Biggest Dolt you ever did see
Bobby, Bobby, Woodruff
King of the Clueless Ones

[RAT Patrol]

Clearly he didn't read her book.

[PJ-Comix]

Please fill in the lyrics (see Reply #15) to my Bob Woodruff song. When it is completed I'll send it to Woodruff as a gift from the FR. He is so clueless, that he will probably consider it a great honor.

[PJ-Comix]

Clearly he didn't read her book.

Clearly he doesn't read ANY book.

[stlrocket]

She DOES look Great!

ANNE COULTER

[RAT Patrol]

LOL, you're right.