Posted on 07/23/2002 10:11:23 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
In her book Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right , the hyperventilating conservative pundit Ann Coulter states that one of the "unbending rules of the universe" is that "It is horrendous to attack a woman for her looks."
Yet in the very next paragraph, Coulter writes, "A blind man in America would think the ugliest women ever . . . are Paula Jones, Linda Tripp, and Katherine Harris. This from the party of Bella Abzug."
Now that's impressive. With a two-paragraph spread, Coulter just might have set the record for hypocritical invective.
And Coulter must think Rush Limbaugh is "horrendous," seeing as how Limbaugh has mocked the looks of Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and Sally Jessy Raphael, among others.
Speaking of Limbaugh, Coulter tells her readers, "Locating some minor accuracy by Rush Limbaugh ... turned out to be more difficult than I imagined ..." and goes on to speculate about the "off chance that anyone ever ... locate[s] some minor inaccuracy ..." in Limbaugh's work.
Minor inaccuracy? Limbaugh's committed dozens of MAJOR gaffes over the years, e.g., "It has not been proven that nicotine is addictive."
Yippee! Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
*****
An ongoing theme of Slander is that liberals never want to talk issues--that it's all about name-calling and making emotional arguments.
Ahem. From Coulter's own book:
P. 26: "The [Ku Klux] Klan sees the world in terms of race and ethnicity. So do liberals!"
P. 157: "The good part of being a Democrat is that you can commit crimes, sell out your base, bomb foreigners, and rape women, and the Democratic faithful still think you're the greatest."
p. 123: "Everyone knows it's an insult to be called a liberal, widely understood to connote a dastardly individual."
p. 181: Katie Couric is "the affable Eva Braun of morning TV."
Good thing Coulter isn't like those liberals who resort to cheap generalizations and insanely inaccurate accusations.
*****
Coulter demonstrates sloppy bias when she writes, "When ABC was considering scrapping Ted Koppel's 'Nightline' in early 2002 because of its low ratings, the most common reaction was, 'Is that still on?' "
Of course, the primary reason ABC considered dropping "Nightline" wasn't ratings--it was the chance to hire David Letterman. As for "the most common" reaction, Coulter's jibe makes her seem silly and uninformed. Yes, dear, "Nightline" is still on. Tell all your friends.
Coulter is equally disingenuous--or is it lazy?--when she reports what she perceives to be a typical example of liberal bias in the media:
"[Jesse] Jackson's son also got his own television show--while actually serving in Congress. A CBS-owned Chicago television station, WBBM-Channel 2, gave the Democratic congressman his own talk show, 'Chicago Focus With Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.' ''
Wrong again. True, it was once announced that Jackson would be getting a weekly show on Channel 2, but the program never came close to getting on the air. It's been two years since the idea died.
And it's just plain funny when Coulter charges that "the entire information industry works overtime to suppress conservative books . . .publishers don't like conservative books, the major media ignore them, and bookstores refuse to stock them." On the very next page, Coulter cites a long list of best-selling books by conservative authors. So the "entire information industry" is suppressing books by conservative writers, yet many of these books have been top sellers. It's a miracle.
*****
In an effort to illustrate media slant, Coulter writes: "In the New York Times archives, 'moderate Republican' has been used 168 times. [But] there have been only 11 sightings of a 'liberal Republican.' "
But the American Prospect Weblog Tapped did a search of the New York Times archives and found 524 mentions of "liberal Republicans."
I guess some conservatives just aren't that good with a computer.
*****
Coulter repeatedly drags up two tired urban legends about Al Gore --the "invented the Internet" and "Love Story" tales--and passes them off as fact, even though both have been thoroughly debunked.
And she makes the claim that unlike Gore, George W. Bush was no fortunate son: "When Bush was admitted to Yale, his father was a little-known congressman ... His father was a Yale alumnus, but so were a lot of other boys' parents. It was Gore, not Bush, who had a famous father likely to impress college admissions committees."
Right. Dubya was a Phillips Academy preppie whose Yalie father was a congressman and whose Yalie grandfather was a two-term U.S. Senator. I'm sure the whole Bush clan was lighting candles every night while waiting to hear if Georgie boy was going to be admitted.
Coulter reminds me of the little girl in "Hey Arnold!" who shouts in Arnold's face that she hates him--though she secretly loves him.
Maybe that's how Ann feels about liberals. Maybe deep down, she's got a crush on us. It's kinda cute.
rroeper@suntimes.com
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/720396/posts
Not the relatively challenging ones like "The Wedding Singer" but the "simplier" ones, like that one where Adam is the devil's retarded son.
That's more his speed.
Not that hiring David Letterman would have anything to do with ratings!
Her book has literally hundreds of footnotes, and if Jesse's son not quite making the TV show he was floated is an example of how erroneous her book is, then it's a testament to the fact that the hundreds of other footnotes detailing liberal bias do NOT get banged around as 'bogus'.
If you're delusional enough to believe that there is no liberal bias in the media, then you've got a long way to go before you can qualify as an even remotely rational thinker.
You're free to push buttons, if that's all you can do. Most of us prefer to actually discuss issues around here. Please also feel free to do that at any time. We'll wait.
BUH-BYE!!!!
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Back to DU for you, Bub.
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