Ben Shapiro defends Ann Coulter

[Cocoa]

those poor persecuted conservatives, that bad bad USA Today. :cry:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/printbs20040728.shtml

A chill wind is blowing -- from the mainstream media. Desperate to break President George W. Bush and the resurgence of American conservatism, the mainstream media has taken to obscuring truths, burying facts and overplaying accusations. Conservative pundits are grudgingly tolerated as token representatives of an extremist ideology, but only if they keep within certain bounds. If they get too uppity, it's time to slap them down.

The latest case in point: USA Today commissioned conservative pundit Ann Coulter to write a daily column on the Democratic National Convention. For those who don't know, Coulter is a three-time best-selling author <http://www.thbookservice.com/BookPage.asp?prod_cd=c6174>, a political pundit extraordinaire and a constant media presence. She's brilliant and caustic -- very caustic. Her sharp pen is her trademark, tattooing leftists continuously.
So USA Today editors should have known what they were getting into when they signed her up, unless they were suffering from a Ted Kennedy-esque hangover. Instead, USA Today got all huffy when Coulter sent in a scathing piece about the DNC on Sunday night, July 25, titled "Put the Speakers in a Cage <http://www.townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/ac20040726.shtml>."

The opening line: "Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston, conservatives are deploying a series of covert signals to identify one another, much like gay men do." Coulter notes that "Apparently, the nuts at the Democratic National Convention are going to be put in cages outside the convention hall. Sadly, they won't be fighting to the death as is done in W.W.F. caged matches." It's harsh, hilarious, gutsy stuff, but that's Ann Coulter's style.

USA Today chiefs didn't see it that way. They decided not to run Coulter's column, telling her that it was "unusable" and "not funny." As Coulter told Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report, "Apparently, no one at USA Today had ever read Ann Coulter before."

more...

[Cha]

1. ben sharpio sucks big fat elephant Eggs!

[Sabriel]

3. "Harsh, hilarious, gutsy stuff"????!!!

Gimme some of that, Ben....

[West Coast Democrat]

2. What does an Ann Coulter article have to do with truth and fact?

Her op-eds are all humorless attack-pieces.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

4. It's been a long time

since I went to Journalism School. I didn't finish but I do recall that unless you are a satirist (which Ann is NOT) that opening sentence does not pass for journalism.
Who is this guy trying to kid? Are we are in such a sad state of affairs that the tripe this woman serves up passes for journalism? It would seem, sadly, to be the case......
Spawn of Satan my ass!

[ixion]

5. a chill wind is blowing... said Tim Robbins... so Shapiro is borrowing

from one of those liberals he is so sure is persecuting him.


Tell me...

When conservatives control ALL THREE BRANCHES of government

When conservatives control MOST, if not all of the mainstream media.

How can it be that us 'liberals' are in any position of power to persecute?

Rubbish. The neoconservative trademark. :eyes:

[Cocoa]

7. it's a clumsy restating of the conservative revolution

Ben Shapiro is useful since he's so inept, his writings expose the stupidity of RW propaganda, but they're not as effective as the more skilled propagandists' product.

[tom_paine]

10. How could the Nazis still see themselves as victims when they

controlled everything in 1933 Germany?

The answers are one and the same.

I fucking HATE Jewish Nazis like this kid, a monster and Goebbels in training.

[lebkuchen]

6. It's intriguing that USAToday hired Coulter in the first place

They knew what she was all about. What were they expecting? Chantilly lace?

It's a blackmark against USA Today that they had agreed to hire her in the first place.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Maybe they expected wit

which a few Coulter comments, from several years ago, have displayed. But I really think she either has a psychiatric problem these days, or has been fooled by the adulation of the right wing into thinking she can phone in any old insult and have that accepted.

I'd expect more insight and humour from a random right wing blog (by someone who wasn't even there) than her column showed.

[nyhuskyfan]

9. She's a terrorist...

Seriously, if you take some of her comments, put the word "Americans" in there instead of the particular nouns in questions, and attributed the quotes to someone named Saleem Mohammad, she'd be eating gruel in Guantanamo right now. Off the top of my head...

"We should execute John Walker Lindh as an example, so that liberals know that they can be killed, too"

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is that he didn't drive into the New York Times building."

"The only question with Bill Clinton is impeachment or assassination."

etc., etc., etc.

[PhuLoi]

14. "Terrorist" would seem to indicate some willingness to place

oneself in a dangerous situation. Coulter is too much a guttless whining turd to expose herself to danger. You give her too much credit. She may be a genuine psychopath, certainly a pathological liar and a sociopath but I cannot imagine her placing herself in a situation wherein she might be caused to suffer. Exception: Her propensity for wearing barbwire thongs, backwards.

[thomas_a]

11. Free Market?

Does anyone besides me see any irony in this?

Republicans purport to be free market capitalists (although I think their commitment to a true free market is about as sincere as the Stalinists were to the ideas of Karl Marx) yet when the market (in this case USA Today) declares something (Ann Coulter's column) to have no value they scream their heads off.

[hatrack]

12. Who is Ben Shapiro, and why haven't I ever heard of him?

Oh, townhall.com - never mind! :evilgrin:

[struggle4progress]

15. And who is Ann Coulter? eom

[PhuLoi]

13. Coulter's screed trys to be Juvenal but her(?) writing is juvenile.

Having a little talent is analagous to having a little knowledge; your actions frequently are self destructive.
I will lay aside the obviously defective personality/character traits.
The use of Coulter by any media is a red flag that should cause even the most veteran journalism junkie to quickly seek out and hurridly equip an industrial strength shit-filter.