-Caveat Lector- From http://www.workingforchange.com/printitem.cfm?itemid=12381
}}}>Begin Cultivating Coulter Bill Berkowitz - WorkingForChange 11.21.01 - With each passing column, Ann Coulter's work becomes more suitable for a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown rather than serious consideration. And, she appears to be one body-slam away from slip sliding into oblivion. Since September 11, Coulter's career has taken a nose-dive. Early in October, she was bumped from her spot at William F. Buckley's National Review. Depending on who you listened to or what you read, she was fired either because of the incendiary content of several of her post-September 11 columns or because of her incendiary responses to NR's editorial suggestions. Then in mid-October, according to The Boston Globe, Coulter was accused by a former co-worker at the conservative weekly Human Events of plagiarizing parts of her 1998 bestseller ''High Crimes and Misdemeanors," the book that launched her career as a television pundit. Michael Chapman "complained to his bosses that a lot of his original research and reporting -- carried out for a special 1997 Human Events supplement called 'A Case for Impeachment' -- ended up in Coulter's book." Why pile on now? After all, anyone who's read her columns or seen her shtick on television probably knows more than they'd ever want to know about someone they'd rather know nothing about. The fact is, Ann Coulter is more than the sum of her writings and tubular appearances. She is the quintessential poster child for right-wing punditry -- bought and paid for by conservative philanthropists. According to me diatransparency.org, a web site tracking right-wing money and politics, she has "worked for or received funds from no fewer than six" well-funded conservative institutions over the years. Up from obscurity Background: Coulter's 1998 book "High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton," hit The New York Times bestseller list and propelled her to television celebrity. She quickly became one of a group of nearly indistinguishable blond-haired "info-babes" who became quasi-permanent residents on the programs of Geraldo Rivera, Larry King, and the Fox News Channel during the Clinton impeachment era. Coulter has received several journalism awards from conservative organizations. She received the Conservative Journalist of the Year award from L. Brent Bozell's right-wing Media Research Center last year. The conservativ e Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute also bestowed an award "for her unfailing dedication to truth, freedom and conservative values and for being an exemplar, in word and deed, of what a true leader is." A recent issue of The Washington Monthly compiled a selection of classic Coulter quotes -- representative of her provocative, pissy, funny, sassy, angry, pig headed, shrill, take-no-prisoners shoot from the lip style. Her e are a few: "God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees. God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.'" --Hannity & Colmes, 6/20/01 The "backbone of the Democratic Party" is a "typical fat, implacable welfare recipient" --syndicated column, 10/29/99 "Women like Pamela Harriman and Patricia Duff are basically Anna Nicole Smith from the waist down. Let's just call it for what it is. They're whores." --Salon.com, 11/16/00 "Juan Gonzales is 'Cuba's answer to Joey Buttafuoco,' a 'miscreant,' 'sperm-donor,' and a 'poor man's Hugh Hefner.'" --Rivera Live, 5/1/00 "I think there should be a literacy test and a poll tax for people to vote." --Hannity & Colmes, 8/17/99 "I think [women] should be armed but should not [be allowed to] vote." --Politically Incorrect, 2/26/01 "[Clinton] masturbates in the sinks." --Rivera Live, 8/2/99 "If you don't hate Clinton and the people who labored to keep him in office, you don't love your country." --George, 7/99 "It's enough [to be impeached] for the president to be a pervert." --The Case Against Bill Clinton, Coulter's 1998 book. "Clinton is in love with the erect penis." --This Evening with Judith Regan, Fox News Channel, 2/6/00 "If they have the one innocent person who has ever to be put to death this century out of over 7,000, you probably will get a good movie deal out of it." �MSNBC, 7/27/97 "If those kids had been carrying guns they would have gunned down this one [child] gunman. ... Don't pray. Learn to use guns." --Politically Incorrect, 12/18/97 "The presumption of innocence only means you don't go right to jail." --Hannity & Colmes, 8/24/01 "I have to say I'm all for public flogging. One type of criminal that a public humiliation might work particularly well with are the juvenile delinquents, a lot of whom consider it a badge of honor to be sent to juvenile detention. And it might not be such a cool thing in the 'hood to be flogged publicly." --MSNBC, 3/22/97 "I am emboldened by my looks to say things Republican men wouldn't." --TV Guide, 8/97 "Let's say I go out every night, I meet a guy and have sex with him. Good for me. I'm not married." --Rivera Live, 6/7/00 "I think [Whitewater]'s going to prevent the First Lady from running for Senate." --Rivera Live, 3/12/99 "My track record is pretty good on predictions." --Rivera Live, 12/8/98 "You want to be careful not to become just a blowhard." --Washington Post, 10/16/98 Despite the setbacks, Coulter continues to let it rip in her columns. What once seemed fresh and provocative is now repetitive and tiresome. Her October 31, column includes this: "Women -- and I don't mean to limit that t o the biological sense -- always become hysterical at the first sign of trouble. They have no capacity to solve problems, so instead they fret. But despite the fearful fifth columnists whiling away the war naysaying Ameri ca's response, we will win this war." Another recent piece starts out: "Liberals are up to their old tricks again. Twenty years of treason haven't slowed them down." Her syndicated columns still appear in many right-wing outlets including TownHall.com, the online Jewish World Review, and Capitol Hill Blue. And, she's found a new home. David Horowitz of the Los Angeles-based Center for the Study of Popular Culture recently welcomed her to "the FrontPage team." Horowitz's welcoming note said in part: "As a Jew, I could be uneasy at Ann's suggestion that mass conversion to Christianity should be wielded as a tool of foreign policy were it not so obvious that her comment was hyper bolic, tongue firmly in cheek. In the final analysis, nothing Ann said should have caused a scandal. Not in a reasonable and open society." How has Coulter been cultivated? According to "Clinton, Conspiracism, and the Continuing Culture War: Starr, the Federalist Society and Collegial Networks," an article posted at Political Research Associates' publiceye.or g, "Coulter attended Cornell University, where she launched the conservative Cornell Review, part of the conservative Collegiate Network funded by [Richard Mellon] Scaife. "She trained at the National Journalism Center, run by conservative columnist M. Stanton Evans, whose lectures are sometimes sponsored by the Young America's Foundation. The Center claims no partisan bias but its lecturer s and postings are skewed to the right. The center receives funding from the conservative Olin Foundation. While at the University of Michigan law school, Coulter founded the local chapter of the Federalist Society. After the Republicans Congressional takeover in 1994, Coulter joined the staff of Sen. Spencer Abraham, (R-MI), a Federalist Society activist. She then became a legal commentator for MSNBC." Of late, however, Coulter has become a crude caricature of herself. Her choleric commentary is so often beyond the pale that some of her former colleagues appear concerned. Perhaps her slide is only temporary and she'll b e back on cable television in the near future, hounding the Clintons or some other "liberal" targets. Regardless of her future path, it's worth noting that many of today's conservative television pundits, including those with "info-babe" credentials, did not just drop from the sky. They've been nurtured, financed and trained in right-wing institutions, where political hardball is always the name of the game. (For a short, yet remarkably thorough dissection of Coulter's methodology, see "Ann Coulter: The Jargon Vanguard," by Brendan Nyhan. � 2001 WorkingForChange.com URL: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemId=12381 End<{{{ From http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20010716.html }}}>Begin Ann Coulter: The Jargon Vanguard By Brendan Nyhan ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) July 16, 2001 [Email this to a friend] The last few years have witnessed the emergence of a new class of pundits. Many, regrettably, are prodigies in the aggressive political jargon that pervades our political discourse. Perhaps the most egregious is Ann Coulter, a nationally syndicated columnist and cable talk show guest. Her trendy tone of snarky cynicism is complemented by some of the most consistently emotional, subrational jargon in national politics, as shown by an analysis of her columns since January 1 of this year. Background on Coulter Coulter is an attorney turned professional talking head who was a major player in the conservative opposition to President Clinton. She wrote a book on Clinton called High Crimes and Misdemeanors and helped Paula Jones with her legal case, among other things. Like some others in the conservative press, Coulter's specialty has been attacking liberals; in fact, that has been the theme of all 28 of her columns this year (see the Townhall.com archive). Although one column mentions her "swooning" for President Bush during the campaign and that she remains "doe- eyed" (2/22), it's the only one this year that focuses on Bush. Understanding basic Coulterism Coulter's position at the vanguard of rhetorical manipulation makes a close analysis of her work worthwhile. Let's examine the rhetorical techniques she uses, which range from the simple to the sophisticated. At the basic level, her columns often open with inflammatory attacks like calling Ted Kennedy an "adulterous drunk" (1/18) and joking that President Clinton had "crack pipes on the White House Christmas tree" (3/16). Also, she often brings up figures and organizations despised by the right, including Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (mentioned three times in two columns [3/8, 4/5]), the American Civil Liberties Union (4/19, 4/26, 5/17, 6/15), Hustler publisher Larry Flynt (1/4, 4/19, 5/17), actress/singer Barbra Streisand (1/4, 5/24 [omitted from Townhall.com listing], 6/28) and rapper Sister Souljah (3/29). Most name-calling, however, is directed at Clinton, who is mentioned in 17 of her 28 columns (that's 61% - I'll omit a links list). Coulter calls him, among other things, a "celebrated felon" (3/29), a "known" felon (5/24), a "pervert, liar and a felon" (6/21), a "criminal" (1/11), "a flim-flam artist" (1/11) and a "prominent" criminal (3/29). More extended cheap shots include a "Thai sex tour" joke (4/12), a reference to a Thai "sex emporium" named after him (2/19) and this charming aside: For the record, it is not illegal for a third party to pay legal fees. If it were, Bill Clinton would be bankrupt and Barbra Streisand would be in jail -- which, come to think of it, isn't a bad idea. (5/24) Mean-spirited comments like this are interspersed through most of her columns. The validity of the accusations against Clinton is not the point. Coulter raises his name over and over as an emotional red flag to her readers. Cutting-edge Coulter jargon On a more sophisticated level, Coulter's writing is full of the sweeping generalizations attacking liberals that are the stock in trade of many conservative pundits. These arguments take a particular case (often presented in a distorted way) and use it to attack all liberals, erasing any some/all distinction. Here's one example from a column on the controversy over Ted Olson's nomination to be Solicitor General: "Liberals are always wrapping their comically irrelevant charges in a haze of lies..." (5/24) Or consider this dark statement in the context of a discussion about Jesse Jackson's affair: "Liberals always get a lot of credit for suffering, while never actually being made to suffer." (1/25) Coulter's world is cartoonish. Liberals are "terrorists" (1/11) and a "cult" (2/22) who "can never just make a principled argument" (3/22). Their arguments are portrayed as hysterical (2/9, 4/5, 6/15), screaming (1/18, 6/21) or starting political World War III (2/9, 3/8). Meanwhile, as Coulter depicts it, conservatives are being persecuted ceaselessly. For example, when The New York Times urged Bush to "crack down" on anti-abortion activists who threaten doctors, she wrote this: "[i]n their darkest fantasies, this is what liberals claim McCarthyism was." (4/19) Another tactic is simply associating liberals with lists of code words: the Democratic message is "socialism, class warfare and atheism" (1/4); liberalism is "the official government religion" and is "devoted to class warfare, ethnic hatred and intolerance" (6/15); "God has no part in the religion [liberalism] of sex education, environmentalism, feminism, Marxism and loving Big Brother" (6/15). Coulter seems to be unaware of the irony in her statement that "name-calling has been the principal argument liberals have deployed against conservative arguments". (2/22) But Coulter doesn't stop there. She reserves her hardcore jargon for liberal criticism of conservatives, which she twists almost unrecognizably and viciously turns back against its proponents. Her "logic" in these cases simulates a rational thought process, but in reality is consciously irrational and emotionally aggressive. Consider this example in a column about potential Democratic opposition to Bush's judicial nominees: After repeatedly accusing John Ashcroft of essentially belonging to the Klan and harboring a secret desire to take away women's right to vote and to murder them personally in back-alley abortions, the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee made it clear that there would be no more Mr. Nice Guy when President Bush sends up his first Supreme Court nominee. (2/9) There is a tremendous amount of emotional, loaded language jammed into that dependent clause. In fact, no one accused Ashcroft of belonging to the Ku Klux Klan, let alone repeatedly (note the weasel word "essentially"). Some liberals did criticize him for being insensitive to racial issues, but, as I have argued, this overstatement of the charges against Ashcroft has been used to delegitimize race-based critiques of public figures. The right to vote/abortion canards are even more ridiculous. Coulter continues later in the column: Since liberals can't just say that they hate democracy because democracy requires persuasion and compromise rather than brute political force, they accuse any potential "strict constructionists" of being closet slavery supporters. Ludicrous ad hominem attacks on conservative nominees are then used as a basis for the respectable press to refer to the nominee as "divisive." You are "divisive" if you have been the victim of McCarthyite slanders from the left. Again, she is using language that simulates rationality to make emotionally aggressive points here. Coulter creates the trope that liberals "hate democracy" - her argument supporting this point is that "[c]onservatives always knew they had to win at the ballot box; liberals prefer to skip voting and win by judicial fiat." Having made this assertion, she argues that liberals want to use "brute political force", an insinuation of repressed authoritarianism. Finally, criticism of conservative nominees is caricatured as accusations of supporting slavery and general "McCarthyite slanders". The conscious illogic of this paragraph is breathtaking. One, unfortunately, of many Why is Coulter so important? Even though most people haven't heard of her, she and other relatively young jargon-slingers like David Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin are gaining stature. As a result, the rise of aggressive political jargon is likely to continue, with predictable and pernicious consequences for American political discourse. Subscribe to our email list and you'll always know who's trying to spin you. Related links: -Race and "Racial McCarthyism" (Brendan Nyhan, 4/23) - how the Ashcroft debate was turned around on liberals -The Rhetoric of Uncertainty (Bryan Keefer, 4/30) - analysis of the controversy over judicial nominees; includes a quote from Michelle Malkin -The Olson Reversal (Brendan Nyhan, 5/14) - my column on the Olson controversy -Quotes of the week (Brendan Nyhan, 6/16) - features a Coulter quote -Judging Judges: Framing the Debate Over Court Nominations (Bryan Keefer, 7/2) - analyzes a quote from David Limbaugh Home | Past columns | Old posts | Email list | About | Search This website is copyright (c) 2001 by Ben Fritz, Bryan Keefer and Brendan Nyhan. End<{{{ From http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j100501.html Ku Klux Coulter ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. 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