Monday, August 29th, 2005...6:14 pm
But We Just Realized Exactly How Much We Disliked Her
The Arizona Daily Star has cut Ann Coulter’s column. This is a revealing comment from the new editor:
Finally, we’ve decided that syndicated columnist Ann Coulter has worn out her welcome. Many readers find her shrill, bombastic and mean-spirited. And those are the words used by readers who identified themselves as conservatives.
I’ll resist saying anything about Ann Coulter, because I end up getting into a violent mood and then I make the same sort of worthless ad hominem attacks that she does. That makes me no better than her. Plus, ad hominem attacks on her whiny anorexic ass are too easy.
See, there I go.
The editor, David Stoeffler, reveals a lot in the above statement. Maybe, at long last, the conversation in this country has become too much of a food fight and people are saying “enough!” The cancellation of Crossfire and the near hostile response from conservative pundits to Edward Klein’s book, The Truth About Hillary, make me wonder if we have actually turned the corner on this one. Maybe the people in the media are finally getting tired of the nearly-rote attacks substituting for political debate we have had in this country for the past few years.
I’m not one of these people that think that before the invention of television, every political debate in this country has been high minded. A quick perusal through the transcripts of the Lincoln-Douglas debates will disabuse anyone of that notion. I know that we have always had slimy partisanship in our history. Sen. John C. Frémont was accused of cannibalism when he ran for president, and believe it or not, Thomas Jefferson was accused of a daliance with a slave, even having a child with her.
Uh, what?
I hope that this an indication that the media are finally starting to look at themselves and figure out if what they are doing is really contributing to the betterment of this country. I’m not the only one taking some hope for bigger things from this; this is getting some national play, with Media Matters for America featuring it on their website.
I grew up as a political news junkie. My aunt tells me that my first words were from the news. She says that when Richard Nixon appeared on TV I would say “impeach.” It’s sad that I have ditched watching regular newscasts and have taken to watching Jon Stewart (a comedian) and Keith Olberman (a sportscaster) for my nightly news. I don’t know what the heck they are teaching in journalism school these days, but something has to change.
N.B.- I couldn’t figure out why the Star ran her column at all, given that one of the first ones they published not only made a series of false allegations against the Pima County Attorney’s office (there are plenty of true things to write about, believe me!), but trashed the Star itself and even called one of their reporters a moron. The Star even ran a small response to the column. This all stemmed from the pie-attacks at the University of Arizona, and Coulter’s refusal to help the prosecution.
Update: Both Salon and Editor and Publisher have run items on the Star dropping Coulter’s column. Maybe we’ve got ourselves a movement.
1 Comment
August 29th, 2005 at 11:06 pm
Hey, sportscasters at least show some integrity. A couple of weeks ago, Bob Costas showed some when he refused to appear as a substitute host on Larry King when he found out that the subject of the show was going to be Natalie Holloway.
Of course, Faux News has pretty much become the ‘All-Aruba-all-the-time’ network whenever the news from Iraq, etc. is bad for Bush (which is most of the time) although right at the moment they have the hurricane to fill time.
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