Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[ergo sum]

Hi Augie

http://www.anncoulter.blogspot.com/

Posted 12:18 PM by Scoobie Davis


Ann Coulter's Slander: The Title is Correct--But for the Wrong Reasons. by Scoobie Davis


A few weeks ago, I heard that Ann Coulter had written a book that would soon be released titled Slander: Liberal Lies about the American Right. I was incredulous when I heard that the premise of the book was that the incivility and dishonesty in contemporary American political discourse was entirely the fault of the political left. I thought this was especially the case because I was familiar with Coulter's writings. Spinsanity did an informative analysis of Coulter's scurrilities. During the Election 2000 aftermath, I was particularly incensed by Coulter's libel that "Jesse Jackson is presiding over rioting in the streets" (Jackson's demonstrations were peaceful and legal; it was GOP operatives who rioted). I also know that Coulter's columns appear on the web site of two Scaife-funded ideologues, David Horowitz and Joseph Farah. This is especially ironic because a quick search on Farah's WorldNetDaily web site yields an interesting assortment of articles that include Scaife's paranoid conspiracies such as the Vince Foster death theories and the infamous "Clinton body count." Lest anyone misunderstand, Coulter has every right to write for WorldNetDaily; my point is that it is ironic for a WorldNetDaily columnist to complain about the poisoning of the well of public discourse by the left.


So I obtained a review copy of Slander though a friend in the mainstream media. I received it last week and began to research Coulter's claims (I'm still researching them). It didn't take long to find out that I was correctly told about the premise of the book--on page one, Coulter draws an unambiguous conclusion about the decline in political discourse: "It's all liberals' fault." However, when I sampled Slander's first few pages (which address the War on Terror), I found that Coulter's own words devastatingly refute this conclusion; Coulter engages in the name-calling, fabrications, and character assassination that she maintains is the exclusive realm of liberals.


Before I go on, let me first say that I enjoyed Slander. Although the book is libelous, nasty, and self-contradictory to the point of being burlesque, I found it an enjoyable read. However, the book entertained me book for reasons Coulter didn't intend. Slander has an amusing blend of bile, conspiratorial thinking, and straight camp (e.g., Coulter's hilariously gushing 3-page paean to Phyllis Schlafly). I found Slander fun to read for the same reasons I enjoy reading Jack Chick comic tracts (on that subject, I highly recommend Robert Fowler's book The World of Chick?). The only concern I have is that there are people out there who will believe Coulter's disinformation.


Early in the book I checked the Coulter's citations and I found something odd. On page five alone, for two columns Coulter cites, the information in the sources of Coulter's citations did not correspond to their portrayal in the book. I was surprised that I was able to discover multiple examples of intellectual dishonesty so early in the book.


The Lies


Regarding the War On Terror, on page 5 and 6, Coulter makes the accusations that "n lieu of a military response against terrorists abroad and security precautions at home, liberals wanted to get the whole thing over with and just throw conservatives in jail" and "[l]iberals hate America, they hate ‘flag-wavers,' they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam (post 9/11). Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do."


Two of the sources Coulter uses to arrive at these scurrilous conclusions are New York Times columns by Frank Rich and Bruce Ackerman. On page 5, Coulter writes, "New York Times columnist Frank Rich demanded that [Attorney General] Ashcroft stop monkeying around with Muslim terrorists and concentrate on anti-abortion extremists."


REALITY: I checked the column Coulter cited and found that nowhere in the column does Rich even remotely suggest that Ashcroft curtail efforts against Islamic terrorists. In fact, I checked every post-9/11 Times column by Rich and found that Rich has not made any such demands of Ashcroft. This is one of Coulter's lies that I e-mailed to Alan Colmes who interviewed Coulter last night (6/25/02) on Fox News's Hannity & Colmes show. Colmes confronted Coulter with this. Coulter's response: "that is an accurate paraphrase..." (For a transcript of Coulter and Colmes's exchange, check the addendum at the bottom of this post).

Also on page 5, Coulter writes: "Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman recommended dropping the war against global terrorism (‘declare war at the first at the first decent opportunity'!) and instead concentrate on ‘home-grown extremists.'"


REALITY: In the column Coulter cited, Ackerman does not advocate concentrating on domestic terrorists (as opposed to foreign-born terrorists, who are the focus of the column). In fact, Ackerman only mentions "home-grown extremists" in passing ("And I do not deny that other attacks may well occur -- perhaps committed by home-grown extremists.")


These distortions of New York Times columns by Coulter are all the more incredible because listed in the Acknowledgements section, in her list of "long-suffering friends who give me ideas and editing advice, which I habitually ignore," Coulter includes Frank Bruni, New York Times writer. It made me wonder: why didn't Bruni catch the way