Media Matters: Coulter reference to Edwards as "faggot" gives rise to questions for media

[marmar]

Coulter reference to Edwards as "faggot" gives rise to questions for media

In a March 2 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), right-wing pundit Ann Coulter said she "can't really talk about" Democratic presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (NC) because "you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot.' " The CPAC audience applauded her comment. Coulter's comments, which aired on CSPAN, were also documented by the weblog Think Progress. It was not the first time Coulter has smeared a prominent Democrat with a homophobic epithet, and it is not the first time that Coulter has ridiculed Edwards. Will the media call on Republican presidential hopefuls attending the CPAC conference to denounce her smear?

From Coulter's March 2 speech:

COULTER: Oh, and I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards. But it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word "faggot," so I'm -- so I'm kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards. So I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions.

As Media Matters for America documented, Coulter called former Vice President Al Gore a "total fag" on the July 27 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, claiming immediately that the comment was "a joke." At the end of the interview, host Chris Matthews said: "Thanks for coming on. And a smart lady. Her book's called Godless. Sometimes being smart isn't enough for a civil discourse. We'd love to have her back."

......snip......

The incident at CPAC suggests at least two questions:

* Will the media -- including the "mainstream media" figures Romney said attended his speech -- ask Romney whether he will repudiate Coulter's apparent endorsement?
* Will the media ask the other Republican presidential candidates and potential candidates participating in CPAC -- including Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Duncan Hunter, and Mike Huckabee -- whether they will seek the votes of the CPAC attendees who cheered Coulter's smear of Edwards?

The complete piece is at: http://mediamatters.org/items/200703030002

[Hugin]

1. Thanks for the link marmar... nt

[dazzlerazzle]

2. coulter comments

if she were a pro athlete, she would get reprimanded, lose endorsements, and be told to apologize.

[11 Bravo]

10. If she were a human being ...

she would collapse in a paroxysm of guilt, evacuate her bowels, and wallow in the putrid fecal mass until death finally took her. (Is that a little harsh?)

[MADem]

3. Romney is probably delighted to be associated with Faggot Bashing

He's still living down being Governor of Marriage For All Massachusetts.

But it is a good "noodge" subject--to dog him with every day on the campaign trail!

[niceypoo]

4. Ann Coulter is a clown

She used to be a pundit on the major cable news outlets, but as of late she can only get a gig on FAUX. Who cares what she says? Her only goal is to draw attention to herself.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Why do we want them to...

repudiate her?

Let them be seen as bigots and homophobes-- no matter what we might think, most people, even religious conservatives, don't hate homosexuals and don't think much of bigoted smears.

Besides, far too much is made of assholes like Coulter, who's really a comic with one routine that no one takes seriously, not even her audience. She gets a few cheap laughs, just like we do insulting them, and goes on her merry way bagging a few more bucks while she can. She is really irrelevant and not worth our time or attention.

[Beetwasher]

6. Exactly. If Someone Associated W/ Dems Says Anything Remotely Controversial

Every Dem in existence is asked whether they repudiate it by every reporter on the planet. Let's see if they hold Repubs to the same standard. I'm not holding my breath.

[unblock]

7. she's a known bigot and therefore anyone who gives her airtime is a bigot.

don't go after her, she's incorrigible. you're wasting your breath.

go after her sponsors and promoters and any anyone who gives her a microphone.

[bvar22]

9. Exactly!

"she's a known bigot and therefore anyone who gives her airtime is a bigot."

This is ALL anyone needs to say about Coulter.
Stop adddressing Coulter directly.
Stop protesting her personal appearances.
Stop demanding apologies and repudiations.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. Bill Maher used to call himself a good friend. I wonder now.

think he will invite her on again? I think not.

[libnnc]

16. I wonder who her publicist is?

Who is her agent? Might be worth going after them.

Make it so the only work she can get is flashing her tits in Times Square.

Edit for clarity.

[mopinko]

8. if a dem candidate jumps on this, i will send them $100.

tooooday. come on barack, make a joke about it. you know you want to. ridicule. that is what we need. a candidate that can just turn this shit right back on them.

[11 Bravo]

11. Edwards is all over it. n/t

[mopinko]

14. cha ching. just gave him the do re mi.

although what i really want is riducule. outrage is tit for tat, which is something. but it gives it more gravitas than it deserves. when someone comes out and calls her man coulture, has a pic of her drooling and foaming, or anything, i will donate again.

[RandomKoolzip]

12. Oh god, you just KNOW she's getting off on our outrage, too.

This is the thing about Coulter and her ilk: ANY kind of attention for her is good attention - it keeps her in the spotlight. And the fact that we're all aghast at her (honestly ugly and stupid and homophobic) comments just gives her more fuel, more ammo. More proof that the left "can't take a joke."

You see, for her and many on the right, the nastiness and virulence they hurl daily at us is some kind of twisted "revenge" for the 60's (think Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin), so in their eyes, it's justified and a form of balance.

I hope she chokes on a cocktail onion.

[badgerpup]

15. She made the same kind of allegation about Bill Clinton...

...and he smacked her down but good.
Without getting angry either...more laughing it off...which made it much, much worse for Coulter.

I'd like to see Edwards demonstrate the same type of sang-froid...

[Mr. Ected]

17. Who CARES What She Says or Thinks?

She's not running for office.

However, each and every Repuke candidate that was in attendance yesterday should be put on RECORD as to whether they endorse such statement(s).

Politics is war, baby, and every bit of ammunition available should be used to the hilt.

[Kurovski]

18. Notice how she actually tries to promote Giuliani as someone a Democrat

or moderate Republican could consider voting for:

"And Giuliani is very, very liberal. When this country gets to the point -- I mean, I have a love letter to him in my current book, Godless. What he did for New York was magnificent. But when this country gets to the point where both presidential candidates support abortion, I think we can hang it up as a country."

She is the perfect all-purpose lying shitbag.

And Ghouliani is a BushCo enabler.

[HardRocker05]

19. disagreement- it wasn't a smear against edwards; it was a smear against gays. nt

[terrya]

20. She's also referred to Al Gore as a "fag", I believe.

[gratuitous]

21. Imagine if a speaker at the Liberal PAC said . . .

Let's do a little thought experiment. Let's pretend that there was such a thing as the Liberal Political Action Committee, and that every serious Democratic candidate had to attend it and kiss liberal ass to have any hope whatsoever of winning the Democratic nomination. Further, let's imagine the major media giving it straight coverage, time on C-Span, and serious commentary in print.

Stop laughing. I'm trying to be serious.

Now, let's suppose that one of the speakers, not a candidate, called one of the Republican candidates a little Eichmann. Just suppose.

I can wait all day for you to stop laughing. Your face is going to freeze like that.

Do you suppose that the coverage the next day in the popular media would focus on what Dennis Kucinich said about ensuring workers' rights, or would it be all about the little Eichmann comment?

Pens ready? Begin.

[OneAngryDemocrat]

22. LTTE: The politics of Bigotry

I submitted the following LTTE to the three newspapers in my local area. By all means feel free to use a variation of this Letter To The Editor, to send off your own, to your local papers.

''All of the GOP's 2008 presidential hopefuls, with the exception of Senator John McCain, recently appeared at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, last week.

Not one of those candidates has yet spoke out against guest speaker Ann Coulter's pejorative and slanderous reference to Democratic candidate John Edwards, as a ''faggot.''

Coulter's horrible comments were receieved by those attending the Conservative Conference with laughter, and cheers.

If the GOP candidates expect to hear anything other than laughter on election day, then they must distance themselves from the politics of smear, and scandal, and denounce Ms. Coulter's commentary as un-true, and mean-spirited, and un-worthy of an event at which a future President would ever attend, and speak.''

[opihimoimoi]

23. Does the B get a HOMOPHOBIC PASS??? Looks like it...

She gets away(for now) with crap on the main stage with them Pubics laughing all the way..

Hundreds of them Pubs was there...had to be a few closet folks...maybe worse...like in Teddy Haggerd's case.....posing as a normal Pub but NOT

Together we survive...divided we fuck up....

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

24. Why did they choose to feature someone widely reported as a fraudulent voter?

Ann Coulter does not have the stature to enter ANY political discourse when she cannot even remember her own address.