Friday, March 09, 2007

Outrageous to whom

Pundits are a dime-a-dozen these days. But there is only one Ann Coulter. The tall, blond drink of water makes you want to throw yours at the television, but is she deserving of the witch-hunt?

She is under fire right now from liberal organizations and the Media about an offensive name she called John Edwards. See the video below if you haven’t heard the story.



She called him this in reference to the scandal happening on the set of Gray's Anatomy. Is it funny? Not to me. But it’s funny to HER fans.

Another writer/political commentator that says outrageous things is Bill Maher. In terms of this post, I serendipitously watched Jay Leno last week when he was a guest. He said joke after joke about Bush. It was so outrageous it made Leno uncomfortable. Is this funny? Not to me. But it’s funny to HIS fans.

This article says Bill Maher is not like Ann Coulter because he is a comedian and Ann Coulter is a pundit. Thus Bill Maher’s comments should not be scrutinized. I completely disagree.

Bill Maher might have started his career as a comedian, and he may have his own talk show, but he is one of the biggest political advocates in Hollywood. Plus I think if you appear on prime-time cable news shows, you’re a pundit automatically. Just watch his appearance on Joe Scarborough (Florida Gator).


Now, even as a Catholic, I’m not really offended with these comments. But I’m sure a lot of Christians were, and you still don’t see an uproar about it. He also mentioned on his show last week that if Dick Cheney would have died during that bombing in Afghanistan, the world would be better off essentially. This comment, again, doesn’t really offend me, but it did upset a lot of people. Yet, no uproar? In fact Bill Maher only receives praise from the Media.

I wasn't able to find any positive articles about Ann Coulter.

I think this is a double standard, and something you see with political advocates on the right, like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. I think liberal organizations and liberal journalists are so threatened by what these people say, they take any opportunity to berate and discredit their reputations.

Check out the home page of Meida Matters. This web site is so blatantly liberal I’m offended that they hide under the name “Media Matters.” It has listed all of the publications in which Coulter’s column appear, and encourages readers to put pressure on the editors to drop the column. It has worked: 7 newspapers have dropped her.

And Keith Olbermann’s show is keeping track. I was watching it last night and they were pretty much praising the newspapers for doing this.

But just like Bill Maher and Jon Stewart are comedians to their liberal base, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh are the comedians to their conservative base. I looked up some of her columns, and wow, they are outrageous, but no doubt she has a gift for clever writing.

Another criticism of Ann’s comment is she only said it for attention. I don’t think this is true. Ann Coulter was being Ann Coulter. She only thrives off this witch-hunt.

None of these comments I’ve mentioned offended me, but I’ll tell you something that did: John Edwards is trying to capitalize on her comment. Asking those who are mad to donate to his campaign.



Typical.

JK

3 Comments:

At Saturday, March 10, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, JK - yes, Bill O'Reilly would agree with you that all media is a liberal consipracy. But you can bring some balance to the debate post-graduation;)

Ann Coulter is that special breed of revolting shrillness that people are drawn to much like they're drawn to watch the scene of a car accident - grotesque curiosity. And she capitalizes on it. The comment crossed the line, wasn't funny or appropriate - John Edwards clearly isn't gay, so I fail to get the reference. What if Coulter had used the "N" epithet to refer to Edwards? Would that be ok? It's an equally offensive word.

I see what you're saying, but liberals aren't immune to criticism either - Bill Maher's show was canceled a few years ago because there was public uproar that he seemed 'unpatriotic' because he criticized Bush.

At least Maher sticks to the issues. Yes, he thinks that organized religion is a neurological disorder that creates war and that Dick Cheney is a net negative for America. But I think those opinions are different from throwing out hate words. I would hope that anyone who cavalierly uses racial or religious hate words gets crucified by the press - on both sides of the aisle.

LT

 
At Sunday, March 11, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey JK, I also think that it's really weird/inappropriate for Edwards to be capitalizing off of Coulter's stupid remark.
But as a minority and someone with many gay friends, I was really offended by Coulter's words.
I think it's really ridiculous that people who aren't in certain minority groups think it's okay for them to use slurs about these groups. I'm looking at you Isaiah Washington and Michael Richards...

 
At Sunday, March 11, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

According to Ann Coulter, she's no longer a pundit...she's a superstar and can say anything she wants.

Wrong. That was a wrong thing for anyone to say. Ann Coulter gets picked on because she's ridiculous.

 

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