Posted on 05/06/2005 5:07:35 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952
EDITORIAL BOARD
Friday, May 06, 2005
Conservative author and gadfly Ann Coulter must have been delighted by the protesters who disrupted her talk at the University of Texas Tuesday night. It added to the sensationalism she thrives on.
Coulter expects to provoke controversy when she speaks at a university. The $30,000 she earned for her appearance at the LBJ Library auditorium makes enduring some heckling and rudeness worthwhile. Plus, she gathered a few anecdotes for her next best-selling book and can point once again to the intolerance of the anti-free speech left.
But what is good for Coulter and her right-wing screeds is bad for the university, which has seen this kind of thing before. Whether it's Henry Kissinger, Ward Connerly or Coulter, a coterie of radical students and professors insist on sabotaging speakers whose views they oppose.
Worse for UT, the disruptions reported in the Daily Texan, the student newspaper, were particularly puerile. Not just rude and obnoxious, but also silly, stupid and sexually suggestive. Sophomore Ajai Raj, whose vulgarity at the speech got him arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, is hardly a First Amendment martyr.
As Daily Texan columnist James Burnham wrote, Raj's behavior was "inappropriate, uncalled for and entirely pointless."
It's no surprise that students would demonstrate, but the childish level of the protesters — imitating flatulence, flipping the bird and such — is astonishingly base for the state's flagship university. You'd think the top 10 percent could do better.
Coulter is obnoxious, so much so that it's doubtful she believes even half of what she says and writes. But her provocative discourse has made her rich, and the protests, like the absurdity at UT, only add to her bank account.
The antidote for hate speech is truth, not more hate speech. Students at a top university should have learned that by now.
I heard Coulter on Hannity the other day. She said that the problem was the kids in schools today put two sentences together to facts, so they call names.
Stuff like this just gives her more ammunition. Frankly, I'd hate to get in an argument with Ann.
Yeah, the Austin paper had this splashed all over the front page today. All the liberals hugging their impeached hero, el slicko. One lady said she thought she "was going to faint when she saw him". MEGA BARF TIME. The FReeper wasn't in the dead tree edition, only in the on-line version.
How dare he malign the Kerry voter.
No kidding. They did have the filthy ex, impeached, rapist splashed all over the front page with all the hateful liberals swooning over him.
Its not paid to lose money. The ticket sales generate income.
30K isn't near enough for what Ann has to say. What are you, some kind of "progressive" (read: "socialist")?
Speakers are paid what the market will bear. It's called supply and demand (quaint concept) and Ann is in demand. I can't comprehend why she isn't getting as much as the top dollar speakers do, especially since she is the only prominent conservative in the country who says what she REALLY thinks.
Aint that something; cute little intellectual prodigy like Ann being the balls for the whole Republican party and conservative movement? They can't beat her with brains (cretins), but they can attack her with boorish bathroom antics and downright rudeness. It's amazing that UT is even in Texas.
As others have posted, remember the operating principle of the left: "A mind is a terrible thing to use."
A headline the other day said Dan Rather gets $75,000. I can only imagine what Bubba makes? Probably $250,000 a pop.
GW
The Stone Age Press attacks from the Tarpits! Ann Rox!!
Pray for W and Our Troops
She is making $30K for a speech. Don't blame Ann blame the school.
Most of the time, speakers are paid by some kind of endowment or fund set up exclusively for that purpose by a donor. This system prevents boycotts and angry phone calls from parents.
What that means is, as a parent I cannot protest to the college when Ward Churchill speaks at my kid's school, they keep their hands off that kind of stuff. The exception is the stupid choices made for commencement speakers - now THERE is where parents and donors can make a difference, IMO.
I wonder how much they would love him if he was six inches shorter, 40 lbs heavier, bald and had a wart on the end of his nose?
The dim bulbs at tu will be more than happy to shell out Dan Rather's fee of $75,000, of course.
This is from a paper who routinely called that foul mouthed old hag Ann Richards a folksy, down-to-earth, people's politician. When I was going to UT in the late 70's, she was a Travis County Commisioner, and the Statesman loved her.
No, we won't.
It's called market economics.
How true you are about that statement. I'll never forget the way the Statesman thought she was the best politician ever to hit Texas.
". . .the state's flagship university."
I don't think so.
I thought that too....but consider the source of the article - the Austin American Statesman. What do you expect? And no wonder they don't think she can believe what she says - its the Austin American Statesman!
There is no "fair and balanced" in that entire city.
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