Posted on 06/13/2006 3:02:44 PM PDT by Mike Bates
In the controversy over Ann Coulter's comments about the group of 9/11 widows, there is one critical question, from the point of view of ensuring standards of accuracy in the media. How does Coulter know it to be true that, "I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much." There is no evidence whatsoever that those women enjoyed their husbands' deaths, and Coulter offers none. The only "evidence" for this preposterous and hurtful claim is that the women became activists and sought the media spotlight and took a political position at odds with that of Coulter. But what does that prove?
I think Coulter probably would have been correct to say that the women appeared to enjoy the media attention. You don't go on these shows unless you enjoy them to some degree. But enjoying a death? And the death of a loved one when fatherless children were left behind? Coulter's comments are not only false but cruel. She has also made other disparaging personal comments about the women.
In journalism, facts and truth are supposed to matter. Opinions are allowed, and Coulter, a columnist for Human Events and many other newspapers, is entitled to her own opinions.
SNIP
If the matter only involved personal opinions about people or things, Coulter's comments wouldn't really be newsworthy or significant. But she is claiming to have inside knowledge of the personal psychology of this group of women who lost their husbands on 9/11. That is why the comments have generated so much outrage—except from a few conservatives unwilling to criticize her.
(Excerpt) Read more at aim.org ...
Very bad example, you just wrecked your own argument. The National Enquirer, often sued, but rarely successfully. This may be the last paper that actually verifies its stories. Facts matter very much to the NE. If they mattered as much to ABCCBSNBCPBS, they wouldn't have had to dump Elizabeth Vargas and Dan Rather.
Now as far as style, possibly you can make the case Coulter is the NE of political commentary, rarely wrong but always in your face and arresting.
The latest headline of the NE is "Angelina Jolie's baby was fathered by a dude other than her husband." Pretty shocking, but they wouldn't have gone to press without documentation, proof, and pix. Remember, in the US as opposed the Great Britain, the truth is still the defense against libel.
Ann tricked you. You assumed "enjoy" meant pleasurable. Other posters provided the legal definition of the word. It's like hockey, the forward comes over the line, do you chase the puck or the person? Stickhandling is the essence of college hockey, Ann is the best stickhandler of them all.
In the NHL, you just drop your gloves and punch in the mouth. That's the essence of liberalism, no finesse.
Had Michael Moore said it about Lisa Beamer, FReepers would be putting on suicide bomber vests.
Personally, I think Annie has a problem with Kristin Breitweiser. K.B.'s button-cute looks probably freak Annie out.
Ann was way off base and nasty with her remarks!
She's smart as all heck.
Do you know how much you'd have to pay a Madison Ave. Ad firm for all this publicity she's gettin' FOR FREE?!?
;-)
Can you prove that they had "happy" marriages? I know your a darwinist maybe you can speak to the dead as well?
The Haditha compilation on Sweetness & Light has been fantastic:) I have ref'd to it frequently.
If that is the quote that got this whole thing started - shame on everyone!
Except Ms. Coulter.
Stop and think about word usage just for a second...have you never said:
Getting legally stoned before tooth extraction was 'fun'?
The broken nose was worth the points scored or crowd approval?
The nurse made having your leg set either pleasant or worth the pain?
Getting a traffic ticket was 'nice' because the cop was cute?
An over crowded elevator full of NFL cheerleaders was fun?
OK, although I've volunteered over & over again, I don't even know anyone who has actually been trapped in an elevator with the Raiderettes, but I heard the anesthesia thing only this morning.
There is a slam at the 9/11 leftists in the quote, but it is NOT that they were glad that hubby bit the 737.
"Never say bad things about the totalitarian swine on the Left."
Are you suggesting they wouldn't give every penny of it back if it would bring their husbands back?
They have chosen to become activists as though they were representing all widows and widowers as a result of 9/11.
From what I've read on them not once have they every portrayed themselves as speaking for anyone but themselves.
Going around stinking up the country with their unsubstantiated assertions, claims and charges against the current administration just serves to demonstrate their ignorance of the political process and their disdain for other victims of 9/11 who disagree with their very public assessments, IMHO.
Your HO and Coulter's are very similar, and your welcome to them. But don't present opinion and call it fact without some evidence to back you up.
Is that the standard of proof? Or should Ann be asked to provide proof that their husbands actually were planning to divorce them?
I don't know about that, but I nearly fell off my chair when Ann blurted out "How do we know their husbands weren't going to divorce them BEFORE 9/11?"
My wife of 33 years almost choked on her salad when Ann said that.
She and I have three of Ann's books, we are fans of her, but she needs to get her head together. She's turning into a real jerk.
Putting those words in her book was, she knew, something that would rile the MSM and liberals. So, she's gone with it, knowing that her fan base would defend her. I think they'd defend her and applaud her if she spit on Kristen Breitweiser on national television.
"They ignored the truth of Ms. Gorelick's wall, the facts that X42 ignored an offer to bring OBL to justice here in the USA, etc."
Heck, they ignored Sandy Berger's theft of documents from the 9/11 Commission.
They have for some time worked with Cynthia McKinney. They implicitly accept her view of 9/11 (that "Bush knew.")
They had no problems with NJ McGreevey putting his foreign national boyfriend in charge of Home Security.
Nor did they ever complain about Ward Churchill or any of the others who have said that the 9/11 victims deserved what they got.
Moreover, they argued that instead of Moussoaui getting the death penalty, they thought it would be more fitting for George Tenet, the FBI and (implied) George Bush.
They have repeatedly claimed that Bush was responsible for the death of 3,000 on 9/11.
But now we're supposed to be outraged by a passing reference to them "enjoying" the death of their husbands.
What a PR campaign on the part of the DNC and their lickspittle media. And it is very informative to see so many here helping them out.
The deaths of their husbands happened when they happened, what were they suppose to wait for?
Trying to find meaning in a death is a way of coping with loss and grief. Perhaps throwing themselves into political action, bringing pressure to bare to investigate, is an effort to bring meaning to what is senseless. They didn't cause death to gain a soapbox.
Do you make the some judgements of the women behind MADD? They also used their losses as a soapbox, to put it crudely. John Walsh made a whole career out of his loss. What is the difference, except that the "Jersey Girls" are on the wrong side of the political fence? All have wanted to use their tragedy make life safer for others.
Coulter, on the other hand has no compunction in using them to her own political and economic ends. She claims the high ground while taking the low road. Doesn't work.
I wish she'd find another political philosophy to represent and leave Conservatives alone.
Trust me, they'd be shouting "Coulter akhbar!" faster than you can say "fatwa."
paraphrasing, "how do we know that their husbands weren't going to divorce them?" <~~~~~ a question
Useful idiots.
I happened to catch a monologue by one of the and she hit every DNC talking point.
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