Posted on 06/17/2006 8:42:22 AM PDT by marc costanzo
The left-leaning Newsweek magazine lied about what she wrote in her book, an indignant Ann Coulter said during an appearance on Thursday night's Hannity & Colmes show on Fox News Channel.
"I'm sitting in a Fox studio in L.A.," Coulter said. "I don't know why there's a copy of Newsweek here rather than Human Events. Here is Newsweek describing Ann Coulter as saying '9/11 widows enjoyed their [husbands'] deaths.' That is simply a lie . . . That is a lie. If you can't deal with the facts and you refuse to say what the argument is, I think that's a total lack of confidence in your position and it certainly shows a complete lack of understanding [that] Americans can find out the truth these days - that it's not the mainstream media monopoly it was 10 years ago."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Exactly. The news media distort facts frequently by exaggeration and overstatement, particularly in headlines. As Coutler says, "you can't deal with the facts and you refuse to say what the argument is."
The argument is that four widows used their status as objects of pity to get media attention for their cause of getting the government to increase a payout of around $1.4 million (the other hundreds of widows didn't complain loudly in public about this meager amount of money), and to give support to Democrats.
There is a fallacy in logic called argumentum ad misericordiam. It is an appeal to pity to persuade people that your argument is correct. The media feeds on emotion, and Democrats feed on tears. These four widows were pity-pimping.
If Coulter had pointed this out in a quiet manner, she would never have gotten any media attention. So she says it loud. She knows that the media can then portray her as a mean-spirited conservative. It worked. She has the #1 selling book in the country.
I went to newsweek.com, which happens to also be msnbc and searched "Ann Coulter," so it appears to be the article but of course I'm not 100% sure.
Here is an exaggeration of why I dont agree with this type of reporting.
Head line:
THE SUN IS GOING TO GO NOVA
THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!!
Body: In a few billion years
.
the lie is the willful ignorance of context, and the slander by semantics.
>>Please look up the specific legal meaning of libel. This isn't libel. It's distortion, it's cant, it's malicious partisanship, it's sloppy journalism but it isn't libel. Even if it was libel, the way the law is written you have to prove "malice." That's nearly impossible unless you can find one of those mind-readers who can sort out "hate crimes" from regular crimes of the same kind.<<
True and incorrect !
Alright, that misleding headline is not LIBEL .
And in the case of Libel, you do not have to prove malice !
Only that the VERBATIM quote is false, in short- if you say you heard such-in-such party make this statement 'to you' and they did not- you committed libel .
In defamation of character, or slander, then you have to prove malice !
For about the dozenth time, perhaps you could give it to me? No one has read it but everyone seems sure of what it says.
"Enjoying the spotlight" is the meaning one gets when the passage is read in context. When it is quote alone, as it has been in countless media bytes, it takes on a completely different meaning. If Coulter is guilty of anything it is of not preparing for the dishonestly of the media.
>>we are overdosing on Ann Coulter<<
HEY, MAYBE WE ARE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Although I wasn't as direct as you were, that is just what I was saying.
We all know you didn't want the true answer about Coulter's comment.
You have another agenda, questioning her comment was just the opening to that agenda.
Conservatives aren't as gullible as you think.
Exactly. I'm sure Ann Coulter is crying about this article all the way to the bank.
When sales drop since every single article ever published on this topic covers it the same way she can pick a different news agency and bring up the lie again. ;-)
Disagree? Don't you mean agree? I think most of them can't write their way out of a wet paper bag.
Thank goodness! I certainly wouldn't want to be gullible!
She got Dowded.
>>She should have said "enjoying the spotlight in the aftermath of their husband's deaths."<<
Yes, those Jersey Harpies certainly are !!!!!!!!!!
Ain't that the truth. When I was a kid in the early 60s, my grandparents subscribed to Time, as did a lot of folks. It was a big deal when it arrived every week -- what would be the cover story? Now, I don't know anybody who subscribes to Time or Newsweek. You see them at Great Clips or the doctor's office - sometimes. More likely, you'll see Sports Illustrated or some woman's mag. The "newsweeklies" are relics, as you say - Jurassic artifacts
She got Dowded.
Correct, just dis the dis.
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