Posted on 03/08/2005 2:01:10 PM PST by rightalien
Ann Coulter called liberal columnist Helen Thomas an "old Arab" and suggested she may be a security threat to President Bush in a recent column, and Twenty-six members of the U.S. Congress are steamin' mad.
The Detroit Free Press reports that in a letter to Universal Press, which syndicates Coulters column, the lawmakers criticize Universal's response to the potential controversy as inadequate.
Exactly what did, and didn't, happen?
Coulter, while arguing that liberal attacks on ex-White House reporter Jeff Gannon, formerly of Talon News, were a response to the "public disgrace and ruin of New York Times editor Howell Raines, CBS anchor Dan Rather and CNN news director Eason Jordan, also took a shot at longtime Washington correspondent Thomas (who, by the way, called Condi Rice a "monster" and a "goddamn liar").
Coulter wrote: "Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president.
Although Universal removed the "Arab" reference before sending the column to Coulter's 110 newspaper clients, the politicians are upset because Coulter kept "Arab" in the version of the column that appeared on her website, AnnCoulter.com. The politicos point out that she also kept the Universal copyright under the column and didn't include a disclaimer explaining that the column was worded differently from the one syndicated by Universal.
They wrote: "Just as we would expect that similar slights against African-Americans, Jews, or Hispanics would not be tolerated, equal disapproval should be shown toward these repeated slanders directed at Arab-Americans," adding, "Loyal Arab-Americans have made heroic contributions to our military, intelligence, and Homeland Security efforts."
As a result of the stir, Coulter and Universal have reached an agreement on removing Universal's copyright from columns on AnnCoulter.com that differ from columns sent to newspapers.
Until now, the line under Coulter's columns said "copyright Universal Press Syndicate." Under the agreement, all columns on AnnCoulter.com will say "distributed by Universal Press Syndicate (c) Ann Coulter" if the print and Web versions of the column are the same.
If the versions are not the same, the line will say "(c) Ann Coulter" only. "This applies to columns that may be of different lengths, with different headlines, and with different copy from the edited version," Kerr said.
Using a Coulter copyright "corrects a longstanding error," said Kathie Kerr, director of Communications for Universal. "Universal does not hold the copyright on Ann's columns."
However, as this story was being posted, Coulter had yet to drop the Universal copyright from the Feb. 23 column on her site. "We fully expect it will be removed," Kerr told E&P.
Kerr added that she knew of no newspapers canceling Coulters popular column because of her "old Arab" remark.
Nor should they. It is an "opinion" column, after all, is it not? And this is still America, is it not?
Go Ann, go
Where is the obligatory picture?
I see. But call Bush "Hitler," and you're only exercising your constitutional right to free speech (or exercising your "responsibility" as senior senator from West Virginia).
Helen Thomas' face launched 1000 ships all right....
Too bad its not 146 congressmen against Annie. At least they may have a fighting chance that way...
And the names of these 26 IslamoFascist bribed congress-critters, please? I assume that McKinney wackjob from Georgia is one of them without a doubt.
Yes, the picture of Ann clad only in a small bath towel.
Please specify given the subject of article. :)
over and unders on : pics, 7, weight 16
It appears that the party of Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams has no sense of humor.
A lot of men would like to nail Ann Coulter.
Pictures, where are the pictures?
So9
Leave it to News Max to omit the names of the congressmen.
Its funny what 26 congreemen have time to do. But I guess the world must stop when its time to defend the ugly old Arab Helen Thomas. Considering all the true and noteworthy things that the ugly Arab could be called, she and the 26 should be glad and thankful Sweet Ann decided to go with "old Arab".
I fail to see the ethnic slur contained in her statement. Thomas is old and she is Arab. Is "Arab" a slur like "kike" or "Dago"? If not, what's the problem?
Launched them, or sank them?
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