Helen Thomas. It's always dangerous to be ambiguous.
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 Coulter’s 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 Coulter’s 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?
Hell, only 26 congress-critters? Theres 26 million panting studs out here after Annie, the congress-studs don't have a chance HeHeHeHe.
Censorship! Censorship! Censorship! Censorship! Censorship! Censorship! Censorship! Censorship! Censorship! Censorship!
ONLY 26?
Man, that's not a fair fight at all...
It would take AT LEAST the entire Dem Congressional Delegation to have even odds of taking Ann in a fight. Toss in a few loons from DU just to make it REALLY fair.
Reminds me of that scene in the first Indian Jones movie... where the Arab dude confronts Indy, waving a big sword and acting all menacing and such (like these loony democrats)... then Indy just pulls out his pistol and casually blows the freak away (as Anne would do... only she'd likely have something with a little more firepower).
Did the same 26 congressfolk get pissed @ that traitor Ward Churchill?
Whatever doesn't kill you...has just made a serious tactical error.
I wish Ann would stop beating around the bush and call that old hag what she really is, "an ugly, washed-up, never was, pinko commie".
Hey, its not like she called the WTC victoms little Ichmans or anything, ohh wait a minute?
Helen Thomas picture? ewwwwwwwww
Wow... pissed off... they're such BIASED RACIST OVER-ALL DISCRIMINATORY PIGS WAVING THE BANNER OF TOLERANCE, AND IT'S ALL A BUNCH OF BULLSH*T!
Pray for W and Our Troops
If they are thinking of taking on Ann, there better be more than just 26 wussy congresscritters.
Ann has more brain power, a stiffer spine, more guts and bigger cajones than all of them together.
She's too skinny
Folks, we have the upper hand in politics right now. Getting too cocky could kill our advantage. Americans don't like extremism. Believe me, Michael Moore didn't do any favors to John Kerry.
I don't want to get 500 responses to this post, so let me just say this: It's fine to laugh with Coulter a little bit. But just realize that most Americans find her attitude and style a tad bit obnoxious.
The woman should have retired 10 years ago. It's like having a faulty toilet where you have to flush it about 3 times to get it clean ....
Point two, Helen Thomas is older than most dirt.
Sylogistically, Helen Thomas is an old Arab, QED
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.