Posted on 06/28/2007 3:15:39 AM PDT by L.N. Smithee
I was just about to flip off my TV set when I did a cursory spin around the channels to see if there was something happening I would want to TiVo for tomorrow when I came across ABC's World News Now broadcast, a hodgepodge of previously aired ABC News stories read by minor league anchors getting their first taste of national network exposure (Anderson Cooper began his career on this show).
The anchors had just finished a replay of Salon.com refugee Jake Tapper's story on the Coulter-Edwards kerfuffle, which contained Tapper's trademark leftward spin. After it was finished, the male anchor said to the female anchor (I'll fill in those details later if you care) something in the realm of "You know how we have a Paris Hilton blackout? Why don't we also have an Ann Coulter blackout?" As the female anchor proposed that Mrs. Edwards and Coulter somehow have it out on television, someone in the control room played in the background Elton John's "The Bitch Is Back." The song's volume rose as the show went to a commercial break.
Personally, I have soured on Coulter after she suddenly became needlessly strident and gratutitous in issuing insults. She's become a conservative enfant terrible, and doesn't seem to care that while she gets all the credit for stirring up outrage, it reflects badly on people who share her concerns but not her penchant for inflammatory rhetoric.
But this thread is not about what I think of her, it's about what is acceptable behavior for a news program. Essentially calling a best-selling author a "bitch" on a newscast? There is absolutely NO excuse for this.
While the BBC recently openly admitted that there is rampant leftist bias within its reports, there has been no similar self-reflection on the part of American news outlets. I propose a good place to start such a discussion would be right at this point: Who is it at ABC News who decided that it would be journalistically acceptable to play "The Bitch Is Back" after a story about Ann Coulter? Someone in that dark room with all the monitors, switches and levers set it up and said, "Do it." What was in his/her mind? What does David Westin have to say about it? Did the decision-maker figure Westin would be proud?
I agree. And to say you agree with Ann’s stand on things but she is “over the top” (whatever that is) is like saying you support our troops but not what they’re doing.
Ann is Ann - take the whole package or leave it.
Just a thought here. As you say JUST before the show she was told mrs. Edwards would call.
Now what would have happened if she had refused that call. Do you think that would have gone unnoticed or unreported?
What real choice did she have>
I disagree with you, she was trapped, no two ways about it.
” “The fairness doctrine, whatever that is, will fix this.”
Please tell me you’re being sarcastic. “
I’ve been wondering if we should try the tack of making it clear that if the “ShutUpTheOppositionIfWeCan’tWinInTheCourtOfPublicOpinion” Doctrine passes, we WILL be demanding equal time for each and every slanted newscast that project the editorial bias and left-wiong propaganda the slimeballs at the MSM networks call “news”.
I agree, it was classic Matthews. He's so far gone in the ratings, sinking to an all time viewer less low, even for him, this was a last ditch desperate attempt to be relevant for a couple of days.
Yeah that’s a good one!
I think until and unless you hear Ann herself complain that she was trapped, you can’t arrive at that conclusion. This confrontation has made Ann lots of money. I’m sure Ann knew that it would, and she quickly agreed to the call.
Ann’s a big girl. She has enough cojones to tell this producer “no” if she didn’t want to take the call and get into a confrontation with Mrs. Edwards.
Again, ANN HASN’T SAID she was blindsided or caught by surprise, which is very telling.
As for the charge of being an opportunist, Matthews and Edwards make Coulter look like an amateur.
BUMP
You are so WRONG!
Ann exposed how Godless the Democratic Psrty has
become similar to Marxist-Lenin-Stalin revolutionary communist.
So they attack her as seen below:
Hillary now has found religion.
I'll stick with Ann. I know Ann's style of logic and humor is working because George Soros is spending millions for Clinton's new communist party. Talk Radio along with Ann Coulter are attacked daily because they are the communists way.
Perhaps Ann will have something to say about the Anti-american Broadcasting Company.
Little Johnni IS A GIRLIE-SOMETHING.
So one should never talk to or listen to any of the al-Qaeda supporters on national TV so called news.
I don’t know, Ann might actually take it as a badge of honor. After all; she is “stone cold sober and matter of fact”, when she’s going after the left.
The problem with your analogy is that Coulter presents what is essentially the truth in a caustic way. Moore on the other hand tells lie after lie.
Coulter at times sacrifices good taste to bring attention to important topics. Moore sacrifices the truth and good taste to advance his agenda that is not supported by the truth.
The similarities between Moore and Coulter are superficial at best.
You sure the song wasn’t for John Edwards?
As is the wont of the leftists they make Ms Coulter the "issue" ignoring her message. Phony "issues" are weapons.
Truth? No; her opinion and/or ideology. There's a difference.
Coulter at times sacrifices good taste to bring attention to important topics. Moore sacrifices the truth and good taste to advance his agenda that is not supported by the truth.
Moore uses innuendo and compromising "ambush journalism" to make ideological points. Coulter does pretty much the same thing.
Hey, they are all democrats, of course its OK. All the mainstream media outlets act as fundraisers for the democrats — its SOP.
MSNBC is in bed with the DNC and specifically, the Edwards campaign. Just like they were in bed with the DNC and the Kerry campaign during the 04 election. Look at the involvement of NBCers/MSNBCers with the Libby case. FIVE of them...count them: Matthews, Russert, Mitchell, Gregory, and Schuster....all intimately involved with the set up of Libby.
Russert filed a false affidavit, Mitchell claimed on-air drunkenness when she said “everybody knew it; Gregory was a leak recipient and has remained silent, Matthews is a Chaney hater and makes no bones about that, and Schuster can’t get a story straight if his life depended on it.
So, is it OK for MSNBC/NBC to fund raise for the democrats? Apparnetly, by NBC standards its perfectly reasonable.
Would you have found it amusing if they had done the same thing to Hillary? Just curious.
The over-the-top rhetoric of Coulter's (and Moore's, and Thomas's) detractors does not vindicate Coulter (or Moore or Thomas).
The simple fact of the matter is that Coulter is a crass demagogue. Conservatives don't need someone like her - we don't need underhanded tactics like that if our ideas are truly superior.
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