Introducing Ann Coulter – FrontPage Columnist

FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | October 3, 2001 | David Horowitz

[ouroboros]

Introducing Ann Coulter – FrontPage Columnist

FrontPageMagazine.com | October 3, 2001

Ann Coulter

WE ARE PLEASED AND HONORED to welcome Ann Coulter to the FrontPage team. Many of our readers have long been fans of hers. I certainly have.

As a syndicated columnist, talk show pundit and bestselling author, Ann has distinguished herself as one of the most articulate, forceful – and cheeky – members of the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy.

	Make Comments
	View Comments
	Printable Article
	Email Article

Ann was recently dismissed from her position as contributing editor of National Review Online (NRO). The problem began with a September 12 column in which Ann declared (with regard to Islamic terrorists): "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

Subsequently, NRO rejected another column by Ann urging airport officials to scrutinize with special thoroughness "any suspicious-looking swarthy males."

Finally – and perhaps most fatally – Ann suggested, in an interview with the Washington Post, that her sensitive colleagues at NRO were "just girly-boys."

She was dismissed soon after.

What happened to Ann falls into a pattern that we at FrontPage like to call "PC McCarthyism." In the 1950s, the mere accusation of Communist sympathies could cost an innocent person his livelihood. Today, the charge of "racism," "sexism" or "homophobia" can have the same devastating effect.

As a Jew, I could be uneasy at Ann’s suggestion that mass conversion to Christianity should be wielded as a tool of foreign policy were it not so obvious that her comment was hyperbolic, tongue firmly in cheek.

Her comment about profiling "suspicious-looking swarthy males" was obviously a ripe target for the PC police, but hardly inexplicable in the present circumstances. Any airport official who today fails to pay special attention to "suspicious-looking swarthy males" is obviously not doing his job.

Certainly it was "non-U" for Ann to call her editors "girly-boys" on national television, but does this require an auto-da-fé?

In the final analysis, nothing Ann said should have caused a scandal. Not in a reasonable and open society.

But our society is no longer so open. It is increasingly governed by a political lunacy in which careers can be ended by a single careless – or free-spirited – remark.

All of us say things, from time to time, that some people find offensive. No one knows this better than NRO Editor Jonah Goldberg, who has been the public spokesman for the firing.

In a May 3, 2000 column entitled "A Continent Bleeds," Goldberg called for a military "crusade" to "bring civilization" to Africa.

"I think it’s time we revisited the notion of a new kind of Colonialism…," he wrote. "I mean going in — guns blazing if necessary... The United States should mount a serious effort to bring civilization (yes, "Civilization") to those parts of Africa that are in Hobbesian despair."

Goldberg did not retract his recommendation later, despite an orgy of predictable outrage from obvious sources.

The National Review was right to stand by Goldberg in the face of his political critics. But in today’s hypersensitive atmosphere, colored by the September 11 attacks, Jonah apparently considers Ann’s indiscretions beyond the pale.

Under Rich Lowry’s and Jonah Goldberg’s editorship, NRO is a worthy publication – one of the most astute conservative zines on the Web. And Goldberg has been one of its most fearless editorial voices, on precisely these troublesome issues.

Perhaps Goldberg and Lowry already understand the ironic corner into which they have painted themselves. We wish them well and hope they find their way out sooner rather than later.

I caught a lot of flack from conservatives for defending Bill Maher, the often irritating and much-beleaguered host of Politically Incorrect. No doubt, I’ll catch the same for hiring Ann.

So be it.

We defend the right to offend the self-righteous, and to puncture the pretensions of hypocritical virtue.

So welcome, Ann. We are proud to have you and trust you will continue your column with irreverent and cheeky zest.

David Horowitz is editor-in-chief of FrontPageMagazine.com and president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.

[Pyro7480]

Darn! You beat me! ;-)

[Pyro7480]

How did you cut and paste that .html document?

[Travis McGee]

Jonah, you ARE a girly-boy, and you would still be wading through your momma's slush pile of manuscripts if she hadn't caught the backwash off Monica's blue dress and ridden it to fame and fortune.

[GeronL]

see Buckley's article at NRO today and see if he doesn't sound like Coulter did.... will they fire him too?

[CheneyChick]

Thanks for posting this. Did you catch Ann on Hannity's radio show when Jonah called in?

[ouroboros]

How did you cut and paste that .html document?

I'm a wizard. Actually, I just get the source code from the under the "View" menu and BOOM.

[GeronL]

will they fire WFB for saying we should give them a holy war? Go to NRO and check it out

[ouroboros]

Thanks for posting this. Did you catch Ann on Hannity's radio show when Jonah called in?

No problem. I missed it. I heard it was quite the catfight though.

[GeronL]

JonahEmail@aol.com

write Jonah and ask him to fire Buckley for defending a holy war on muslims =o)

[goldstategop]

Cheers!!! This Jew says we need more like Ann Coulter who aren't afraid to let the tongues wag. Our fear of offending the PC Police has caused us to shut up when we need to speak out. And if we're going to ever change the world the last thing we need to do is be silent when there is evil. Yes, Ann did say some harsh things after her best friend was murdered but you know what: I approve of what she said cause its all what we were feeling about the bastards and those behind them and I am tired of being told to smile and to be careful of what I say around people and take care I don't offend any one who's really bad. Isn't it time we didn't give a damn about the feelings of those who've murdered innocent Americans? If that's Ann's crime then a lot of people are in her good company. Let's show the world like it is and we're all damn proud of David Horowitz for being both a gentleman and a class act and bringing her on board Frontpagemag.com . Long may the flag wave and the truth live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

[Travis McGee]

Was the Buckley article posted on FR as a thread? I won't go over and give the girly boys even one click.

[Ms. AntiFeminazi]

Thought you'd like to see this one. :)

[ST.LOUIE1]

Oh, alright...here's the obligatory pic.

[jporcus]

I caught a lot of flack from conservatives for defending Bill Maher, the often irritating and much-beleaguered host of Politically Incorrect.

Why do some conservatives feel they have to defend Maher? Could it be because most/all of them either (a) get invited to his show, or (b) have their own shows and fear the same can happen to them? People have a right to express their distaste with anyone on radio or TV, and any sponsor has a right to listen to them.

[GeronL]

its called 'So you want a holy war' or something like that... ask JH2 to do the honors if its not already posted.

[danmar]

Why do some conservatives feel they have to defend Maher?

Is not Bill Maher, althou I detest this cockroach, is about the right to be stupid and make assinine statements, roughly translated "freedom of speech".
Actually, Horrowitz and co. are jumping a little to high in defending this low life, because he was not censored by the government, but by the sponsors. Sponsors made a business decision, when customers of that entity complaint that they will not patronize anyone who is sponsoring that kind of garbage, guess what...they have to listen to their customers other wise they will loose business.
Now, if this were to be the local or federal government censoring the program, I would be the first in line to cry "faul", no matter who was I defending, even Bill Clinton.

[ouroboros]

I gotta hand it to Horowitz, he is one smart hustler. Not 24 hours goes by before he makes a big show of "hiring" (all he's really doing is paying a small fee to run a syndicated column) Ann Coulter thus injecting himself into yet another huge media firestorm (Horowitz LOVES those) getting his name and rag a cheap pop in the process. If WorldNetDaily were smart, they would have done this but they lacked the PR imagination of the Great Horowitz.

Jonah really screwed the pooch on this one, especially if he didn't clear Coulter's sacking with Buckley and/or Lowry. National Review really looks stupid on this and somebody is going to catch some rhythm for it. No more trips to ANWR for Jonah.

That said, Coulter is still an abrasive, horsey-lookin', spoiled princess who trades on her looks to cover up her amateurish writing. One day, and that day will come soon (she turns 40 in 2002), Coulter will lose the looks that most (not me) of the male conservative population find so arousing and she will be forced to confront the fact that deep down she is nothing but an annoying hack.

[wayne_shrugged]

St.Louie1,

"I'm picturing it, but I'm not getting it..."

LOL!

[Lancey Howard]

Fantastic post, and great news! I will sleep well.
Good night, all. Good night Ann.
And congratulations on hooking up with a David Horowitz endeavor. It has just doubled its readership.