"Roper"
Dick Roeper
Posted on 07/22/2002 10:48:00 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
If Ann Coulter were a singer, she'd be Ethel Merman. Even her photos are blunt and loud. In the cover shot of Coulter's book, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right , she displays the most chilling stare this side of Honey Bunny in "Pulp Fiction."
But despite the vast, left-wing conspiracy working against her, Coulter has appeared on every show this side of "Meet the Osbournes" to plug the book. Slander is No. 1 on the Publishers Weekly list, No. 1 on the New York Times list, No. 3 on amazon.com and No. 1 in the hearts of liberal-bashing Americans from coast to coast.
Seems like a good time to point out just a few of the hateful proclamations, misleading assertions and incorrect statements in the book.
On p. 4, Coulter establishes her tone--and her propensity for twisting quotes like Twizzler sticks to suit her needs--when she writes: "The infernal flag-waving after 9/11 nearly drove liberals out of their gourds. For the left, 'flag-waving' is an epithet. Liberals variously call the flag a 'joke,' 'very, very dumb,' and--most cutting--'not cosmopolitan.' ''
The "joke" quote is attributed to director Robert Altman, who was primarily criticizing the Bush administration. Also, Altman was talking not about genuine displays of patriotism, but the commercialized omnipresence of the flag. As he later told People magazine, "I don't think [the American flag] should be on brassieres."
Hmmm. Sounds likes an opinion Coulter would applaud.
As for the "very, very dumb" remark, the article Coulter cites is a New York Times piece about a controversy in Honolulu last November when an American flag was raised atop the Iolani Palace, the 19th century seat of the Hawaiian monarchy. Reacting to the suggestion that Hawaiians aren't as patriotic as other Americans, University of Hawaii-West Oahu professor Dan Boylan said, "This is when people start acting very, very dumb in their patriotism and flag-waving. I'll take Dan Inouye's empty sleeve as patriotism long before I'll take a passing bumper sticker on my car that says, 'America Forever.' "
Boylan was referring to former U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, who lost an arm in World War II. And I don't see how you can view his statement as anything but intelligent and pro-American.
Finally there's Coulter's charge that "liberals" call the flag "not cosmopolitan." Once again she lifts a statement out of context and makes a huge generalization about millions of people: those dreaded liberals.
The source Coulter cites, yet again, is a New York Times article. (Coulter hates the New York Times, but she uses it as a research tool more often than an undergrad with a double major.) Noting that the American flag didn't have a huge presence in New York prior to 9/11, historian David Nasaw said, "New York has just been too much of a cosmopolitan town for flag-waving. It is the home of the UN, and a place filled with tourists, with immigrants, with people doing trade."
How Coulter decided that Nasaw is a "liberal" is beyond me. In any case, she either fails to understand or chooses to ignore the fact that Nasaw was using the primary definition of cosmopolitan, i.e., "belonging to all the world." He wasn't saying it was uncool to display the flag, as Coulter charges. And he was talking about New York before 9/11.
So to varying degrees, all three quotes are misrepresented by Coulter as emblematic of the vitriolic rantings of anti-American "liberals."
How utterly bogus.
*****
Coulter peppers her prose with terribly faulty analogies, e.g., "Hiring [George] Stephanopoulos [to do television] would be the equivalent of a major network hiring Chuck Colson immediately after Watergate."
Well, no. Chuck Colson was convicted of obstruction of justice, a felony, and served seven months in prison. Stephanopoulos' biggest crime was writing a self-aggrandizing tell-all book.
Coulter also has a habit of chastising liberals for their methodology and then using the same techniques to make her own points. She argues that it's wrong for liberals to compare Rush Limbaugh to the major news organizations because Limbaugh is "a noted polemicist" engaging in "satirical commentary," yet when Coulter needs examples to back up her claims that news organizations target conservatives, she routinely quotes columnists. Um, aren't they supposed to have opinions?
A careful analysis--hell, a casual read--of Coulter's book reveals that she often shines the spotlight on her own mistakes. On p. 51 she writes, "[F]or the media to . . . call you an 'airhead' [Katie Couric on Ronald Reagan]--well, that makes strong men tremble and weak men liberals."
Except Couric never actually called Reagan an airhead. On p. 133 of her own book, Coulter writes that what Couric said was: "The Gipper was an airhead. That's one of the new conclusions of a new biography of Ronald Reagan that's drawing a tremendous amount of interest and fire today." (The book's author, Edmund Morris, had said his first impression was that Reagan was "an apparent airhead.")
So for Coulter to write that Couric was the one labeling Reagan an airhead, would be, let's see, what's the word? Oh yeah. A lie.
More fun with Ann tomorrow.
rroeper@suntimes.com
Great job Ann, I can't wait for volume 2, they sure are giving you an endless stream of material! :o)
Close but not quite. It's actually...
She was kissing and hugging her husband/boyfriend in one of the resteraunts booths and they were both saying...."I love you Honey Bunny" to one another, and then they both jumped up and he said "Nobody move, this is a robery" and she said...
Any of you f**king pigs MOVE and I'll execute every last Mother F**king one of you!!
I've got the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack CD (GREAT CD by the way) and they've got cuts from the movie. That is one of them.
What is a "smoker's point"?
That was "Pulp Fiction" for me -- a parody of hollyweird movies . . .
When making the charge of media bias, Coulter uses news sources. When making the charge of slander rather than come up with a real argument, she rightfully uses opinion columnists. DUH!
For those interested, here is the URL for the NEw England Skeptical Society. You will find a nice read in thier encyclopedia on "Post-Modern" thought... now theres an oxymoron! The URL...
http://www.theness.com/
She documents everything, just read.
He would rather wear Ann's Brassier!
Mr. Roeper, I read your column re: Ann Coulter and found it very childish and nitpicking. Your response??
"Well yes, I do have a very ("...oh darn, darn, darn, I just broke a nail,...") now where were we you big handsome strong sounding man you................"
Well, if you've seen him on TV, you get the picture.
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