- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
Yes, I know: the extremes will fester if they operate under the cloak of darkness. Shining a light on this sort of repulsive rhetoric provides an opportunity for those who might be on the fence to run away in horror. And yet...
There's a part of me, too, that knows that Ann Coulter sold books today, and that there is no unified corollary action to take for people who find her words offensive. So let's be generous and say that 90 percent of the viewers disagree with Coulter. That 10 percent is still a huge win for her. It is no censorship of her point of view to simply decide not to offer her a forum. Coulter relies on having a setting where her bomb-throwing makes her look like a brave truth-teller, much as Paris Hilton relies on having photographers follow her around to see if she does something outrageous. Lacking a mainstream audience, their schtick no longer works.
