Letters to the Editor
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Villainy Lies With those Who Give Ann Coulter A Platform to Pervert Deliberative Democracy
The only solution to the Ann Coulter is to shun her, pure and simple. Those who give her a soapbox are--unintentionally perhaps--aiding her in her attempt to pervert deliberative dmeocracy. Even blogging about her--as I have at http://www.essentiallycontestedamerica.org/ or writing this comment contributes to her success. Elizabeth Edwards was absolutely right. But unless we extirpate "Ann Coulter Types" there's no hope that we can create and sustain civil discourse between responsible conservatives, liberals, progressives, and others. Let's begin now by ending this discussion.
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I'd like to shun Bill Moyers every bit as much as some of you might like to shun Ann Coulter...
The difference is that Bill Moyers is occupying time on my public broadcasting station, and Ann Coulter isn't. Anything I can do about Moyers' offensive speechifying?
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Say What?
"I'd like to shun Bill Moyers every bit as much as some of you might like to shun Ann Coulter... The difference is that Bill Moyers is occupying time on my public broadcasting station, and Ann Coulter isn't."
Sorry Elephant, but you lost me there. Are you saying Bill Moyers called a Gop presidential candidate a "faggot"? Are you saying Bill Moyers accused a group of Republican women of enjoying their husbands' deaths in Iraq? Are you saying Bill Moyers expressed regret that more conservatives have not been killed by terrorist bombs? What exactly are you saying?
If Bill Moyers, one of the finest journalists of our time, somehow descended to the level of a Gop guttersnipe like Coulter, my respect for him would vanish -- just about as quickly as his media platform would be taken away. Until then, the question remains, why does the U.S. corporate media continue to help give voice to extremist right-wing hatemongers?
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Bestsellers and Coulter
Gary Owen is right: a lot of the rubbish churned out by Regnery and other right wing publishing houses get on to the so-called bestsellers lists because of a bogus bulk buy campaign. For that reason the NYT Best Sellers list is a laugh a minute in Europe. Coulter's diatribes are part of a pattern: Hannity, O'Rielly, Savage and the whole right wing platoon of idiot savants write crap and it becomes a bs and its full of bs.
By the way, anyone know whether Coulter is a woman?
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Shun this
I'd like to shun Bill Moyers every bit as much as some of you might like to shun Ann Coulter...
The difference is that Bill Moyers is occupying time on my public broadcasting station, and Ann Coulter isn't. Anything I can do about Moyers' offensive speechifying?
-- Elephantman
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Sigh. When you can't win an argument, change the subject.
The good news for you is you don't have to watch PBS or donate to their programming if you don't like Bill Moyers.
Unfortunately for the rest of us, we've tried asking the networks and the cable shout shows to stop giving Coulter free pub for her worthless hate-filled screeds. And they've chosen to ignore the complaints of half their audiences.
When they start inviting Bill Moyers on all their shows to promote his stuff for free (and he professes desires for the deaths of other Americans), you may have a point.
But equating Bill Moyer's journalism to Anne Coulter's rhetoric is only possible for someone who sees no distinction between the denigrating slur "faggot" and descriptive "homosexual man".
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Come on, Starwheel...
have a little compassion for poor Elephantman.
Even he (?) can tell how much more devastating Moyers' writing is than Coulter's, and without his having to resort to a single bad name, epithet, or curse word. And nary an ad hominem attack or straw man.
Moyers devastating effect comes, instead from the strength of his substance and the logic he employs. And that he is unafraid of the Truth.
No way can the Coulters of the world compete with that. And Elephantman knows it.
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Alan Bennett
Thank you for underscoring my letter about how the right wing rigs the NYT Best Seller book list. I just couldn't remember the name of the publisher right away.
As for Joan appearing on Smarmy Joe's bobblehead show a.k.a. "Scarborough Country," I don't want to put words in her mouth, but since she's obviously taken the weekend off and left us children here to play with matches, I'll defend her.
To have the editor of Salon on MSNBC is a good thing for all progressives. So many times, when a manipulative right-of-center wind sock like Scarborough, or Chris Matthews selects a liberal to use as a punching bag foil against their perennial guest from the Right, they usually go for the most bombastic,ludicrous and intellectually weak person they can find. Randy Rhoades comes to mind and the bloviating Big Eddy Schultz to name two.
Those people are put on the shows as the "Judy" in the "Punch and Judy" show. They get ridiculed and smacked around and they don't help the cause much because they don't have enough "upstairs" to argue effectively.
Enter Joan Walsh. She doesn't play that game. She comes off calm and collected and goes to her considerable knowledge of politics and world events to easily get around the hyperventilation and mendacious Pat Buchanan and others of his ilk.
(Hey, I'm not sucking up for a star here!)
I know that by appearing on Scarborough's obnoxious crapfest, she's actually aiding and abetting that moronic wind sock. But it gets exposure for Salon and for sound progressive ideas.
I encourage Joan to get a publicist and an agent and get to the "bigs" like the Sunday morning talk shows.
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This article is an example of liberal bias.
Joan, said Bill Maher didn't wish that Cheney had died. He said more people would be alive if Cheney had been killed, is essentially the same thing. Coulter didn't call Edwards, by that standard, a faggot. She said "As far as John Edwards, since you can't use the word faggot without having to go into rehab now days, I will say nothing about him." Barney Frank and Scarborough ask Maher to clarify himself. Maher then said no I didn't mean I wish he had died. Ann Coulter said later she would never compare gays to John Edwards that would be an insult to all gays. I watch the show where Maher said that about Cheney and all the conservative sites was talking about it the next week. Coulter a bitch and Maher is an asshole. Edwards should have just said "Coulter can go straight to hell". Of course Coulter would have said "Finally, a liberal that believes in religion". Also, I saw something on Drudge that Hardball was the lowest rated show a couple of weeks ago with less than 400,000 viewers. Glen Beck had like 450,000 viewers.