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Read other letters about this article
"I am a polemicist. I am perfectly frank about that. I like to stir up the pot. I don't pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do."
When Coulter first appeared on my radar several years back, she fascinated me. The things that came out of her mouth were so unabashedly cruel, personal and unfair, not to mention wrecklessly false, that I wanted to stay tuned because in a weird way, I couldn't believe that she was for real. I figured she was a Morton Downey Jr., a provocateur.
Downey was the pioneer of hateful, violence-baiting talk show style that others quickly copied. Downey smoked cigarettes on camera and frequently blew smoke in the faces of guests and audience members in order to provoke a fight, mostly verbal but sometimes physical.
I hated Downey. That's not too strong a word. Many times as I flipped channels and rested on his show for a few minutes I quickly felt my blood pressure rise and I would almost unconsciously start daydreaming about punching his lights out.
That was the way I felt until I started to deconstruct his act. Why in the world was a man so hateful so successful on television? Why were people tuning in? Who are they? Pretty soon it became clear to me that half of his audience were people who resonate in sympathy with him. Downey was scratching their itch. They believed fervently that Downey was articulating the unrequieted rage they felt. Because many people believe that if they see something on television it must be true, they actually believed that Morton Downey Jr. was speaking for them.
The other viewers seemed to be a mix. There are those who tune in because they like the adrenalin rush they get when they watch people fighting. There are some who are mesmerized by any boisterous authority figure no matter what they are saying. The History Channel has cashed in for years by showing old documentary footage of Hitler. Morton Downey Jr. produced the same kind of spectacle, screaming, gesticulating, bullying his guests with intimidation bordering on actual violence.
Some people seem to want to watch that stuff. It's a safe, vicarious, cheap thrill. It's entertaining.
What I've just described about Morton Downey Jr. can be directly applied to Ann Coulter. She's an entertainer who uses outrage much the same way as a comedian goes for laughter.
A lot of readers here have asked why do producers want to have Coulter on their show. Do you really have to ask? Ratings.
But Coulter now faces the same dilemma that Downey did. Outrage has a short shelf life. In order to maintain the buzz, you've got to trump your last outrageous statement with something more caustic, more mean-spirited, more obviously and blatantly false than the time before.
Downey became desperate toward the end. He started exhibiting erratic behavior to the point where even his core audience began to pity him rather than cheer him as their champion.
Coulter is headed down that one-way street. With each new book she must sink even lower than last time. She's compelled to say things so breathtakingly contemptable as to just hold her ground.
I think that Downey died from his cancerous soul, not the cancer in his lungs from the cigarettes he sucked on. I think the same fate awaits Ann Coulter.
She's aware now that she's on the slide. Her desperation shows through in her public appearances and in her writing. She's a self-caracature.
I actually like watching and listening to Ann Coulter now. Unlike one letter writer here who said she'd like to crush Coulter's head or pull her hair out in clumps, I have a more healthy way of dealing with my feelings about Ann The Man.
I'm watching her slowly kill herself the same way Downey did. She's a mental and physical wreck. Her frenetic behavior on the air is no act. She's circling the bowl of psychosis. The crazier she gets, the better I like it. I suppose some might say that makes me as lacking in compassion as she is. But what you reap, so shall you sew. Words have the weight of stones. I didn't weep for Morton Downey Jr. when he sank beneath the waves. I won't weep for Coulter either.
