Feeding the beast
Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog lets David Gregory have it for defending Ann Coulter:
Gregory isn't really the issue anyhow; he's been one of the few national reporters who will sometimes challenge White House spokes-bots.
The real issue, as Sudbay points out, is that the traditional media could instantly turn Ann Coulter into a nothing by refusing to give her a platform. She should be censored for making death threats and other low-form comments, but not by the government.
The allegedly "respectable" journalists and the guys in suits on upper floors are the ones allowing this disgraceful lunatic air time. Nobody can make a reasonable argument that the pollution spewed by Coulter (or Limbaugh or O'Reilly for that matter) constitutes serious journalism or civic discussion.
The right will crow about the First Amendment, but let's keep in mind that freedom of speech does not require corporations to air all speech. It's called editorial judgment. If you wouldn't bring on the head of the Klan to talk endlessly about how best to improve race relations, you don't bring on Ann Coulter to discuss a Democratic presidential primary. Coulter issues thinly veiled calls for violence, so morally she's on the same plane as violent white supremacists.
So the next freaking time some journalist starts complaining about bloggers, just say to yourself "Coulter." The double standard is being exposed, big time. Either American journalism decides to re-dedicate itself to professionalism and some semblance of the common good, or it continues its downward path. People are so sick of this crud.
Not kidding. According to NBC's David Gregory we're all missing the very important points that Ann Coulter makes because we get caught up in her hate speech. He just said to Elizabeth Edwards "if you strip away some of the inflammatory rhetoric against your husband and other Democrats, the point she's trying to make about your husband, Senator Edwards, running for the White House is in effect that he's disingenuous..."Okay, I get that journalists will sometimes play "devil's advocate" in order to get something answered, and if that's what Gregory was doing here, fine, as insulting as it seems.
---snip---
Elizabeth Edwards handled it well, pretty much laughing at him -- and made the key point -- this is not about stripping away hateful rhetoric. The hate speech is the issue(.)
---snip---
The traditional media has created Ann Coulter. They feed the beast. They enable her and her hate speech. And, we're just all really stupid because we think the hate rhetoric matters.
Gregory isn't really the issue anyhow; he's been one of the few national reporters who will sometimes challenge White House spokes-bots.
The real issue, as Sudbay points out, is that the traditional media could instantly turn Ann Coulter into a nothing by refusing to give her a platform. She should be censored for making death threats and other low-form comments, but not by the government.
The allegedly "respectable" journalists and the guys in suits on upper floors are the ones allowing this disgraceful lunatic air time. Nobody can make a reasonable argument that the pollution spewed by Coulter (or Limbaugh or O'Reilly for that matter) constitutes serious journalism or civic discussion.
The right will crow about the First Amendment, but let's keep in mind that freedom of speech does not require corporations to air all speech. It's called editorial judgment. If you wouldn't bring on the head of the Klan to talk endlessly about how best to improve race relations, you don't bring on Ann Coulter to discuss a Democratic presidential primary. Coulter issues thinly veiled calls for violence, so morally she's on the same plane as violent white supremacists.
So the next freaking time some journalist starts complaining about bloggers, just say to yourself "Coulter." The double standard is being exposed, big time. Either American journalism decides to re-dedicate itself to professionalism and some semblance of the common good, or it continues its downward path. People are so sick of this crud.
