In the Arena

Who Cares?

Ann Coulter has a new book, “exposing” liberal media bias. She recently broke her jaw, though–a fitting symbol for the end of the Fox News regency–and won’t be able to talk about it. Perhaps she’ll take advantage of the opportunity to watch and learn. (One imagines that the televisions in the White House, locked onto Fox News these past eight years, will soon return to CNN or MSNBC.)

Meanwhile, Jeremiah Wright says that he will continue to attempt to exploit the fact that Barack Obama used to be a member of his congregation in order to spread his anachronistic black nationalist views:

“I’ve already told . . . Obama: On Nov. 5, I’m coming after you,” he said. “It’s not you the person . . . it’s the policies of this country. And as long as you are presiding over policies that grind God’s people into the earth, I’m coming after you.”

Somehow, God Damn America doesn’t have the resonance it used to have…in fact, it has a whole new punctuation and meaning: “God Damn! America…elected an African-American President who believes in government activism.”

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  • palininatowel

    A silenced Ann Coulter.
    .
    Note to Sarah Palin: At least God was listening to my prayers!

  • dunedweller

    Who breaks their jaw unless they get clocked? or choke on a pretzel…

  • fourlegsgood

    Good grief.
    .
    Liberal bias – did she co-write with with Mark Halprin?

  • gysgt213

    Can’t wait for the movie.

  • http://pourmecoffee.blogspot.com pourmecoffee

    Ann Coulter has a macroeconomic problem. She can’t increase the demand for outrage by increasing her supply of it.

  • Cliff

    She recently broke her jaw, though–a fitting symbol for the end of the Fox News regency–and won’t be able to talk about it.
    .
    And it was said that Cliff’s heart grew three sizes that day!
    .
    Alternatively:
    Tiny Tim: What did you get for Christmas, Mr. Cliff?
    Cliff: Anne Coulter’s broken jaw!
    Tiny Tim: God bless us, every one!

  • Paul-no not that one

    I’m not sure it’s fair to compare Coulter and Wright.
    Wright said something that angered a lot of people.
    He also served his congregation and community. Served his county in the marine’s and navy. Served bedside to a president.
    Coulter has done nothing to compare to that.
    If you need, for “fairness”, to kick someone on the left Michael Moore would have made more sense.

  • Cliff

    Also:
    Ann Coulter has a new book, “exposing” liberal media bias.
    .
    2003 called. They want their themes back.

  • JJ

    From the link: “When it comes to bullying, no one outdoes the Left.”
    .
    Whoever believes this should be required to read these two Nate Silver posts over and over again.
    .
    But this assumes they can read.

  • Paul-no not that one

    “Meanwhile, Jeremiah Wright says that he will continue to attempt to exploit the fact that Barack Obama used to be a member of his congregation in order to spread his anachronistic black nationalist views”
    .
    When you make an assertion and provide a link some people will be too lazy/busy/uninterested to read what you link to. There is nothing in that story that supports what you wrote. Not. A. Word.

  • wvng

    Joe, speaking of “”exposing” liberal media bias. What about Halperin? I keep pressing you guys on this. In KT’s last post I wrote:
    .
    KT, I’m really not trying to be a jerk by bringing Halperin up in thread after thread. He called out the media for reporting accurately that one campaign was run brilliantly and honestly and the other was not. You could say that he took a swipe specifically at Joe, who was among the most vocal in his disappointment with McCain.
    .
    It would not be rude to respond. A lack of response can be read as acceptance. It would be easy to lay out the case for why the media wrote about the campaign as “they” did. In fact, such a response could start with Joe’s sudden recognition that McCain, a man he had recently praised, was running a deeply dishonest campaign.
    .
    Frankly, a failure to write with enthusiasm about what was transpiring in front of your/our eyes would be like a sports reporter “phoning in” a story about a no-hitter in the 7th game of the World Series.

  • http://www.ghostnote.com Cookie Puss

    There are a lot of dumb people in America. Many of them seem to have book deals and appear on TV.

  • wvng

    And, PNNTO is right.

  • JJ

    Eh, I shouldn’t be knocking people who don’t know how to read–I think I’m much more concerned about people who don’t *want* to read, especially divergent views, which in rightie world just serves as an opportunity to shout someone down… (OK, Captain Obvious signing off…)

  • FlownOver

    OK, I’m working on something about the jawbone of an ass, but give me a minute.

  • wvng

    Josh agrees with me: “. . . whatever Halperin says, the financial crisis has taken so much of the oxygen from post-mortem discussions of the campaign that a few commentators do seem to be putting together a conventional wisdom that the political press this past year was wildly pro-Obama. . . . Halperin should stop complaining, put some limits on pandering to the curdled resentment of the right.”
    http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/245805.php
    .
    This is a zombie lie of the type that becomes CW if you don’t combat it. Before long, the institutional memory of the chattering class will inform them that Obama won because of press bias, and that will tell them that they need to be tougher on dems. And the repubs will push it and push it. Somebody has to push back. Joe would be good at that task.

  • sgwhiteinfla

    PNNTO is EXACTLY RIGHT
    .
    Nothing about the article Joe Klein linked to references anything other than Rev Wright still pledging to criticize Obama when necessary. He isn’t even the pastor at Trinity United anymore so how exactly in the same hell is he going to
    .

    exploit the fact that Barack Obama used to be a member of his congregation in order to spread his anachronistic black nationalist views:

    .
    Joe Klein this is the kind of drivel that Scherer is known for and that is supposedly beneath you. If that’s true I would hope we will see that part of your post magically dissappear soon or at least an update posted.

  • palininatowel

    wvng,
    .
    You and me, both, regarding Halperin. My guess is that we will not get anyone here to comment on “one of their own.” (I can understand that. They have to work for the guy and they are not the bosses who may frown on going after a colleague’s journalistic ethics or lack thereof.)
    .
    That said, I have noted that Halperin’s comments regarding “disgusting” and “biased” media coverage of the election displays Halperin’s lack of self-awareness and general cluelessness.
    .
    He has the nerve to take other journalists to task for “bias” when he was a player in the Circle Jerk Journalism Club of himself, Matt Drudge and Jonathan Martin at Politico who were forever referencing each other’s handiwork? How inane.
    .
    Did Halperin cite a legitimate left-leaning news source like TPM even once during the campaign? And how many times did he cite Drudge or Martin, again?
    .
    I asked KT in an earlier post if the editors at Time consider Halperin a blogger, a reporter or both. If they call him a “blogger,” do the rules of journalistic best practices and ethics not apply to him?
    .
    By the way, I asked the same questions at Politico without response when Martin ran the Ashley Todd/carved “B” story as fact using only Drudge as a single source. Single-sourcing a racial inflammatory story like that? A story that proved to be a hoax? Note that Martin never `fessed up to his own journalistic malfeasance.
    .
    I have to wonder how other actual reporters feel about having these hacks on staff. The double standard in terms of journalistic practices applied to people like Halperin and Martin versus real reporters like Tumulty must be galling.

  • palininatowel

    Oops. Left the bold on. My apologies.

  • http://phd9.blogspot.com Paul Dirks

    The minister, the prophet’s role and allegiance is to be faithful to God, not a particular government.”

    Did Wright just refer to himself as a “prophet?”
    That’s a much better reason to repudiate him unrelated to his criticism of the Country. But then again, the people who are oblivious to the possibility that the Country might just be on the wrong side of the Creator suffer the same hubris.

  • fortda

    Joe — to answer your question, “Who Cares?” about Ann Coulter, I think that nit-wit over at The Page cares. Your colleague Mark Halperin spent last weekend blaming the “disgusting” liberal bias in the media for some positive Obama coverage during the campaign. I am so sick of this kind of political amnesia. I mean, John McCain ran a shitty campaign but Halperin can’t see past his Drudge erection to see that.

    Seriously, when are you going to demand that he be fired?! He’s a total embarrassment to Time magazine and to good columnists and reporters like you and Karen T.

  • JJ

    Just to refresh everyone’s memory about Halperin’s previous career at The Note:

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0607.boehlert.html

    http://mediamatters.org/columns/200704030007

  • fortda

    Joe — to answer your question, “Who Cares?” about Ann Coulter, I think that nit-wit over at The Page cares. Your colleague Mark Halperin spent last weekend blaming the “disgusting” liberal bias in the media for some positive Obama coverage during the campaign. I am so sick of this kind of political amnesia. I mean, John McCain ran a terrible campaign but Halperin can’t see past his Drudge *obsession* to notice.
    .
    Seriously, when are you going to demand that he be fired?! He’s a total embarrassment to Time magazine and to good columnists and reporters like you and Karen T.

  • sgwhiteinfla

    Paul Dirks
    .
    I can’t say for sure but I don’t believe he is calling himself a prophet but rather describing the historical role of a prophet in the church. I could be wrong about that. However it strikes me that Rev. Wrights words actually are an illustration of this new (fake) “post racial” era. I mean think about it for a second. How many people now assume that the same black leaders who opposed Bush will now just give Obama a pass if he does something beyond the pale? I have to say that in theory I am going to do the same thing that Rev. Wright says he is going to do and that is hold Obama’s feet to the fire if in fact he starts phucking up. Now Rev Wright gives the impression that he will criticize just for the sake of criticizing and I am totally against that, but I am all for holding our elected officials accountable no matter what race or back ground they come from

  • newfloridian

    Ann Coulter is she still alive? Hadn’t seen anything from her in the past few months. Now she has a broken jaw and can’t talk? I guess that confirms .. there is a GOd! Ann Coulter’s failing career just got darker. bet she is almost suicidal. Let’s see she has no personal life, she has no family life, she has no broadcast life, no press life I guess she can go ahead and do it.

    Anyone know the details as to the broken jaw. Might be a really interesting story.. let’s see drunken fall down a flight of stairs, ritual self flogging thing, pissed off somebody in a bar.. just what are the details. Sounds like a case for National Enquirer.

    Word to all the Swampland bloggers, you too can get a big book deal, just do something stupid or become a thoughtless, illiterate Republican and you too can get the big bucks book deal. Most of us have to have some actual talent to get published, but that doesn’t apply to Republicans. Why you can even plagiarize or make up stuff and get an audience. How long before Primates are moved up on the evolutionary chain and ranked higher than Republican homo sapiens

  • southernbell49

    wvng, I agree.

    The MSM is perfectly capable of accepting the rightwing meme that there was a “liberal” bias in the 2008 election coverate. While it’s true MSNBC had Olbermann and Maddows, they also had Mathews, who was his typical self by being all over the board, and David Gregory, the male poster child for “fair and balanced” (the female version is Cokie Roberts). CNN certainly didn’t give Obama a free pass.

    All in all, yes, MSNBC tended to prefer Obama over McCain but there was NO overall tilt toward other Dems. They certainly hate Hillary.

  • http://elvisberg.wordpress.com Elvis Elvisberg

    Yeah, an entertaining post, but there’s no equivalence b/w Wright and Coulter.
    -
    He said obnoxious things a few times, but he’s actually done stuff. Even served the country, made Chicago a better place to live. Coulter, on the other hand, has done nothing but spread spite.
    -
    Whatever it is he believes appears to be pretty Rev. Wright-centric, but “black nationalist”? I dunno.

  • wvng

    Southern Bell, don’t forget Morning Joe.

  • wvng

    What elvis said. Wright has done enormous good for Chicago. And, if I remember right, during the middle of the firestorm both Hillary’s and McCain’s pastor spoke up for him. And he was a marine.

  • Joe Bftsplk

    Ashamed at having failed to come up with it myself, I nonetheless have to pass on commenter MadxAsxHell’s theory from over at HuffPo:
    Ann Coulter broke her jaw trying to say “President Barack Obama”.

  • davemc321

    How’s this, newfloridian, for a book proposal: Liberals Cause Cancer, You Betcha. I’m trying to incorporate two conservative themes. Though I probably need to work God in there too.

    That said, my hope, my prayer is that the election has caused a tectonic shift and the Coulters, Limbaughs, et al can now go to well-deserved irrelevance.

  • JJ

    Shilling for the right:

    [Last fall, Mark Halperin] became something of a right-wing folk hero when he paraded around on conservative talk shows announcing that the media did, in fact, suffer from a liberal bias. Halperin, an avowed Rush Limbaugh fan, insisted that reporters are “overwhelmingly liberal,” confirmed that they “hate the military,” are “blind” to their bias, and should use the closing weeks of the campaign season to “prove” their worth to right-wingers. “The reality of how [liberal bias] affects media coverage is outrageous,” Halperin announced. (Of course, Halperin insisted that under his watch, ABC News was mostly innocent of those newsroom bias crimes.)
    .
    …Offering some insight behind his dash to the right, Halperin announced during a friendly interview with O’Reilly that, “[a]s an economic model, if you want to thrive like Fox News Channel — [if] you want to have a future — you better make sure conservatives find your product appealing.”

  • http://www.inworldstudios.com jayackroyd

    You know, if Bill Clinton broke his jaw people would be interested in the details of how that came to happen.
    .

  • sgwhiteinfla

    John Brennan has taken himself out of consideration for a post in an Obama administration

  • http://www.inworldstudios.com jayackroyd

    “I’ve already told . . . Obama: On Nov. 5, I’m coming after you,” he said. “It’s not you the person . . . it’s the policies of this country. And as long as you are presiding over policies that grind God’s people into the earth, I’m coming after you.
    .
    “The minister, the prophet’s role and allegiance is to be faithful to God, not a particular government.”

    .
    How many people are dead in Iraq? How many fled?
    .
    What is objectionable about this? If this were a Quaker speaking, would it be heard differehtly?

  • http://www.inworldstudios.com jayackroyd

    John Brennan has taken himself out of consideration for a post in an Obama administration
    .
    As atrios said, Behold the power of Glenn Greenwald.
    .
    And, this is actually the best news yet in the Obama transition. First, mistakes will be admitted, and fixed. Second, this was regarded as a mistake.

  • Paul-no not that one

    Great news on Brennan.

  • mccainfluffer

    That’s good news about Brennan!

    As for Coulter and Wright – who cares?

    Seriously, what’s the difference between Coulter’s assertion of the so-called liberal media – and Mark (sludge rules my world) Halperins?

  • Art Pepper

    jayackroyd: “If this were a Quaker speaking, would it be heard differently?”
    -
    That’s an interesting question. It might sound less scary from a (white?) Quaker than from an angry black guy. But as GG has pointed out (correctly, I think), there is a largely unquestioned assumption that the United States has an absolute right to do whatever it wants to in the world. If the torture fiasco had any silver lining, it’s that some people may have started to question that assumption, and may be realizing that we actually have to DO right to BE right.

  • http://www.inworldstudios.com jayackroyd

    Art–
    .
    That of course is my point. It’s implicit in Joe’s post. Questioning the killing of hundreds of thousands of people is somehow considered to be way over some line.
    .
    And, weirdly, a Christian pastor saying this is especially over the line. It’s time for some people to read them some Gospel. Maybe the Beatitudes would be a good place to start.

  • http://www.inworldstudios.com jayackroyd

    Oh,and thanks for fixing the typo. I try to do the same thing. That [sic] thing is just rude.

  • sgwhiteinfla

    OT
    .

    It looks like somebody behind the scenes is trying to push a fight between Rep Towns and Rep Cummings over the oversight chair that Waxman has left behind. Mind you Towns HAS been absent a lot but the congressional black caucus has always recognized seniority because it was the only way they historically were able to rise up in the ranks and therefore they want to preserve it so there is never a way to claim discrimination by anyone and in fact no way for someone to commit discrimination. Me personally I would LOVE for Cummings to take over because he puts the screws to mofos. But I also see where they are coming from and so I hope it gets worked out with out some kind of big fight.

  • Friar Tuck

    Umm . . . this part of Rev. Wright’s statement:
    .
    “The minister, the prophet’s role and allegiance is to be faithful to God, not a particular government.”
    .
    . . . is perfectly acceptable Christian theology. The minister DOES have a prophetic role, and a minister SHOULD be faithful to God rather than a(ny) government. There is no United States of Heaven.
    .
    Has Rev. Wright morphed into a jerk who believes his own publicity? Maybe – check out the rest of the article at the link above – but that’s a separate issue.
    .
    There may be a semantics issue here: to be “prophetic” is no more and no less than to call attention to injustice and demand that it be ended. What Wright says may be incorrect, but he’s well within Christian tradition when he says it.

  • FlownOver

    Jayack:

    I hear Coulter has explained, through clenched teeth, that they’re called the Beatitudes because they’re inferior to the “A” attitudes.

  • rose83

    Somehow, God Damn America doesn’t have the resonance it used to have…in fact, it has a whole new punctuation and meaning: “God Damn! America…elected an African-American President who believes in government activism.”

    That’s over the top. Obama’s a big improvement on Bush, but he’s not Gandhi. The problems Wright was referring to when he made that statement are not going to be fixed by Summers and Gates.

  • blogenfreude

    BOB SCHIEFFER: How does [the Democratic presidential primary debate] play off against the pictures we saw this week of President Bush landing on the aircraft — aircraft carrier and appearing before these screaming, adoring groups of military people? As far as I’m concerned, that was one of the great pictures of all time. And if you’re a political consultant, you can just see campaign commercial written all over the pictures of George Bush.

    JOE KLEIN: Well, that was probably the coolest presidential image since Bill Pullman played the jet fighter pilot in the movie Independence Day. That was the first thing that came to mind for me. And it just shows you how high a mountain these Democrats are going to have to climb. You compare that image, which everybody across the world saw, with this debate last night where you have nine people on a stage and it doesn’t air until 11:30 at night, up against Saturday Night Live, and you see what a major, major struggle the Democrats are going to have to try and beat a popular incumbent president.

    Joe, you might be welcome once again in the Reality Based Community, but you got a lot of ‘splainin to do first. You need to get serious and write about how you and other journalists were fooled by a dry drunk who has failed at everything he ever attempted. In light of the heaps of dead bodies and trillions of dollars wasted, you owe us at least that.

  • wvng
  • http://apple.mygamesok.com/wow/101/200811/fox-5-news-14.html fox 5 news | Apple.com

    [...] Who Cares? Ann Coulter has a new book, “exposing” liberal media bias. She recently broke her jaw, though–a fitting symbol for the end of the Fox News regency–and won’t be able to talk about it. Perhaps she’ll take advantage of the opportunity to watch and learn. (One imagines that the televisions … [...]

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