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For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.
Claire (of Westbrook, Maine) writes:
"Ann
Coulter is long overdue as a winner of the Media Putz award.
He (I mean she,
but wasn't her name Andy before it was Ann, and doesn't she
have an awfully
prominent Adam's apple for a female?) is
such a loyal pit bull for the current criminal bunch of neo-cons
and multinationals running and ruining our country and the
rest of the world. Yet she goes over and above the mere hate
filled and Orwellian rhetoric of the everyday neo-con to
advocate
killing those who disagree with the party line, and has stooped
so low as to even malign the wives of those killed during
9-11 and suggest they are happy and profiting from those
deaths.
This nominee is a powerhouse of hate, bigotry, and slander."
Frankly, we have mixed feelings about bestowing the BuzzFlash
Media Putz Award on Coulter. She is not only the embodiment
of how extremist and uncivil the mainstream media has become,
particularly television pundit shows, but also she is the quintessential
role model for an individual who uses shocking, hateful, and
violent statements to stir up controversy for the goal of increasing
her speaker fees and sales of her books.
In short, she is in it for the money.
Liberals love to hate Coulter for proclamations such as her
stated desire that Democrats and members of the so-called "liberal
media" should be put to death, or that Jews need to be "perfected," or
that Bill Clinton has latent homosexual tendencies.
But Coulter's only core beliefs relate to the accumulation
of wealth by engaging in "shock" celebrity punditry.
When Chris
Matthews had
her on his show for a full hour awhile back to promote her
latest trash-talk book against anyone who isn't a wing nut,
he justified her appearance later by arguing that this is how "the
business" works.
But Coulter had, just prior to her appearance, wished for the
killing of John Edwards by a terrorist. It represents an alarming
line here that has been crossed, in which right-wing advocates
of hate and death have been embraced by "news" programs
seeking sensational publicity and increased ratings (resulting
in higher ad revenues, which is the ultimate goal).
When the "values" Republicans talk about the deterioration
of our society, nothing is more representative of that than
the dangerous phenomenon of Ann Coulter.
She exists at the epicenter of the merging of news, entertainment,
wealth, and "shock and awe" sound bites.
We have hesitated to give her more publicity by adding her
name to the BuzzFlash Media Putz list, because she is a creature
who thrives solely on the press attention that she receives
for her calculated performances. But Claire of Maine is correct.
You can't keep ignoring the malodorous stench permeating the
room that you are in and you can't pretend that cynical, pernicious
people will just go away.
Sometimes you just have to call them for what they are. Media
Putz doesn't even begin to describe the horror that is Ann
Coulter. But to call her the names that best describe her would
be to sink to her level of fetid discourse.
So we will content ourselves with just dishonoring her by officially
bestowing her name on the BuzzFlash Media Putz Wall of Shame.
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