Group mounts dump Coulter campaign
Somebody please tell Media Matters for America that I’m personally no fan of conservative columnist Ann Coulter, so it makes no sense to encourage people across the nation to pepper me with e-mails urging us to ditch Coulter. I’ve never seen anything like this. In the past week, I’ve gotten literally thousands of anti-Coulter e-mails. Fortunately, they’ve been snared in our spam-catching system, which I only have to visit two or three times a day to filter legitimate letters from other stuff.
A typical e-mail reads like this one: “I am horrified that your paper believes the vile things that Ann Coulter says are worthy of your print. I wonder, does your publication support her viewpoints? Are her viewpoints something you would want your children reading? I would fully support your decision to cancel her column.”
Or this one: “Please remove her writing from your paper. I no longer care to read her trash talk.” Of course, this person didn’t leave a town or phone number, because when you’re living in Massachusetts or Colorado and trying to influence what’s going on way outside your back yard, you probably don’t want that known.
I figured out pretty fast that this was some sort of coordinated letter-writing campaign, as I’ve seen them before, only on a local level. But it took the intrepid Al Owens, the local liberal columnist we added to counter Coulter, to zero in on the source.
Owens directed me to Media Matters for America, a self-described “Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.”
There, I found that in the wake of Coulter calling Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a derogatory name for homosexuals at the Conservative Political Action Conference, “Media Matters for America has compiled a confirmed list of daily newspapers that currently carry Coulter’s column,” which includes us.
Further, Media Matters urges that, “Readers may want to contact the editors of these newspapers to discuss the papers’ decisions to carry Coulter’s column.” My name and work e-mail address are among those listed.
Like I said, I’m no personal fan of Coulter. But I do believe in the marketplace of ideas, and I certainly believe in free speech, even when it comes from those with whom I disagree.
That’s apparently more than can be said of those at Media Matters, whose zeal to counteract conservative voices apparently includes fomenting an orchestrated campaign to shut down the opposition.
Coulter didn’t make her comment in any column we ran; she did so at a speech. She’s in plenty of hot water right now, but does that mean her voice should be shut out? Where, pray tell, did Media Matters find any “conservative misinformation” to correct on our editorial pages?
As go conservative columnists, Coulter is way out there, for sure. But by adding her to our roster of columnists, and adding Owens to specifically rebut her views, we hoped to give both sides of the political spectrum something to cheer and to jeer. Truth be told, we’re not endorsing either of their viewpoints on a regular basis.
Founded in 2004, Media Matters says its purpose is “to systematically monitor a cross section of print, broadcast, cable, radio, and Internet media outlets for conservative misinformation – news or commentary that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda – every day, in real time.”
But who determines who is credible and who is not? If we follow their logic through to its ultimate conclusion, some conservative media-monitoring outfit might call for an end to Owens’ column. Or our editor Mark O’Keefe’s column. Or worse yet, mine. Who’s left to comment then?
What I don’t like is people outside our market, people who probably still don’t know where Uniontown is located, trying to tell us what we should or shouldn’t print. That’s pretty arrogant, if you ask me.
So whether you love Coulter or despise her, do me a favor and drop a quick e-mail to Media Matters, telling them to mind their own business. The e-mail is begin mm-tips@mediamatters.org mm-tips@mediamatters.org end
And although the organization’s Web site lists 56 names and biographies under “Staff/advisors,” none of them includes an e-mail address. So I looked up one for the first name listed: Eric Alterman, who’s a professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College and a columnist for “The Nation.” I probably have much more in common with Alterman than Coulter, but send him an e-mail too, at begin Whatliberalmedia@aol.com Whatliberalmedia@aol.com end
Let’s see if they like a taste of their own medicine.
If you’re a reader of this newspaper or its Web site, let us know what you think of Coulter, too, or any of our other columnists, at begin hsletters@heraldstandard.com hsletters@heraldstandard.com end
You’re the ones we really want to hear from.
Paul Sunyak is editorial page editor of the Herald-Standard. Reach him at 724-439-7577 or begin psunyak@heraldstandard.com psunyak@heraldstandard.com end