Difference between revisions of "Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right"

Latest revision as of 20:00, June 26, 2014

Ann Coulter's second book, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right, was published by Crown Forum in 2002. In the text, she blames liberals for the fact that American political debate has become increasingly hostile, overly personal, and insufferably trivial.

Bush and Gore

She argues that the media's coverage of President Bush is unfair and biased.

Her book is packed with well-documented examples:

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) attacked Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign [saying] "All over this country people are asking whether or not George Bush is smart enough to be president of the United States."^[1]

She notes that the press praised Gore for being smart and Bush for being dumb, although:

In his sophomore year at Harvard, Gore got one D, one C-minus, two Cs, two C-pluses, and one B-minus. This the Washington Post reported, "placed him in the bottom fifth of th eclass for the second year in a row."(37) Gore's grades that year "were lower than any semester recorded on bush's transcript from Yale".

Yet the Post ran a headline saying, "Gore's Grades ... are a Lot Like Bush's". (38)

However,

After college, Bush earned an M.B.A. from Harvard; Gore failed out of divinity school and dropped out of law school at Vanderbilt University. (Page 156)

Phyllis Schlafly

Coulter wrote:

There is no more pristine example of the left's "in"-crowd snobbery than their treatment of conservative author and activist Phyllis Schlafly. ... The national news media maintain a rigid radio silence on Phyllis Schlafly, while endlessly celebrating mediocre feminist shrews.
In fact, Schlafly is one of the most accomplished and influential people in America. (Page 35)

Other quotes

Liberals are in a panic about the Internet. They believe conservatives should be prevented from speaking. (page 116)

Notes

↑ Coulter cites Michael Finnegan, "Campaign 2000; Bush, Gore Sprint as the Race Comes Down to the Wire," Los Angeles Times, November 6, 2000, p. 1; Katharine Q. Seelye and Kevin Sack, "The 2000 Campaign: The Vice President; Focus is on Crucial States in Campaign's Fanil Hours," New York Times, November0 6, 2000, p. A1.

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-[[Ann Coulter's]] second book, '''Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right''', was published by Crown Forum in 2002. In the text, she argues that the media's coverage of President Bush is unfair and biased.
+[[Image:1400049520.jpg|right|thumb]]
+[[Ann Coulter's]] second book, '''''Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right''''', was published by Crown Forum in 2002. In the text, she blames [[liberals]] for the fact that American political debate has become increasingly hostile, overly personal, and insufferably trivial.
-She blames liberals for the fact that American political debate has become increasingly hostile, overly personal, and insufferably trivial. Some have quarreled with the choices of words she has had for certain politicians and commentators, such as [[John Howard]].
+==Bush and Gore==
-''Slander'' was also criticized for being riddled with factual errors, one of the most well known being the following passage from the first edition:
+She argues that the media's coverage of [[President Bush]] is unfair and [[Liberal bias|biased]].
-<blockquote>
+Her book is packed with well-documented examples:
-“The day after seven-time [[NASCAR]] [[Winston Cup]] champion [[Dale Earnhardt]] died in a race at the [[Daytona 500]], almost every newspaper in America carried the story on the front page. Stock-car racing had been the nation’s fastest-growing sport for a decade, and NASCAR the second-most-watched sport behind the NFL. More Americans recognize the name Dale Earnhardt than, say, Maureen Dowd. (Manhattan liberals are dumbly blinking at that last sentence.) It took the [[New York Times]] two days to deem Earnhardt’s name sufficiently important to mention it on the first page. Demonstrating the left’s renowned populist touch, the article began, “His death brought a silence to the Wal-Mart.” The Times went on to report that in vast swaths of the country people watch stock-car racing. Tacky people were mourning Dale Earnhardt all over the South!” (page 205, Slander, First Edition)
-</blockquote>
-In fact, as many commentators pointed out, the ''[[New York Times]]'', like most American newspapers, covered Earnhardt’s death on its front page the day after he was killed, in an article beginning “Stock car racing's greatest current star and one of its most popular and celebrated figures, Dale Earnhardt, crashed and was killed today." Her “correction” in the paperback edition removes the sentence “It took the New York Times two days to deem Earnhardt’s name sufficiently important to mention it on the first page,” but the passage still strongly implies that the NYT didn’t cover Earnhardt’s death until three days later.
+* Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) attacked Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign [saying] "All over this country people are asking whether or not George Bush is smart enough to be president of the United States."<ref>Coulter cites Michael Finnegan, "Campaign 2000; Bush, Gore Sprint as the Race Comes Down to the Wire," ''Los Angeles Times,'' November 6, 2000, p. 1; Katharine Q. Seelye and Kevin Sack, "The 2000 Campaign: The Vice President; Focus is on Crucial States in Campaign's Fanil Hours," ''New York Times,'' November0 6, 2000, p. A1.</ref>
-Among the other alleged inaccuracies liberals charge Coulter with is the claim that “In 1993 [[Al Gore]] saw busts of [[George Washington|Washington]] and [[Benjamin Franklin|Franklin]] and asked, ‘Who are these guys?’ The story was carried only by ''[[USA Today.]]''. The account had been repeated in several papers, including the ''New York Times'', yet numerous liberal sources claim Al Gore was referring to busts of [[John Paul Jones]] and [[Marquis de Lafayette]] although the [[Media Research Center]] has video of the occasion available online. <ref>Media Research Center,[http://www.mediaresearch.org/videobias/gore/welcome.asp Gore Gaffe Videos #2] "During January 17, 1993 pre-Inaugural tour of [[Monticello]], Thomas Jefferson's home, shown live by C-SPAN, Al Gore asks of busts of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Marquis de Lafayette: "Who are these people?" </ref>
+She notes that the press praised Gore for being smart and Bush for being dumb, although:
+:In his sophomore year at Harvard, Gore got one D, one C-minus, two Cs, two C-pluses, and one B-minus. This the ''Washington Post'' reported, "placed him in the bottom fifth of th eclass for the second year in a row."(37) Gore's grades that year "were lower than any semester recorded on bush's transcript from Yale".
-Her reference to “[[Katie Couric]], berating [[Arlen Specter]] about [[Anita Hill]] ten years after the hearings. . ." when in fact, this “berating” consisted of Couric asking Specter a single question about a discussion of the [[Clarence Thomas]] hearings in his upcoming book where he accused Anita Hill of ‘flat out perjury.’”
+Yet the ''Post'' ran a headline saying, "Gore's Grades ... are a Lot Like Bush's". (38)
-==References==
+However,
-<references/>
+:After college, Bush earned an M.B.A. from Harvard; Gore failed out of divinity school and dropped out of law school at Vanderbilt University. (Page 156)
-[[Category:Book]]
+==Phyllis Schlafly==
+Coulter wrote:
+* There is no more pristine example of the left's "in"-crowd snobbery than their treatment of conservative author and activist [[Phyllis Schlafly]]. ... The  national news media maintain a rigid radio silence on Phyllis Schlafly, while endlessly celebrating mediocre feminist shrews.
+* In fact, Schlafly is one of the most accomplished and influential people in America. (Page 35)
+==Other quotes==
+* Liberals are in a panic about the Internet. They believe conservatives should be prevented from speaking. (page 116)
+== See also ==
+*[[Atheism and deception]]
+==Notes==
+{{reflist}}
+[[Category:Political Books]][[Category:Conservative Media]]