Satan's Chambermaid Emerges Again
by Steve
Ann Coulter, always fun to have you here.
--Matt Lauer, this morning, thanking Ann Coulter for vomiting on a civil society.
Of course, she does it for the attention, but it is also true that Ann Coulter is simply a vile human being. Her latest foray from hell came this morning on the “Today" show when she insulted the 9/11 victims, and almost left Matt Lauer speechless.
General Electric and NBC deserve just as much blame here for allowing someone with Coulter’s track record to have prime access to a morning show to spew her pleas for attention. Why did the “Today” show producer think it was a good programming decision to let Coulter have airtime in the first place? Does the craving for ratings make it SOP for NBC to turn the show over to circus acts like Coulter? How often has "Today" given a platform to serious authors who attempt to make people think about our problems as a nation, especially if the administration that GE helped install is the cause of those problems?
As both John at Crooks and Liars, and Peter Daou have said, the problem starts with NBC’s granting of a platform to Coulter in the first place. For equivalence, has General Electric granted a platform to anyone from the lunatic left fringe to spew invective and unstable comments about Bush on the “Today” show? No.
Secondly, as Peter noted, Lauer lost this debate because he failed to hang Coulter on her own words and make her defend them. But remember, Coulter is out there to sell another in a series of factually-challenged polemics that all say the same thing, pushed by the right-wing publishing conveyor belt. General Electric is turning over valuable air time to help her, enabling her disease and allowing her to spread it to others. She loves this attention, and General Electric is her pusher.
When the conservatives rant about the debasing of our culture, they need to look no farther than what they themselves do through General Electric. Media Matter for America asks the correct question: Why does NBC want the “Today” show to be a platform to spread right wing hate? Send the producers an email and ask them this question.