If an event occurs and the State Journal-Register doesn’t cover it, was there a newsworthy story?
All I know I don’t read in our paper. Which is how I’m aware of the latest inanity unleashed by Ann “Dirty Bomb” Coulter in which she referred to a Democratic Presidential candidate by one of the “f” words (the noun consisting of six letters). Amid all the blowback the incident provoked, I’ve concluded it’s not about using vulgar language at a formal gathering of allegedly civil citizens. Nor is it about slandering homosexuals, while having written an entire book premised on the assertion that it is liberals who slander conservatives. The problem with what she said is not even that former Senator John Edwards is in fact a heterosexual and whether that means she slandered him, not that there would have been anything wrong with him were he that of which she accused him.
No, the significance of Coulter’s remark is it was insubstantial. It addressed no real issues nor the character of the man. I haven’t read Coulter’s column in several years, and I haven’t missed it, though occasionally I’ll come across a quoted paragraph in the context of instant evisceration. And while I may glance at the headline on our editorial page, it’s impossible to determine from someone else’s synopsis whether whatever arguments she proposes to make are actually made, or whether her columns have been as empty and frivolous as her speech at the Conservative Political Action Convention. As of this writing, more than a handful of fellow Republicans have denounced her – if only to salvage their own reputations with distance – while at least one newspaper has dropped her from syndication. If her latest antics fail to convince our editor that she’s not worth the page on which she’s printed, then nothing will.
Regardless, between Coulter’s vacuous rambling at this extravaganza and elsewhere, and the audience’s wildly enthusiastic reception, the “conservative movement” is on a fast track to oxymoronic status.