Poor Accoulteration
Does the blinking skyscraper of a ranting, hate-spewing guttersnipe change what a blog actually says - what it means, why its author drags himself to the dusty keyboard every morning after tea?
That's the question I'm asking today after visiting the voluble online journal of John Cole - one of my only Republican faves - and receiving a slimy gob of digital spit in the face: a massive advertisement for aging Ann Coulter's latest anti-American tract. Johnny, we hardly knew ye. Is the twenty bucks worth it, man? Can't you see what this dirty Pajamas Media game is doing to you, to us, to the pact you've had with your readers?
More to the point: how will Steelers fans react to this deal with the aging she-devil? Mr. C., you must realize how bad this looks - if not, watch the video here, my friend. Or just enjoy this wonderful quote from your proud advertiser, from the very book you're promoting, about 9/11 widows:
"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much."
Now maybe this is just a script, and you don't know what ads will appear where - you don't know that hate-speech is being sold on your site. But Roger L. Simon knows. Oh, Roger L. Simon knows all too well. And if he put that ad there without running it by you first, John me buck-o, he went way beyond any borders of decency - and does not deserve your patronage.
UPDATE: This just in: David Corn has not - repeat not - resigned from PM in horrified disgust at his network's sale of the above content. David, you're helping Ann Coulter.
UPDATE II: Mr. Rick Moran, who runs the self-titled Right Wing Nut House blog, says he sleeps very well at night despite getting paid to promote a hate-filled book he professes to detest. Interesting indeed.On reading my "meaningless, insufferable drivel," he claims that "ignorant, self important comments like yours acts just like a sedative." Happy to oblige Rick old man. And you took the ad down!
UPDATE III: Mr. Moran implies that I have "shit for brains" and claims he has no sway over what appears on his own site. "I have absolutely no control on what ads are placed on my site. None. Zero. Zilch," he writes in the comments here. Strangely, on his blog, he states: "The answer is, yes I could request that the ad be taken off this site." So to sum up, the ad is down but the blog-owner didn't request it, and has no power to request it, though he admits he could request it, and the ad would be taken down. Like voting for the resolution before voting against it. The horror.
UPDATE IV: John Cole responds: "Apparently can ask to have the ad removed, but I am not going to- I would run an ad for Code Pink or Michael Moore or whoever. Unlike Charles barkley, I would draw the line at the KKK and groups like that, but I really don’t think the Coulter ad is a big deal. I haven;t even seen the damned thing yet, so I have no idea how frequently it procs, but I am betting not too often." I respectfully disagree here.
Technorati tags: John Cole | Pajamas Media | Ann Coulter | Roger Simon | David Corn
Oh. I made the mistake of watching that Today Show link.
She just disgusts me. She is unbelievable.
How shameful.
Posted by: blue girl | June 06, 2006 at 09:40 PM
Tom, have you seen this?
http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2006/06/nugget_o_televi.html
Sorry, can't remember how to live link...
Posted by: blue girl | June 06, 2006 at 09:44 PM
I saw that ad yesterday right as I was leaving the site and when I clicked back it had changed.
Balloon Juice is one of my favs and at this moment at least I'm going to give JC the benefit of the doubt, as I would you on this. He's been pretty consistant about his distain for the jackass right sewer spitters (Hannity, O'Reilly, etc...)
Posted by: Tony Alva | June 07, 2006 at 09:16 AM
Herpes is my favorite venereal disease. Not as bad as gonorrhea or syphilis.
Posted by: Slappy | June 07, 2006 at 10:51 AM
Alas Tony, Balloon Juice is still running the vile Coulter ad. Guess the money must be right.
Posted by: Tom W. | June 07, 2006 at 09:48 PM
Ann Coulter is a fabrication, sort of like Andy Kauffman's Tony Clifton. Her role is to get the right wing wacko message into the mainstream media. Once it's out there, people start to talk about it so much that eventually her moronic opinions become a valid argument.
Posted by: Ralph | June 08, 2006 at 12:57 AM
"Happy to oblige Rick old man. And you took the ad down!"
Wrong, shit for brains. I have absolutely no control on what ads are placed on my site. None. Zero. Zilch.
To imply otherwise shows you to be even more ignorant than I first observed.
How stupid do you feel now, nitwit?
Posted by: Rick Moran | June 08, 2006 at 09:15 AM
Ah but Rick, you could very easily ask Pajamas media to leave your fair site - order them to vamoose!
Alternatively, you could ask your PM overlords to remove the ad. Indeed, in your very own post you admitted (direct quote):
"The answer is, yes I could request that the ad be taken off this site."
By its absence, I concluded you'd taken that steps. Sorry you haven't. Love the writing stye, btw.
Posted by: Tom W. | June 08, 2006 at 09:45 AM
Cole responded...
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=7077
Posted by: Tony Alva | June 08, 2006 at 12:06 PM
Juan Cole's reply proved my point about Coulter. She says outrageous things and then rational people like Juan Cole claim that regardless of her mean-spirited ad hominem attacks, she has a point. Really? Her point is only that all those who disagree with Republicans or the right wing agenda are scum and deserve to die. She is the poster child for what's wrong with our democratic republic. She calls all liberals "Godless" and nobody in the media asks her what whe thinks about our "Godless" Constitution. Man she is evil.
Posted by: Ralph | June 08, 2006 at 02:05 PM
Nice Ralph. I would agree she is a bit Andy K. like. I suspect though, she wishes to be Abbie Hoffman, but being a self hating woman, she doesn't have the brass.
Posted by: Adorable Girlfriend | June 08, 2006 at 04:29 PM
Frankly, I don't care what she thinks of our godless constitution, and I absolutely HATE the fact that so much ink and so many bits are being wasted on her.
I'm utterly fatigued of the complicity/spinelessness of journalists. They continue to let right wing idiologues (yes that's a deliberate portmanteau) define the dialogue, to set the national discourse.
It's amazing to me that someone like GW Bush can utter the words "gay marriage amendment" and it actually gets treated like it's something more substantial than a cynical ploy to pander to his "base". (All his base are belong to us)
Same with Coulter. She has absolutely no reason on earth NOT to flog her claptrap. It's our own damned fault for listening.
Who the hell gives a flying F about what a "beautiful, statuesque leggy blond" (as the Daily News calls her), who I think is actually ratfaced ugly (bleach blond and all), thinks about any damned thing. The people who read and nod are as irrelevant as she is.
Posted by: brendog | June 09, 2006 at 02:30 PM
Say it, Brendog!!
Posted by: blue girl | June 09, 2006 at 06:38 PM
Yes, Kaufman's Tony Clifton! - Or, even better, the glowering barking persona of Brother Theodore...
Posted by: Witkacy | June 12, 2006 at 02:46 PM
All rational people would love to ignore Coulter, but when Time mag puts her on the front page, with an article that's a total white-wash, when she's treated like a normal person on The Today Show and given 20 minutes to spew her crap to sell her book, than we must respond. I saw the Swift Boat Vets for truth Website months before any political ad was aired, and I knew that Kerry needed to attack them first. But, he waited and waited until the spurios charges stuck. We need to fight back, not assume that people will figure things out for themselves.
Posted by: Ralph | June 12, 2006 at 04:54 PM
There's a big, significant difference between the Swiftboat vets and Ugly Anne, the "Statuesque Blonde Beauty" in that with the vets, the allegations they leveled had a level of believability that made them dangerous. How could you know Kerry's record unless you were there? You couldn't, so the seeds of doubt were planted and through strategic errors on his part, allowed to flourish.
Ugly Anne, the "Statuesque Blonde Beauty" is an opinionist. You either subscribe to her worldview and agree with her or you think she's a crackpot.
There was a time when "America" may have nodded in agreement with her nonsense - there was never anything of any substance to prove or disprove.
Tired assertions like liberals are godless commie hippy dope-smoking interracial/homosexual/interspecies-marrying tax-and-spend terrorist loving traitors, and our Dear Leader is a Gawd-fearin', terrorist-standing-up-to, bring em on, flag worshiping, fiscal genius who cares about the Little Brown Ones don't really have much sway with anybody anymore.
Ugly Anne, the "Statuesque Blonde Beauty" doesn't provide talking points or rhetoric that are going to help any Republicans win any elections - quite the opposite. Being associated with her will certainly cost soccer-mom votes. Pete King wasted no time getting off her fence, and many followed.
So, I stand by the irrelevance point and think the more times Ugly Anne, the "Statuesque Blonde Beauty"'s name is found by google spiders, the more we help her kind of scum further eat away at the foundations of this country, and again, the more we allow the K-Streeters to define the discourse.
Posted by: brendog | June 12, 2006 at 08:59 PM
Last time I was here I somehow missed Rick Moran's comment.
Wow. What a wordsmith.
Posted by: blue girl | June 13, 2006 at 03:41 PM