Papers Drop Coulter Column

(CBS/AP)  At least three newspapers have dropped conservative pundit Ann Coulter's column following her use of an anti-gay slur in a speech last week.

The papers – The Oakland Press of Michigan; The Mountain Press of Sevierville, Tenn.; and the Lancaster New Era of Pennsylvania – pulled Coulter's column after she used the word "faggot" to describe Democratic presidential contender John Edwards during an address to a conservative group in Washington.

"She's really gone into the realm of wanting to be, whatever, a personality, a celebrity flame-thrower," Glenn Gilbert, executive editor of The Oakland Press told The Associated Press on Thursday.

"The reason we wanted her, we wanted a conservative columnist. She's obviously betrayed conservatives," Gilbert said.

Announcing his newspaper's decision, Stan Voit, editor of the Mountain Press, wrote: "We will not continue to publish the columns of someone who uses people as a punch line to get a cheap laugh and who so freely uses an offensive term to describe another human being."

Coulter was quoted last week during a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington as saying: "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I - so kind of an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards."

The remarks were denounced by Democrats and Republicans alike. All three leading Republican presidential contenders – Sen. John McCain, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney – quickly distanced themselves from Coulter.

Coulter defended her comments during an appearance on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes."

"It isn't offensive to gays. It has nothing to do with gays," Coulter said. "It's a schoolyard taunt, meaning wuss. And unless you're telling me that John Edwards is gay, it was not applied to a gay person."

The Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights organization, has launched a campaign to get other Coulter newspaper clients to drop her column, the trade publication Editor & Publisher reported on its Web site.

A spokeswoman for Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes Coulter's columns, said the service has no plans to stop offering Coulter's columns, which she said are distributed to about 100 clients.

[aimeekligman]

Ann Coulter has outlived her usefulness, if she ever had any. She should become invisible.

[afelig1]

Ann Coulter is a worthless ***.

My comment isn't offensive to women. It has nothing to do with women," Shazboot said. "It's a schoolyard taunt, meaning wench. And unless you're telling me that Ann Coulter is a woman, it was not applied to a woman."

[firststate]

jlhudg23
In case you didn't grasp the difference, the papers weren't paying Dean for his comments. They do pay columnists like the Macho Ms. and have the right to decide to stop purchasing the right to publish their opinions. People like Butch Coulter need to insult someone because they find doing so empowering. The "N" word won't fly these days, so she had to move on to another minority. It's just a shame that this kind of person is so lacking in self-respect that they need to defame others. She seems to have decided that good manners are either above her or beneath her. I have an opinion about which it is, but not being as rude as she, I'll keep it to myself.

[jlhudg23-2009]

Did any of these alleged "news" papers drop coverage of Howard Dean after his "I hate Republicans and everything they stand for" outrage?

{sound of crickets chirping}

[neoconrcrazy]

A truely divisive individual without merit, simply put, a sciolist.

[dukeudevil]

Ms. Coulter, what goes around finally comes around. But then, you're hardly old enough to have learned that lesson. How does it feel to be on the receiving end of your very own stupidity in this instance?

[leebella]

Coulter herself has found the crux of the problem with her ***/ed comment: it's a schoolyard taunt. We have little enough intelligent discourse as it is to be subjected to fourth grade stupidity, especially when it is fed to us as palatable brainfodder. It is not. Furthermore, I invite all the papers who are dropping their grade-school colt to contact me at hotmail under my last name for a sample of the columns I can provide them with...an old mare,

Lee Bellavance

[leebella]

Coulter herself has found the crux of the problem with her ***/ed comment: it's a schoolyard taunt. We have little enough intelligent discourse as it is to be subjected to fourth grade stupidity, especially when it is fed to us as palatable brainfodder. It is not. Furthermore, I invite all the papers who are dropping their grade-school colt to contact me at hotmail under my last name for a sample of the columns I can provide them with...an old mare,

Lee Bellavance

[leebella]

Coulter herself has found the crux of the problem with her ***/ed comment: it's a schoolyard taunt. We have little enough intelligent discourse as it is to be subjected to fourth grade stupidity, especially when it is fed to us as palatable brainfodder. It is not. Furthermore, I invite all the papers who are dropping their grade-school colt to contact me at hotmail under my last name for a sample of the columns I can provide them with...an old mare,

Lee Bellavance

[leebella]

Coulter herself has found the crux of the problem with her ***/ed comment: it's a schoolyard taunt. We have little enough intelligent discourse as it is to be subjected to fourth grade stupidity, especially when it is fed to us as palatable brainfodder. It is not. Furthermore, I invite all the papers who are dropping their grade-school colt to contact me at hotmail under my last name for a sample of the columns I can provide them with...an old mare,

Lee Bellavance