Why is NBC's Today offering a platform for conservative hate?
NBC's Today has recently hosted a number of far-right ideologues. Just this morning, Ann Coulter was on and talked about her new book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, which is rife with hate speech, including a section about the 9-11 widows in which she wrote: "These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles, reveling in their status as celebrities, and talked about by grief-arazzis. I have never seen people enjoying their husband's deaths so much."
Coulter has a long history of engaging in hateful rhetoric and misinformation, and yet Today still hosted her, giving her book free publicity and a degree of credibility it doesn't deserve. Indeed, this was the third time in eight months that Coulter has appeared on Today. Why?
Unfortunately, Coulter is not the only extremist recently appearing on Today. Earlier this year, Today hosted another right-wing ideologue, Bill O'Reilly, for the third time in just over three months despite the fact that, in his previous appearance on the show, he compared those who support withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq to Hitler appeasers before World War II.
We deserve better than this. Please click here to email Today's producers and urge them to stop giving a platform to radical right-wing ideologues like Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly. Ask them why Today repeatedly hosts such hateful, extremist pundits.
Email address for Today: today@nbc.com
Resources:
- Today's All-Spin Zone: NBC gave O'Reilly forum to compare advocates of withdrawal from Iraq to Hitler appeasers
Would you have offered a similar critique of Edward R. Murrow giving a platform to Joe McCarthy to prove to the American people how much of a buffoon he is?
Coulter and O'Reilly have been running on empty for years now, since there is no Democratic branch of government to actually protest. The only thing they are doing to stay relevant is to be more extreme. The more they open their mouths on national TV, the more mainstream Americans will realize how ridiculous they have become.
I don't see a comparison. Murrow directly questioned the senators motives on his own news show, then gave McCarthy the chance to respond and defend himself without any interviewer interfering with the response to let it stand on it's own. Yes, his response helped to hang him but that was because Murrow had ALREADY established a reputation for journalism that could not be impeached with the American public by a few poorly chosen pot-shots from McCarthy.
When you're not Edward R. Murrow, though, and you continually give a free, unquestioned forum to one or two particular nutnags on a continual basis, that doesn't say you're trying to make them look foolish....that says you're trying to give them a platform.
These are not interviews or challenging debates...they are promotional pieces designed to give these people exposure and get the station ratings, message or journalistic integrity be damnned.
Even if most people watching Coulter on the Today Show see her as ridiculous, the show is still helping her sell her hatemongering book.
Would Today have a guest who called all Republicans and right-wingers "Godless", said they have no soul, that they love death, killing, and terrorist attacks on the USA, said the National Review should be bombed, and that the best way to debate a right-winger is with a baseball bat, etc.? Her points are just ridiculous. The woman is unbalanced mentally.
To me, having Coulter on is like having the Grand Wizard of the KKK on your program to discuss his latest anti-African American book. Even if the reporter takes the opposing position, they're inevitably also helping the hatemonger promote their book and make money off spreading hate.
I don't have nearly as much problem with O'Reilly appearing on their program as I do Coulter. As wrong and misinformed as O'Reilly is on most issues, he's still not a hatemonger to the degree of Coulter, and can at least form a reasonable argument at times without sounding like a complete lunatic. Coulter offers nothing but hate and venom.
Because they're afraid of being labeled 'liberal biased media' if they don't have the nutwing hatemongers on to hawk their books. Next week: KKK Grand Wizard discusses ...
Why must liberals constantly try to paint conservatives as racist?
So you link to O'Reilly on Today, and your most recent link is five months old? Boy, this bad stuff must happen a lot (tongue firmly in cheek) if you have to reach back FIVE months to slam the conservatives!
Maybe NBC is providing Ann (and Bill) with a forum where they can show off how hateful and ridiculous they are. It seemed to me Matt Lauer could barely believe what he was reading and the crowd was not supportive of Ann's remarks. Since I never watch or listen to the programs these type of people are on, perhaps NBC is just providing a glimpse of what is going on in America, in case you don't know...Hopefully, it will outrage people and encourage them to do something.
I think it is good that far righties get a chance to promote their ideals. It's very evident that the far lefties want the same opportunity. Just as evident that the far lefties are just as crazy as the far righties, so providing statements that give an opposite view of each other is good to promote equality and understanding within both sides.
Three words if you don't like it on NBC or anywhere else: Change. The. Channel.
Isn't NBC owned by GE? You know, the multinational corporation with many "defence" contracts. I think that explains it too well.
.....and I don't think it's right to say that widows are enjoying their husbands deaths.
Period.
You want to know why? Because they allow the LEFT and RIGHT points of view to be heard whether you agree or disagree with it. Today is doing the right thing allow a different point of view to be shown. I may not agree with Coulter's views completely, but I thoroughly enjoyed the interview.
Instead of wasting time writing NBC to complaining about someone you don't agree with, embrace DEBATE!
It's the top rated amongst cable news, but they only compete with two other medocre channels (CNN and MSNBC).
Compare Fox's ratings to the ratings on network news sometime. The "liberal" network news more than quadruples Fox's highest rating. Compare a show like Today to Fox's morning show, and the difference is even greater.
This myth that Fox gets big ratings is just that - a myth. They can't even beat re-runs of Law and Order on the USA network, episodes for SpongeBob Squarepants on Nickelodeon, or episodes of South Park on Comedy Central, let alone compete with the networks on ratings and viewership.
"I may not agree with Coulter's views completely, but I thoroughly enjoyed the interview. "
She makes me physically ill. She has a malignant personality disorder and it is unbelieveable to me that she has any following at all - except I know people who love her. What does that say about them?
Lefty,
You just don't get it. There is no need to take her so seriously.
Yes, what she says is outlandish, but instead of getting wrapped up in that, realize she is simply poking fun and/or criticizing liberals. She's a bomb thrower no doubt, but she is also intelligent, very witty, and unswerving in her opinions. (Al Franken also comes to mind.)
I don't mean to take pleasure in your discomfort but I get a kick out of how Ann's attitude. She makes me laugh while she's kicking liberal's butts.
I
The second to last sentence should read...
I don't mean to take pleasure in your discomfort but I get a kick out of Ann's attitude.
I think Media Matters should have taken a different take on this situation. I think Lauer did a fine and admirable job in fleshing out the most outrageous points of the book. I don't think ANYONE would have found her speech appealing or politically life-changing. Now Hillary is publically denouncing her because of this exposure. Give them enough rope I say.
When you compare O'Reilly and Coulter you lose all credibility and unfortunately undermine the (valid) point that Coulter has no business being interviewed.
Coulter peddles hate, plain and simple. O'Reilly is a legitimate conservative thinker whom you disagree with. I disagree with his line of thinking as well, but I cannot take anything on this website seriously if you truly believe he's so extreme that he should be silenced.
. . . it's that she has nothing to say. I mean, nothing of substance. I have no objection to NBC or any other media outlet providing a forum for conservatives, even nutty conservatives. But Coulter is good for nothing except ad hominums (ad homini?) She doesn't argue for anything except that liberals are traitors, or Godless, or stupid. That's not an argument, that's an insult-fest. What is there of news value in her diatribes?
In 1971, George Jessel appeared on the Today show. After he repeatedly referred to the New York Times as "Pravda", Edwin Newman booted him off the show. Why? Insults are not newsworthy. "Today" had integrity back then. Too bad Lauer doesn't have Newman's backbone.
The 'integrity' of the Today show lies not with Matt Lauer, but with NBC management and its' producers.
Matt Lauer conducted the interview. He was the on-camera face and voice of NBC and Today, just as Ed Newman was 35 years ago. He could have pulled the plug on the interview. He could have told her that if all she has to offer is insult and invective, she has no place on Today. That's what Edwin Newman did when George Jessel crossed the line in 1971 and it's that on-camera act of civility that I am referring to.
But there is nothing wrong with far leftist nutcases such as Al Franken, Bill Maher, and George Looney (just to name a few) going on Letterman, Leno, and Conan and bashing the president?
I guess the smell of liberal hypocracy is yet again in the air!
Coulter's viscious character assassination goes way above and beyond what any pundit on the Left - SOME who can be, of course, a bit over-the-top (as many pundits are) - has put forth about Republicans/conservatives... Her attacks are not even in the same league as anything I've EVER heard on, oh, Air America radio. And BTW, Franken is hardly a left-wing "extremist," his books/radio show is actually pretty measured - whether or not you agree with his point of view - I don't see how he & Coulter are even close to being in the same category...
Personally, I don't have a problem with Today giving air time to Coulter - as much as she repulses me. In that same sense, I also don't know that I'd have a problem with giving air time to the Grand Wizard of the KKK, as long as there was a reasonable individual there to counter what was being said. Coulter's preformance only reflected badly on herself - the more outlandish & hateful her attacks, the less anyone (conservatives included) will take her seriously (though it's hard to imagine that anyone DOES take her seriously at this point).
But when she's put through the ringer, and deservedly so, for her latest spewing of foulness, she will certainly reward her (dwindling) audience with another dramatic proclaimation of her unending martyrdom... She, Ann Coulter, is again victimized by the liberal PC-police who seek to censor all conservative thought (Joan of Arc, she is not). The reason there is outrage over her latest comments has nothing to do with the fact that Coulter comes from the Right - the outrage stems from the common human decency that most people (but not Ann) posess. It's not a political "point of view" to accuse 9/11 widows of enjoying their husbands' deaths - it's just MEAN, and WRONG.
"Why must liberals constantly try to paint conservatives as racist?"
Everyone knows that not all conservatives are racist. To say that "liberals constantly try to paint conservatives as racist" make it sound like liberals do that to all conservatives without discretion or reason. It trivializes the racism of the minority of conservatives who are racist. It also makes it easier for conservative racists to stay in power or broadcast their racist views to the mass public.
A major part of the Democratic strategy is to convince people that conservatives are racist and want to hurt poor people.
Huh, guess liberals can spew out as much trash as they like (gay rights, for example), but if insane conservatives can apparently not say anything. What happened to freedom of speech eh?
Good question since Coulter got kicked off National Review.
From [link to www.stateofthenewsmedia.org]
"...CNN has always made the argument that it is more popular over all than Fox News because more people, or unique viewers, watch it. This [the fact that CNN leads in the 'cume' ratings over Fox] remained true in 2005 as well..." (my insert)
Those who wish to let the NBC 'Today' show producers know their opinions as to giving Ann Coulter nation broadcast time to spew her venom should email: today@nbc.com