Coulter Unmasked
Right wingers have justly pilloried left-leaning writers for incidents of plagiarism. Isn't it nice to see one of them receive the same treatment?
posted by jj mollo @ 7/17/2006 12:17:00 PM
3 comments
Sound of the Mushroom
This blog is my effort to puzzle out the world. I'll write whatever comes into my head, but probably return frequently to my obsessions. I seem to be interested in the workings of democracy, economics, the functioning of social groups, the future of humanity, scientific concepts, statistical concepts, logical thinking, nuclear power, evolution, space, the environment and most everything else. I'll try to post only when I think I have my own angle on something.
3 Comments:
I can't stand that woman.
A few weeks ago she was on Leno at the same time as Carlin. I thought that might be an entertaining exchange and was going to program the Tivo to catch it. As it turns out, I forgot and missed it, but read somewhere that Carlin basically ignored her.
Probably the best thing he could have done.
Coulter is great! Like Limbaugh, whatever your poitics, she's a hoot to listen to. Ditto Carlin and Lenno when they lampoon the Bush administration. Incidentally, it's fun to listen to her in person because she invariably has to deal with the hecklers that attend every one of her events.
Frankly, the examples of plagerism cited in that article, if that's all the charge consists of, is pretty minor in my humble experience. And I'd say that about anyone, irrespective of politics. Mind you, attribution should have been given, but if that's the only ommitted footnote in her whole book then it smacks more of oversight than intentional plagerism. Not good, but big deal.
I hover between the two viewpoints. She is an entertaining demagogic figure, similar to Rush but not as sincere. I enjoy reading/listening to both of them sometimes, but I am repeatedly offended by their characatures of liberals and, in Coulter's case, the cruel inflexibility of her partisan attitudes. I think she is pretending to a certain degree. Surely she has friends or relatives with liberal opinions. Hannity is actually better on this score. I listened to him on the "Hate Hannity Hour", and he did his best to relate to liberals as humans. Since I consider myself a liberal, I regard this as an important overature.
At any rate, I don't think the plagiarism was severe, either. The enjoyment the Coulter charge offers me is remembering the atmosphere of hostility and moral outrage emerging from these right-wing pundits toward liberals, such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose academic misdeeds were similarly marginal.
Of course, it's always fun to tweak a dittohead by asking for an opinion on the moral aspect of drug addiction.
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