Ann Coulter Should "Go Into Rehab"

By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet. Posted March 6, 2007.

I know it isn't fashionable, but I feel sorry for Ann Coulter.

While it would no doubt prove eminently, if only momentarily, satisfying to denounce Coulter in terms familiar to her and similar to those she regularly rains on others -- I shall refrain.

The deranged woman obviously can't help herself…

Best-selling author and conservative commentator Coulter stepped over the line of acceptable public discourse again this weekend, telling a largely appreciative crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference she "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."

Coulter is correct. She should go into rehab. I don't know the woman -- but if I did, I'd be jumping up and down and calling for an immediate intervention. Isn't it obvious that she is in dire need -- not of calumny or further condemnation -- but instead of professional assistance? Isn't it clear to all by now, to her sycophantic supporters, to her CPAC pals, to the Republican presidential prospects toadying up to them, even to her sensation-seeking ratings-sucking media enablers (Memo to Matt Lauer: Run!) that she is becoming unhinged and incapable of preventing her own inexorable, slow-motion, and increasingly public self-destruction from playing out in full pathetic public view?

If not, why not? And if so, why are they all still playing along???

Sure, Coulter has a long and notorious history of making such offensive remarks, most recently offending the "Jersey Girl" 911 widows in a typically scurrilous, heartless and pain-producing manner. Yet until now, her media enablers at places like NBC's Today Show keep affording her a platform for spewing her vitriol to millions. They benefit from the "buzz" and "edge" that Coulter's controversial hate speech engenders, while at the same time cynically distancing themselves from it with false morality. She meanwhile prospers from the publicity and her infamy with consequent commercial success. It's a two way street that leads to millions for the party at each end.

Once again, Coulter is attempting to dismiss her latest hate speech as nothing more than "a joke." This ugly charade should soon stop. Mainstream media bookers and anchors must take the pledge: no more airtime, no more newspaper columns, no more attention paid to Ms. Coulter or her noxious remarks. Political candidates like John McCain, Rudy Guiliani and Mitt Romney must go beyond their previous embrace of Coulter and current pro-forma objections to her latest crack to full-throated denunciation of the bigoted beliefs she represents.

Reasonable people will agree that there is no place for such venom or bilge among those engaged in democratic discourse anywhere in the marketplace of ideas. Coulter should be shunned. How will her books sell and her speeches pay when Coulter finally becomes radioactive (even as she must) in the MSM? How much longer will Mitt Romney -- whom Coulter says she is likely to support -- be able to laugh her off as a "moderate?" Where are her friends and family, her conservative cohorts, her publishers and syndicators? Who should -- who will -- step up and step in to clean up this latest train wreck at the treacherous nexus of Big Politics and Big Media?

Let's be clear -- I'm not advocating that anyone should censor this harridan of hate. But for her own sake (as well as that of the rest of us) if any friends or family do remain, will they please take Ms. Coulter to the rehab that even she is hinting -- in her profoundly Freudian way -- is now necessary?

See more stories tagged with: homophobia, ann coulter, gay bashing

Filmmaker and journalist Rory O'Connor writes the Media Is A Plural blog.

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