When conservative commentator Ann Coulter called former Vice President Al Gore a "total fag" on national television nearly a year ago, it barely caused a stir.

Coulter's recent labeling of presidential candidate John Edwards as a "faggot," however, has triggered a huge response, including a campaign initiated today by a gay rights group and media watchdog to persuade mainstream media outlets to dump her for good.

[...]

Dan Savage, editor of the Stranger, a Seattle alternative news weekly, and author of several books on his life as a gay man, said the reaction to Coulter could indicate a change in how people view gays.

"I always thought we would be reaching a tipping point with anti-gay hate where it will no longer be acceptable, and maybe we are reaching that tipping point now," said Savage.

[...]

Ronald Butters, a Duke University professor who studies the changing meaning of taboo words in American English, said he doesn't think "faggot" has become more or less offensive.

"Words mean what the public takes them to mean," he said. "The very reason that there is a furor is a pretty good indication of how insulting that term was."

Leaders in the gay community said the Coulter fallout could become the prototype for how the public will respond to the use of the term "faggot."

[...]

"It just seems to me the conventional wisdom around Ann Coulter till now has been that the most important thing for anyone to do is ignore her, but I think we have a more serious problem here that we are addressing," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "This word ought to be seen as offensive and dangerous as any hate-based word."

Conservative gay scholar Andrew Sullivan, who heard Coulter's comments live, said she uttered it with "malice aforethought." But equating it to other slurs is a difficult comparison, Sullivan said. "Nothing has the power of the n-word," he said.

[...]

Butters, the Duke professor, called Coulter's explanation of her use of the word "simply ridiculous and untrue. It is always intended, I think, as a derogatory term of one of the most pernicious sorts," he said.

Thom Lynch, who leads San Francisco's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center, said he does not hear the word used often among gay men.

"It's not a word people have reclaimed in any sense. If straight people use it in the same way Ann Coulter did, people will get really angry about it," he said.

Anyone want to toss out a prediction on how many papers will drop her?

Well look at this -- the news syndicate thinks Ms. Faggot-bomb is A-OK. Greg @ The Horses Mouth:



Lee Salem, the president and editor of UPS said this in an email reply to him:



Kathie Kerr, UPS's assistant vice president of communications also added they are not responding to the HRC email campaign. In response, HRC is urging people to contact the editors of papers carrying Coulter's column.

Media Matters for America has learned that the American Press of Lake Charles, Louisiana, has dropped right-wing pundit Ann Coulter's nationally syndicated column from its opinion pages, apparently in response to her March 2 remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), referring to Democratic presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (NC) as a "faggot."

According to a March 8 email Media Matters received from American Press editor Brett Downer, the paper "dropped Ann Coulter on Monday," three days after Coulter made her comments at CPAC. Downer did not say whether Coulter was dropped as a result of her comments.

Just so that we can keep track, CBS reports that UPS distrubtes her column to about 100 papers.

Today we move past the rhetoric and unproductive dialogue offered by Ann Coulter. The Times is dropping her column effective immediately.

It is her recent “joke” about John Edwards being considered a “faggot” that is the back-breaking straw for a decision we've openly discussed for some time. We had a dialogue with readers last year regarding whether Coulter was a responsible commentator and journalist.

Her repeated use of hyperbole in the call for the death of some journalists and politicians was beyond the pale. And while we all believe she was “just kidding,” her "shock-jock'' writing style is no different from Howard Stern's practical jokes and bathroom humor that aims to draw a school-yard snicker but falls well short of reasonable, thought-provoking journalism. Unlike the work of a Thomas Sowell or a Kathleen Parker, two thoughtful conservatives, does a Coulter column raise the level of discourse?

The answer: rarely.

Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington called a co-star a faggot and ended up in rehab, while former basketball star Tim Hardaway said he hated homosexuals and now his career as an ex-jock pitchman is on a cold slab. This will be remembered as the year the F-word became the new N-word and homophobic comments were no longer considered acceptable in polite company. To be sure, America has not endorsed homosexuality, but the new rules do mean celebrities will lose endorsements if they gratuitously bash homosexuals.

After all, she called Al Gore a "total fag" some six months ago and... nothing.

The Mountain Press will no longer publish Ann Coulter's weekly column, following her distasteful and irresponsible comments over the weekend about a presidential candidate.

Coulter referred to Democratic candidate John Edwards as a "faggot" in a Friday speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference. Her comments were denounced by both Republicans and Democrats.

"When we agree to buy a syndicated column we expect the writer to offer responsible, reasoned opinion on national and international issues," Editor Stan Voit said. "Ms. Coulter's column drew an unusual amount of criticism from our readers when we first started running it, but we felt she was a nationally known writer offering her opinions in her own style. However 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."

...[A] growing list of companies announced they would no longer advertise on Coulter's Website, Anncoulter.com, and some newspapers said they would drop her syndicated column.

Net Bank, Verizon, Washington Mutual, AT&T/Cingular, Dollar Rent-A-Car, SmileTrain.org, University of Phoenix, Sallie Mae, LasikPlus, Power Chord Academy, Gulf Shores.com/Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau, Ulta.com, and Yellow Pages.com have reported they will abandon the right-wing pundit's site.

[...]

...the [Pontiac, Michigan-based] Oakland Press also says they'll no longer carry Coulter's column.

At first, Ann Coulter's anti-gay crack at a Washington conference Friday drew almost no media coverage, although it was witnessed by hundreds of journalists and political operatives and captured by television cameras.

[...]

Why the initial reluctance to report the remark...? "There was a fairly high barrier, in my opinion, to make it worthy of a story, because part of what she's about is trying to use shock language to entertain her audience and, who knows, maybe to sell books," says... [the] chief political correspondent of the New York Times.

[...]

"There's the notion that this is her shtick...."

[...]

Conservative bloggers joined the fray.... Michelle Malkin said Coulter had committed "the equivalent of a rhetorical fragging -- an intentionally tossed verbal grenade that exploded in her own fellow ideological soldiers' tent...."

[...]
Coulter did not respond to a request for comment, but she said on Fox News last night [when {a}sked if she would use a racial slur in a joke, Coulter said it was "semantic totalitarianism to compare everything to the N-word."

[Insert round-up of her wild statements dating back to the early '90s....]

During this decade of denunciations by Coulter, journalists have never quite resolved the question: Is what she says news?

"She's this willfully incendiary character, and it shouldn't be surprising when she says things that set off alarms," says David Folkenflik, National Public Radio's media reporter. "At the same time, she said what she said at a major gathering of the party faithful."

Perhaps we should change the title to reflect that and try the US Presidential Election again in a new topic?

Take action today! Stand up and send a clear message to Ann Coulter, and those who would provide her with a platform, that calling someone a “faggot” is wrong, and we won’t sit by without taking action.

Make sure that Ann Coulter’s platform for bigotry and hate is dismantled.

Contact Universal Press Syndicate, the largest independent newspaper syndicate in the world, and let them know that carrying Ann Coulter as a syndicated columnist is not acceptable.

Let's see where the thread goes.