COULTER DECLARES 'SLANDER' IN COURIC 'TODAY' SHOW MATCH
   Wed Jun 26 2002 13:31:16 ET
   In  the  third (and typically least watched) hour of the TODAY SHOW on
   Wednesday,  Katie Couric sat down with conservative author Ann Coulter
   to discuss her latest book, 'SLANDER'.
   The following is a rushed transcript of their heated exchange:
   Katie  Couric: To a right-wing telebimbo but one thing Ann Coulter has
   not  been  called  is  underneath  stated  in her latest book slander,
   liberal  lies  about the American right the controversial author takes
   on  big  media, big government, and most of all liberals. Ann Coulter,
   good morning, nice to see you.
   Ann Coulter: Nice to see you.
   Katie  Couric:  So  your  main  thesis,  Ann,  is that liberals really
   misrepresent  conservatives  and the conservative movement. Isn't that
   accurate?
   Ann  Coulter:  Yes,  a  little  bit  more  than that, and that is that
   political  debate,  with  liberals  is basically impossible in America
   today  because  liberals  are  calling  names  while conservatives are
   trying  to  make  arguments.  And  when every one of your arguments is
   characterized  as  an  attempt  to  bring about slavery or resegregate
   lunch  counters,  it's  a  little  hard to have any sort of productive
   debate.  I  mean  I have no problem with invective, obviously. But the
   name of my book isn't invective, it's slander, and I think there ought
   to be a point to the invective.
   Katie  Couric:  What  are  some  of  the big liberal lies that are out
   there, in your estimation?
   Ann Coulter: I don't rank them, but --
   Katie Couric: I'm not asking you to, either, but just tell me what you
   think they are.
   Ann  Coulter:  I  would  say  it's  really  all the same lie, which is
   conservatives  are  either  stupid  or scarily weird and therefore you
   don't  have  to  deal with their ideas, just set them aside. This is a
   crazy  person,  it's  a  Nazi,  someone who wants to engage in racism,
   sexism,  homophobia,  so  don't  listen to that person's ideas, take a
   quote  out  of  context  and  dismiss  that idea, the idea that Ronald
   Reagan was stupid, which I document at great length in my book. I mean
   that  is  a stunning, stunning fact. The man, the (unintelligible) guy
   who  won  the  Cold  War  war,  he  was demeaned and attacked as being
   stupid,  meanwhile  winning a second term, a spate of special interest
   articles  on  senility,  and  senility,  growing senility, and how old
   Ronald,   encroaching   Senility,   meanwhile  (wordd)(unintelligible)
   liberal media asking that justice Thurgood Marshall or justice Brennan
   or Blackmon resigned, life and death issues from the Supreme Court.
   Katie  Couric:  I  think  I  do have to bring up a section of the book
   where  you  talk specifically about me, and this is not where you call
   me the Eva Braun of liberalism, that makes me feel so much better, but
   you talk about the media bias against Ronald Reagan, and you useless a
   quote  and  open  from  The Today Show where we say an airhead, Ronald
   Reagan  is  an  airhead and we're quoting Edmund Morris but frankly in
   the  book you make it sound as if I was saying that rather than Edmond
   Morris  and  I guess one of your problems with even using that that he
   said he was an apparent airhead and we failed to say apparent airhead.
   And  during  the  course  of the interview with Edmond Morris I really
   conducted  an  extremely challenging interview with him because he did
   eviscerate Ronald Reagan in his book, it was a very, very unflattering
   portrayals  of  Reagan,  they were very unhappy with it, conservatives
   were  very  unhappy with it. Afterwards Edmond Morris was unhappy with
   the  interview  and  Nancy  Reagan  called  to thank me for me line of
   questioning. So I'm just wondering how that jibes with your contention
   that somehow I'm a Ronald Reagan basher.
   Ann Coulter: Well, I didn't call you a Ronald Reagan basher.
   Katie  Couric:  [2]Well,  you  used  me  as an example of liberal bias
   against  Ronald Reagan, and I'm just curious why you took it so out of
   context.
   Ann  Coulter:  Well,  I  don't  think  I  did. You're taking it out of
   context.
   Katie Couric: No, no.
   Ann  Coulter:  What  I  said  was,  which is true, that The Today Show
   opens,  I  believe  it  was three days in a row with the announcement,
   Ronald  Reagan  was an airhead, that's the conclusion of this new book
   by  Edmond  Morris, when Edmond Morris came on for that interview with
   you  he  described  that  as  a grossly unfair characterization of his
   point.
   Katie Couric: Well, we should also point out, though --
   Ann  Coulter:  The  entire  book  was  contradicting that, so when the
   author  himself  and  George Bush, the vice president, was interviewed
   about  this,  also  that  that affs a grossly unfair characterization,
   whose characterization was it, it wasn't Edmond Morris --
   Katie Couric: Well, actually he backpedaled considerably, if you would
   have read the book by Edmond Morris --
   Ann Coulter: I didn't like the book --
   Katie  Couric: You called him an apparent airhead. You did call him an
   apparent airhead, I have the quote right here if you'd like me to read
   it.
   Ann Coulter: No, I read the quote and in it's in my book.
   Katie  Couric:  He  said  that young Ken Timmons, panting brace played
   occasional  hookey  from  the White House speech writing department to
   help  me  build  a  chronology,  and  I  was about to hire a full-time
   assistant,  yes, it is the magic of Geneva had faded. Judge remained a
   history  to  and  worst  still  that  I entertained such heresy in the
   hushed  and  reverent  precincts of his office an apparent airhead. So
   these are Edmond Morris --
   Ann  Coulter: It was also in his words when he came on your show, that
   that  was  a  grossly  unfair  characterization,  and  that was at the
   beginning  of  the  book,  you  said  he described them as an apparent
   airhead  on  the  very first meeting and that the entire course of the
   rest  of  his book was contradicting that, so for the today show to be
   opening three days in a row, Ronald Reagan was an airhead --
   Katie Couric: It was one day.
   Ann Coulter: -- dishonest.

   Katie Couric: And also just for your information --
   Ann Coulter: No you said it one day, Matt Lauer said it another day.
   Katie Couric: No, it was just one day and we'll get the transcript for
   you.  Anyway  he  said commond Morris beyond mazement I was fressed by
   the  relent  finalities  not  to  say incoherence of his interviews. I
   didn't really switch in the book but we don't want to get too hired --
   Ann  Coulter: This was not only solely not about this quote, it is not
   solely about the today show --
   Katie  Couric:  Let's  move on then and talk about it, let's just talk
   about  the  religious  right,  actually,  since  I'm  conducting  this
   interview,  one  of  the  things  you  say  is  the religious right is
   misrepresented  by  the liberal media, that it isn't some organization
   that has --
   Katie  Couric:  Since I'm conducting this interview, one of the things
   you say is the religious right is misrepresented by the liberal media,
   that  it  isn't some organization that has club members, and that it's
   used  to sort of freely buy liberals in the media. What do you mean by
   that? Can you elaborate? Because I think that's an interesting point.
   Ann   Coulter:   Well,   it's   more   than  the  religious  right  is
   misrepresented.  It's the idea that it's this Orwellian totemic symbol
   for  people  to  hate, I mean you try to figure out what the religious
   right  is,  it ultimately comes down either to one man, Pat Robertson,
   or  anyone  who believes in a higher being and wants his taxes cut. As
   The  New  York  Times apparently describes the religious right, I mean
   I'm  searching  through  transcripts, and newspaper articles to figure
   out  exactly  what  they're  talking  about, it seems to me anyone who
   wants  his  taxes cut and wants to eliminate the national endowment of
   the  arts.  So you're either talking about half of America or one man,
   and  still  this  is used is an example to frighten Americans, it's --
   the  religious  right  is  presumed  to  be  self-evidently fanatical,
   intolerant,  and,  for  example,  the  quote  that has so captured the
   imaginations  of  gossip  columnists,  my  calling you the affable Eva
   Braun of morning TV, taken in context, but the context was that speech
   in  which  you  blamed  the  dragging  death  of  James  Byrd on these
   intolerance  created  by  evangelical  Christians,  which  is  just an
   astonishing statement.
   Katie  Couric:  Actually  I  didn't,  but  I'll  have to get the exact
   transcript --
   Ann  Coulter:  Luck would have it both of these quotes are in my book,
   that is in the footnote.
   Katie  Couric: Okay, we'll look at that, but the real problem you have
   is  with the Matthew Shepherd interview, and again, I don't want to do
   a  tit-for-tat, because there are a lot of broader issues in your book
   that  I  want  to  talk  about.  One  of  them is that you take Walter
   Cronkite to task for criticizing Jerry Falwell for the remarks he said
   after  September  11th.  You write about what Falwell said. Falwell it
   seems  had  remarked  that gay marriage and abortion on demand may not
   have  warmed  the heart of the Almighty. In fact, here is what Falwell
   actually  said,  something  he  incidentally  later apologized for. He
   said,  I  really  believe  that  the  pagans  and the abortionists and
   feminists  and  the  gays  and the lesbians who are actively trying to
   make  that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American
   Way,  all  of  them  who have tried to secularize America, I point the
   finger in their face and say you helped make this happen. Do you agree
   with  Jerry  Falwell, and shouldn't you have focused, perhaps, some of
   your  attention on those remarks rather than on Walter Cronkite's, you
   know, distaste for what Jerry Falwell said?
   Ann Coulter: Not after September 11th. I did find it quite astonishing
   that  after  September  11th liberals seem to be in overdrive watching
   out  for  the statements of Christians. I mean what Jerry Falwell said
   there,  whether  you  agree  with it or not, is really fairly standard
   Jerry  Falwell  Christian  doctrine.  Yes, he's against abortion, he's
..   against --
   Katie  Couric: But to blame them for the events of September 11th, you
   didn't find that a little disconcerting?
   Ann  Coulter:  No  what  he  said  was  that  the almighty had stopped
   protecting  America  because  America  was  no longer asking for God's
   help,  this  is  straight  Christian doctrine, and even if it had been
   some  sort  of  peculiar  sect of Christianity, as opposed to straight
   Christian  doctrine,  I think it's a little bit peculiar that everyone
   was  jumping  on the statement of a Christian minister after thousands
   of Americans were slaughtered by Islamic fundamentalists.
   Katie  Couric:  You were also fired, I guess, because you wrote in the
   National  Review that we should -- when it came to fighting terrorism,
   we should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them
   to  Christianity.  Do  you  still  believe that that's the best way to
   combat terrorism worldwide?
   Ann  Coulter: Well, that's a somewhat dishonest quote. I was referring
   to  the  people  in the previous sentence of that column, cheering and
   dancing  in  the streets right now, and, in fact, this -- the way that
   was  so widely misquoted is an example of what I described in my book,
   which  is  the  constant  mischaracterizations, which is a small word,
   picking  out the word of parents. It makes a big difference. And these
   subtle differences that are then glossed over as if there's absolutely
   no  difference.  To  try  to portray conservatives as crazy people, as
   Nazis,  slave  owners, (unintelligible), homophobic, how about dealing
   with  our  ideas?  I  mean  I've  written  two books now, I've written
   hundreds  of columns, I've been on TV hundreds of times. The idea that
   someone  can  go  out and find one quote that will suddenly, you know,
   portray me just dismiss her ideas, read no more, read no further, this
   person is crazy --
   Katie Couric: Well, obviously --
   Ann Coulter: -- is precisely what liberals do all the time.
   Katie  Couric:  But  obviously  the National Review had a problem with
   these  articles  and some of the pieces you did because you were fired
   from  that job. Can you elaborate or at least tell us what you exactly
   meant?
   Ann  Coulter:  That also isn't quite true. I mean I write a syndicated
   column,  I write for Human Events. That's the newspaper that hires me.
   People buy a syndicated column, and they dropped the column. But a lot
   of people don't like me for a lot of different reasons, including --
   Katie Couric: Why don't you explain what you meant, then.
   Ann Coulter: -- that they're my competitors.
   Katie Couric: What do you think is the best way to battle terrorism?
   Ann Coulter: Point one and point two by the end of the week had become
   official  government policy. As for converting them to Christianity, I
   think  it might be a good idea to get them on some sort of hobby other
   than  slaughtering  infidels.  I  mean perhaps that's the Peace Corps,
   perhaps  it's  working for Planned Parenthood, but I've never seen the
   transforming effect of anything like that Christianity.
   Katie  Couric:  Well,  Ann Coulter, it's always interesting to talk to
   you,  to say the least. The book is called Slander, Liberal Lies about
   the American right. Thank you.