Almost Doing the Right Thing

I started tonight to write a quick note about a vaguely local newspaper--the DeKalb Daily Chronicle--joining the parade of papers dropping Ann Coulter's column. The paper explains that its decision relates back to Coulter's comments to the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, and I was going to say that I agree with that stand wholeheartedly. What Coulter said is just intended to bait progressives and throw red meat to the conservative base and nothing more. It's not useful political dialogue (of course, the right doesn't seem to want to have a dialogue in the first place).

I understand why we need to pay attention (and if I didn't, Jamison Foser explains it for us again at Media Matters). Coulter speaks for an uncomfortably large number of people. She can claim something as laughable as the idea that the word faggot and its various permutations have nothing to do with the gay lifestyle, and many of those people will take her at her word and start using the term as a "schoolyard taunt." At the same time, though, there are some people who may think they agree with her but who don't pay close enough attention to realize that in reality that's the farthest thing from the truth. Just because you're conservative doesn't mean that you agree her comments are appropriate. And the more they see of what Coulter actually says, the more they're likely to be offended by it.

Yes, I was going to say all that. I was even going to commend the Daily Chronicle on its decision and quote part of its explanation:

Ann Coulter is not a "real" employee of the Chronicle. She isn't a freelancer or even an independent contractor. If she were an employee and referred to another human being as a "faggot," her employment would be short-lived. As it is, the acerbic Coulter is a syndicated columnist whose material is distributed through Universal Press Syndicate. Universal President and Editor Lee Salem has responded to Coulter's remarks by saying, "She is not an employee, and we have no legal power to 'fire' her."

That's a lot like the Chronicle saying, "She didn't say it in one of the columns we ran, so it isn't our problem." Wrong. It is our problem, and not dealing with it is a cop-out.

So yesterday we called Universal Press Syndicate and "fired" Coulter. What she said was wrong and hurtful and stepped way beyond the line of human decency, much less political commentary.

Yeah, I was going to do all that. But then I read down to the end of the column and discovered that the Chronicle is going to replace Coulter with Michelle Malkin.

Oy.