Conservative pundit Ann Coulter, who vilifies the “media elite” as one-sided and liberal, every so often finds herself in the media spotlight. But she doesn’t seem to hate it when telecasters replay her sound bites over and over again. Coulter’s appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Saturday, an annual conference supported by the American Conservative Union, further exemplified this innate characteristic when she said, “there should be more jailed journalists.”
Coulter’s speech was ridden with slings aimed at President Barack Obama and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, among other Democrats. In response to a question about the dichotomy of being allies with Israel and knowing there are imprisoned citizens and journalists in Egypt, Coulter responded with her quote calling for the imprisonment of journalists, which was greeted with raucous applause. While her role as political commentator serves a purpose in America, there approaches a point at which commentating becomes synonymous with needless provoking.
In the aftermath of the Egyptian people’s protests and ultimate overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, new age forms of journalism – mostly Facebook and Twitter – have been praised for their uses in motivating and mobilizing the masses in response to oppression. Coulter’s comments hit home for that reason: It’s safe to say that journalism and technology played a large part in the Egyptian government’s eradication, another example of the validity of freedom of the press that will go down in history books.
Most importantly, Coulter’s stint says something about the increasingly polarizing conservative CPAC convention. Founded in 1973, it has boasted speakers such as former President Ronald Reagan (who spoke 12 times), commentators Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Michele Bachmann. Although the conference initially began as a small aggregation of like-minded conservative thinkers, it has become an opportunity for reactionaries to attack liberal Democrats in a manner that comes off as crude to the point of malignancy.
Coulter is representative of a growing movement in which members aren’t afraid of living out on the fringe, regardless of whether their rhetoric is inherently harmful. Although CPAC might attract viewers, its long term impact is bleak and yet to be determined. Historically, groups in power – and their public representatives – who try to solely appeal to emotion have faded with time in the absence of logic.
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