Coulter caught cribbing from conservative magazines
This article was written by John Byrne and researched
by Ron Brynaert.
A column penned by the doyenne of right-wing rhetoric
Ann Coulter has come under fire for alleged plagiarism,
RAW STORY has learned.
Much of Coulter's Jun. 29, 2005 column, “Thou
Shall Not Commit Religion,” bears a striking resemblance
to pieces in magazines dating as far back as 1985—and
a column written for the Boston Globe in 1995.
A RAW STORY examination
found Coulter's work to be at worst plagiarism and
at best a cut-and-paste repetition of points authored
by conservative religious groups in the early 1990s.
These groups sought to de-fund the National Endowment
for the Arts, detailing projects paid for by the NEA
they dubbed “obscene.”
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The campaign traces back to an assault on the NEA mounted by the American Family Association in 1989. After press conferences held by the group's leader Rev. Donald Wildon, then-Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) slipped an amendment into a Senate bill that would have axed federal funding for “obscene art.” It never passed the House.
Coulter employs the same NEA talking points in her Jun. 29 column written in the wake of a ruling barring the Ten Commandments from public places. She lists various identical “obscene” projects she says taxpayers have funded. All of the excerpts below compare this column with earlier texts.
The piece was first questioned by The
Rude Pundit on Jul. 1. His post noted that Coulter
appeared to have cribbed from a defunct 1993 magazine
called The
Flummery Digest.
Coulter : "A photo of a newborn
infant with its mouth open titled to suggest the
infant was available for oral sex."
The Flummery Digest: "The
title of a photo of a newborn infant with its mouth
open suggested that the infant was available for
oral sex."
Coulter: "A photo of a woman
breastfeeding an infant, titled ' Jesus Sucks.'"
The Flummery Digest: "…
photograph of a woman breastfeeding an infant was
titled 'Jesus Sucks.'"
Coulter: "A show titled
'DEGENERATE WITH A CAPITAL D' featuring a display
of the remains of the artist's own aborted baby."
The Flummery Digest: "'Degenerate
with a Capital D'...included 'Alchemy Cabinet' by
Shawn Eichman, featuring the remains of the artist's
own aborted baby."
Coulter: "Performance of
giant bloody tampons, satanic bunnies, three-foot
feces and vibrators."
The Flummery Digest: "[T]he
performance art of Johanna Went...relies upon props
such as giant body tampons, satanic bunnies, three-foot
turds, and dildos."
The she appears to lift directly from one written
by Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby in
1995 for the same column.
Coulter: "...inserting a
speculum into her vagina and inviting audience members
on stage to view her cervix with a flashlight."
Jacoby: "...inserted a speculum
into her vagina and called up audience members to
examine her cervix with a flashlight..."
Coulter: "Christ
submerged in a jar of urine."
Jacoby: "...photographs
of a crucifix submerged in his urine..."
The 1992 MIT-based magazine Counterpoint included similar items.
Coulter: "A photo of a newborn
infant with its mouth open titled to suggest the
infant was available for oral sex."
Counterpoint: 3. (1984)
"The title of a photo of a newborn infant suggested
the infant was available for oral sex."
Coulter: "A show titled 'DEGENERATE
WITH A CAPITAL D' featuring a display of the remains
of the artist's own aborted baby."
Counterpoint: 7. (1990)
"...a show called Degenerate With a Capital
D...featuring the remains of the artist's own baby."
Coulter: "A novel depicting
the sexual molestation of a group of 10 children
in a pedophile's garage, including acts of bestiality,
with the children commenting on how much they enjoyed
the pedophilia."
Counterpoint: 4. (1985)
"...a novel titled Saturday Night at San Marcos
relates the sexual molestation of 10 children in
a pedophile's garage, including acts of bestiality,
and how much they enjoyed the pedophile's games."
Coulter: "A female performer
inserting a speculum into her vagina and inviting
audience members on stage to view her cervix with
a flashlight."
Counterpoint: 6. (1989-1990)
"Annie Sprinkle...inserting a speculum into
her vagina, invites members on stage to view her
cervix with a flashlight."
Out of seven examples listed in “Counterpoint,” Coulter snapped up four.
Marquis: “The show exhibited explicit
photographs of group sex, of priests in sadomasochistic
poses, and of an infant at the breast titled Jesus
Sucks.”
Marquis: “Various performances
in “Carnival Knowledge” included a lesbian inserting
her foot into another lesbian's vagina, an eighty-six-year-old
woman boasting of sexual adventures with teenagers,
and two women discussing fellatio and swallowing
human semen.”
Marquis: “In 1985, Thunder's Mouth
Press received $25,000 to publish experimental novels,
including Saturday Night at San Marcos, which described
a pedophile molesting ten children in his garage
and the victims' pleasure in sex games.”
Marquis: “Johanna Went was funded
in 1983, 1985, and 1987 for a series of performances
with props such as dildos, giant bloody tampons,
and three-foot turds.”
Coulter caught the public eye after allegations that she had carried the Linda Tripp tapes between Tripp and Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr during the Clinton impeachment. Coulter, who admitted to having heard the tapes before Starr was even aware of them, was also implicated in several other controversies involving the Clintons ', including the Paula Jones case.
The right-wing pundit was fired in 1997 from MSNBC for verbally attacking a Vietnam vet on air. She was dropped from The National Review in 2002 for slandering the publication on the national talk show circuit. Coulter went on to write a book titled Slander.
Coulter has drawn fire lately from both conservatives
and liberals for her verbal attacks on victims of
9/11, women's groups and Muslims. On Wednesday, she
savaged President Bush's Supreme Court pick John Roberts.
Brynaert's post on Coulter's 'cribbing' and more,
can be read
here.