June 14, 2006 at 18:27:32

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Coulter accused of plagiarism, taking items out of context in another book

By Jackson Thoreau (about the author)     Page 1 of 2 page(s)

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For OpEdNews: Jackson Thoreau - Writer

As a guest on the Bill O'Lielly show recently, Karen Hanretty, a Republican "strategist" and former spokeswoman for the California GOP, defended Coulter's latest book and issued a challenge to anyone to find anything taken
out of context.

I answered her challenge in a recent email to her. And others have noted examples of plagiarism. Excerpts from my letter are as follows:

Finding things Coulter takes out of context is as easy as picking up her book of lies and flipping to any page at random.

For one, Coulter writes, "If a Martian landed in America and set out to determine the nation's official state religion, he would have to
conclude it is liberalism, while Christianity and Judaism are prohibited by law." That's not just something taken out of context from U.S. basic laws – nowhere does a law say that Christianity and Judaism are prohibited – it's a downright lie.

And if you want to find instances where Coulter has taken items out of context in past books and columns, that's not hard to do either.

In 2002, then Today Show host Katie Couric said that Coulter took something she said out of context in Coulter's book, "Slander." The show quoted Edmund Morris as calling Ron Reagan an airhead, and Coulter wrote that Couric made the remark. "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," Couric said to Coulter.

Coulter claimed that she didn't do so, and an ugly exchange followed. Coulter claimed Couric blamed the Texas dragging death of James Byrd
by white supremacists on "intolerance created by evangelical Christians," which Couric denied.

Then, Al Franken in his book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," pointed out numerous factual and misleading statements in Slander and other Coulter books, many of which were corrected in later editions.

In a January 2005 column, Coulter took a 1993 column by New York Times writers Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich out of context. Dowd and Rich sarcastically wrote that Bill Clinton's inauguration was "so much fun, is it too much to ask that it go on forever?" Coulter mischaracterized the column as "gush[ing]" over the inauguration, according to Media Matters.

And in a November 2004 column, Coulter quoted former Gore 2000 campaign manager Donna Brazile out of context. Coulter wrote that Brazile said during the 2000 campaign that "she was not going to 'let the white boys win in this election.'" As The Washington Post and Media Matters pointed out, Brazile was speaking about the "white-boy attitude" towards black women in politics.

Coulter went on to slander liberals and blacks by writing, "The closest black woman to most of the liberals accusing Rice of being incompetent is the maid they periodically accuse of stealing from the liquor cabinet."

Then, here are some examples of Coulter apparently plagiarizing, which is just as big an offense as taking items out of context, if not more
so.

This is from the Rude Pundit's site:

"Here's Coulter from Chapter 1 of Godless: The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John
River in Maine, was halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant previously believed to be extinct.

Here's the Portland Press Herald, from the year 2000, in its list of the "Maine Stories of the Century": The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a
$227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River, is halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant believed
to be extinct.

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Coulter's latest book is riddled with plagiarism, items taken out of context

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