Ann Coulter: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:08, 11 April 2006

Revision as of 20:10, 11 April 2006

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==Personal background==

Ann Coulter was born in [[New York City]] into a [[Catholic]] family that she has described as "[[upper middle class]]". She was born on December 8, 1961 according to the [[New Canaan, Connecticut|New Canaan]] voting registration office.Coulter has two older brothers. As a lawyer, her father, John V. Coulter, represented clients in opposition to [[labor unions]]; he later became a [[constable]]. Her mother, Nell M. Coulter, is a member of the New Canaan Republican Town Committee. (Cloud, 2005) Ann Coulter attributes her conservative opinions and acerbic rhetorical style to her upbringing in [[Connecticut]].

As aan bitchundergraduate in [[Cornell University]]'s College of Arts and Sciences, Coulter helped launch a conservative newspaper, The ''[[Cornell Review]]'', with funding from [[Richard Mellon Scaife]]'s [[Collegiate Network]]. She graduated [[cum laude]] from Cornell in [[1984]], and received her [[Juris Doctor|J.D.]] from the [[University of Michigan]] Law School, where she achieved membership in the [[Order of the Coif]] and was an editor of ''The Michigan Law Review''. While in Law School, Coulter was often seen wearing a fur coat to class, even in temperate weather. This was perceived by many fellow students as a political statement directed at her more liberal "[[PETA]] loving" classmates.

At law school, Coulter shared an apartment with [[human rights|human]] and [[civil rights]] advocate [[Cindy Cohn]], who is now the Legal Director for the [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]]. At Michigan, Coulter founded a local chapter of the [[Federalist Society]] and was trained at the National Journalism Center.[http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Journalism_Center] Coulter practiced [[corporate law]] for four years, then became a [[Congress of the United States|congressional]] aide in [[Washington, D. C.]] in [[1994]], to Republican Senator [[Spencer Abraham]], who served on the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]].

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In [[1996]], the fledgling television network [[MSNBC]] hired Coulter as a legal correspondent and [[pundit (politics)|political pundit]], launching her media career. Though she was allowed to make many partisan and controversial comments as a panelist, she was fired in [[1997]] after an exchange with [[Bobby Muller]], president of the [[Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation]], in which she said, "No wonder you guys lost" ([[MSNBC]]'s ''NewsChat'', October 11, 1997).

Coulter was contributing editor and syndicated columnist at the ''[[National Review Online]]'' (NRO) when she was asked by the editors to make changes to a piece written in 2001 directly after the [[September 11 attacks]] in which her friend [[Barbara Olsen]] had been killed. Coulter went on the national television show ''[[Politically Incorrect]]'' accusing ''NRO'' of [[censorship]] and claiming her pay was only five dollars per article (accounts of Coulter and the website differ over which piece was in dispute. [Coulter, July 2002, "Donahue"]). ''[[National Review Online]]'' then dropped her column and terminated her editorship. Despite media reports to the contrary, [[Jonah Goldberg]], editor-at-large of NRO said, "We did not 'fire' Ann for what she wrote.... We ended the relationship because she behaved likewith a hookertotal lack of professionalism, friendship, and loyalty." (Goldberg, 2001)

Coulter was contracted by ''[[USA Today]]'' to cover the [[2004 Democratic National Convention]], but was replaced by Goldberg of ''NRO'' after a "disagreement over editing" (Memmot, 2004). Her one article from the convention began "Here at the Spawn of [[Satan]] convention in [[Boston]]", and referred to some (unspecified) female attendees as "[[corn-fed]], no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant [[hippie]] chick pie wagons." The newspaper did not print the article, but Coulter published it on her website. (Coulter, [[July 2004|July]] [[2004]])