Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

an editorial on Thomas titled, "The Youngest, Cruelest Justice." That was actually the headline
on a lead editorial in the Newspaper of Record. Thomas is not engaged on the substance
of his judicial philosophy. He is called a "colored lawn jockey for conservative white interests,"
"race traitor," "black snake," "chicken-and-biscuit-eating Uncle Tom," 39 "house Negro"
and "handkerchief head," "Benedict Arnold" 40 and "Judas Iscariot." 41 All this from the tireless
opponents of intolerance.
Okay. What percentage of Coulter's readers do you suppose read this and thought,
"My God! The New York Times called Clarence Thomas `a chicken-and-biscuit-eating Uncle
Tom'! I knew the Times was bad, but I never dreamed it was this bad!"? High nineties? And
what percentage do you think bothered to go to the back of her book and wade through the
endnotes to discover that the quotes came from a Playboy interview with former Surgeon
General Joycelyn Elders and from a black leader at a meeting of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference who was quoted in The New Yorker.
The key here, of course, is the sleight of hand—"... editorial in the Newspaper of Record.
Thomas is not engaged..."—that deliberately leads gullible readers to the conclusion
that the Times called Clarence Thomas "a colored lawn jockey." This should tell us a couple
things about Ann Coulter. First, she's dishonest. No surprise there. But more importantly, it
shows the contempt she holds for her own readers.
HOW TO LIE WITH FOOTNOTES #3:
• CITE A SOURCE, BUT TOTALLY MISREPRESENT WHAT IT SAYS
She really works this one into the ground. Early in the book she writes: "New York
Times columnist Frank Rich demanded that Ashcroft stop monkeying around with Muslim
terrorists and concentrate on anti-abortion extremists." Except he didn't. In the column, written
during the anthrax scare, Rich simply criticized Ashcroft's refusal to meet with Planned
Parenthood, which has had years of experience with terrorism in the form of bombings and
sniper attacks from pro-life extremists. The piece doesn't include the words "monkeying" or
"Islamic" or "Muslim," or make any suggestion that Justice abandon its efforts against al
Qaeda.
Coulter pulls this wild distortion, like so very, very many, directly out of her ass.
Just another quick one. On page 118 (by the way, when you see Coulter on TV, interviewers
never ask her about anything past page 12. You've got to give me credit for being