Bloggasm

Most journalists are contacted by nutballs on a regular basis. You’ll be sitting at your desk working on an article when your phone rings and the person on the other end tries to feed you the most filthy slime available with the hopes that you’ll write a story about it. Just the other week, I received a bizarre call from a professional body builder who’s suing both Pat Robertson and Jon Stewart (don’t ask, long story). He also happened to be suing a political candidate I had written a story on (that’s how the guy knew to contact me). Naturally, he wanted me to write a scathing article on the candidate and use him (the bodybuilder) as the source.

I gave the crazy guy lip service and promised to look into it and then hung up the phone with no intention of doing so. Because that’s what most journalists do with nutballs: we ignore them.

But every now and then one of these people somehow rises through the ether and gets covered by journalists for pretty much the sole reason that he or she is a nutball. Ann Coulter is, to me, the most notable example of this. Coulter receives media coverage almost entirely because she says hateful, controversial things. It can be argued that nearly all her income is the result of the free media coverage she gets when she says something crazy.

I mean, can anyone argue that she adds anything meaningful to political discussion? Just look at the title of her books; they’re becoming increasingly unimaginative in their antagonism. If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans, the title of her most recent book, is so bland that it could only cause the deepest apathy when I see it. She’s not even trying to pretend that she wants to be taken seriously anymore.

I’m not the first journalist to point out that Coulter thrives on free media coverage. And I’m not the first journalist to appreciate the irony that we give her free media coverage when we publish articles complaining about her free media coverage. It’s a win win situation for her.

This is why I have made it a New Year’s resolution to never mention Ann Coulter again. Starting on Jan. 1, 2008, you’ll will never see her name on this blog. Nor will I ever write about her in any future articles. I don’t care what batshit crazy thing she says — no matter how badly I want to take the time to easily debunk her, I’ll refrain from doing so.

I’m hoping other bloggers and journalists will join me in this endeavor. If we can cut down on her media coverage considerably, then she will receive less free promotion for her books and columns. She will just be another nutball starving for attention.

So will you join me?

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