The plot of tonight’s (Friday) Law & Order on NBC will revolve around a “right-wing” character who is clearly inspired by Ann Coulter and who brags about having a drink with “Rush.” In a 20 second promo aired this week for the February 2 episode that will air at 10pm EST/PST, the announcer touts how “a controversial speaker causes a campus shooting.” A detective calls the Coulter character “a real pain in the a[ss]-" before the promo cuts to a scene of her excusing herself from the DA's office: “I've got drinks with Rush.”

The Coulter character is played by a beautiful blonde, though huskier than the real Coulter, actress Charlotte Ross. She is probably best-known for playing “Detective Connie McDowell” on ABC’s NYPD Blue. (IMDb's page on Ross.) Yahoo posted this plot summary: “Someone in a crowd fires a gun, killing a student, during a question-and-answer session of a controversial speaker.” TV Guide.com offered a fuller rundown with the political edge: “A student is shot at a politically charged college assembly and the investigation leads to a Ph.D. student dealing in embryonic stem-cell research who feels threatened by the tactics of the assembly speaker (Charlotte Ross) -- a right-wing conservative.”

Video of the promo spot (20 seconds): Real (650 KB) or Windows Media (775 KB), plus MP3 audio (125 KB)

Yahoo's TV section has a 1:15 Flash video excerpt from the show. From Yahoo's page for Law & Order, on the right, click on “A Blonde Bombshell Likes 'Law & Order' Ed.” That's presumably a reference to her crush on “Detective Ed Green,” played by Jesse Martin.

Of course, Law & Order often delivers plot twists which take the storyline away from the suspect featured in promos and as the show initially unfolds, so it's possible the Coulter character won't, in the end, be who motivated or caused the shooting.

(The MRC's Karen Hanna, who is inexplicably abandoning the MRC next week for other employment, first alerted me to the Coulter-themed episode.)

This would not be the first slam at Coulter this week on an NBC drama series. As Noel Sheppard recounted in a Monday NewsBusters item, on Sunday’s Crossing Jordan, a program centered around a crime-solving coroner in Boston, she was castigated by name. In the midst of a race riot, as “Dr. Nigel Townsend” (played by Steve Valentine) attended to a whiny blonde woman, he asked:

“So, how long have you suffered from ‘ACS?’” She gave him a blank stare and so he explained: “Ann Coulter Syndrome, wherein the afflicted gains strength through the hatred of others.” She answered in a voice clearly designed to somewhat sound like Coulter: “Niceness is overrated. I never saw the point. It’s all based on lies anyway. ‘How are you?’ ‘Have a nice weekend.’ The truth is I don’t give a crap how you are or what kind of a weekend you have.”

And back on May 25, 2005, the season finale of Law & Order’s sister show, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, portrayed then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay as a hero to white supremacist gun nuts suspected of murdering two judges, one of them black, and who had expressed the view that the white woman judge who was murdered was a "race traitor" who raised her family in the "Zionist enclave of Riverdale."

When the ballistics on the bullet which killed the black judge showed it was fired by the same rifle which was used to kill the white judge, New York City Police Department "Detective Alexandra Eames" suggested to her fellow detectives and an Assistant District Attorney: "Maybe we should put out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt." Another detective then presented evidence the shooter came from the West, prompting Eames to point out: "Home of a lot of white supremacist groups."

For a full transcript of the scene, MP3 audio as well as Real and Windows Media video, check the May 26, 2005 MRC CyberAlert.

Back to Friday’s Law & Order, a transcript of the promo spot aired during Tuesday’s Law & Order: SVU:

Announcer: “Friday, a controversial speaker-”

Ann Coulter character in a chair and holding glass of wine: “People love me.”

Announcer over video of man tumbling down steps of auditorium: “-causes a campus shooting.”

“Detective Ed Green,” played by Jesse Martin: “You just became a real pain in the a-”

Announcer: “If you like Law & Order surprises-”

Coulter character in the DA’s office, holding cell phone: “I’ve got drinks with Rush.”

Announcer: “-wait for the trial.”

Executive Assistant District Attorney “Jack McCoy,” played by Sam Waterston: “Let’s not pretend we don’t know what’s going on.”

Announcer: “All new Law & Order. Friday on NBC.”

For those who have missed the first 17 seasons of Law & Order, the show is about New York City detectives solving a crime and then the prosecutors who go to trial.

—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center