CNN Displaying Irony: Plays Clip of Bill Maher Grilling Ann Coulter

As previously reported by Newsbusters here and here, the mainstream media highlighted Ann Coulter’s "faggot" remark, yet ignored Bill Maher’s implication that the vice president’s assassination would be a good thing. On the March 5 edition of CNN Newsroom, Rick Sanchez, in reporting on Ann Coulter and spiking the Maher story, unintentionally inserted some irony into the story.

When playing many of Ann Coulter’s controversial statements, CNN ran a sound bite of Bill Maher grilling Ann Coulter on the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination. CNN not only displayed its bias, but its lack of a sense of irony. The transcript, with Coulter/Maher exchange in bold, is below.

NGUYEN: "All right. If you can't say anything nice, you might have something in common with Ann Coulter. Even Coulter's fellow conservatives say she was out of line for resorting to a locker room slur against a Democratic candidate for president. CNN's Rick Sanchez has the story."

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "Say what you want about her, she's loud, she's opinionated."

ANN COULTER: "I don't know, I think Democrats have hit on the perfect candidate."

SANCHEZ: "She seeks attention, calls people childish names, ticks people off. And you know what, she'd agree with you -- nobody is so, well, Ann Coulter as Ann Coulter."

COULTER: "Gore and Hollywood are now telling us..."

SANCHEZ: "But with her latest anti-liberal tirade, she took outrageous, some say downright hateful, to a new depth."

COULTER: "It turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word faggot, so I'm -- so I’m kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here."

SANCHEZ: "But it's hardly the conclusion. More reaction from Congress and from the man insulted, all who think the best comeback is no comeback at all."

JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRES. CANDIDATE: "I think it's important that we not reward hateful, selfish, childish behavior with attention."

REP. PETE HOEKSTRA (R), MICHIGAN: "We really need to stay focused on, on the issues and not make this personal."

SEN. DIANE FEINSTEIN (D) CALIFORNIA: " Oh I'm not a fan of that kind of rhetoric, and I really don't want to get into it."

SANCHEZ: "But Ann Coulter gets into it all the time, and nobody, it seems, is exempt, not even 9/11 widows. This is from one of her books: ‘I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much.’ She goes after former ambassadors."
COULTER: "He’s literally the man at our embassies who made sure the plumbing was working."

SANCHEZ: "Even presidential appointment catch her wrath."

COULTER: "She's not qualified for position. This isn't like, you know, best employee of the month."

BILL MAHER: "But you didn't make that objection with every other of George Bush's appointments."

COULTER: "It never occurred to us that he'd nominate, as you say, the cleaning lady. We thought this was clear."

SANCHEZ: "Edwards actually posted Coulter's f-word diatribe about him on his Web site, uncensored soliciting campaign dollars, so-called ‘Coulter cash,’ hoping to turn the incident in his favor. Rick Sanchez, CNN, Atlanta."