April 11, 2013

Fox News | Huffington Post | AnnCoulter.com | New York

Fox News has apparently taken down a column written by Ann Coulter that made a reference to killing blogger Meghan McCain in order to push Republicans to vote for gun-control laws.

The column in question, published on Fox Nation Wednesday, made the apparent joke to point out what it would take for Republicans to join Democrats in passing gun-control legislation. The post, which is still available on Coulter’s own blog, began:

Obama has been draping himself in families of the children murdered in Newtown.

MSNBC’s Martin Bashir suggested that Republican senators need to have a member of their families killed for them to support the Democrats’ gun proposals. (Let’s start with Meghan McCain!)


As The Huffington Post noted, New York magazine’s Adam Martin pointed out early Thursday that that’s not really what Bashir said.

The excerpt published on Fox came from a longer post on Coulter’s own blog referencing a segment with Martin Bashir on MSNBC in which Bashir spoke to Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, about Republicans’ plan to filibuster a gun control bill. Cummings’s nephew was shot and killed in a 2011 murder that has gone unsolved, and he was making the point to Bashir that violence can touch anyone. Coulter, like others in the fringe right-wing media, only paid attention to this part though:

“But Congressman,” Bashir said, “is that what needs to happen to move these senators to stop threatening a filibuster? Is that really what needs to happen? That you need to have a member of your family killed in order for you to do what the American people want you to do?”

“I hope not,” Rep. Cummings replied. “I don’t wish this pain on anybody.”

Meghan McCain was not at all pleased with Coulter’s comments, taking to Twitter late Wednesday:

 

She continued to address the matter on Thursday:

 

 

 

McCain suggested people check out her mother Cindy McCain’s Twitter feed to see “how mad my amazing mom gets when Ann Coulter makes killing jokes.”

 

Fox News last May removed an Oliver North column that was found to contain uncredited passages from NYU journalism professor Michael Norman’s memoir.

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Joshua Gillin is a contributor to Poynter's MediaWire blog and a writer, editor and pop culture blogger for the Tampa Bay Times and its sister…
Joshua Gillin

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