Book-banning isn’t the answer

June 17, 2006

No matter how tempting it may be to keep certain books off shelves, this is the wrong way to go.

Commentator [tag]Ann Coulter[/tag]’s incendiary words about outspoken 9/11 widows have led two state lawmakers to calls for a [tag]boycott[/tag] of her new book in the widows’ home state of New Jersey.

Assemblywomen Joan M. Quigley, D-Hudson, and Linda Stender, D-Union, called on New Jerseyans last week to stop buying the book, [tag]Godless[/tag]: [tag]The Church of Liberalism[/tag], and for retailers in the state to stop selling it.

“Coulter’s vicious characterizations and remarks are motivated by greed and her desire to sell books. By making these claims, she proved herself worse than those she is attempting to vilify — she is a leach (sic) trying to turn a profit off perverting the suffering of others,” the two assemblywomen said in a June 8 statement.

Given all the books conservatives have wanted to ban for years, the left should know better than to pursue this.

Update: Just to clarify, I draw a distinction between some of the lawmakers’ request here. If public officials want to encourage the public to reject a hate-monger, that is, of course, fine. If public officials want to call for a public boycott of that hate-monger, that’s fine too. But public officials calling on privately-owned bookstores not to sell a title because they find it offensive is too much. I’d find it wholly unacceptable if conservative lawmakers called on private retailers not to sell a liberal book — just as a criticized Republicans who urged movie theaters not to run Fahrenheit 9/11 — so the same standard has to apply.

To be fair, I think requesting people not to buy Coulter’s book is not equivalent to banning the title. I figure when you ban a book you take it out of public circulation whether it’s in a school, library or bookstore. You deny the public total access to the book.

  • To be fair, I think requesting people not to buy Coulter’s book is not equivalent to banning the title.

    I think that’s right, but the part of the state lawmakers’ efforts that stood out was a call on bookstores not to carry the title. That struck me as qualitatively different from simply asking the public not to buy it.

  • Ann Coulter and Karl Rove are perfect examples of why, when you write monster movies, you keep “killing” the monster and it keeps coming back until you drive a stake through it, blow it up, burn it up, or otherwise make really really really sure you got it this time.

  • I think that’s right, but the part of the state lawmakers’ efforts that stood out was a call on bookstores not to carry the title. That struck me as qualitatively different from simply asking the public not to buy it.

    I agree, but you might consider revising this post to make that more clear. There’s nothing wrong with calling for a consumer boycott (as if liberals need to be told not to buy Ann Coulter’s new book), but calling on book stores not to carry the book does cross the line of propriety and gives Coulter more ammunition for her next venemous diatribe.

  • Reading Andy Coulter is like swallowing poison. With any luck at all your body has lived though such experiences before and will do so again. Best to just ignore her. I think even the knuckle-draggers are getting bored. That’s the nature of shock and smack-down … after a while you either turn away from it or turn to truly lethal doses. Either way, Andy goes off into oblivion. Sooner or later the tantrum just has no effect.

  • Banning anything just adds appeal and ignoring her is dangerous. Love it or hate it, but there are a lot of Christians from both sides of the political divide that take exception to a hatemonger like Ann Coulter:
    .
    a) speaking for them.
    b) slandering, oppressing or explointing “widows and the fatherless” for personal profit. According to the bible, this is the one of the fastest routes to getting on the wrong sides of God. You may laugh, but there are plenty of people out there who have been brought up believing that this is a big big ‘no no’. They won’t dissappoint you.
    c) hijacking their beliefs for personal profit and greed.
    .
    “When facism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” – Sinclair Lewis American Writer, 1885-1951

  • I am troubled that government officials would pressure private sellers, but while I am pretty much a First Amendment absolutist I have no problem with the public pressuring Wal-Mart to not carry Coulter. Indeed, I think this is the only thing that will ever actually do her any harm. And forcing folks like Wal-Mart to consider whether they’d rather sell no books or everyone’s books might be a useful debate to start as well. Liberals cant really lose that debate — either Jon Stewart’s America gets restocked, or Coulter’s gets pulled.

  • I respectfully disagree with you on this. The call upon retailers to not sell it is in no way “bookburning”. The book has been published and exists. There are no bonfires to destroy all copies. Instead, these legislators recognize that Coulter is really trying to make a buck off her hate and pretending that it is purely free speech. If it was about free speech, she would settle for sending out “free” e-mails or distributing free (or at-cost)copies of her book. Coulter is making big bucks off of her hate speech. Retailers who participate in selling it are rewarding her for her hate speech. These legislators are well within reason and respectability to encourage retailers to not sell it.

  • I have to side with Phonatic on this one. It is well within the mandate of a responsible legislator to take appropriate actions in favor of their constituency. But simply calling on shopkeepers to not carry the title is, in my opinion, not enough.

    “Conservatives” have—for decades now—sought to prohibit the publication and distribution of countless titles. They’ve make efforts to deny access to these titles in our public schools, in our public libraries, and in our institutions of higher learning. Perhaps it is time for the “non-conservative” portion of America to stand up and “return the favor—with interest.”

    To begin with, continue to encourage both private citizens and private-sector business concerns to reject not only Coulter’s book, but her entire message. Do to the conservative as “it” would have others do to the non-conservative—and picket those establishments who continue to carry the text. This, by the way, is “protected free expression.” But do not “burn” the books, as this would require either (1) buying the book, or (2) stealing it.

    Add to this an extension of the policy—attend this stupid flake’s public appearances. Occupy as many seats as humanly possible, and then carry on private conversations while she’s speaking. Ignore the daylights out of her. When she screams, just keep carrying on your private conversation. This is a tactic called “isolation.” It denies the speaker the opportunity to “bask in the glow,” so to speak.

    When she speaks on a broadcast signal and the station takes questions, call up and ask really serious questions that have nothing to do with her words. This might be labelled the “Tony Snow” approach.

    Subscribe to various conservative publications a few days before a Coulter event…and when they print a glowing piece about her words, write in and say that you’re cancelling the subscription.

    These are but a few of the many options available to defeating the conservative. If their message starts to become cost-prohibitive, then the various media-sources will have no alternative but to begin looking for its own “exit strategy” from the conservative bandwagon….

  • Thanks for the back-up, Steve! And your additional suggestions are great!

    I was at work on Thursday when several coworkers started discussing and complaining about Coulter’s appearance on Leno. While they disagreed with her and found her comments disgusting, I pointed out that they were actually promoting her by feeding into and reacting to her effort to create controversy. I was rather sharp with them, but they all profess to be liberals and progressives. So I told them that the appropriate action to take was to make complaints to the TV station, the Leno show, and Leno show advertisers. Just shut her down, I kept saying.

    This woman’s actions are dangerous and inflammatory. They make Tom DeLay and other rightwingers look respectable and mild-mannered in his comments. This is not just a Madonna or Judy Tenuta being shocking or controversial for entertainment purposes. This woman is propounding HATE, and we are subsidizing it by allowing it to flourish in the marketplace without any challenge. I beseech all of us to stop enabling her.

  • I do not believe it is a bad thing for legislator’s to call for the non-sale of a book that is offensive and hateful. I also do not think that is beyond their call to ask others to boycott the book. After all before they are legislator’s they are people to. They are mothers, fathers, sons & daughters. They have opinions too that can & should be expressed. Where they get in trouble and cross the line is when they try to legislate that opinion. That would certainly cross the line. It is hard for liberal because liberals are intellectual enough to understand the rights of others to be themselves even when it is foul, dirty, unattractive, mean, ugly, disgusting, and evil. This is why the conservatives seem to be winning some recent political battles, even though they are few in actual numbers. This is because they all see life as good & evil – black & white….period. They speak with one mean and loud voice…they have one God….who is the one and only. Liberals are of many folds so we are fractured and we are unable to get down and dirty with these…………………..well……..morons! In the end it is our nature to stay above it all even when it is painful, even when it would be easier just to knock the hell out of them…..we are better than that and in the end we will win. After all we have won all the other battles like apportion rights, civil rights, women’s rights, labor rights, and the list goes on and on.

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