Ted Rall Needs Our Help - UPDATE

[evilkumquat]

From Ted Rall's Blog:

I Will Sue Coulter, But I Need Your Help

Editor & Publisher has an update on right-wing author, syndicated columnist and frequent Fox News guest Ann Coulter's campaign to equate my opposition to George W. Bush with anti-Semitism:

Some highlights:

Ann Coulter, in Her New Column, Repeats Holocaust Jab At 'NYT' and Rall
By Dave Astor
Published: February 16, 2006 4:30 PM ET

NEW YORK—In her latest print column, Ann Coulter repeats the verbal statement that caused much discussion in the blogosphere during the past week and drew a threat by editorial cartoonist Ted Rall to take her to court.

Coulter, a Universal Press Syndicate columnist, had said last Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.: "Iran is soliciting cartoons on the Holocaust. So far, only Ted Rall, Garry Trudeau, and The New York Times have made submissions."

In her latest column, posted today on AnnCoulter.com, Coulter writes that one "Iranian newspaper is soliciting cartoons about the Holocaust. (So far the only submissions have come from Ted Rall, Garry Trudeau, and The New York Times.)"

http://www.tedrall.com/rants.html



I am taking a risk creating this post, as a similar post already exists in this forum, but I feel the nature of this one is different enough from the existing one to merit its own thread.

The earlier post referenced Ted Rall toying with the idea of suing Ann Coulter for slander if he received enough pledges for support; this new thread focuses on the fact that not only has Ted received enough pledges, but also the nature of the suit has changed since Coulter has now REPEATED her earlier slander IN PRINT, making the potential suit a LIBEL suit which could be easier to pursue.

Ted is now asking for more pledges, but more than that, he is asking for the blog community to step up to the plate by publicizing his case. The more liberals and progressives read of his situation, the more pledges he should receive.

I find it disheartening to read several posts in the other thread about how Ted has no chance in winning his case, that he is a public figure and such comments are covered by the First Amendment, as well as attacks on his character (usually focusing on the Tillman cartoon). This bugs me because so many posts in the forums focus on how liberals, progressives and Democrats need to start fighting back against Neocon and Republican attacks, to grow backbones, to fight fire with fire.

Well, here we have a guy willing to do that against one of the Right-Wing's most vocal and vitriolic demagogues, and yet we get all these posts impugning his character rather than rallying behind him with our support.

As a medium-long time reader of Ted Rall (I have seen some of his pre-Bush cartoons and columns, but I never really started reading him regularly until the 2000 fiasco) I have found his cartoons and columns to be fair as well as extremely pointed. He is unafraid to call bullshit by its name, rather than sugarcoat it (and who wants to eat sweetened cow patties anyway?). Because of this, many people are turned off, thinking him "mean" or a "bully". Ted is neither. He just gets to the frigging point and tells things like they are.

And unlike Coulter, Maltin, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, et al, when Ted is presented with evidence that an earlier statement of his may have been in error or poorly written, his character is strong enough to admit to his fault, instead of impugning the character of the messenger.

Ted Rall should be the poster child of the Democratic Party (or at least, to those who want to bring about real and dramatic changes to the party). It pains me to see him ignored or shunted aside by the mainstream liberal or progressive blogs and readers.

Evil Kumquat

PS. To those who assume that the case would be hopeless because Ted is a "public figure"; if that were the case, then no celebrity would ever win a libel suit against a tabloid newspaper, and yet tabloids are sued and beaten all the time.

[doubleplusgood]

1. not LBN

should be in General Discussion or elsewhere

[KoKo]

2. I agree with this...and think that it's time someone stood up against the

Malkins and Coulters and the rest.

I think this might be moved from LBN...so you might want to repost it so that you don't get a link that says moved.

It's too important to be missed.

[displacedtexan]

3. I featured this in today's DU Blog Box column...

on the Homepage, above the virtual fold.

If more people stood up to the Coulters of this world, we could stop these monsters.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

4. I was under the impression

(could easily be wrong) that parody and satire were outside the statute, hence shows like Saturday Night Live getting away with what they get away with.

I like Ted Rall. I don't always agree with him, but he actually answers his own email and I've had an nice conversation with him.

Passionate man.