Ann Coulter: Encyclopedia II - Ann Coulter - Personal background

Ann Coulter - Personal background

Ann Coulter was born in New York City into a Catholic family that she has described as "upper middle class". She was born on December 8, 1961 according to the New Canaan voting registration office, although she sometimes states that the year is 1963. She attributes her conservative opinions and her acerbic rhetorical style to her upbringing in Connecticut. She has two elder brothers. Her father, John V. Coulter, was a lawyer, known for his legal work in cases against labor unions; he later became a constable. Her mother, Nell M. Coulter, is a member of the New Canaan Republican Town Committee. (Cloud, 2005)

As an undergraduate in Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences, Ann Coulter helped to launch a conservative newspaper, The Cornell Review, with funding provided by the Institute for Educational Affairs' Collegiate Network. She graduated cum laude from Cornell in 1984, and went on to receive her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where she achieved membership in the Order of the Coif and was an articles editor of The Michigan Law Review. While in Law School, Coulter was often seen wearing a fur coat to class, even in temperate weather. This was perceived by many fellow students as a political statement directed at her more liberal "PETA loving" classmates, or, possibly, as an ostentatious show of wealth.

At law school, Coulter shared an apartment with human and civil rights advocate Cindy Cohn, who is now the Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. At Michigan, she founded a local chapter of the Federalist Society. She also received training at the National Journalism Center. After practicing corporate law for four years, she became a congressional aide in Washington, D. C. in 1994, working as a staffer to Republican Senator Spencer Abraham, who served on the Senate Judiciary Committee before working for a public interest law firm.

When asked if she is a fundamentalist Christian, Coulter told interviewer David Bowman, "I don't think I've described myself that way, but only because I'm from Connecticut. We just won't call ourselves that" (2003). Though she seldom argues from a religious point of view, Coulter has commented on leaders The New York Times has labeled the "religious right", stating that Jerry Falwell's support was overrated and that Pat Robertson is ineffective and not conservative. (Slander, ch. 9) She commonly supports the positions of other Christian conservatives — although she argues that such a term often constitutes a "liberal slur".

Ann Coulter - Communication style

Coulter gained prominence in the field of conservative commentators with her brand of outspoken criticism of many liberal and Democratic Party figures and policies over the past half-century. She quickly established a reputation as a controversial and colorful speaker, and indeed has relished this role (Coulter, August 2002). As she told The Sunday Times in 2002, "I am a polemicist. I am perfectly frank about that. I like to stir up the pot. I don't pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do."

Some have disagreed with her "shoot-from-the-hip" style of commentary. They claim it makes her reckless with facts. For example, in a January 2005 interview with the CBC's the fifth estate, Coulter stated, "Canada used to be one of our most loyal friends and vice-versa. I mean Canada sent troops to Vietnam - was Vietnam less containable and more of a threat than Saddam Hussein?" She was countered by host Bob McKeown who said, "No, actually, Canada didn't send troops to Vietnam... Australia was there, not Canada" (video of the interview). In a subsequent interview on C-SPAN, Coulter stated that while Canada did not send combat troops to Vietnam, thousands of Canadians had volunteered for the US military:

Despite Coulter's mea culpa, columnist John Cloud stated in a Time Magazine article dated April 25, 2005, that, "Canada did send noncombat troops to Indochina in the 1950s and again to Vietnam in 1972". (Canada sent officials to Vietnam in 1954 and 1973, as observers with the International Commission for Control and Supervision). Media watchdog FAIR disputes this assertion, however, saying that Cloud was "making quite a stretch" to prove that Coulter wasn't inaccurate. They explain: "Canada was officially neutral during the Vietnam War, so if any noncombat troops were sent [...] they would not have been sent to support U.S. forces there". [2]

Coulter has said she likes to read anything written by humorist Dave Barry (Coulter, January 2004).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Personal background", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki