Ann Hart Coulter (born December 8, 1961) is an American conservative columnist, political commentator and best-selling author. She frequently appears on television, radio and as a speaker at public and private events. Known for her confrontational style, Coulter has described herself as a “polemicist” who likes to “stir up the pot” and does not pretend to be “impartial or balanced”.
Coulter has been engaged several times, but never married. She has dated Spin publisher Bob Guccione, Jr., and conservative writer Dinesh D’Souza. According to a report published in the New York Post on 10 October 2007, she is presently dating Andrew Stein, the former president of the New York City Council, who is a liberal Democrat. When asked about the relationship, Stein told the paper, “She’s attacked a lot of my friends, but what can I say, opposites attract!”
She owns both a condominium in Manhattan and a house, bought in 2005, in Palm Beach, Florida. Although she says that usually she lives in New York, she votes in Palm Beach and is not registered to do so in New York.She is a fan of the Grateful Dead, and some of her favorite books include The Bible, Wuthering Heights, Anna Karenina, true crime stories about serial killers, and anything by Dave Barry.
Coulter made her first national media appearance after she was hired in 1996 by MSNBC as a legal correspondent. Time said this about her tenure there:
The network dismissed her at least twice: first in February 1997, after she insulted the late Pamela Harriman, the U.S. Ambassador to France, even as the network was covering her somber memorial service…. Even so, the network missed Coulter’s jousting and quickly rehired her.
Eight months later, Coulter’s relationship with MSNBC ended permanently after she tangled with a disabled Vietnam veteran on the air. Robert Muller, co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, asserted that “in 90 percent of the cases that U.S. soldiers got blown up [in Vietnam] — Ann, are you listening? — they were our own mines.” (Muller was misquoting a 1969 Pentagon report that found that 90 percent of the components used in enemy mines came from U.S. duds and refuse.) Coulter averted her eyes and responded sarcastically: “No wonder you guys lost.”
The Washington Post and others misquoted Coulter: “People like you caused us to lose that war.” After MSNBC, she began appearing on CNN and the Fox News Channel.
Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post made a point to respond to the Time article to explain that his widely quoted misreporting of Coulter’s reply to the veteran in an article he wrote had its origin in Coulter’s own later recollection of the incident. Describing his previous story, Kurtz added, “I did note that, according to Coulter, the vet was appearing by satellite, and she didn’t know he was disabled.”
She has made frequent guest appearances on many television and radio talk shows, including The Today Show, Hannity and Colmes, The O’Reilly Factor, American Morning, Crossfire, Real Time with Bill Maher, Politically Incorrect, the fifth estate, The Sean Hannity Show, The Rush Limbaugh Show, and Mike Gallagher.
In 2005, Coulter appeared as one of a three-person judging panel in The Greatest American, a four-part interactive television event for the Discovery Channel hosted by Matt Lauer.Starting with 100 nominees, each week interactive viewer voting eliminated candidates.
Ann Coulter is the author of five New York Times bestsellers —Godless: The Church of Liberalism (June 2006),How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)(October, 2004), Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism (June 2003); Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (June 2002); and High Crimes and Misdemeanors:The Case Against Bill Clinton (August 1998).
Coulter is the legal correspondent for Human Events and writes a popular syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate. She is a frequent guest on many TV shows, including Hannity and Colmes, Wolf Blitzer Reports, At Large With Geraldo Rivera, Scarborough Country, HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, The O’Reilly Factor, Good Morning America and has been profiled in numerous publications, including TV Guide, the Guardian (UK), the New York Observer, National Journal, Harper’s Bazaar, and Elle magazine, among others. She was named one of the top 100 Public Intellectuals by federal judge Richard Posner in 2001.
Coulter clerked for the Honorable Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and was an attorney in the Department of Justice Honors Program for outstanding law school graduates.
After practicing law in private practice in New York City, Coulter worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she handled crime and immigration issues for Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan. From there, she became a litigator with the Center For Individual Rights in Washington, DC, a public interest law firm dedicated to the defense of individual rights with particular emphasis on freedom of speech, civil rights, and the free exercise of religion.
A Connecticut native, Coulter graduated with honors from Cornell University School of Arts & Sciences, and received her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School, where she was an editor of The Michigan Law Review.
REPORTERS WHO ARE ALLOWED TO INTERVIEW ANN AGAIN:
John Cloud, Time Magazine Ms Right
Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian An Appalling Magic
Jamie Glasov of Frontpage Magazine Frontpage Interview: Ann Coulter
Taylor Hill of Jambands.com “Deadheads Are What Liberals Claim to Be But Aren’t”: An Interview with Ann Coulter
Jonathan Pitts of The Baltimore Sun She’s the Hammer; Liberals Her Nail
In 2004, Coulter appeared in three films. The first was Feeding the Beast, which was a made-for-television documentary on the “24-Hour News Revolution”.The other two films were FahrenHYPE 9/11, a direct to video documentary designed to rebut Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911, and Is It True What They Say About Ann?, a documentary on Coulter containing clips of interviews and speeches.
In 2006, Coulter refused permission to include a scene featuring herself and Al Franken in a debate in Connecticut in Franken’s film, Al Franken: God Spoke