The reason people on the left on line can’t debate without the use of logical fallacies, is that they NEVER see examples of how to discuss/debate without them. Certainly the main stream media does poorly in showing how to debate and discuss without using them. Last week’s visit by Ann Coulter to The View was a classic example!
Ms. Coulter is a right-wing conservative commentator who takes regular shots at the left during her speeches, radio and television appearances and her in her books. She is the queen of the ad hominem attacks. But aside from that her argumentation and research is top notch.
So it’s probably not surprising that when Coulter appears on a liberal show like The View, the laidies have all of their defenses up and have prepared for a rousing offense! I think that’s a reasonable reaction to Coulter’s brusk style. I’ll give them that. However, I was disappointed to see that instead of trying to discuss some of the points in Coulter’s book, they choose to dance with strawmen of their own making instead.
One of Coulter’s main points in her new book Guilty: Liberal 
But Whooppee Goldburg and her girls don’t discuss that. Instead they chastize Coulter for dumping on single moms. Here are my impressions of that discussion.
1. Joy Behar should never play poker. She can’t hide her feelings or be gracious towards anyone that she has disagreements with. Ann Coulter was a guest on her show. That’s a lot like having a guest in your home and an ounce of graciousness goes a long way. Behar looks like she has something sour in her mouth right from the start.
2. Whoopee disputes the research and tries to poison the well on Coulter’s numbers, but she doesn’t site any of her own studies or reports. If she was going to put that out there, she should have backed it up. That’s part of show prep.
3. I could have smacked Elisabeth Hasselbeck. She finally has a strong conservative on her show and instead of enjoing her day with reinforcements, she joins the rest of the View gals in attacking Coulter. Yea, it’s a valid point that the way young men sire children and then leave them in this culture should be disparaged as well, but that doen’t address or change Coulter’s main point that single-parent families with kids raised by single moms is bad for kids. Coulter handles that brilliantly.
4. Coulter’s marital status or not having kids has NOTHING TO DO with the statistics in her book. Coulter isn’t saying that trying to raise kids alone isn’t easy. But what she is saying is that if you look at the statistics, it doesn’t seem to be working out very well!
5. “Wanting” kids has nothing to do with the statistics in the book. I may want to use a tanning bed three times a week. That doesn’t change the statistics that doing so raises my risks of getting skin cancer.
6. Right after Barbara Walter’s speaks, about 4 minutes into the talk, it becomes a free for all. I wish television moderators would understand that for folks watching discussions on t.v. it is very hard to understand what anyone says if everyone starts talking all at once! Walter’s either couldn’t or wouldn’t try to pull this discussion back. Everyone jumped on Coulter, the audience applauds, but I barely made out what anyone else was saying.
7. Sherry Shepherd… is probably a closet blogger, because her criticism reminds me so much of the stuff I have had said to me here and on other blogs when I have made simple statements of fact. Coulter’s facts point out that single- mom households are not proving to be good for children. That truth of that fact statement holds true whether or not Coulter says it with compassion, whether or not Coulter talks to young single moms about how hard it is to raise kids alone, or whether or not Coulter tries to encourage women not to get pregnant. Shepherd says she’s part of the problem but I agree with Coulter that part of solving the problem is pointing out that… IT’S A PROBLEM!! Again Coulter handles herself well. Ignoring the problem has only made it worse. Very good comeback.
8. Joy Behar hates everything conservative/Republican. She hates George Bush passionately and she has been viscious in attacking Sarah Palin. It was stunning then that she should bring Sarah Palin out of her pile of strawmen into this discussion!
About 6 minutes into the discussion the topic changes to Obama identifying more with his black father than his white mother, Mein Kempf and then there’s something in the end about President Kennedy’s infidelity and whether or not his daughter Caroline should fill the senate seat. It’s a mess but I guess when you only have limited time on t.v. they were trying to pack it all in before the end of the segment. It was a little more than this t.v. viewer could take at one time though.
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