I post regularly on the usenet newsgroup rec.gambling.poker (RGP) as Wilhelm Kuhlmann, AKA Ramashiva. Although RGP is a poker newsgroup, there is quite a bit of off-topic political discussion, which can get quite heated and interesting, since RGP is completely unmoderated and uncensored, and the entire political spectrum is well represented.
I have started two new threads on RGP related to the Time cover story on Ann Coulter. You can read my first post here --
OT: Ann Coulter puts the cunt in country
Three days later, I made a second post about the war of words that had erupted between Eric Alterman, David Brock, and John Cloud, the author of the Time artice "Ms. Right".
Here is an abbreviated version of my second post --
OT: War of words over Coulter article in Time
Predictably, a war of words has erupted on the internet over the Time magazine article "Ms. Right", a profile of Ann Coulter written by "journalist" John Cloud. Mr. Cloud's article, which is a cunnilingual whitewash masquerading as journalism, ignores the brutal reality that Coulter is a pathological liar, a hatemonger, a McCarthyite, and a purveyor of eliminationist rhetoric against liberals, Muslims, and the Clintons. In the face of a mountain of evidence to the contrary, Cloud claims that Coulter really doesn't lie very much -- he had trouble finding any actual errors by Coulter. LMFAO!!! Cloud also claims that Coulter is just joking around when she says all liberals are traitors, or when she advocates the killing of liberals, liberal journalists, Muslims, and the Clintons.
The really big liberal guns on the internet have spoken up to set the record straight about Coulter, and to critique and deconstruct Cloud's hagiography of Saint Ann. First Eric Alterman, on his blog Altercation, blasts Cloud and Coulter with both barrels. Alterman quotes David Brock's Media Matters. Then Cloud fires back in an interview with Columbia Journalism Review in which he attacks both Alterman and Brock. Naturally, both Alterman and Brock respond in kind. The results are not pretty. Cloud is way out of his depth in tangling with Alterman and Brock. Cloud is at further disadvantage because both Alterman and Brock have known Coulter for many years and have had many dealings with the She Wolf of the SS. They both know for a fact that Coulter is not the sweet, innocent, misunderstood angel that Cloud would have us believe she is. Here is how the conversation has gone so far --
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7545644/#050419
http://www.cjrdaily.org/archives/001458.asp
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7545644/#050421
http://mediamatters.org/items/200504200008
Wilhelm Kuhlmann (ramashiva)
Which finally brings me to the subject of this diary. In response to my second post, I received a reply from a poster calling himself TennLawyer, who claimed to be John Cloud's older brother Jay. I responded to TennLawyer's post, and received a second reply from him.
Before I get to that posting interchange, let me just say I have done some due diligence to verify that TennLawyer really is Jay Cloud, John Cloud's older brother. Since he called himself TennLawyer, I gathered that he is an attorney in Tennessee. I went to the website of the Tennessee Bar Association and searched their member directory. I found that there was indeed an attorney by the name of Jay Cloud in Nashville. An office number was listed, so I called and left a message for Jay Cloud. Within minutes, Jay called me back and confirmed that he was indeed John Cloud's brother, and that he had made the posts on RGP as TennLawyer.
Here is how my conversation with Jay went. In response to my post quoted above, Jay wrote --
Wilhelm,
John is more than holding his own with both Alterman and Brock. There is more to come I am sure. Thank you for keeping this story alive. John is thrilled with all of the PR. Of course, I am John's brother and am biased (and a poker player that lurks in RGP quite often). Also, thank you for not personally attacking him as others on your side (and John's ironically) have done in the last 3 days.
The story is fair. Her side hated it and your side hated it. A sure sign of fairness.
The story was a profile. You know more about Ms. Coulter now than you did before the story, which was the whole point. I am pretty sure you would have hated the story even if John had spent 5000 words on riduculing Coulter at every turn. I told him before it ran, the left would go crazy just b/c of the cover. Of course, Micheal Moore was on the cover during an election cycle last year and the left wing attack machine was very quiet.
If you research John's work over the last 10 years, you will find an unbiased writer/reporter trying to give the public all sides in hisstories.
Jay Cloud
To which I responded --
"TennLawyer" <hogs115@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1114115929.751622.297450@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Wilhelm,
>
> John is more than holding his own with both Alterman and Brock.
That is not my perspective. In my opinion, Brock's and Alterman's replies to John's CJR interview are devastating.
> There is more to come I am sure.
> Thank you for keeping this story alive.
> John is thrilled with all of the PR. Of course, I am John's brother
> and am biased (and a poker player that lurks in RGP quite often).
Wow, you have a track to inside information on this story. Far out. Please continue to participate in the discussion and keep us updated on any inside information you have. What would really be far out would be if you could get John to give us an RGP exclusive on his perspective on his article and the surrounding controversy. No one knows how many people read RGP, but I suspect the readership is in the tens of thousands. It is the only usenet newsgroup covering poker, and it has a worldwide audience. If John posted here, I guarantee you his post would get discussed all over the internet, and RGP would get a lot of free publicity in the process.
> Also, thank you for not personally attacking him as others on your side
> (and John's ironically) have done in the last 3 days.
Well, I did put the word "journalist" in quotes and referred to his article as a "cunnilingual whitewash". As far as I am concerned, the issue is not John. The issue is not even Ann Coulter. The issue is that a major news magazine could publish a long profile of such a controversial figure, create the impression that she really doesn't lie very much, suggest that all her hate speech and eliminationist rhetoric is just joking around, and give such short shrift to her critics.
> The story is fair. Her side hated it and your side hated it. A sure
> sign of fairness.
I disagree that the story was fair. I also disagree that her side hated it. From what I have seen, conservatives are mostly upset because they think the cover photograph is unflattering.
> The story was a profile. You know more about Ms. Coulter now than you
> did before the story, which was the whole point. I am pretty sure you
> would have hated the story even if John had spent 5000 words on
> riduculing Coulter at every turn.
No, if John had devoted a significant part of the story to documenting her many lies and her hate speech, using resources like www.dailyhowler.com and www.mediamatters.org, I would have loved the story.
> I told him before it ran, the left would go crazy just b/c of the cover.
Actually, it is the right who are pissed off about the cover.
> Of course, Micheal Moore was on
> the cover during an election cycle last year and the left wing attack
> machine was very quiet.
The difference is that Michael Moore was big news when he appeared on the cover. Discussion of Fahrenheit 9/11 was extensive in both print and electronic media. It is, by definition, big news when an Oscar-winning producer makes a two-hour documentary which is one long polemical attack of a sitting President running for reelection in an election year. With limited theatrical release, the film hit number one at the box office and grossed something like $140 million. That is unprecedented for a documentary film.
Ann Coulter, in contrast, was not news at all until Time put her on the cover. There was no widespread discussion or coverage of her in the news media. She was, in fact, a D-list celebrity -- author, columnist, and Faux News analyst. I seriously doubt that many people outside of right-wing nutcases and activist liberals had even heard of her before Time put her on the cover.
> If you research John's work over the last 10 years, you will find an
> unbiased writer/reporter trying to give the public all sides in his stories.
I had never heard of John until this story broke. I certainly do not agree that he gave the public all sides of the story in his article "Ms. Right".
Wilhelm Kuhlmann (ramashiva)
To which Jay responded --
Well - you have heard of him now, which is good as I think you are a pretty smart guy and would probably get along great with John based on the posts of yours I have seen here.
I always wondered why you posted off topic here so much. I never thought about RGP's heavy traffic as a reason. I doubt little bro would be interested in posting here as this is a poker group and I am quite sure this thread is annoying a vast majority of the regulars here.
Anyway, John has responded to many of your criticisms in his CRJ interview and his letter to Eric Alterman, and a second letter sent to Alterman today. Hopefully, Alterman will post his second letter. Many stories have been written about Ann Coulter's lies, etc. That was not the point of his story - to point out her lies. It was to provide some new perspective or information about her. I believe there was a separate story in the magazine about some of the outrageous things she has said. I think Alterman has written a book on the subject. In addition, as you know, many websites are devoted to her work and discrediting it.
Anyway, as I stated in the beginning. I am glad you know John's name now. He is a good objective writer, who has a body of work to back it up. We can agree to disagree about the fairness of the Coulter piece. Keep an eye on his stuff in the future. In fact, I will try to remember to email you his future articles if you want.
Jay
So there you have it. I haven't responded to Jay's second post yet, because I wanted to verify his identity before I responded further. I just talked to Jay on the phone earlier this afternoon.
By the way, feel free to join in the discussion on RGP. The right-wing nutcases have the other liberal posters and me greatly outnumbered, so we could use reinforcements. You can access RGP using any newsreader such as Outlook Express, Google Groups, or through the web interface at http://www.recpoker.com.
One final note. I would discourage you from contacting Jay Cloud yourself. I have already verified his identity. Well, I have at least verified that the poster posting as TennLawyer is, in fact, a Tennessee attorney named Jay Cloud who claims to be John Cloud's brother. The inside information in Jay's posts and in my telephone conversation with him leave little doubt in my mind that he is, indeed, John Cloud's brother.
If you still feel compelled to contact Jay, I hope you will be polite and respectful. Remember that Jay has absolutely no control of or responsibility for what his brother John writes.
William Coleman