Her Syndicate Runs Edited Version of Ann Coulter Column
By E&P Staff
NEW YORK Ann Coulter, no stranger to controversy, stirred the pot some more this past week, when she took up the the still-simmering story of ex-White House reporter James Guckert, better known as Jeff Gannon, formerly of Talon News.
Writing in her Feb. 23 column for Universal Press Syndicate, Coulter observed, among other things, that Guckert/Gannon was a better reporter than The New York Times' Maureen Dowd and his "only offense is that he may be gay." Nothing unexpected there, but Coulter also wrote: "Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president."
But when the column got posted by Universal on its Web site, that line had been changed to: "Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that dyspeptic, old Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president."
The original column is still available at anncoulter.com and labelled "Universal Press Syndicate."
Helen Thomas continues to write a regular column for Hearst. Her parents are Lebanese. She has spent more than 60 years in journalism.