Time magazine is featuring an article on campus conservatives. Apparently, I'm included in it. John Cloud, the piece's author, informs me that it will appear in this week's issue.

I spoke at length with the article's author about a month ago at Young America's Foundation's summer conference, and have electronically corresponded and talked with him a few times since. Although John Cloud is an award-winning journalist, something seemed more than a bit shifty in his demeanor when we spoke. An attendee of the YAF conference informed me that Time's reporter felt compelled to blurt out that I was a "f---ing nut job" during my speech. I also heard reports from students that Cloud had crudely attempted to bait them into making extremist statements against gays. I neither witnessed nor experienced this, though, in my conversations with Cloud.

Cloud seemed preoccupied with my reference in the Q&A section of my conference talk to how I was shouted down at Berkeley, and how my writings were subjected to a book burning there. Despite providing him audio of my getting shouted down, he remained a skeptic. He also seemed to have a tough time accepting that something so vile as a book burning could have happened at the home of the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s. I sent him a photo of the book burning, the audio of the event, articles on the occurence, contact info for a left-wing witness, etc. He expressed satisfaction that I had proved my case. The abundance of material that I provided might have seemed like overkill, but I know better.

Campus conservatives haven't fared too well with the larger media outlets. Instances of the Left attempting to censor campus conservatives are routinely ignored by the media, and when attention is paid it's often of a mocking variety. For instance, the New York Times recently depicted young conservatives as zombies controlled by George W. Bush on the cover of its Sunday magazine.

In our initial conversation, I recounted to Cloud an instance nearly a decade ago when I spoke to a reporter at a conservative conference writing a similar story. That writer penned a piece describing young conservative conference goers engaging in public sex acts, snorting cocaine, and downing hotel liquor bottles. Having both attended the conference and conversed with the writer, I was shocked at what I read. I was less shocked when I discovered that the piece was entirely fabricated. That article appeared in the New Republic, and its author was Stephen Glass. Hollywood later made a movie about him, Shattered Glass, that chronicled how he passed fiction off for fact for more than two years while writing for the New Republic.

Past performence, as they say, doesn't guarantee future results. I will judge Cloud's Time magazine article when I read it. But since observation and experience has so lowered my expectations on such articles, it would take something incredibly deceitful to disapoint me. I doubt John Cloud could, or would, outdo Stephen Glass in the dishonesty department. I doubt anyone could.

CONGRATZ!

Dan, a little off topic, but I was just wondering your opnions on Ann Coulter. I know she's a conservative, but she seems to also be a perfect illustration of your theory that ideology makes smart people fall for stupid ideas. More than just conservative, Ms. Coulter often times appears to be a complete nut case, even to Conservative people and insitutions.(The Economist called her looney, several conservative media have refused to publish her pieces because they made no sense) Yet she is a brillant lawyer and star student at the University of Michigan. Do you have an opnion an Ann Dan? Did she make your book?

I like Ann Coulter. I don't defend some of her more provocative statements, which I think are that way be design. But if you read her stuff with the understanding that, like Limbaugh, she's mainly an entertainer, than you'll be satisfied--unless you're the butt of her joke. On the occassion that you learn something from her writings, view it as a bonus because imparting information is not her main focus. I read her columns. I do so because I enjoy them. She's a very talented writer.

Ann has been called a lot of nasty names. One such label that I've never heard thrown her way is "intellectual," which is one reason why I would never have included her in my book. She also doesn't fit the second criterion: she's not a moron.

Rest assured, though, Joe. The book does spend a considerable amount of ink on intellectual morons on the Right--more than thirty pages in fact. You can judge for yourself when Intellectual Morons hits bookstores in less than one month from today.

poor ann. once watched her try to be a lawyer in a debate at a law school once. she was an embarrasment.

anyways - article's out

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040830-686064,00.html

When you look like Ms. Coulter, you can get away with a whole lot more.

She's a babe!!!!

To be more serious about it, to me, she does typically comes off a little nutty albeit, very eloquent and well informed.

My true conservative babe who I would love to call my own would be Laura Ingraham. She is the whole package.

Smart, glib, very well informed. Have never seen or heard her get caught in a debate or argument.