Yeah, you heard that right. Now, can we please stop all that nonsense about Civility? And Our Nags said that to Howie the Whore!

At first, Ann Coulter's anti-gay crack at a Washington conference Friday drew almost no media coverage, although [sic] it was witnessed by hundreds of journalists and political operatives and captured by television cameras.

Oh, Howie. You don't mean "although." You mean because! We all remember how the Beltway Teabaggers rocked with laughter when Bush made that sick joke about looking under his desk for WMDs. Or how you didn't laugh when Stephen Colbert didn't exhibit sufficient deference to The Boy King.

But [sic] after some Democrats and liberal bloggers slammed the professional provocateur -- and were joined by a number of Republicans and conservatives -- it became a news story, albeit a modest one.

That's not "but," Howie. It's and--to show consequence.

Journalists could simply quote critics of the conservative author's latest rhetorical stink bomb, in which she referred to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards with a six-letter word offensive to gays.

Uh, Howie? Ann's word is "faggot." No! Put down those pearls!

"Simply quote..." Translation: The extremely well-paid Beltway Teabaggers are too lazy to cover a story that unfolded right before their eyes unless some impoverished bloggers start writing about it. Tell me it's not a great country!

And now the money quote:

Why the initial reluctance to report the remark, made at the Conservative Political Action Conference? "There was a fairly high barrier, in my opinion, to make it worthy of a story, because part of what she's about is trying to use shock language to entertain her audience and, who knows, maybe to sell books," says Adam Nagourney, chief political correspondent of the New York Times.

Wow. Calling somebody a "faggot." Now that's entertainment for conservatives! (I mean, come on. If Ann Coulter really wanted to shock her audience, she'd come out in favor of universal health care, or a return to Constitutional government! Let the pearl clutching begin!)

And our famously free press has so internalized a conservative culture where the Two Minutes Hate is entertainment, that, to them, it's not even a story!

And these guys are calling for a return to Civility? (Cf. Matthew 7:5)

During this decade of denunciations by Coulter, journalists have never quite resolved the question: Is what she says news?

Savor that. We'll never hear the end of obscure academics and shockingly foul-mouthed bloggers, but when cheering, laughing conservatives, all at their biggest and most influential conference of the year, find bigotry entertaining, it's move along, people, move along! There's no story here!

NOTE It's always the detail, isn't it? Here's how Our Nags goes about covering the story:

Nagourney says he did not initially mention Coulter's slur at CPAC because he was not in the room and could not verify it. He put together a piece the following day.

Right. Nagourney wasn't in the room because he already knew what Coulter's entertainment would be. Two minutes of hate at a conservative Klanklave? "Sun slated to appear in East."