Paul, did a little digging into Ann Coulter's latest column published by Universal Press Syndicate. Lisa Tarry (associate Editor at United Press Syn.) and she told him that Ann sent them the edited version. Ann sent them the ‘dyspeptic, old Helen Thomas’ version, not the ‘old Arab’ version on her website.Was Ann afraid to send them the original knowing they might edit it? Did Ann change her website version after the fact?

Thinking about what Lisa Tarry (UPS editor) told me on the phone, “Ann sent us the ‘dyspeptic’ version of the article”, I went back to the article on Ann’s website, www.anncoulter.com and sure enough, at the bottom of the article is this:

COPYRIGHT 2005 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
4520 Main St., Kansas City, Mo. 64111; (816) 932-6600

I called Lisa back and asked her to explain. She said that Ann must have copied the article from the UPS website, put it on her website then changed the wording to “old arab Helen”.

To make a long story short, I asked her if UPS approves of Ann using the copyright statement on her website and she said “No we don’t, and my managers are looking into the matter”. I don’t know about you, but something just doesn’t seem right about this to me. I asked Lisa if UPS is going to make Ann remove the copyright clause and she said “I don’t know”

Is it normal for an opinion writer (or any journalist for that matter) to use someone else’s copyright without their permission, on their own personal propaganda?

As I look at it, it’s one thing to slam an old women like Helen on your own website. But to make it look like you have the blessings of an outfit like UPS is just going a little bit too far.