Undergraduate students at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul had the temerity to invite Ann Coulter to speak on campus last week. Coulter was the guest of the St. Thomas chapter of the College Republicans and the Standard, the new campus conservative publication. The local papers didn't actually cover Coulter's St. Thomas speech, although the Star Tribune's fatuous columnist wrote a characteristically fatuous column on her talk in which he called it (what else?) "hate speech." I guess he should know.

On Monday the president of St. Thomas (Father Dennis Dease) issued a statement condemning Coulter's speech: "Coulter's talk tests controversial issues statement." Father Dease himself didn't attend the speech, but he heard about it:

[T]he reports I have heard from people whose views I respect suggest that her performance went far beyond the bounds of what is commonly accepted as civil discourse. Although her presentation may have been meant as an “act” or “shtick” to entertain by provoking those who disagree, such behavior unfortunately contributes to the growing dark side of our culture — a disrespect for persons and their sincerely held beliefs. Such hateful speech vulgarizes our culture and goes against everything the University of St. Thomas stands for.

As an adjunct professor at St. Thomas, I'm curious whose reports Father Dease heard before issuing this statement. I also wonder what specifically in the reports of Coulter's speech exceeded the bounds of civil discourse. Yesterday the Star Tribune reported Father Dease's condemnation of Coulter's speech: "St. Thomas president denounces Ann Coulter's speech as hateful." Star Tribune reporter Matt McKinney apparently didn't find it necessary to ask any follow-up questions of Father Dease concerning his condemnation; anyone looking for reference to the offending passages of Coulter's speech won't find it in McKinney's article. Blogger Matt May comments in "Journalism 101." (Thanks to reader Gerald Sabatini.)

UPDATE: Reader Cedric Long writes to advise us that the Star Tribune has removed Matt McKinney's story from its site and replaced it with an AP story that includes brief quotes from Coulter's speech deriving from the unidentified Star Tribune column to which we alluded in the post above.

UPDATE 2: Mckinney's story is available here, and I have changed the bad link in the post above to reflect it. (Thanks to Hiram Hover, who thinks that calling Ted Kennedy a "human dirigible" and Barbara Boxer "learning disabled" qualifies as "hateful speech." He apparently thinks he can speak for Father Dease on that score.)