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Rush Limbaugh's red herring

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201 comments

Rush Limbaugh's red herring

POSTED: Thursday, October 15, 2009, 10:03 AM

As you might expect, there's a lot of fallout from Rush Limbaugh's failed involvement in a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams. The party -- as in Republican Party, I guess -- line is that it's all because people are making up horrible things that the de facto king of the GOP never said. As one of Limbaugh's defenders across the pond (apparently distance makes the heart grow fonder) writes:

What’s the term for those who are setting about “racist” Rush Limbaugh right now? Ironically, it seems to be “lynch mob”. And they’ve succeeded – word is that Limbaugh’s been dropped from the consortium seeking to buy the St Louis Rams.

Toby Harden of the Telegraph certainly has a point -- several commentators on CNN and elsewhere did cite a bogus Limbaugh-attributed quote, and there is clearly no excuse for that. It's yet another example of the atrocious fact-checking at places like CNN, coincidentally the subject of a great lampoon/investigation by Jon Stewart the other night. But Limbaugh's defenders have hooked a giant red herring; the apparently bogus quote had nothing to do with the growing realization that star NFL players would choose not to play for him and other team owners did not want their sport to be associated with him.

Rush was hanged by his own very real words. There's too many example to quote here, but here are three examples of the many, many episodes over the years.

Limbaugh says "NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips." On January 19, 2007, Limbaugh stated: "Look it, let me put it to you this way. The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There I said it."

Limbaugh on Survivor series: "African-American tribe" worst swimmers, Hispanics "will do things other people won't do." On August 23, 2006, Limbaugh suggested that the competition in a season of CBS' Survivor, in which contestants were reportedly divided into competing "tribes" by ethnicity, "is not going to be fair if there's a lot of water events." In support of this assertion, he cited a March 2, 2006, HealthDay article reporting that "young blacks -- especially males -- are much more likely to drown in pools than whites." He later added that Hispanics have "probably shown the most survival tactics," that they "have shown a remarkable ability to cross borders," and that they can "do it without water for a long time, they don't get apprehended, and they will do things other people won't do." On his September 29, 2006, show, Limbaugh claimed "[t]here can only be one reason" Survivor scrapped "segregated" competition after two episodes -- "the white tribe had to be winning."

Then there's this, from Newsday in 1990:

Recalling a stint as an "insult-radio" DJ in Pittsburgh, he admits feeling guilty about, for example, telling a black listener he could not understand to "take that bone out of your nose and call me back."

You see, it's "insult radio," so that makes it OK! And it one sense, it is. We've argued here a lot this year about free speech in America, and what it means. Rush Limbaugh is free in America to say what he wishes -- and I go even farther, in that I have no problem with him hosting a radio show for whatever Americans choose to listen to his dreck. But words have consequences. If the Eagles had the right as a private employer to fire the "Dam Eagles R retarted" Facebook guy, then the NFL -- also a private entity -- has the right to choose who they want to "hire," and they are choosing to reject Rush Limbaugh because for all of his Dittohead radio listeners, there are millions more who find his speech -- these real quotes, well documented -- to be offensive.

Because words are free but they also have consequences, even for a politically influential multi-millionaire like Rush Limbaugh.

There, I've said it.

Will Bunch @ 10:03 AM Permalink | 201 comments

201 comments

Comments (201)

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:05 AM, 10/15/2009

Im not a ditto head. Rush has been educating people for years, which is what bleeding heart liberal mainstream media wont do. Good luck with universal healthcare, which will add to unemployment by the way by bankrupting insurance companies and cutting jobs from medicare. But who cares about the economy or the war in Afghanistan, right?

— jrl27

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:07 AM, 10/15/2009

SteveMG - do you really think the NFL owners would have the stones to deny membership in their club to Rev. Wright? Can you imagine the cries of racism if (I think) the all-white owners ever denied a chance at ownership to an African-American - even if that African-American had made racist remarks far worse than anything attributed to Limbaugh.

— bird11

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:07 AM, 10/15/2009

— bird11

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:07 AM, 10/15/2009

— bird11

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:13 AM, 10/15/2009

georgel, that article is still listed. Go to the news section and you'll see the link on the righthand side towards the bottom. I'd give the writer's name, but it's best left to anon.

— junethe4th

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:21 AM, 10/15/2009

Anyone ever heard Jay Z's lyrics. The guy owns the Nets. Where's the uproar there?

— DreamShake

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:22 AM, 10/15/2009

Birdy, tht would be nightmare C! I think they could bail themselves out by saying they already chased away Rush.

— SteveMG

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:29 AM, 10/15/2009

How is Jeff Lurie allowed in the NFL? He's responsible for VI Warshovsky, a crime much more serious than likening NFL players to gang members.

— Mr. Smith

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:30 AM, 10/15/2009

SteveMG - you don't really believe they would turn him down do you? And what if Rev. Wright was the first and they didn't have the "we turned down Rush" excuse to CYA? Even if you do believe it, wouldn't they get the same bad publicity with Sharpton & Jackson protesting that they were racist for denying Rev Wright? All that said - I think the NFL should be able to refuse membership to whomever they want without outside interference especially from the idiots in Congress. (Remember Patriot-gate - great job Arlen) But maybe everything is going so well that Congress has nothing else to do.

— bird11

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:31 AM, 10/15/2009

That NCLS-Blods and Crips is Stu. You can't miss on the Opinion page. Interesting the difference in tone of the comments there and here. Over there, it's pretty much: "Geez, that was a stupid thing to say" Over here, it's "I can't wait 'til you're out of a job".

— SteveMG

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:32 AM, 10/15/2009

Thanks June the 4th, but I won't be that kind. A quote from Stu Bykofsky (another lib writer)refers to the Dodgers and Phils series as a "gang war". "We're red, the Bloods. The Dodgers are blue, the Crips." Truly insensitve. Is he fomenting a riot or shootout? Are there good guys and bad guys in a gang war?I guess that is OK because he is a lib and it is parody, not social satire. Again, the double standard and no recriminations. I guess it's becuase he "means well". Typical.

— georgel

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:34 AM, 10/15/2009

People need to stop being sensitive. If white people can stink at jumping and dancing, then why can't an African American be bad at swimming?

— DreamShake

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:37 AM, 10/15/2009

Smitty, I don't think anybody has actually SEEN VI Warshavsky. That's probably why he gets the free pass. I think VI was Kathleen Turner's first film after she hit the wall.

— SteveMG

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