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Rush Limbaugh's red herring

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 2:10 PM, 10/15/2009

birdy...Rush has repeatedly said, he hopes President Obama fails. If you missed that, you need to get out more often. But guess what? When the President that I voted for fails; when the President that was voted in with a clear majority fails,we as a country fail. If you can't put 2 + 2 together, you have been listening to Beck too long. On another note: "This is not about the NFL, it’s not about the St. Louis Rams, it’s not about me,” Limbaugh said. “This is about the ongoing effort by the left in this country, wherever you find them, in the media, the Democrat Party, or wherever, to destroy conservatism, to prevent the mainstreaming of anyone who is prominent as a conservative." Can you believe this guy? This is about him being an ill-informed, lying purveyor of hate in America, only recently eclipsed by that nut, Glenn Beck. You see if the Republicans would finally man up and quit being the whiners and victims in America, perhaps we could have an honest dialogue.

— Les Ismore

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:11 PM, 10/15/2009

bryanc - I'll take Michael Moore - the voice of the Democratic party - quotes for $500.

— bird11

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:20 PM, 10/15/2009

Les Ismore you wrote @ 1:45 "Both hope our President and country fail." My response was "I do seriously doubt that they ever said they hope "the country fails". Do they hope Obama and the democrats fail - most definitely." See the emphasis on "THE COUNTRY"??? Now of course you responded "Rush has repeatedly said, he hopes President Obama fails. If you missed that, you need to get out more often." - GEE DIDN'T I JUST SAY THAT THEY SAID THEY WANT OBAMA TO FAIL???? If you can't distinguish between the failure of a President and a failure of the countryn let me give you a simple example - let's say President X states he wants to exterminate all single females over the age of 37 - now if President X fails, is it a failure for the country??? Now stop hating and start thinking - that's how you have a dialogue.

— bird11

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:29 PM, 10/15/2009

"When the President that I voted for fails; when the President that was voted in with a clear majority fails,we as a country fail" Les, that is the biggest non-sequitor ever written. Limbaugh's position is that he hopes Obama fails in order that America succeeds. If Limbaugh is to be pilloried, I guess it should be his actual stance which is scorned, and not a strawman. A portion of his CPAC speech: "Now, about my still-to-me mysteriously controversial comment that I hope President Obama fails. I was watching the Super Bowl. And as you know, I love the Pittsburgh Steelers. So they have this miraculous scoring drive that puts them up by four, 15 seconds left. Kurt Warner on the field for the Cardinals. And I sure as heck want you to know I hope he failed. I did not want the Cardinals to win… I wanted the Cardinals to fail. This notion that I want the President to fail, folks, this shows you a sign of the problem we've got. That's nothing more than common sense and to not be able to say it, why in the world do I want what we just described, rampant government growth indebtedness, wealth that's not even being created yet that is being spent, what is in this? What possibly is in this that anybody of us wants to succeed? Did the Democrats want the war on Iraq to fail! CROWD: Yes! RUSH: They certainly did. They not only wanted the war in Iraq to fail, they proclaimed it a failure. There's Dingy Harry Reid waiving a white flag: "This war is lost." They called General Petraeus a liar before he even testified. Mrs. Clinton said she had to, willingly suspend disbelief in order to listen to Petraeus. We're in the process of winning the war. The last thing they wanted was to win. They hoped George Bush failed. So what is so strange about being honest to say that I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed?....

— legatus

Comment removed.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:41 PM, 10/15/2009

Birdy, great strawman but the reality of it is this. When we are engaged in two wars, have an economy quickly heading into a ditch, when Limbaugh hopes our President fails, he is hoping we all fail. And legato, to quote you and so many others in the farthest wing of your party, stop living in the past. I agree, Rush has worked real hard to walk back that quote but it is out there. One of the things I love about Rush is that if you listen to him, he just seems to be making stuff up as he goes along. You can't do that with the audience that he has because folks believe him. Same with Beck. Look at some of his hateful quotes. Funny, how these Morning Zoo guys go from being the wacky morning guys to the hate spewing zealots.

— Les Ismore

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:41 PM, 10/15/2009

— Les Ismore

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:45 PM, 10/15/2009

"But guess what? When the President that I voted for fails; when the President that was voted in with a clear majority fails,we as a country fail." Wow, collectivism much? Its possible for a president's agenda to fail and the people not be affected, or sometimes even benefit. If Bush failed to convince the country to wage war in Iraq, would the US and its people have failed?

— RG

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:46 PM, 10/15/2009

I really have to hand it to the GOP. They value protecting American contractors like Halliburton more than our military peronnel. Who said the GOP is the party of old white men? They were right. http://minnesotaindependent.com/46483/franken-amendment-to-protect-victims-of-sexual-assault-passes

— chasing history

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:47 PM, 10/15/2009

"When we are engaged in two wars, have an economy quickly heading into a ditch," If this is true, then the president has already failed to deliver on his promises.

— RG

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:49 PM, 10/15/2009

Limbaugh's position is that he hopes Obama fails in order that America succeeds.....please explain how this works. I'm facinated.

— chasing history

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:54 PM, 10/15/2009

"when Limbaugh hopes our President fails, he is hoping we all fail." So, when Bush was talking about invading Iraq, Les Ismore was clearly on board with the President's plans and was hoping that he was successful in his endeavor to go to war against Saddam. When Bush wanted "tax cuts for the rich"(tm), Les Ismore was Bush's biggest cheerleader for passing this legislation. In fact, I can't remember one Democrat EVER opposing anything that Bush wanted to do, because to oppose his having success in his endeavors would mean that they were hoping that America fails. Les Isatool!

— legatus

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:55 PM, 10/15/2009

Les Ismore - you obviously listen to Rush more than I do because I don't listen to him. PERIOD. Proving I guess one of your points - his audience isn't all that bright - but keep listening. I love this line BTW "when Limbaugh hopes our President fails, he is hoping we all fail." So Rush is actually hoping for his own failure. I can't prove this next point but I'll throw it out there - I doubt Les Ismore used the term "our President" too much between 2001 and 2009 or really whole-heartedly pulled for that President's success.

— bird11

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