Response to Rush Limbaugh's Rage
On Tuesday I was referred to on air as "scum" by Rush Limbaugh.
Limbaugh called me out by name on his radio show because, along with Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press , I challenged Limbaugh's now failed efforts to own a NFL team, saying that his history of racial bombast should count against him.
Limbaugh said of us:
“They are the ones with prejudice and bigotry coursing through their vanes [sic], through their hearts, and through their souls. They are consumed with jealousy and rage. They are all liberals--and make no mistake: That's what this is about. It is about ideology. It isn't about race. It's about their being jealous and attempting to discredit me, and they've now sunk to the low of repeating fabricated quotes that they cannot source.... These people are scum.”
What we all did was carry a quote from Limbaugh that he absolutely insists he did not say. The offending quote was one in which Rush was purported to have praised the pre-Civil War slave system in the American south.
[For all concerned, here is how we came up with the quote: it was used in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Detroit Free Press, the Washington Post, and in the book 101 People Who Are Really Screwing America [Nation Books] by Jack Huberman. Since that time, it has been taken down by the aforementioned sites. We have removed it as well and will take Limbaugh at his word until we receive evidence to the contrary.]
As Jason Whitlock, with whom I have had every manner of political disagreement over the years, writes :
“Limbaugh claimed on his radio show Monday that his staff could not find any proof that he ever joked about slavery. I'm sorry. Limbaugh doesn't get the benefit of the doubt on racial matters.... You can argue the comments are presented out of context and were meant as jokes. Then I'd argue that Limbaugh needs to get on the comedy-club circuit and out of the business of attempting to influence presidential politics. Limbaugh wants to be taken seriously.”
But let's take Limbaugh at his word, for now, that he didn't say it. We should also look at the myriad of quotes on record he makes no effort to dispute. We can only assume that he is proud to have said , "The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons."
Or these other gems :
“The NAACP should have riot rehearsal . They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”
“Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”
To an African-American caller:
“Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”
Or upon hearing that Spike Lee said that black schoolchildren should take off from school to see the movie Malcolm X :
“Spike, if you're going to do that, let's complete the education experience. You should tell them that they should loot the theater and then blow it up on their way out.”
Or calling Barack Obama "Halfrican-American " and saying:
“In Obama's America , the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, ‘Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on’.... We need segregated buses--it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama's America.”
The real reason Rush is doing a slow-burn on his show and setting loose his army of Internet flame throwers is that his dream of owning an NFL franchise has gone up in smoke. After seven players and the union went public and stood up to Rush getting his mitts around the most powerful cultural and athletic brand in America, commissioner Roger Goodell finally spoke out. Goodell said on Tuesday that Limbaugh's "divisive comments " had no place in the NFL. "I have said many times before, we're all held to a higher standard here," Goodell said to reporters. "I would not want to see those kinds of comments coming from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL. No. Absolutely not."
Goodell's statement was complemented by Colts owner Jim Irsay, who told ESPN, "I, myself, couldn't even think of voting for him.... I'm very sensitive to know there are scars out there. I think as a nation we need to stop it. Our words do damage, and it's something that we don't need. We need to get to a higher level of humanity, and we have." Other owners issued decidedly lukewarm comments about the possibility of sharing space with Rush.
Some are surprised that ownership didn't welcome Limbaugh with a passionate embrace because most owners are to the right of Attila the Hun. They are billionaires who have feasted at the public trough of corporate welfare while basking in tax breaks for the rich. In other words, they constitute Limbaugh's base. But his membership in this exclusive fraternity of billionaires would violate the first rule of ownership: protect the bottom line.
The inconvenient truth is that no matter how much he rants and raves, no matter how often he calls columnists like Burwell, Sharp and me "state-run-media scum," it's the commissioner and the owners who believe that his history of ugly vitriol would be just too harmful to the NFL brand. You reap what you sow, and Rush Limbaugh has reaped a whirlwind.
[Dave Zirin is the author of “A People’s History of Sports in the United States” (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com]
12 Reader Comments | Add a comment
I think not, as evidenced by the throngs of ugly Americans raging from "sea to shining sea," similar to the racist vitriol spewed forth here in response to Dave's ongoing articles and books dedicated to speaking truth to power.
The Limbaugh sheep continue to take their marching orders from their master - a dyed-in-the-wool racist and buffoon.
Dave - outstanding response.
dave-
congratulations for being insulted by rush on the air. that is a huge accomplishment that should not be overlooked.
And congratulations on helping to derail Limbaugh's attempt to become part-owner of an NFL team. Always good to see Rush fall flat on his face (especially while he has his foot in his mouth).
Great stuff, Dave. Here are a few more quotes I transcribed directly from the horse's mouth, posted on You Tube:
Holocaust? Ninety million Indians, only 4 million left? They all have casinos…what’s to complain about?
....
It seems that a majority of the Black population has remained angry, frustrated and behind. They’ve been left behind… We’ve heard that this is because of racism, natural, systemic, institutional racism in America, that we are unfair, that this country is just horrible and rotten… Did you ever ask yourself how it is that people not even born here can come here and in a few short years and begin prospering…? Yet people who were born in this country somehow have been raised to hate it, to think they’re still back in the days of slavery…
Journalism and public opinion, not necessarily among the left, contributed to the miscarriage of this fat, soulless loser's newest business venture.
I mean Goodell has the power to do whatever he wants, so it was more than public opinion that shaped the outcome of this decision.
That means that Rush Limbaugh is so putrid that the other fascists who run the NFL were too embarrassed to associate with him.
How does that make you feel Rush? Try not to overdose. You do know that drugs immigrate into this country illegally, right?
And besides, if a free press and a suspicious public were to blame in shaping the outcome of anything, that would sound too much like a democracy. And we can't have that now, people can we?
Down with fascism! Viva Zirin!
The owners in the NFL are not going to risk their bottom line for a buffoon like Rush Limbaugh. He should have expected this. After the right wing smear campaign that forced Van Jones to resign, Rush should have expected his detractors to go after him. It wasn't a fair trade, Van Jones is a humanitarian and Rush Limbaugh is a blowhard.
"They are the ones with prejudice and bigotry coursing through their vanes [sic], through their hearts, and through their souls. They are consumed with jealousy and rage. They are all liberals--and make no mistake: That's what this is about. It is about ideology."
Must be nice to live in a world were everything can be explained with the left/right paradigm. Why does it always come back to catagorization with Rush? So if one suscribes to one 'liberal' belief, is he/she forever tarnished with the 'liberal' stain? Must feel nice to be on the right side of the us v them fight.
This isn't about ideology, but rather a complete idiot who says idiotic things for a living and spreads nonsensical hysteria.
Rush Limbaugh would have you believe that there is a significant difference between George W. Bush and Barack Obama. You see, his position in this game is to help maintain the idea that there is a difference between Republicans and Democrats.
He claims that Barack Obama is bankrupting the country. He's right. He is bankrupting the country, just like the Republican before him was bankrupting the country. The only thing is, when the Republican was bankrupting the country it was OK. Now that a Democrat is doing it, its not OK. This is simply not true. The reality is that they're all bankrupting the country, and NONE of it is OK, but its not his job to say that...
His job is to help perpetuate an illusion, but to those outside of the illusion, both "left" and "right," he's a joke. He's more of a joke than Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olbermann and Glenn Beck all rolled into one.
Putting the intelligence and compassion of Keith Olbermann in a list with the likes of rodent droppings like O'Reilly and Beck is ridiculous.
Come on, Zirin, the fact that Rush Limbaugh even knows who you are was the biggest thrill of your life! You sound excited, not annoyed, that he called you out!
". . .you weren't doin' nothin' if you weren't called a Red. . ."
And that fat pig couldn't give you a better compliment.
I find it interesting that of the alleged rush quotes, none of them came from any primary sources. The guy is On the radio 15 hours a week and if he did say these dispicable things, we would have heard audio of them by now. In jack huberman also offered no citations for the alleged quotes in his book.
As much as I think rush is offensive, I am even more offended how a group of journalists was willing to believe a bunch of unsubstantiated quotes just because they don't like him and got the NFL to cave in to the ruse of political correctness. Like any business, the NFL does not like controversy.
If you will provide primary source citations for the alleged quotes, I will change my mind in a snap. He is on the radio 15 hours a week and is the country's most scrutinized media personality, so where is the audio?
12 Reader Comments | Add a comment
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Dave Zirin is the author of the book: "Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports" (Haymarket). You can receive his column Edge of Sports, every week by going to dave@edgeofsports.com.
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