Posted on 03/05/2012 1:02:35 PM PST by SeekAndFind
While Laura Ingraham waits for an encouraging call from the president to compensate for MSNBC’s Ed Schultz calling her a “slut,” “reproductive justice” activist Sandra Fluke rejects Rush Limbaugh’s sincere expression of regret for calling her the same:
The Georgetown law student who drew an apology from Rush Limbaugh this weekend after the conservative radio host called her a “slut” on his show said that his public apology wasn’t sufficient during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” today.
“I don’t think that a statement like this issued, saying that his choice of words was not the best, changes anything, and especially when that statement is issued when he’s under significant pressure from his sponsors who have begun to pull their support,” said the 30-year-old student, Sandra Fluke. …
Fluke said she has not heard from Limbaugh personally but added that she’s not hoping to speak with him.
“The statements he’s made about me over the air are personal enough, so I’d rather not have a personal phone call with him,” Fluke said.
Fluke has the luxury to reject his apology in large part because she has the support not only of the president himself, but of big-name advertisers who have exerted bully-like pressure on Limbaugh. (Even The View’s Whoopi Goldberg said she found the speed with which they were willing to abandon the radio host to be disturbing!)
At this point, while it’s plausible that Rush apologized solely because he’s losing sponsors (as Fluke suggested), it’s also plausible that he has genuinely repented of his word choice. Limbaugh not only said he was sorry with a statement online, but he also opened his show today — his first on-air appearance since advertisers began to pull their support for his program — with a repeat apology, in which he made it clear that he violated his own personal broadcasting standards. In fact, he took a full 30 minutes to explain the entire episode to his listeners, including an explanation for why his advertisers left him (h/t The Right Scoop):
Ed said this weekend he thinks Rush was right to apologize, but I’m not so sure. He was wrong to use the word “slut” in the first place — it’s just a disgusting word that’s better left unsaid and Rush’s use of it conveniently played into the leftist narrative that conservative men are misogynistic (i.e. it was both tasteless and strategically stupid of Rush to say it) — but his apology makes it seem as though he did something wrong by expressing his opinion about a legitimate subject of national commentary.
Folks have made the argument that Rush’s “personal attack” was somehow different than similar name-calling directed to the likes of Laura Ingraham, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. The argument typically goes something like this: Sarah Palin et. al. are public figures, while Sandra Fluke is a private citizen. But, in this instance, Fluke isn’t exactly a “private citizen.” She’s a seasoned activist who introduced the subject of Georgetown law students’ sex lives to the national debate about the Obama administration’s religious-liberty-violating contraception mandate.
Indeed, her unwillingness to accept Rush’s apology underscores that she’s far from a naive private individual who unexpectedly found herself at the center of a national controversy; she made it clear by her remarks on The View that she’s prepared to stoke this controversy as long as she derives a benefit from it. As long as advertisers continue to withdraw support for Limbaugh and the left continues to rally around Ms. Fluke, she’ll milk his remarks for all they’re worth.
The answer: Let’s stop giving Fluke the benefit of this controversy. Let’s keep the focus where it belongs and patiently continue to correct the misimpression (a.k.a. lie) that conservatives want to ban contraception. Nobody wants to ban contraception, but the Obama administration does want to force religious employers who object to contraception on religious grounds to pay for employee health insurance that includes coverage for contraception. It’s to that mandate that conservatives are politically opposed. Some conservatives are also personally opposed to contraception and to sexual promiscuity — but they’re not seeking to change the culture through the government. It’s progressives who prescribe government solutions to cultural ills and, in the process, jeopardize important freedoms.
Some reports are stating Fluke is a homosexual lesbian - any confirmation on that lifestyle?
Oh, one of dem dere “homosexual lesbians”...
not just your ordinary lesbian, eh?
Shouldn’t she be apologizing to Rush and the rest of us taxpayers for the attempt to force us to pay for her and others’ contraception!?
The are conflicting reports - I've heard she's a heterosexual lesbian!
Though I get Rush’s meaning in using those two terms to describe that “ho,” what it did was make her a media star. The propagandists will be playing this up for weeks.
And unfortunately, the current popular culture of New America is on her side.
Yes he should. Rush did the EXACT right thing. WHY? Because it was the RIGHT thing to do, unlike the left who are a bunch of losers! This has nothing to do with what Ms Fluke is, it has to do with using a derogatory term to describe a woman he didn't know. He used the wrong term and that's why he apologized. Unlike Ms. Fluke, who is a pitiful human being for not accepting a sincere apology Rush rose to the occasion and held responsibility.
That's the difference between the gracious nature of Rush, and the obdurate ugliness of both Ms. Fluke and many on the left.
The easy ones to remember are the Kuwait who said incubators were being stolen. Clinton had his for spending a billion dollars to missle a drug factory.
MSM are puppets who don't even know strings are being pulled.
The sheep don't get it.
This is one of the best gracphics I have seen i laughed out loud. I hope Rush gets a chance to see this :)
RE: Looks like she hit the attention jackpot with this one. She will play this one to the limit as ‘professional victim’ national star.
__________________
She’s auditioning to be the new GLORIA ALLRED.
Why do lesbians always try to look like men?
Pray for America
RE: Doing so would erase her victim status. You’re smarter than this, Rush.
So what should Rush do? withdraw his apology?
That is a legal question, and I am certainly no expert. But I can imagine the argument: "Should a citizen who comes before congress be subject to such damaging claims with no legal remedy?" (They could try to make the case that her fame was not really her own doing, but it happened beyond her control).
And as I have said before, the Left excels at judge-shopping. Her object would not be primarily to win in court (although Limbaugh might settle out of court), but to create a legal/political media circus.
I hope this does not happen, because I don't see it as a political plus for conservatism, unless some character like Hillary gets caught doing something illegal or undeniably sleazy (from the point of view of "moderates").
We should go after “The View’s” advertisers.
I’m tired of those old liberal hens offending us.
I’m serious.
It’s time the left start living by their own standards.
Going on The View was a good move. She suddenly looks comparatively less slutty when sitting next to Joy Behar.
Just heard AOL dropped Rush, but like he said today, he’ll get more sponsors. Sounds like some are just waiting to be accepted.
RE: We should go after “The View’s” advertisers.
________________________
Speaking of advertisers, Rush said on his show today that through the years, he has had to turn down advertisers to his show. One of the big ones according to him was GM. He said he could not in good conscience, accept them as advertisers while at the same time criticizing them for accepting the bailout money, sticking it to the bondholders, and giving up a huge chunk of the company to the unions.
In other words, the advertisers need HIM more than he needs them.
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