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P21: Most Attacks on Rush Limbaugh are Hypocritical, Opportunistic and Silly
Project 21 ^ | 10.2.03

Posted on 10/02/2003 4:00:02 AM PDT by mhking

Most Attacks on Rush Limbaugh are Hypocritical, Opportunistic and Silly, Says Conservative Group

ESPN Especially Hypocritical in Accepting Limbaugh's Resignation While Its Website Raises the Same Issue Limbaugh Did

"Most of those who are excoriating Rush Limbaugh for saying what he believes about media coverage of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb are hypocritical grandstanders or opportunists," says Amy Ridenour, president of The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative group.

Ridenour cited several examples:

"An ESPN spokesman said ESPN didn't think Limbaugh's comments were racially biased, yet ESPN released a statement saying Limbaugh's comments were 'insensitive and inappropriate' and George Bodenheimer, the president of ESPN Sports, says Limbaugh's subsequent resignation from ESPN was 'the appropriate action to resolve this matter expeditiously.' Yet ESPN has posted on its website a poll asking visitors if McNabb has been overrated because of his race. Why is it inappropriate for Limbaugh to discuss media coverage of McNabb but not inappropriate when ESPN does it?"

Ridenour cited other instances of hypocrisy, such as the Washington Post's Leonard Shapiro using the beginning of an October 1 column to approvingly discuss the importance of having more black coaches in the NFL and then editorializing against Limbaugh for noting that the news media wants blacks to succeed in football. Said Ridenour: "Shapiro's article reads almost like a parody."

Ridenour added:

"Several sports reporters went out of their way to attack millions of conservatives in columns ostensibly complaining that Limbaugh had injected politics into sports. NBCSports.com's Mike Celizic complained that Limbaugh's 'fun isn't in the game. It's in inflicting his political agenda on a gullible public willing to subcontract their thinking to him. Part of that agenda is based on the basest xenophobic instincts of the human species. It's about 'them' and 'us,' and the bad guys just happen to be foreigners and minorities.'"

"Compared to Celizic's comments about conservatives," Ridenour said, "Limbaugh's comments were almost non-political, and certainly less intentionally offensive."

Ridenour also cited Milo Bryant of the Colorado Springs Gazette, who complained "it's not fine... when Limbaugh brings up characteristics that fail to be germane to the discussion" and then irrelevantly attacked the intelligence of Limbaugh listeners, saying "dittoheads may be blinded by Limbaugh's simple-minded comments."

"Even Donovan McNabb's response to this matter has been silly," said Ridenour. "He told a reporter that he hoped Limbaugh's comments wouldn't discourage young blacks from wanting to play quarterback. How could any young man intimidated by a press corps that wishes him well -- which is, after all, what Limbaugh said -- possibly succeed in a job that forces him to face a defensive line?"


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: blacklash; deneenborelli; eib; espn; freedomworks; limbaugh; mcnabb; project21; rush; rushlimbaugh
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1 posted on 10/02/2003 4:00:03 AM PDT by mhking
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To: rdb3; Khepera; elwoodp; MAKnight; condolinda; mafree; Trueblackman; FRlurker; Teacher317; ...
Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[As i mentioned, the B/C & JD! lists are going to float into and out of whack over the forseeable future, while I try to cobble a rig back together for myself. My apologies for any incovenience or misunderstandings in this time frame. New signups/removals may be flaky in this time-frame as well; please bear with me, and keep in mind you may have to FReepmail me more than once for me to get it done. Thanks again!]

2 posted on 10/02/2003 4:00:34 AM PDT by mhking (When it rains it pours: I'm looking for a job again -- any offers: mhking@bellsouth.net)
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To: All
Lighten Up, Francis!
Fundraising posts only happen quarterly, and are gone as soon as we meet the goal. Help make it happen.

3 posted on 10/02/2003 4:03:06 AM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: mhking
WIlliam Rhoden, Ralph Wiley, Stephen A. Smith...there are so many black columnists who continually editorialize on behalf of black athletes and coaches, they base entire columns on it all the time.

I guess a little bit of digging will find people espousing exactly what Rush said, that is, if the sites don't rip the links down.

4 posted on 10/02/2003 4:07:04 AM PDT by Benrand
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To: mhking
The code of political correctness, especially regarding race, hasn't been suspended. Rush forgot that this wasn't his show and that he couldn't get away with saying any old thing. I suppose he never considered that the large black audience of this show would be outraged by his comments, and that professional sports is notoriously PC. The truth of what he said is irrelevent in this context, as is usually the case in politics.
5 posted on 10/02/2003 4:12:02 AM PDT by Batrachian
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To: mhking
hatee, but if these new drug allegations hold water, then we may be witnessing the end of modern conservatism as we know it.

say it ain't so, Rush!
6 posted on 10/02/2003 4:16:02 AM PDT by camle (no fool like a damned fool)
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To: Batrachian
Rush forgot that this wasn't his show and that he couldn't get away with saying any old thing.

Give that man a cigar! That's exactly right!

If Rush had made that statement on his talk show, there would have been the rolling of eyes and that's about it. But because it was on Countdown there's much gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands over it.

And Rush, as opposed to apologizing for it, and moving on, decides to cave in to the left's pile-on by resigning.

Katie Couric was on the warpath this morning, jumping all over J.C. Watts on this; and J.C. was doing his best back-pedal move.

This will embolden the left to jump on us even more. No doubt about it, this is not a good day for us.

7 posted on 10/02/2003 4:27:12 AM PDT by mhking (When it rains it pours: I'm looking for a job again -- any offers: mhking@bellsouth.net)
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To: camle
hatee, but if these new drug allegations hold water, then we may be witnessing the end of modern conservatism as we know it.

Oh, please. The end of "modern conservatism?" It was certainly a blow to us, but the "end?"

Not hardly. Conservatism is not one person.

Rush is human. He makes mistakes and missteps.

But at the end of the day, we are right, and the truth will always prevail.

8 posted on 10/02/2003 4:29:08 AM PDT by mhking (When it rains it pours: I'm looking for a job again -- any offers: mhking@bellsouth.net)
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To: Batrachian
I suppose he never considered that the large black audience of this show would be outraged by his comments...

There was NO immediate outrage by the black audience or anyone else - it took 48 hours for the "spin-and-destroy" machine of the liberals to get into gear, starting Tuesday with the local Philadelphia media, and then ballooning nationwide Wednesday.

9 posted on 10/02/2003 4:30:13 AM PDT by willieroe
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To: mhking
you are, of course right, however IF the drug allegations are true, there will be a feeding frenzy by the leftists, democrats and media that the world has seldom seen. Conservatives will be demonized as hateful, racist hippocrites for decades to come.

Rush has a lot of followers, both famous and not. They will all be tarred by the stigma of association that the left so loves to smear people with.

if Rush goes down, we will have lost a powerful spokesperson, ally and booster.
10 posted on 10/02/2003 4:32:45 AM PDT by camle (no fool like a damned fool)
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To: willieroe
If conservatives raise a stink about something said on national TV, we're VRWC Bushbot Dittohead racist hatemongering Nazis. If liberals do it, they're heroes.

It is so because they say it is so. "You are a racist. You have thus been called a racist. Therefore you are a racist. " The 'racism' mud slung by liberals only sticks to white, Republican skin. It's an engineering marvel.

11 posted on 10/02/2003 4:38:46 AM PDT by TrappedInLiberalHell (Hillary walks into a bar. Let's hope it leaves a nice bump on her forehead.)
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To: mhking
I haven't seen any national response to Rush's statement from the black community yet, but white liberals pounced on him almost immediately from all over the country.

White liberals own the TV airwaves, and Rush should have known that he was being watched for anything that would give the liberal media ammo against him.

Outside of talk radio political correctness rules the airwaves, which is why liberals hate talk radio. This incident is further proof that freedom of speech does not apply to protected minorities.

12 posted on 10/02/2003 4:45:42 AM PDT by Noachian (Liberalism belongs to the Fool, the Fraud, and the Vacuous)
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To: camle
***...Rush has a lot of followers, both famous and not. They will all be tarred by the stigma of association that the left so loves to smear people with.
***

Are you kidding? Rush just became a hero to the libertarians if he abused PRESCRIBED drugs; and to the rest of the voters who are totally sick of all the attacks on conservatives. And it takes the Wallace leak off the table for a few hours.

You probably thought that Bush would lose the last election because of an old, old DUI.
13 posted on 10/02/2003 4:48:38 AM PDT by kitkat
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To: mhking
Rush forgot that this wasn't his show and that he couldn't get away with saying any old thing.

I saw the tape of Rush on ESPN.

He looked like a non-thinking windbag.

He was as much "in your face" as the militant homosexual crowd.

Perhaps it's time for him to go on a long vacation.

14 posted on 10/02/2003 4:51:38 AM PDT by CROSSHIGHWAYMAN
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To: willieroe
Yes, but we know that these spin and destroy machines do exist. We've seen them many times before, and we know they can destroy careers, and Rush should have known. He simply forgot where he was.

BTW, can anyone tell me if the woman on the Chunky Soup commercials that Donovan McNabb does is really his mother?

15 posted on 10/02/2003 5:03:22 AM PDT by Batrachian
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To: mhking
mh, has it occurred to anyone that this was NOT the kind of mistake an intelligent man like Rush would make? Perhaps he did it on purpose. This should be interesting.
16 posted on 10/02/2003 5:06:44 AM PDT by kitkat
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To: kitkat
Good thinking Rush is right quotas must br made to make the lame happy.
17 posted on 10/02/2003 5:11:04 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: Batrachian
Sure, but unless the Limbaugh comment was the subject of "black talk radio" Sunday night and Monday (and I've seen no report that it was, perhaps I'm mistaken), it doesn't benefit us to rewrite history when discussing the comment.
18 posted on 10/02/2003 5:12:12 AM PDT by willieroe
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To: mhking
"Even Donovan McNabb's response to this matter has been silly,"

Especially the part about his whining about 'having gone through this kind of stuff all through grade school, high school..." etc. With a 'you know' thrown in after every fourth word.
19 posted on 10/02/2003 5:20:35 AM PDT by Maria S (“I know a little bit about how White Houses work.” Hillary Clinton, 8/26/03)
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To: camle
Slim Fast smuggled in from Columbia
20 posted on 10/02/2003 5:22:46 AM PDT by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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