Posted on 10/04/2003 3:56:14 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Here's something you probably never expected from Rush Limbaugh: No comment.
The nation's talk radio king, opiner on everything from Bill Clinton's misdeeds to feminazis, repeatedly declined Friday to discuss accusations that he illegally bought prescription drugs.
"I haven't yet gotten to the bottom of what all this is about," Limbaugh said during his three-hour broadcast, which reaches an estimated 20 million listeners. But when he knows more, he promised, "I'm going to come clean, as I always have."
Instead, Limbaugh used his electronic bully pulpit to defend -- and refuse to apologize for -- his controversial comments on ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown" about race and football.
"I meant everything I said, thought about it the night before, intended to say it, very proud that I said it, think it's right," said Limbaugh, who resigned Wednesday from the sports network because of the flap over his remarks. "So throw me in jail. So fire me. ... If that's what it takes to stand up for free speech, fine."
That approach seemed just fine with his loyal listeners, who proudly call themselves "ditto-heads" for their frequent agreement with Limbaugh. And at least for now, outraged defiance probably will be good enough to let the Palm Beach resident hold on to his radio empire, media relations experts said Friday.
But they warned that the drug allegations could cause lasting damage if not resolved soon.
Until then, he's trapped in Limbaugh limbo, unable to proclaim his innocence or seek his listeners' forgiveness as long as he is in jeopardy of prosecution.
"The very thing he needs to do is the one thing he can't do," said Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television, who listened to Friday's broadcast. And that could conflict with Limbaugh's reputation among listeners as a deflator of liberal lies.
"His whole thing has been getting to the truth: 'Forget all this dissembling and parsing of sentences,"' Thompson said. But when Limbaugh resorts to cautious, lawyerly language, he's doing "some of the things he has made a career exposing others for doing."
Del Galloway, incoming president of the Public Relations Society of America, said he's never heard of a celebrity in a position quite like Limbaugh's.
"The attacker is being attacked, and he's in uncharted waters," said Galloway, partner in a Jacksonville advertising and PR firm.
"If it were a mainstream, less controversial figure, I would urge the client to step back, step up and take responsibility for those comments and mend relationships," Galloway said. But for Limbaugh, "his success has been from being in your face. Why would he now back away from it?"
If Friday's show is any guide, Limbaugh can expect plenty of support. He said on the air that he had received 35,000 e-mails, overwhelmingly in his favor, since the ESPN flap erupted Tuesday.
One caller, Kurt from Traverse City, Mich., took the drug issue head-on:
"I support you whether you did anything or you didn't do anything," Kurt told Limbaugh. "People do things wrong in their life. It doesn't make them a bad person."
Other callers seconded Limbaugh's comments on ESPN, in which he accused journalists of excessively praising Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb out of a desire to advance black athletes. One caller said nobody complained about racism in the movie title "White Men Can't Jump."
But some chided Limbaugh for the way he said it.
"Mega free-speech dittos," said his first caller, Jerry in Wilton, Conn. But then he added: "I think you're a knucklehead for bringing up the racial aspect of the press coverage in a forum like the ESPN show, because it's basically a sound-bite forum."
"This was the place to say this," Limbaugh responded. "It's a football show!"
Limbaugh's show is syndicated to about 600 stations, said Keven Bellows, spokeswoman for Premier Radio Networks. In 2001, Limbaugh signed a nine-year, $285 million contract with the network, reportedly the richest deal in talk-radio history.
Other broadcasters have lost their careers because of remarks that were deemed racially insensitive. For instance, CBS football analyst Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder was fired in 1988 after saying blacks were "bred" to be athletes.
And Limbaugh has a throng of loyal, ideologically committed listeners to back him up, Thompson noted.
On the other hand, unlike many celebrities, Limbaugh can't slink away from public view until the controversy goes away. He has 15 hours of live air time to fill every week.
"I have to admit he finessed it pretty good," Thompson said after Friday's show. "He really did not come on today like a whipped dog.
My recollection of the reason for ditto is slightly different.
When Rush first went national, many callers would start their comments by saying something to the effect of "Rush, I've been a conservative for many years, and I found a breath of fresh air on your radio show. My family and I love your show. . ."
After a few dozen of those introductory comments, a caller said "Ditto" to the previous caller's introduction and went on to the real reason for his call. Then the rest of the callers starting saying "Ditto" to avoid syrupy introductions.
Since many of the Dittoheads call to disagree with Rush, Ditto seems more of a shorthand for "I love your show" than a code for "I agree with Rush."
I wonder if other Freepers have a different take on this.
Oh. Is that all? (lol)
Given his zoo animal sexual propensities, I'm surprised there wasn't a course or two of penicillin treatment in there.
If only John had stuck with his younger brother's medicine of choice, perhaps we'd have been spared his presidency, as we were spared the presidency of said younger brother.
Sports pundits say wrong things all the time, and piss people off all the time. This McNabb remark simply was not the racial slur it's being made out to be, it is hardly worth all the outrage it has caused among the democrats.
I do agree it was stupid of him to "go there" on ESPN, but the racial angle he was pursuing did not in any way denote racism on Rush's part. I think this will blow up on the libs/dims. I think Joe Six-Pack will see as frightening the media firestorm that has resulted over such an innocuous remark.
There's a local talk-radio host here in Houston named Chris Baker who does a similar thing. Instead of wasting airtime with a lot of stuff like "Hi, Chris-how ya doin'", and "Fine, how 'bout yourself?", he asks that callers say "Yahoo, Chris", and he says "Back at ya", and so on. Smae thing as the dittoes, basically.
Most of the time, these reporters who write about Rush have never heard his show, so the reporter may have been filling up column space by embellishing his tales.
Funny. I listened to his show Friday, and thought he was a very wise man.
I agree 100%.
But it WAS a stupid, untimely (as in "save for your own show") comment.
I think the part that bothers me the most about this debacle is that he has cut and run.
Guaranteed.
"I hope the Democratic/Clinton smear machine gets what it has coming to it."
It's gonna happen. Those who think they are just too clever for words, always wind up over-stepping themselves.
In the meantime, I'm watching to see who is taking the side of Rush's enemies.
Discernment 101:
A person's enemies, not his so-called "friends", are the best indicator of his character.
Like Rush, I am proud to be defined by who my enemies are.
We already KNOW who they are that have chosen to be Rush's enemies.
THAT is ALL we need to know.
Contrary to what most people think, it has been my opinion right from the beginnning that what has happened is going to be a blessing in disguise. Just wait and see!
This sort of flap is of incalcuable value in getting the attention of the shallow mentalities who don't pay attention to anthing of substance/importance and therefore don't have the first clue about what's really going on right under their noses.
In spite of the fact that I know that we may perceive some of the up-coming developments to be harrowing and precarious situations, I am eagerly anticipating them.
I view all of these assaults on Bush, Rush, Arnold, et.al., etc., as opportunity time.
We're doing fine. Good luck in your retirement. Politics? - you'll need it. HA!
Bump!
Hillary Clinton and the Radical Left (Hillary Clinton and the Third Way)*** Their cynicism flows from the very perception they have of right and wrong. They do it for higher ends. They do it for the progressive faith. They do it because they see themselves as having the power to redeem the world from evil. It is that terrifyingly exalted ambition that fuels their spiritual arrogance and justifies their sordid and, if necessary, criminal means.
And that is why they hate conservatives. They hate you because you are killers of their dream. Because you are defenders of a Constitution that thwarts their cause. They hate you because your "reactionary" commitment to individual rights, to a single standard and to a neutral and limited state obstructs their progressive designs. They hate you because you are believers in property and its rights as the cornerstones of prosperity and human freedom; because you do not see the market economy as a mere instrument for acquiring personal wealth and political war chests, to be overcome in the end by bureaucratic schemes.
Conservatives who think progressives are misinformed idealists will forever be blind-sided by the malice of the left-by the cynicism of those who pride themselves on principle, by the viciousness of those who champion sensitivity, by the intolerance of those who call themselves liberal, and by the ruthless disregard for the well-being of the downtrodden by those who preen themselves as social saints. ***
This is my understanding.
Me too. The harder the Left peddles, the more ground they lose.
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