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Why 'fair comment' is not a defense for Rush LimbaughGene Weingarten
The Washington Post
Were you as gratified as I was when Rush Limbaugh finally admitted on the air yesterday that he has gotten rich and famous by pandering to the prejudices and insecurities of marginally literate, unfathomably ignorant jackasses who have to be told what to hate?
Under assault for his rant against a Georgetown Law School student who dared to incur his wrath by advocating insurance coverage for birth control, and hemorrhaging appalled advertisers from his show, Limbaugh finally took to the airwaves to issue both an apology and an unusually frank and honest self-appraisal.
I was surprised yet delighted that he finally forthrightly addressed his past criminal charges stemming from his addiction to prescription painkillers, saying he used them to numb his conscience to the terrible knowledge that his soul had become a spavined, corrupt, shriveled, pathetic, withered little thing, not unlike my manhood. That final reference was to a 2006 contretemps in which he was detained at an airport for carrying 29 100-mg Viagra pills in a mislabeled bottle. Yesterday, Limbaugh admitted this was enough Viagra to arouse a corpse but noted that he needs the extra stimulation since the only woman I ever found truly sexy was my mommy, circa 1978.
The most interesting element of his mea culpa yesterday was his frank contempt for Republican politicians who were without the testicular fortitude to unambiguously criticize him for his unjustified, vicious, baffling, and falsehood-filled three-day-long sexually obsessed attack on the blameless Georgetown law student. Singling out Mitt Romney and John Boehner, Limbaugh surmised that neither of them dared to take him on because they know I can turn the bucktoothed rubes and nitwits against them in a heartbeat, and bucktoothed rubes and nitwits are now pretty much the base of their party, which has splintered into competing posses of angry, intolerant, ill-informed pinheads braying at each other ungrammatically.
It goes on. Boy howdy, does it go on: http://live.washingtonpost.com/gene-weingarten-120306.html?hpid=z5
Wow.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)they're not going to like it one bit.
pokerfan
(27,677 posts)Fascinating...
Smilo
(1,944 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)will survive and smell a lot better without this cretin stinking up the airwaves.
Companies still suspending their ads on Limbaugh's show, but they need to make it permanent
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/06/1071748/-Companies-still-suspending-their-ads-on-Limbaugh-s-show-but-they-need-to-make-it-permanent
Updated with video: Rush's 53 Smears Against Sandra Fluke (Wow!)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002382940
trof
(54,256 posts)Killah, I say.
Just killah.
WooHoo!
Gene Weingarten deserves at least a Pulitzer.
Even a Presidential Medal of Freedom, if it hadn't been so cheapened by the previous resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
stevedeshazer
(21,653 posts)+1
A thing of great beauty in my current bummed-out state.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)I'd like to see what the old humor writer Henry Allen would have done with Rushbo. He was pretty hard on people like Justice Rehnquist.
ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...tit-for-tat and very well done!
11 Bravo
(23,926 posts)duties. He's funny as Hell, and he's also on the right side of the issues.
nolabear
(41,990 posts)Talk about on a roll!
onethatcares
(16,178 posts)deal.
This is also the first time I've read anything by Mr. Weingarten but will be looking forward to reading more.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)Love it.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)If Limbaugh ever made it into "The Rooms", I, like just about everyone in "The Rooms" would do our best to put politics aside and we would try to save his life.
Next week, it will be 24 years since my last drink.
A week ago, I lost my little brother to this disease. This is serious, serious shit.
crunch60
(1,412 posts)the loss of your brother. Gone to soon.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)boppers
(16,588 posts)24 years is pretty impressive.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)For many many years while working in Substance Abuse treatment programs,
I had a large framed picture of a dragon lounging against a tree, with a full belly, picking his teeth with a knight's lance, pieces of the knight's empty armor lying around
and at the bottom the caption:
"sometimes the dragon wins".
It always saddens me to hear that the dragon has won, and I glad to hear of your sobriety.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)I see Limbaugh as just another addict "out there", careening around destroying all the lives he touches. Two points:
1.) It's as much for the rest of us as for him that I wish he would stop and get PROPER treatment.
2.) I blame those who allow this addict to remain behind that "Golden Mike", knowing what he's doing.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)I ran out on my children
And I ran out on my wife
Gonna run out on you too, baby
I done it all my life
Everybody cried the night I left
Well, almost everybody did
My little boy just hung his head
And I put my arm, put my arm around his little shoulder
And this is what I said:
"sonny I just want you to hurt like I do
I just want you to hurt like I do
I just want you to hurt like I do
Honest I do, honest I do, honest I do"
If I had one wish
One dream I knew would come true
Id want to speak to all the people of the world
Id get up there, Id get up there on that platform
First Id sing a song or two you know I would
Then Ill tell you what Id do
Id talk to the people and Id say
"its a rough rough world, its a tough tough world
Well, you know
And things dont always, things dont always go the way we plan
But theres one thing, one thing we all have in common
And its something everyone can understand
All over the world sing along
I just want you to hurt like I do
I just want you to hurt like I do
I just want you to hurt like I do
Honest I do, honest I do, honest I do"
crunch60
(1,412 posts)his life, those around him or the public at large, as long as he suits their purpose and continues to make lots of $$$$.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)My bro sounded OK and, in fact, was a VP for a major corp. until the last few months. Takes a bit of experience to be able to see through the defences - especially if the addict only has to put up a brave face for a few hours at a time.
Paladin
(28,271 posts)firehorse
(755 posts)tapioca pudding and snot;
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)Here's a picture of him with wife #4. I think it's pretty safe to say she's in love with his money. Still it's hard to imagine someone loving money that much.
peace frog
(5,609 posts)You can see the dollar signs in her eyes. Enjoy the money while he keeps you in it, hunnybunny, cuz if you don't know now you will soon enough: you're easily replaced.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)Just sayin'...
peace frog
(5,609 posts)but methinks El Rushbo might go for the long-on-looks, short-on-brains type. Just sayin'...
deutsey
(20,166 posts)VWolf
(3,944 posts)but it's more like santorum than love.
Manifestor_of_Light
(21,046 posts)RainDog
(28,784 posts)mmonk
(52,589 posts)pokerfan
(27,677 posts)madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)Up with you.
teewrex
(96 posts)Bigmack
(8,020 posts)mick063
(2,424 posts)Limbaugh isn't getting pwned by just Miss Fluke.
kag
(4,079 posts)Just what I needed after a long day of boycotting and other activism.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Wooo, I gotta go bookmark it...it'll do wonders for my vocabulary, too!!!!!
catrose
(5,071 posts)No sarcasm thingie?
UPDATE: Not the Onion, but another humor writer. Sigh. We can dream.
Iwillnevergiveup
(9,298 posts)except his Mommy? He's a psychiatric s*it storm.
xxqqqzme
(14,887 posts)it might be illegal.
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)A very anti-climactic, yet satisfying feeling results from this episode. It's 20 years too late. And tons of damage has been done.
Now for Rove. And Rumsfeld. And Bush. And hundreds of other Wizards.
Number23
(24,544 posts)tapioca and snot!!!
Ow.... in every sense of the word.
One could only hope...
BeHereNow
(17,162 posts)Wonder how his followers are going to feel about being called
"bucktoothed rubes and nitwits"
And that:
"They know I can turn the bucktoothed rubes and nitwits against them in a heartbeat, and bucktoothed rubes and nitwits are now pretty much the base of their party, which has splintered into competing posses of angry, intolerant, ill-informed pinheads braying at each other ungrammatically.
Reminds of the scene from "A face in the Crowd." The scene where he
thinks the mic is off and starts calling his listeners... well just watch it!
BHN
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)An early scene from that powerful movie.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)It's spooky how accurate that is....
Nice one BHN
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)he will find it very difficult to just apologize:
All of this bile followed from his assertion that she testified about her own extremely active sex life.
Here's the thing: She didnt. She said nothing whatsoever about her own sex life. She did not mention her own contraceptive needs at all: She spoke passionately and eloquently, and respectfully, about several friends of hers, Georgetown students who she said were diagnosed with medical conditions requiring the birth control pill, but who could not get it because they could not afford it. That was it. Here is the transcript of her testimony.
In short -- though Limbaugh doesn't address this in his mealy-mouthed, backhanded "apology" -- Limbaugh just made it all up, then went hog-wild, oinker-frenzy-wild, elaborating on it so he could call her names. Calling people names is bad, but calling people names based on your own invented calumny is the textbook definition of slander. The First Amendment does not protect you from that, nor should it. Even on an issue of public debate, and even if the victim is a public figure, as Ms. Fluke was here, "fair comment is not a defense if you made up the central fact, and the central fact is wrong and is damaging and if your intent was to injure. Im no lawyer, but as I see it: Check, check, check, check. I hope Ms. Fluke knows a good lawyer; if she doesnt, one will find her, I suspect: The pockets here are really deep, though constricted and attenuated a bit: A LOT of flibbity-flabbity belly fat there, Rush. You really should do something about that, in your well-merited retirement.
http://live.washingtonpost.com/gene-weingarten-120306.html?hpid=z5
It's time for Rush Limbaugh to retire, but before he does, he may well have to share some of his wealth with Sandra Fluke.
I think we won't see Rush Limbaugh's exit from the airwaves for quite some time. It will be a struggle, but he will go.
Without the hate, his show will be boring. And people will gradually get tired of his hate.
LittleGirl
(8,287 posts)that's the part of the article I liked best...defending the slander argument. I hope she makes millions off of that gas bag.
spooky3
(34,466 posts)noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)he lied about Ms. Fluke's testimony. He made up shit she never said, and his brain-dead followers keep repeating his lies. burn in hell, m.f.
JennyCait
(11 posts)MineralMan
(146,324 posts)That's the thread title I'm waiting for.
deutsey
(20,166 posts)Tumbulu
(6,292 posts)w8liftinglady
(23,278 posts)montanto
(2,966 posts)And that's why "'fair comment' is not a defense for Rush Limbaugh." Anyone can make shit up, but it would be hard to make shit funnier than this. Let's see what the fat man has to say about it now?!
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)The best demolition of the Bloated Sack I have ever read.
K&R!
spooky3
(34,466 posts)where he pointed out that Rush LIED about what she said, in order to criticize her.
TBF
(32,084 posts)LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)They must have gone over every syllable with magnifying glasses.
amuse bouche
(3,657 posts)Excellent piece
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)You know Rush, if you were really serious about half the things you said, you would quit while you could. Even if Fluke were to sue you (which is unlikely, as she knows she would be demonized) you could still have enough cash to sail off.
Think about what made your friend Andy die so young, a conscience cannot be kept asleep forever. And even though I am agnostic, I do know there is truth in the sayings of a Carpenter from Palestine: "what does it matter to gain the whole world and lose your soul?"
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)TheMadMonk
(6,187 posts)...unfathomably ignorant jackasses who have to be told what to hate.
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)saras
(6,670 posts)but before getting your hopes up...