Last year, Rush Limbaugh beat back a media blitz that claimed he is racist. The blitz was centered around two racist comments that were being falsely attributed to him. No one has ever been able to provide the sources for those two quotes, so Mr. Limbaugh was quite justified in setting the record straight. The problem with that was that those two quotes were among a list of ten. He only proved two out of the ten to be incorrect. That's only a 20% success rate in his "I don't ever say anything racist" argument. That's an F in my book.
I'm not going to rehash those quotes, as they're old news. I'm more concerned with a new statement made just yesterday. Comments like these from Rush, seem to be becoming more and more common. I believe that he has just raised the bar, significantly with this latest blatantly bigoted statement. He is discussing the current budget legislation, implying that President Obama would be turning troops into slaves with his liberal, read Communist, capitalist-hating proposals. He said,
If the troops still engage in battle, if they go to war and they execute the orders issued by their commanders, if the troops are thus not paid by their commander-in-chief, are they his slaves? What would you call it? Can those serving in the military just walk off the job? I don't think so.
So if Obama does not sign the bill to pay his troops, then it sounds sort of like forced labor to me. I mean, it's one thing, folks — we can all agree on this: It's one thing to have to pick cotton, but to be forced to risk your life overseas without being paid, that's the worst kind of forced labor to me.
[ . . .]
Jesse Jackson says the government shutdown would be a return to the Civil War? If the president refuses to fund the troops, if the commander-in-chief refuses to pay the troops, and congressman Jim Moran in Virginia tells a voter who wants to know why the troops aren't being paid to shut up and sit down, and if these guys expect these troops to stay on the job, it sure sounds like Obama has more in common with President Jefferson Davis than he does with President Lincoln.
Five minutes after Limbaugh said it, the media was all over the Jefferson Davis analogy. Personally, I think it's one of the goofiest analogies that I've heard Rush Limbaugh attempt. It's so goofy, it fails on multiple levels, including it fails to be precisely racist. Here's the thing, though, there was a seriously racist statement, made in that monologue. Rush's call screener, Mr. Snerdley, caught it. Listen,
"The government has not been affected at all. The government has done nothing but continue to leech and grow. (interruption)
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Article comments
1 - quivive
That was the silliest stratospheric reach I have ever read. If Paul Krugman were to read this piece he would be green with envy. I know it must be hard on you that Rush is more effective than ever, but those thoughts will cease if you just let it go. Join the commonsense is beginning to prevail in this great republic and help us solve the serious problems we face.
2 - Joshua Tyler
quivive… “That was the silliest stratospheric reach I have ever read.”
Evidently, you think that Mr. Snerdley was more offended by the goofball Jefferson Davis association, than he was about the ”It's one thing to have to pick cotton, but to be forced to risk your life overseas without being paid, that's the worst kind of forced labor to me” comment. Well, I think it’s your take, on this, that is the “stratospheric reach”, so I guess we’re even.
quivive… “I know it must be hard on you that Rush is more effective than ever, but those thoughts will cease if you just let it go.”
Let me see if I understand your position. The people, who disagree with Rush, are just supposed to sit idly by, and allow his idiocy to go uncontested? That’s a bit anti First Amendment, don’t you think?
quivive… “Join the commonsense is beginning to prevail in this great republic and help us solve the serious problems we face.”
It’s funny that you should mention “commonsense” (sic). Common Sense, by Thomas Paine, is one of favorite books. Glenn Beck’s version, on the other hand, is garbage. It’s the same sort of revisionist nonsense that we get from the history-challenged Mr. Limbaugh, and his knuckle dragging dittoheads.
3 - Butch
This "Rush is racist" nonsense has been going on for twenty years and will likely continue unabated for the rest of his career. The end result of all this hyperventilating is that the solidarity of Rush's fanbase increases while more media outlet trip over themselves to give him more press.
I like Rush and while I think he has been guilty of insensitivity, I do not believe he is racist. Rush is on the air five days a week, 52 weeks a year. His job is to be provocative and entertaining while also offering his own interpretation and analysis of current events.
Yes, marginalizing the plight of the African-American slave by saying "it's one thing to pick cotton" (as if that was the worst of their hardships) is insensitive and ill considered. But to offer that as proof that the man hates black people? Don't make me laugh.
By the way, your closing paragraph begins "I agree with Mr. Snerdley on this one." Nice attempt at manipulating your readers. You meant to say, "I agree with my own speculation about what Snerdley might have meant."
4 - Clavos
Blah, blah, blah...
5 - Clavos
Butch:apologies -- posted my #4 before I saw your #5 -- not intended for you.
6 - Clavos
Aaarrrgghh! Should be "your #3!"
7 - Boeke
If I understand this aright, Mr. Limbaugh was making an invidious comparison between abduction from your homeland into chained slavery, with missing a military paycheck?
8 - Joshua Tyler
Butch... "This "Rush is racist" nonsense has been going on for twenty years and will likely continue unabated for the rest of his career. The end result of all this hyperventilating is that the solidarity of Rush's fanbase increases while more media outlet trip over themselves to give him more press."
Good. I want as many Americans as possible to listen to Rush and determine that he is an idiot. His existing fan base is a lost cause as they lack the intelligence to understand Rush's bigoted ignorance.
Butch... "I like Rush and while I think he has been guilty of insensitivity, I do not believe he is racist. Rush is on the air five days a week, 52 weeks a year. His job is to be provocative and entertaining while also offering his own interpretation and analysis of current events."
Let me get this straight. Limbaugh can offer his "interpretation and analysis" about everyone else, but everyone else, me for instance, isn't supposed to interpret or analyze Mr. Limbaugh's political views, even if they're idiotic and dangerous? Seems fair to me, in a dittohead logic sort of way.
Butch... "Yes, marginalizing the plight of the African-American slave by saying "it's one thing to pick cotton" (as if that was the worst of their hardships) is insensitive and ill considered. But to offer that as proof that the man hates black people? Don't make me laugh."
You don't like laughing? No wonder you "like Rush". There is a reason that Rush's comedy act didn't work in front of a live audience that included intelligent people. Canned laughter doesn't work real well in the modern age.
Butch... "By the way, your closing paragraph begins "I agree with Mr. Snerdley on this one." Nice attempt at manipulating your readers. You meant to say, "I agree with my own speculation about what Snerdley might have meant."
"Manipulating" through "speculation"? Damn it! I thought, this whole time, that I was interpreting Mr. Limbaugh's political views and offering my analysis.
One last observation, in the form of a question. If Rush Limbaugh truly believes that black Americans are his equal, then why does he find it so easy to make such incredibly "insensitive" and "ill considered" comments about them, as a group, when they had no choice in the color of their skin?
9 - Joshua Tyler
Boeke... "If I understand this aright, Mr. Limbaugh was making an invidious comparison between abduction from your homeland into chained slavery, with missing a military paycheck?"
Nail head, meet the hammer. Boeke, that is exactly the analogy that Limbaugh was attempting. Unfortunately, just like the bobbing head toy in the back of the car in front of you, dittoheads are out there saying "Dittos Maha Rushie!"
10 - Glenn Contrarian
Let's see just how 'non-racist' Limbaugh is:
1. “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”
2. “Right. So you go into Darfur and you go into South Africa, you get rid of the white government there. You put sanctions on them. You stand behind Nelson Mandela - who was bankrolled by communists for a time, had the support of certain communist leaders. You go to Ethiopia. You do the same thing.”
3. “Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
4. “The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”
6. [To an African American female caller]: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”
7. ”I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They’re interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. I think there’s a little hope invested in McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn’t deserve.”
8. Let's not forget the several times Rush aired ‘Barack the Magic Negro’!
9. “We need segregated buses… This is Obama’s America.”
10. “Obama’s entire economic program is reparations [to black people].”
And the two following comments - unlike the above - are contested:
1. “I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.”
2. “You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King]. We miss you, James. Godspeed.”
NOW THAT WAS FROM ONE SITE. HERE'S SOME MORE:
- Arguing during the 2008 campaign that no one is permitted to criticize Barack Obama: "You can't criticize the little black man-child. You just can't do it, 'cause it's just not right. It's not fair. He's such a victim."
- "We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles, bend over forward, backward, whichever, because his father was black, because this is the first black president."
- Reacting to a report of black students assaulting a white student on a bus (an incident that police determined was not racially motivated), Limbaugh brought in Barack Obama: "In Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, 'Right on, right on, right on.'"
- Limbaugh expressed his ire when Spike Lee urged that black schoolchildren get off from school to see his film 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."
- Discussing a Chicago inner-city schoolteacher punished for using a math question that focused on the price of prostitution and cocaine habits, Limbaugh suggested that the teacher should be credited for "understanding the culture these kids come from." The math question began: "Rufus is pimping three girls."
OKAY? The guy is RACIST! And what does that say about his army of dittoheads who don't turn away from him the second they hear clap like this?
11 - Glenn Contrarian
Hm. I guess that ended that argument....
12 - Butch
It's not an argument worth carrying on, Glenn. You've got your mind made up. Joshua has his made up. I have mine made up. What's the point?
The "racist comments" that you listed are all taken out of context. Do you listen to Rush? Most of the people who put forth these out-of-context quotes don't.
By the way, not everyone who does listen to Rush considers themselves a "dittohead." The other side of the political fence is littered with just as many people who do not think for themselves. In fact, judging a man as racist based on a list of out-of-context quotations shows a distinct lack of thought. I'm not accusing you, specifically, of that. But the lists is, in fact, all you offered. Anyone can copy and paste someone else's compilation.
13 - Glenn Contrarian
"get the bone out of your nose" is taken out of context????
No, Butch - it's YOU who have your mind made up. The rest of us merely made up our minds on the evidence at hand.
14 - Joshua Tyler
It never fails. When the evidence supports the argument too effectively, out comes the “out of context” nonsense. It is Rush that takes people out of context, incessantly. He calls them “sound bites”. He keeps them in his daily “sound bite roster”. They are, typically, about 15 seconds, to a minute, long. MediaMatters, on the other hand, records and posts large blocks of surrounding transcript (context), which “contain” the specific quote of interest. It’s called keeping someone’s words “in context”.
Let’s look at an example of Rush’s “out of context” quote mining, from just yesterday.
RUSH: Yesterday at the White House, Washington, Pharaoh Obama spoke with eighth graders from Longmont, Colorado's Altona Middle School, and a little girl said, "What was the hardest challenge you had to overcome to become president, or being president?"
OBAMA: Being President? The hardest thing is that this is such a big country, with so many different kinds of people, and everybody has different ideas. And so even if you have a pretty clear sense of what you want to do on the budget, or on health care, or on foreign policy, there are gonna be, you know, half the country may disagree with you. It would be easier if I could just say, "Well here's what I think is the best thing to do" and I could just do it. But I've got this thing called Congress, and they're elected to make sure that your opinions when you vote for members of Congress that their opinions are expressed. You've got the Judiciary that says, "Well we've got this Constitution and this is how we should do things."
RUSH: First, will Obama ever speak to a grownup audience again? It seems like every audience is either a bunch of salivating Democrats with their tongues on the floor or a bunch of kids. And here, what did he essentially say? He's complaining he's not a dictator. It would be so much easier if he was a dictator. He thought he was gonna be able to do the job of dictator, he can't do that. Did you see where Obama laments the loss of his anonymity? Wishes he could just sit in the park and watch people walk by. He hates getting up having to shave, having to look presentable. Veg, he can't do that. He would love to go to Central Park and just sit there and tax people as they walk by. But he can't. (laughing) Yeah, collect taxes from them as they walk by. Well, he can't. It's amazing the complaints. Look, he sought the job. It's not as though this was an unknown aspect of the job that you lose your anonymity.
On Limbaugh’s website, the above transcript is accompanied by a PhotoShop-ed image of President Barack Obama wearing a Republic of China military cap, with the following text displayed below the image: “Messiah Tse-Tung”.
This is Limbaugh hypocrisy at its grandest. President George W. Bush said this on December 18, 2000:
“I told all four that there were going to be some times where we don't agree with each other. But that's OK. If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.”
That’s strange. I don’t recall Mr. Limbaugh making similar criticisms about President Bush’s nearly identical observation about dictatorships being easier to run than bi-cameral democratic republics. Gee, I guess it must have been because it was almost Christmas, and Rush was in the Christmas spirit.
And, in the case of this article, and the notion that the “It's one thing to have to pick cotton, but to be forced to risk your life overseas without being paid, that's the worst kind of forced labor to me” comment, being out of context? I already provided significant surrounding context, but I’ll even do one better. Here’s a link to Limbaugh’s entire transcript. Go read the entire thing, titled “Obama to Enslave US Military in Order to Protect Abortion Funding”. That comment, even with the entire surrounding context included, is still Archie Bunker time.
15 - Butch
Joshua - until the final paragraph of your #14 comment, you aren't even talking about Rush's supposed "racism." I suggest you write another article - or maybe even start an Anti-Rush feature column. Then you can explore all the other aspects of Rush's show that you don't agree with.
When I talked about "out of context" I was referring specifically to Glenn's list of statements that he copied and pasted from other articles. Not yours.
#13 - Glenn, yes it's the very definition of "out of context" - taking one line from a larger dialogue and asking people to make their judgements based on that alone.
16 - Joshua Tyler
Butch, if you think that the compilation of quotes that Glenn provided, are "out of context", why don't you write an article that puts them into proper context by using the surrounding text that they were pulled from? Mr. Limbaugh would be vindicated, and your problem with those quotes would be solved.
And, on this suggestion from you...
"I suggest you write another article - or maybe even start an Anti-Rush feature column. Then you can explore all the other aspects of Rush's show that you don't agree with."
... it's a humdinger. It's a little after the fact, though, as I'm already working on that prospect with the nice folks here at BlogCritics. They should be happy to see that there are people, in this audience, that would like to see such a feature. Thanks for the supportive input.
17 - Heloise
I listen to Rush for entertainment. And he has a token negro Mr. Snerdly whom I am sure he pays well. Snerdly probably voted for Obama too.
Heloise
18 - Costello
Can a person be wildly insensitive and not be a racist? He says some very ignorant things but are they based on hate or stupidity?
And to be fair, the Magic Negro is a literary device that's been around quite a while
19 - Joshua Tyler
Heloise... "I listen to Rush for entertainment. And he has a token negro Mr. Snerdly whom I am sure he pays well. Snerdly probably voted for Obama too."
Interesting concept. Who did Mr. Limbaugh's token black employee, Mr. Snerdley, vote for? Senator McCain? Seems a bit unlikely, doesn't it?
20 - Joshua Tyler
Costello... "Can a person be wildly insensitive and not be a racist? He says some very ignorant things but are they based on hate or stupidity?"
So, he's a stupid racist, not a hateful racist? Thanks, that clears up our confusion.
Costello... "And to be fair, the Magic Negro is a literary device that's been around quite a while."
Maybe, but if you put blackface in the voices, and make the Reverend Sharpton sound like he's talking to his "mammy", it's a 100% racist production.
21 - Leigh Patrick Sullivan
The far-left's cries of 'racist!' has gotten really old. They should really come up with a new default (and perhaps even accurate) phrase to use. Or, they may even decide to disagree on a subject using actual facts.
22 - Glenn Contrarian
Ah - so since the cries of 'racism' are getting old, we should ignore race-baiting when someone publicly commits it as Rush has done so often? Of course it didn't occur to you to say that maybe you should join those few conservatives who are truly working to root out the racism that still strongly exists within the Republican party - you know like the 46% of ALL Republicans in Mississippi who STILL think that interracial marriage should be against the law....