We can just add this lie to the list that we started earlier today.
7. Lie #7- Liberals are being hypocrites because Ed Schultz called someone a slut: There is no hypocrisy here whatsoever, because the two don’t even compare in any way whatsoever. Ed Schultz called Laura Ingraham, another prominent right-wing talker, someone who launches barbs with the best of them, a “right-wing slut,” was immediately taken off the air for a week by MSNBC, apologized publicly and profusely to Ingraham, and that was the end of that.
Rush Limbaugh spent three days calling some unknown law student a slut and a prostitute. Not once. Not twice. Not three times. Fifty-three times, to be exact:
1) “testifies she’s having so much sex she can’t afford her own birth control pills and she agrees that Obama should provide them, or the Pope”
2) “they’re having so much sex they can’t afford the birth control pills!”
3) “essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.”
4) “Sandra Fluke. So much sex going on, they can’t afford birth control pills.”March 1, 2012:
5) “You’d call ’em a slut, a prostitute”
6) “she’s having so much sex”
7) “are having so much sex that they’re going broke”
8) “they want to have sex any time, as many times and as often as they want, with as many partners as they want”
9) “the sexual habits of female law students at Georgetown”
10) “are having so much sex that they’re going broke”
11) “having so much sex that it’s hard to make ends meet”
12) “four out of every ten co-eds are having so much sex that it’s hard to make ends meet”
13) “Now, what does that make her? She wants us to buy her sex.”
14) “to pay for these co-eds to have sex”
15) “she and her co-ed classmates are having sex nearly three times a day for three years straight, apparently these deadbeat boyfriends or random hookups that these babes are encountering here, having sex with nearly three times a day”
16) “Therefore we are paying her to have sex. Therefore we are paying her for having sex.”
17) “Have you ever heard of not having sex so often?”
18) “Ms. Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here’s the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. And I’ll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”
19) “we want something in return, Ms. Fluke: And that would be the videos of all this sex posted online so we can see what we are getting for our money.”
20) “’If we’re paying for this, it makes these women sluts, prostitutes.’ And what else could it be?”
21) “essentially says that she must be paid to have sex. What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right?”
22) “I’m having sex so damn much, I’m going broke.”
23) “She’s having so much sex that she’s going broke! There’s no question about her virtue.”
24) “having so much sex she’s going broke at Georgetown Law.”
25) “Here’s a woman exercising no self-control. The fact that she wants to have repeated, never-ending, as often as she wants it sex — given.”
26) “She’s having so much sex it’s amazing she can still walk, but she made it up there.”
27) “Maybe they’re sex addicts.”
28) “to pay for her to have sex all the time.”
29) “she wants the rest of us to pay for her sex.”
30) “She wants all the sex that she wants all the time paid for by the rest of us.”
31) “Here this babe goes before Congress and wants thousands of dollars to pay for her sex.”
32) “a woman who is happily presenting herself as an immoral, baseless, no-purpose-to-her-life woman.”
33) “She wants all the sex in the world, whenever she wants it, all the time.”
34) “If this woman wants to have sex ten times a day for three years, fine and dandy.”
35) “to provide women from Georgetown Law unlimited, no-consequences sex.”
36) “so she can have unlimited, no-consequences sex.”
37) “You want to have all the sex you want all day long, no consequences, no responsibility for your behavior”
38) “The woman wants unlimited, no-responsibility, no-consequences sex, and she wants it with contraceptives paid for by us.”March 2, 2012:
39) “she’s having so much sex, she can’t afford her birth control pills anymore.”
40) “she’s having so much sex, she can’t pay for it — and we should.”
41) “She’s having so much sex, she can’t afford it.”
42) “this, frankly hilarious claim that she’s having so much sex (and her buddies with her) that she can’t afford it.”
43) “And not one person says, ‘Well, did you ever think about maybe backing off the amount of sex that you have?’”
44) “Does she have more boyfriends? Ha! They’re lined up around the block.”
45) “It was Sandra Fluke who said that she was having so much sex, she can’t afford it.”
46) “By her own admission, in her own words, Sandra Fluke is having so much sex that she can’t afford it.”
47) “they’re having a lot of sex for which they need a lot of contraception.”
48) “Her sex life is active and she’s having sex so frequently that she can’t afford all the birth control pills that she needs.”
49) “who admits to having so much sex that she can’t afford it anymore.”
50) “she’s having so much sex, she can’t pay for it.”
51) “As frequently as she has sex and to not be pregnant, she’s obviously succeeding in contraception.”
52) “Ms. Fluke, asserts her right to free contraceptive, to handle her sex life — and it’s, by her own admission, quite active.”UPDATE: added thanks to your comments,
53) “Ms. Fluke, who bought your condoms in junior high? Who bought your condoms in the sixth grade, or your contraception?”
Yeah, that three day sustained assault on a student is exactly the same as one obnoxious and offensive outburst by Ed Schultz.
JPL
John, Good job.
schrodinger's cat
Why are GOPers so obsessed with the sex lives of other people.
Perverts.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Now John, really. You *know* both sides do it. Can we please hang El Rushbo Gordo around the neck of the GOP until November. They won’t stand up to him, and they want to bomb Iran.
trollhattan
If there were any unmarked space left on the Big Boy I’d say “that’s gonna leave a mark.”
But anyway, Boff sides do it!
geg6
Jesus Christ.
I have to admit that I have never once listened to this pig. I’ve caught some clips on tv or caught snippets at various businesses or whatever, but I don’t even click on videos posted here or anywhere else because I knew it would make me nauseous to hear it in all its disgusting glory.
Honestly, what kind of person listens to that kind of shit for three hours a day? How damaged do you have to be?
4tehlulz
Needs more sexism.
Elizabelle
Do you think those advertisers will eventually return to Rush? Maybe they won’t.
Loved this voiceover on ABC network news tonight:
“… advertisers who apparently think calling a woman a “slut” does not mesh with their advertising program….”
So when do they go back? Maybe never.
Zifnab
And aside from even that, who the hell cares? Free Speech. Rush (and Schultz) have every right to yap their yaps. The advertisers have every right to stop paying them to do it.
Rush isn’t getting punished out of some divine justice. If there were such justice, he’d have been struck dead by a bolt of lightning years ago. He’s said something intensely unpopular, and now people are disassociating from him.
Suck it up, chump. ‘Dems da ropes.
cathyx
Wow, I can’t believe you listed every time he called her a slut. You’re tenacious.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
I’ve begun to check to Colonel Mustard as my go to when some wingnut hero fucks the chicken.
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/03/welcome-to-total-political-war/
It is a dangerous development, for the right wing. Their flag ship dirigible blowd a hole, and all the wingnuts are running for their lives. Except those too stupid to know any better. The Limburg Disaster.http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cts=1330992742943&sqi=2&ved=0CEQQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DF54rqDh2mWA&ei=c1VVT_vROIfTiALmp7G1Bg&usg=AFQjCNFl4squn3YI6ukOUGzWYyy90WRsWg&sig2=aVP6SPAQ8pBqCli9OdGLRQ
edit – How calm was this comment? Thank you for participating.
JPL
@geg6: Years ago I listened to five minutes and he was explaining the cost of minorities and drugs. His feeling was lock them up and throw away the key. Of course, that was before the Oxy days.
Jennifer
Since I missed the earlier thread enumerating the lies Rush and the rightwingers had to tell to “justify” haranguing Fluke as a “slut”, just wanted to say thanks for listing them, John. They track with what I’ve been writing to Limbaugh sponsors in making the point that it’s kind of hard for me to believe in the integrity or honesty of a company that supports such a blatant liar with their advertising dollars. Closing by suggesting that any company who doesn’t have a problem with supporting such a liar in its advertising probably doesn’t have a problem with lying directly to customers and potential customers, and I can’t be the only one who’s figured that out.
dmsilev
I’m going to have nightmares centered around that cartoon. Thanks, Cole.
LT
For one he’s using marble, for the other he’s collected his dog’s droppings for eight months.
The Other Chuck
Looks to me like most of this was searching the transcript for “sex”. So figure you can add a few dozen more on top of #53.
In fact, it might just be easier to list the lines where he *wasn’t* a complete asshole.
trollhattan
@Zifnab:
Huge difference between pundit attack dog with national platform versus pundit attack dog with national platform and pundit attack dog with national platform versus citizen testifying before congress.
But they don’t see a difference, do they?
TaMara (BHF)
Thank John. These posts are great. Keep the heat on. I was actually surprised by the backlash.
As a strong woman, I’m used to getting called names when that strength intimidates (from both men and women), not to mention all the veiled insults, so I tend to become immune to the real impact. It’s easier to ignore the misogynists instead of fight everyone of them.
I’m glad you and others have reminded me to be outraged.
The Other Chuck
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero):
Just curious, where _did_ this meme start?
jrg
Don’t forget how Democratic politicians shit themselves in fear over crossing Ed Schultz and Lil Wayne.
Plus Obama said “bring a knife to a gun fight” once, which is hate speech.
Ben Franklin
Malkin, Coulter, Ingraham are Public figures, and they have been duly compensated for the ‘sacrifice’ of their constitutional right the Student still obtains. The offending commentators for the Unholy Trinity were duly chastised. ‘Nuff said.
If members of Americanus Ignoramus had found their daughter exposed in such a way, I’m sure they would still champion the corpulent salamander with gusto.
gnomedad
This creeps me out more than the rest of them put together.
Cain
I bemoan the nasty tone that is coming from both sides. Why can’t we get along?!
lamh35
Peter Gabriel Pulls Music From ‘Rush Limbaugh Show’
Singer ‘appalled’ by host’s attack on Sandra Fluke
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I’d like to say a big THANK YOU Sandra Fluke for having the courage to come forward and speak out when there was no way a rational person could have guaranteed ahead of time that the Right Wing Smear Machine would throw a rod and run into the ditch, but every reasonable expectation that they would come after her in a very personal way and that it would be every bit this ugly. That took guts and we are all better off as a result.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@The Other Chuck:
Don’t know. Probly some gutter like where my mind came from
Mark S.
@geg6:
I’d still listen to Rush’s entire show than five minutes of the Mark Levin show.
LT
Keep fucking that chicken.
Part of me will never stop laughing at the female anchor’s face when he says that.
God, I just watched it again. Watch. At about 9 seconds, when they cut to the broad shot. Fuck…
tweez
You don’t see Democratic politicians bowing and scraping for Ed Shultz either now, do you?
RD
@Zifnab:
I care. And Rush Limbaugh is still subject to FCC guidelines.
dmsilev
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero):
I’ve been hitting RedState. Tears of the wingnut are wonderful. They’ve got this as the current top story on the homepage: “Limbaugh, Fluke, ‘War on Women’ and the Travesty of Cravenly Caving to Lies of the Left”.
JPL
It’s nice to see the network news still covering this. ABC is covering the repub candidates reaction and insinuating they are cowards for their reaction.
Martin
@The Other Chuck:
Here
forked tongue
Limbaugh’s a piker. If you want to see some real hate, it’s Pam Geller and her minions who really know how to bring it. (link to LGF)
Ben Cisco
Cole’s ready and hyped plus he’s amped!
J.W. Hamner
You know, ever since DougJ got a Moore Award nomination for calling for scalps I feel like we’ve been on a roll. Hopefully Rush will join the collection shortly.
muddy
And will no one think of the Children? Here is this multiple sex partners and internet videos BS he’s handing out in the middle of the day, right on the free airwaves! Why is the Right not after him for corrupting the Innocents in this way. It’s just shocking, shocking.
gnomedad
@geg6:
If your answer is “no one in my family”, count your blessings.
Nylund
Well, if 1 mention gets you taken off for a week, then with 53, Rush should be taken off for an entire year. Fair is fair, right?
The Other Chuck
@LT:
My co-workers became very concerned about me when I fell out of my chair wheezing in laughter. That was amazing.
SuzieC
Bullet points 45, 46, and 49 are going to kill the creep in a defamation suit. Not even arguably satire, or hyperbole. Instead, he made shit up and put words into her mouth that she never said.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@dmsilev:
Redstate is a good weathervane to test the wingnut wind direction. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the winger blogs this stunned and depressed, which is already giving way to the normal raging counter attack. And I can’t remember when I’ve been more pleased at a turn of events in politics:=)
Jay S
Shouldn’t lie #7 be on a separate list? This is one of the Limbaugh defender lies rather than from Rush himself isn’t it?
ira-NY
Cole, You are on fire today. Keep blazing.
Jennifer
@Jay S: I don’t have the stomach to listen to 3 days of Limbaugh to verify if he said #7 or not, but if his defenders are saying it you can pretty well bet that it came directly from his corpulent piehole.
Joseph Nobles
I just copied all of those quotes and put it in a Facebook post. It will be interesting to see the comments I get! Thanks, John!
Chyron HR
@lamh35:
What did Peter Gabriel’s music have to do with the Rush Limbaugh show in the first place? Is his theme song “Colony of the Slippermen”?
WereBear (itouch)
I’m probably not the only one to watch the climactic scene in A Face in the Crowd, where Lonesome Rhodes descends in an elevator, and wistfully thinking that it doesn’t really happen that fast.
But this instance is almost that fast. And it’s thanks to the pump priming effect of the Komen disaster. Women got sensitized.
Then the lineup of officious old men telling women about birth control.
So Rush really picked the wrong time and target.
Frank
@JPL:
While nice to see, what the hell took them so long? It is easy to kick Rush now that he apparently is down. But this should have happened YEARS ago. What about when Rush ridiculed and attacked Michael J Fox for having the audacity to have Parkinson’s disease?
I think it just another example of the weak minded media who usually steps in too little and too late and are more concerned about its both sides do it garbage.
trollhattan
@Martin:
Truly one of the classics. We thank yee, oh holy Tubes.
kc
@lamh35:
WHAT? I’m appalled that Peter Gabriel ever let Limbaugh use his music at all!
Jay S
@Jennifer:
I’m pretty sure this came out this weekend or early last week while Rush was still playing offence rather than defense. OTOH I wouldn’t ask anyone to go to the tape to check. Of course he may have used it previously in some other context.
maya
I, like others have noted, have never listened to a single complete Rushbo show. Years ago I was using a business owner’s telephone for my own work related calls. On several occasions when I was in his shop I heard this grating voice in the background on the radio. (The business had some machines going most of the time.) Finally, one day I asked him who was that on the radio? He told me, Rush Limbaugh. While I had heard of him before I had never until that time ever heard him, but his overall tone was absolutely irritating and I couldn’t understand why anyone would voluntarily listen to that voice. Have never listened to him since.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mark S.:
It’s built to be consumed in chunks, though some people, clearly, have problems with portion control. That’s why you get the repetition and embellishment, like a fucking infomercial — guarantees that the rubes will latch on to at least one of the 57 times you make the same point.
Litlebritdifrnt
Like I said downstairs I was gobsmacked this evening on the drive home listening to my local RWNJ talk show. The host was talking about the Limbaugh kerfuffle and the first caller said “the truth hurts don’t it, she is a slut and a whore” the host said “wait a minute” the caller said “I HEARD ON THE RADIO THAT SHE WAS HAVING SO MUCH SEX SHE COULDN’T AFFORD HER CONTRACEPTION” (direct quote from Rush), the host said “now let us be clear here she didn’t say any such thing” the caller said “BUT I HEARD IT ON THE RADIO”. This is what we are dealing with here. Because they heard Rush say it on the radio is has to be the truth. These people will never watch the actual testimony and see if that is what she said. They will take as absolute truth what Rush told them she said. That is why all of his callers today backed him up, cause they had no interest in going to watch what she actually said, they take everything Rush says as absolute truth (cause Rush keeps telling them that his opinions are true 99.6% of the time). They would question the bible rather than question Rush.
RD
@Chyron HR:
Sledgehammer. Why don’t you try reading the link.
Mark S.
I used to bet my friends that they couldn’t listen to an entire Mark Levin show without killing themselves.
All my friends are dead.
JPL
@Frank: this…ESPN fired him pretty quickly and he still is able to spout his hatred on a Bain Company owned radio station. What is Romney thinking?
Clime Acts
Awesome article on Gawker, focusing on Limbaugh and the BJ reaction.
Violet
That last one, the one about who bought her condoms when she was in 6th grade, that one really gets to me. It’s bad enough to call an adult woman a slut and a prostitute, but to somehow go from there to say that she needed birth control in sixth grade…I don’t know. It’s just awful.
I hope he continues to lose the last advertisers he’s got and then loses his show. He’s awful.
pseudonymous in nc
@kc:
Chances are that he wasn’t even aware of it until now. That kind of licensing often happens at a second or third remove from the artist.
Martin
@Frank:
As a society we see Sandra Fluke, as an average private citizen, as far more vulnerable to this kind of thing than we do Michael J Fox, who is a public figure with money and agents and stuff like that.
I’m not saying it’s right, but when women hear Rush calling out Sandra Fluke by name and calling her a slut, it’s really easy for them to identify personally with her. It’s harder to identify personally with a celebrity, even though the attack is just as vicious and just as personally damaging and painful.
And then we wonder why celebrities are so susceptible to substance abuse.
pragmatism
in broder math, 1 = 53 (or any higher integer).
dmsilev
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): They had the mother of all meltdowns over the weekend when it came out that Romney had, in writing, urged Obama to adopt a Massachusetts-style individual mandate for health care. I wasn’t nearly bored enough to wade through 450+ comments of wingnut wailing, but the thought of them contemplating their likely nominee is pretty much the definition of schadenfreude.
priscianusjr
@The Other Chuck:
Rick Taylor
Apart of how offensive it is, his act is just dumb. He makes one joke and repeats it over and over and over. Do conservatives find this funny? It just seems mindless.
Russ
What? No response from the Catholic priests? Considering they started the whole dialogue on contra…
RD
@Clime Acts:
No.
MikeJ
@Clime Acts: Gawker is full of shit. But that’s not really a surprise to anyone, is it?
pragmatism
@RD: agreed. i think that Watson/Derf wrote that article. it’s point, to the extent it has one, is to let rush say whatever he wants and just wear the consequences.
Frank
@Litlebritdifrnt:
These people would have fit in perfectly in the old Soviet Union. They would have believed anything that was printed in Pravda or whatever their Soviet leader would have said.
They are perfect followers taught never to question anything. I really feel sorry for these people. They seem really easy to take advantage of.
Soonergrunt
@Violet: That’s the one I’ve been wrapped around the axle about this whole time. My daughter’s in the 7th grade.
harlana
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): i think you just insulted flaming dirigibles
Odie Hugh Manatee
You. Are. On. Fire.
Like most people out there, I know that if I see a bag on fire the last thing I should do is step on it to put it out. Thank you for thoroughly stomping on this flaming bag of dogshit. I’m reading your rants and the comments to my wife and daughter and they are loving every bit of it!
My wife has said this about the advertisers leaving Rush: “Women buy a lot of ‘stuff’. See what happens when you piss us off?”
Indeed. Same with their fathers, uncles, cousins, husbands and brothers. Piss them off at your own risk.
Linda Featheringill
@Soonergrunt:
And 7th graders are still babies.
Sigh.
RD
@pragmatism:
They really are getting desperate.
And obvious.
scav
@Frank: What @Martin: said but if it helpe, its exactly how the Minnie Dowler case pushed the phone hacking case into the stratosphere where it had been done and basically tolerated for years when done to the Royals, Movie Stars and Footballers. The right tipping point at the right instant and context. This really does feel a bit like the explosive early phase of the News of the World / NI fest.
ETA: NI is vastly more important than this little carbuncle on the air, but the speed and crash crash smash and gobsmacking feels similar.
Calouste
@Frank:
No they wouldn’t. Most people in the Soviet Union had a very healthy scepticism for what was written in Pravda. North Korea, yes, they are a few stages closer to complete indoctrination.
harlana
just because
trollhattan
@Soonergrunt:
Mine’s in 4th. I’m not putting it past him to go there, so to speak.
pragmatism
@RD: or gawker went full meta and is itself trolling for pageviews by being contrarian.
Cassidy
@pragmatism: heheheheheh….Full Meta Gawker
Calouste
@scav:
The explosive early phase of the News of the World affair was extremely short. 3 days after it came out that they had hacked Milly Dowler’s voicemail, NI announced that the next issue of NotW was going to be the last. This is going to take longer.
RD
@pragmatism:
Clime Acts is a first timer.
This was no boating accident.
scav
@Calouste: Yeah, but the yetis were still emerging from the woodwork for longer, at least until the cream pie incident. Closing NotW was an inexplicable middle bit to my mind at least.
4tehlulz
@Clime Acts: ‘sup Watson?
quannlace
I remember that business with Ed Schultz (wow, it took the RW this many days to find some kind of ‘equivalency?’)
He was honestly mortified at what he said, and, what’s different, honestly apologized to Ingraham. I’m sure they never became best bud;s, but if memory serves she accepted his sincere regrets.
Frank
@Calouste:
Oh I don’t disagree at all and I guess my point was misinterpreted. Unlike the Soviet people, the Rush dittoheads do not have any doubt as to what their leader says. There is a difference between the Soviet people and the Rush dittoheads.
Soonergrunt
@Linda Featheringill:
@trollhattan: I know.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@pseudonymous in nc: I think Chrissie Hynde donates her Rush money (back to ohio) to PETA and gay rights orgs. The one I can’t believe is Elton John. As I thought when I saw Seinfeld and Jay Leno doing that car commercial: how can the money have been worth it?
pragmatism
@RD: that’ll learn me for assuming good faith.
harlana
Rush let his perv flag fly. any remaining supporters of Limbaugh are filthy perverts as well.
Raven
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Boortz uses Huey Lewis.
lamh35
welp according to Ed Schultz show, a 2nd radio station drops Rush Limbaugh
I’m beginning to think that for the majority of advertisers, were looking ofr a reason to drop Rush and this as my grandma would say “worked on her last nerve” and once you she was on her last nerve, ya know you were in for an ass whipping.
I think this latest from Rush particularly since he went after a non-public figure and someone who advertisers and some listeners could visualize as their own daughters, sisters, mothers, aunt, was the point at which Rush hit “the last nerve”
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Raven: OT, but did you see the minor throwdown over you yesterday? I’m not sure there was a winner, LOL. Hell, I can’t even tell you the thread, except that the kerfuffle arose indirectly about a description of old white folks, heh.
john f
@Litlebritdifrnt: No argument here.A lot of these conservatives who put William Bennet’s The Book of Virtues and The Moral Compass up on the bestseller lists back in the 1990’s never read them either, if they did they would’ve ditched Limbaugh a long time ago.I would”t expect them to read a transcript that completely destroys his rants from last week.
Ben Franklin
@Raven:
Tell me it isn’t soooooooooooo !
harlana
Limbaugh tells his advertisers to go fuck themselves, others will be clamoring to take their place
Yevgraf
Fats is having his Father Coughlin moment.
Anyway, for once in Cenk Uyger’s chubby, sweaty, fart cutting life, he’s written something worthwhile and informative. He’s finally opened the lid on the box of fairy dust that is Jabba’s rating book. It is actually worth reading.
Ben Franklin
@harlana:
He says he rejects thousands of advertisers every year.
P0rn?
Calouste
@scav:
At the point they closed the NotW, they couldn’t even give away advertising space in it. Literally. They gave all the advertising space in the last NotW to charities, and a number of them refused.
quannlace
And increadingly vicious. With Limbaugh and so many others, if someone opposes you it’s not enough to debate or debunk them, they must be personally obliterated.
Garbo
Response from Geico to my email. Also sent one to Netflix:
PeakVT
@Rick Taylor: Conservatives like hearing what they already know (or think they know) a lot more than liberals.
WereBear (itouch)
I do imagine Rush Limbaugh has been completely blindsided by this reaction. He has said things just as offensive and hateful for years. This was business as usual for him.
So he is going to do all the wrong things; as he’s been doing. He simply doesn’t believe this is going to be serious.
David Koch
Limbaugh is the victim!
The Feminazis are sex crazed bullies!
Mark S.
@Raven:
Oh dear god. Lemme guess
I’m takin what they’re givin’
Cause I’m workin’ for livin’!
(A song that’s even lamer than Hip to Be Square)
Jennifer
@quannlace: She may have accepted it at the time, but just a couple of days ago she was on twitter whining about how the president never called her when she got called a slut.
Of course she didn’t get harangued over the course of 3 days and she was a public figure to begin with, not just a private citizen who was stating her opinion to our political leaders. And also, she got an immediate and real apology (something Rush still hasn’t done) plus Schultz was immediately suspended.
Other than that, it was exactly the same, and Ingraham is still butthurt that the president never called her.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Ben Franklin:
The only one he could cite today was General Motors which he says he will not allow since it became “Government Motors”. What I found funny was that he said when he rejected these advertisers it was to *his sales staff’s* chagrin. If he is turning down all these advertisers why the fuck does he need a sales staff? Huh Rush?
Trentrunner
Not to quibble, cuz “slut” is flat-out misogyny, BUT:
Ed Schultz FIGURATIVELY called Laura Ingraham a right-wing “talk slut” for the Right, i.e., she’ll do anything for her side, etc.
Rush LITERALLY called Fluke a slut, i.e., that woman has too much sex.
Both are wrong, both misogynistic, but Rush’s is wronger.
Emma
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): Much against my better judgment I went and looked at it. That mental midget is a law professor at Cornell?
John Adams and John Jay wept.
New Yorker
I’m beginning to believe this is where Rush finally went too far. For 2 decades, I’ve been seething at the poison this man has injected into the political conversation in this country, without suffering any consequences for it. He might finally be getting his just desserts. And if the fallout fatally damages Romney or Santorum’s White House bid, all the better.
On that note, I’m going to continue to enjoy the reaction. Apologies if this has already been posted, but I can’t get enough of it.
If Don Imus is calling you a pig, you’ve got problems. That’s like Nikki Sixx saying you’re too fucked up on drugs.
MikeJ
@Garbo:
Most radio advertising is bought for “run of day”, that is just put it on when there’s an avail. It’s easy for the traffic people to forget a restriction for a particular spot, and I’ve seen board ops grab a spot and throw it in because they got behind the curve and have to kill 30 seconds right now, and they that spot is run of day and was scheduled for next hour anyway.
kc
@lamh35:
I’m thinking that myself. This gave them cover, and there’s safety in numbers.
Mnemosyne
@forked tongue:
Except that, much as she desires it, Pammy and her cohorts aren’t respectable like Rush is. You’ll never see Pam get profiled by Katie Couric.
Rush is a made man with the media, and it’s going to be hard for them to comprehend that he’s now persona non grata with the public.
RossinDetroit
Someone’s got to go 11D chess on this so I’ll take a shot.
Rush is intentionally drawing fire so we’ll ignore Mitt for a while. This is a plan to let Romney coast through Super Tuesday. The more press Rush gets the less Mitt gets. And as we’ve seen, the more Mitt’s exposed the worse he does. It’s a flanking maneuver to sneak a few more delegates for Mittens.
Nah. I don’t believe it either. He’s just a dick and couldn’t help himself. The benefits to Mitt are just a bonus.
muddy
@Frank:
My dad used tell the joke, “No pravda in the Izvestia, no izvestia in the Pravda.”
Litlebritdifrnt
I remember the last dying days of the Dr. Laura show, where the ads used to be there was a long section of music, sometimes repeated twice. I can’t wait to hear that in Rush’s show. When his “shameless capitalism breaks” are filled with dead air.
garbo
@MikeJ: I’m okay with making advertising on his show a “hot potato” that has everyone in the chain extra careful.
It was an imperfect tool when used against Glenn Beck as well, but in time, it worked.
Jager
@Litlebritdifrnt: He doesn’t have a sales staff. His national advertising is sold and placed by Premier his syndicator. Premier is owned by Clear Channel, owned by Lee and Bain (yes, that Bain). Most advertisers buy network packages, the spots rotate through all of Premier’s programming. That’s why you’ll hear many of the same sponsors on the CBS, ABC network and other talk nets, too. As I said the other day now is the time to hit the local advertisers on his show, if dollars get lost on the local level, he’ll start losing affiliates and that is what will kill him.
His demographics suck, ancient white men. He’s has been slipping for years. Local stations use him as an anchor to solidify the old, frightened white guy market.
Clear Channel had a bill board up in Tucson promoting their local owned station….over size board, riddled with bullet holes that promoted Rush as a “Straight Shooter” and it was up when Gifford was shot. The local station blamed corporate Clear Channel and the CC billboard company…no one apologized.
Birthmarker
John please bump up the vid of Ms. Fluke’s testimony. There are people who think Rush is responding to her actual testimony.
Corey
To be fair, Ed Schultz is a fucking blowhard moron.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Jager:
Well who’d a thunk it, Rush was lying again about his “sales staff” then?
PurpleGirl
@Zifnab:
Yes. This. So many people do not understand this. Their precious private companies can do what they want in buying commercial time or not on any show.
Narcissus
I could have gone my whole life without seeing Limbaugh in drag. Even in ‘toon form.
New Yorker
@RossinDetroit:
I don’t think there are benefits to Mitt. Rush IS the Dear Leader of the GOP in the public’s eyes. If he goes full Chernobyl (as it appears he has), the radioactive fallout will contaminate everyone in the GOP, including Romney.
I’m thinking this will be the gift that keeps on giving, right up to election day. If it was also the inspiration for Olympia Snowe to quit when she did (and fuck over the GOP in the process), even better.
gbear
Oh to be a fly on the wall at Rush’s mansion. His blood pressure and butt hurt must be through the roof, and there aren’t enough scented candles on earth candles to cover up the smell of rot.
Raven
@Mark S.: The Heart Of Rock & Roll but no lyrics.
Mark B
I respect you for having the patience to dig through the transcripts and find all of those quotes, but I also pity you for having done so.
eemom
[humbly raises hand] Can I say something?
I don’t have any problem at all with piling on the pig. He deserves whatever he gets and worse.
But what’s the end game we are looking for here? Driving the scumtank out of the public discourse for good? Fine, that would be a good thing.
But I think we’re kidding ourselves if we expect this is going to strike any kind of larger blow against his fellow pigs, much less that it’s going to have any impact on the election.
RossinDetroit
Evidence of Rush’s desperation is that he said “Rappers do it. Why can’t I?” So now rap music sets the standard of discourse for his show? Interesting. That’ll go over big with his aging white audience.
The flailing, it is pathetic.
scav
@Calouste: So? Are you equating the local gasbag with NotW exactly and getting them out of print or off-air as the be-all and end-all? NOtW is only a part of the NI problem (BSkyB, and the Sun to only name the obvious ones in play) and then there’s the Met and Politicos and Media coziness issues and those topics are still bubbling up (Horsesgate anyone? Today was good too, roping in Boris’s sidekick) only this is the dull grinding through testimony phase rather than events moving faster than the news cycle phase. I don’t see what’s out of line to think that we’re still in the faster than news cycle phase of the event and finding things more gob-smacking than same old same old.
LT
@The Other Chuck: It’s almost too much, isnt’ it?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Clime Acts: Because, if we’d moved on, it would have gone exactly as it has right now.
Sorry, no. The thing is, it really did take something of this magnitude for everyone else to see what we knew. And they need to be reminded of it, and he needs to go down.
amk
fixed.
eemom
@gbear:
yeah, I forgot to mention the third possibility: that considering his, um, limited physical capacity to withstand stress, he might just drop dead over this.
As to the desirability or implications of that, I express no opinion.
maya
OK, so Rush von Hindenburg says that it’s a “shame” that many of his sponsors have deserted his airship. Just for kicks, what sponsors/products would jump aboard now?
All I can thinks of is big pharm.
Mnemosyne
@eemom:
If nothing else, Rush has destroyed any chance the Republicans had to win the argument over birth control coverage. Once he put it explicitly in sexual terms rather than the “religious freedom” terms the right was trying to sell the public on, the Blunt amendment was deader than a doornail.
gbear
@Mark B: John didn’t come up with that list. It’s linked to KOS.
eemom
@Mnemosyne:
That is a fair point, although I think their chances of winning that argument anyway were, as my late Dad used to say, two: slim and none.
Rita R.
@Litlebritdifrnt:
And that’s why he does it. People who are saying that Rush doesn’t understand how the pill works or how insurance works are getting it wrong. He understands, but he wants his listeners to believe the lies, so he just makes shit up. So Fluke is having so much sex she can’t afford her birth control and all of us have to pay for it!!!! Rush knows, as this radio station caller demonstrates, that once they hear him say it, they’ll believe it forever, no matter how many facts about the truth they are told — if they ever even hear the truth.
That’s why all the lies he spewed over three days — which Cole has ably documented — bother me as much or even more than the “slut” or “prostitute” slurs he used. (And for which Romney apparently would have found daintier, more Mormony replacements.) He’s now injected these lies into the issue of insurance coverage for contraception and they will be repeated and believed. The comments about who paid for Fluke’s contraception in sixth grade are a whole other realm of creepiness, and reveals more about Limbaugh and his sexual fantasies than it does about Fluke.
As for the Catholic Church, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the head of the New York City archdiocese who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and has been very vocal on this issue, had this to say Sunday when asked about what Limbaugh said, “Whatever we do, and however strongly we feel, we do it charitably, we do it civilly. We don’t judge the motives of other people. We just try, in a confident, peaceful, inviting way, to make our position felt, to invite other people to respect it.”
Doesn’t sound so bad… But then I found this nugget from a speech Dolan gave just a day earlier at a Catholic HS on Long Island in which he seems to be more simpatico with Rush’s point of view than he’s letting on:
So women who take birth control = prostitutes and we have to pay the cost. Got it Rus… err, Cardinal.
gbear
@eemom: I hope that if he does go down (professionally) over this, it eats away at his guts for the rest of his life. I really hope that his millions can’t buy him a minute of happiness.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Shorter New Yorker: Karma is a bitch.
I agree. :)
maya
Do the honorable thing, Rush. Seppuku.
harlana
@eemom: any and all devastating blows to the party brand are beneficial :)
and the ick factor cannot be overstated
SoINeedAName48
For your pleasure, I posted a Word Cloud of Rushbo’s text from Daily Kos.
You can view it here (and guess which Word leads the way. Need a hint? It rhymes with “REX”)
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1070884/45224263
Odie Hugh Manatee
@maya:
Append while standing over a vat of acid to that.
Just to make sure. ;p
zanamu
here’s the thing: I didn’t read all the comments. I don’t like Bill Maher, or Ed, or Chris: They ARE sexist, and apparently proud of it. Whatever. But here’s why Rush is 1000 times worse: Rush went after an average citizen, who was exercising her rights as a citizen to testify before congress (they don’t deserve a capital letter). Sarah Palin & Michelle Bachman, and yes, Bristol Palin after dancing with the stars, have all sought noteriety.They RAN, they sought the spotlight.
Ms Fluke was nobody, and planned to be nobody. So Rush decided to make this young woman a target, when all she wanted to be was a citizen. That’s my gripe.
I don’t think he should be taken off the air. The First Amendment is my personal favorite. I think he should keep blathering on until all of his listeners die. But my issue is, he’s a big fat bully, and should be treated as such. I hope his big mouth costs him a lot of money. And the spineless republicans deserve every pound of him.
Jager
In my previous life as a broadcaster, our national group was headquartered in West Palm. Our local talk station put together a charity fundraising broadcast with our staff. Jack Cole and Randi Rhodes were the hosts, Joan Rivers and a couple of other celebs were scheduled and we were going to broadcast it live from a hotel in Palm Beach. Hours before the broadcast I got a panicked call from the program director who told me we couldn’t broadcast because Palm Beach had a ordinance against commercial broadcasting of any kind in the City of Palm Beach. The ordinance was written in the days of big band broadcasts over net work radio, I guess they didn’t want Tommy Dorsey or heaven forbid Duke Ellington and his kind earning money in PB. We cancelled the broadcast and ran it later tape delayed. About 6 months later Rush started broadcasting from his mansion in Palm Beach, I called our attorney and El Rushbo had to drive over every day to his piss whistle affilate in West Palm to do his show from their dirt bag studio. It took him almost two years to get the PB ordinance changed and apparently a small bucket of cash was passed to local officials. Felt good to contribute to his personal discomfort.
Water balloon
Kirsten Powers is really going all out trying to take the attention off Limbaugh. First she spent all day talking about Maher, now She’s on Hannity complaining that every Obama supporter in the primaries attacked Clinton in the same way Limbaugh went after this woman. She’s perfected the art of the Fox News Democrat.
Mark B
Bleah, anything that damages Limbaugh is a public good, even if it’s not a killing blow to his career. Even though his apology was insincere, it harmed him in the eyes of his empty-headed followers who thought he was too macho to ever admit a mistake. He really didn’t, but his listeners don’t get nuance, they see any apology as a betrayal to his principles. As if he had any.
Odie Hugh Manatee
What’s really hilarious about this is that Rush is being taken down by a ‘Fluke’.
There’s nothing like a bit of good luck when you really need it! ;)
amk
@Jager: Great story. Thanks for doing your part.
Mark B
@Jager: Good on you, Jager. That’s a heart-warming story.
Maude
@gbear:
Happy people don’t say what Rush does on the air.
Money can’t heal the wound to his ego.
Shawn in ShowMe
@zanamu:
The First Amendment doesn’t shield Limbaugh from advertisers dropping him like a hot potato. He has a big, fat contract because he was a magnet for advertisers. The moment that changes his leverage with his employer is in jeopardy. This is that moment.
He ain’t gonna lose his job over this. But like an outdated comic strip, the number of outlets that carry his brand of “entertainment” will dwindle in the coming years.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Jager: Thanks so very much.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Nutpicking at Redstate, this commenter on Rush ‘apologizing’ to Sandra Fluke:
That’s exactly what I’m hoping these idiots do after this, pour gasoline all over themselves and light it on fire. OK, we’ll be more than happy to toss the match for them but we’re just being helpful.
Burn baby burn… this summer is going to be hot.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
The Fall should be hotter still.
TooManyJens
@dmsilev:
Oh God, I missed that completely. That’s hysterical.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero):
Indeedy. :)
gogol's wife
I cannot read this, but I’m glad you compiled it.
ETA: Or whoever it was who compiled it. No time to look now.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I hope this comment from Redstate makes you laugh as much as it did me:
OK, that’s not funny but that was only the title of the post. The comment under it was:
Conservative train wrecks are fun to rubberneck.
jill
excellent work. my uninformed dad, who thinks rush speaks truth to power, left the radio tuned to rush for the cat to have company the last time he was out of town. i told him that was animal cruelty, and accidentally moved the radio just far enough to lose the reception when it was my turn to check on the cat. Silence from the chaos? Peace, maybe…
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Mnemosyne: Except that Pam Geller actually was profiled/interviewed on 60 Minutes, though it was Scott Pelley, and not Couric.
EnoughIsEnough
@geg6: Good damn questions?
shoq
@Garbo:
Your ads have been running for days, and were recorded by Mediamatters for America just today. That doesn’t square with “accident.” But just so everyone knows your intentions, please have your social media person tweet as @GEICO your intentions to discontinue all ads going forward. Thank you for not endorsing hate.
CaliCat
Well done, JC. I really like this post.
Got’em good.
doug r
@eemom: :)
Probe All
I would lime to see thoughts on whether or not Mrs Fluke should file a lawsuit against Rush, i.e. Defamation of Character??