Post by bossradio93 on Oct 24, 2003 22:02:43 GMT -5
Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Pussy
And other brilliant insights from the last week's radio convention.
JONATHAN VALANIA, Philadelphia Weekly, orginally published 10.8
Last week the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the radio industry's trade group, held its convention in Philadelphia. Here's what we learned there: Rush Limbaugh is a pussy; Sean Hannity, Limbaugh's heir apparent, is a bully; and Clear Channel is an evil empire--or at the very least, a greedy and inconsiderate empire.
This was last Thursday, which turned out to be a momentous day for fans of poetic justice.
It doesn't take a CPA to figure out that the right wing in this country has been overdrawn at the karma bank since the Clinton impeachment hypocrisy festival, or at least the 2000 presidential election theft. Last Thursday the bill came due, and hoo boy did the right pay through the nose.
To recap: Rush Limbaugh went down in flames, a self- immolation ignited by his own inflammatory racial rhetoric. Word then came that he's under investigation for his connection to a black market prescription drug ring.
On Capitol Hill it was officially announced: No weapons of mass destruction--the central argument for our involvement in Iraq--have been found after six months of searching.
None.
Then Arnold, the right's beloved wolf in social liberal clothing, got hit with two bombshells from his past: dual allegations of pinching women's butts uninvited and singing the praises of Adolf Hitler. Ouch.
But wait. It gets better.
There's also now a full-blown Justice Department investigation into allegations that the White House outed a CIA employee in retaliation for her husband's criticism of our Iraqi policy--which, in a time of war, even Ann Coulter would have to admit is tantamount to treason.
On this one, the big fat finger of blame is being pointed at Karl Rove, the president's Mephistophelian political adviser. When it was revealed that Rove served as campaign adviser to John Ashcroft for a congressional race in Missouri, even Republican Sen. Arlen Specter called for Ashcroft to recuse himself from the proceedings, stopping just short of calling for a special prosecutor. All of this in just one day!
Okay, it's impolite to gloat, so let's get back to the three unassailable truths revealed at the NAB convention.
1) Rush Limbaugh is a pussy.
Before we even get started, I would like to give a "megadittoes" shout-out to Al Franken on behalf of the silent majority in this country. If last week's controversy, and the ensuing firestorm of condemnation (not to mention El Rushbo's hasty retreat), proved anything, it's this: We can all agree that Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot. This is important because the right likes to discredit any opposition by defining it as "outside of the mainstream." It became patently obvious last week that Rush Limbaugh, the right's chrome-plated megaphone, is outside the mainstream.
It is fitting that Philadelphia, the cradle of democracy, would serve as ground zero for Limbaugh's comeuppance. A quick recap for anyone in a coma last week: On a Sunday NFL pregame show on ESPN, Limbaugh said that Donovan McNabb was overrated by the media because they want to see a black quarterback succeed. In other words, this was another case of what Limbaugh calls "the compassion fascists" ruining our cigar-smokin', golf-playin' good time. The job of quarterback is, apparently, the white man's burden and his alone.
None of Limbaugh's fellow commentators picked up the thread, and the remark drifted into the digital ether until local sportswriters started hammering at it the following Tuesday. Soon the debate moved from the local sports page to the nation's editorial pages. By Wednesday, presidential candidates Howard Dean and Wesley Clark were calling for Limbaugh's head on a stick, backed by a chorus of some two dozen members of Congress. By late Wednesday night, Limbaugh had tendered his resignation, and ESPN had gratefully accepted it.
The very next morning Limbaugh was scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at the NAB convention in, of all places, Philadelphia, thus violating the cardinal law of the animal kingdom: Don't s--- where you eat.
Back in the good ol' '90s, the right used the tabloid press to plant the seeds of some of the most outrageous allegations against the Clintons--rape! murder! drug dealing!--knowing full well that the mainstream press would then be obligated to look into these charges. Even though these lurid accusations would be quickly dismissed, they would, at the very least, remain on the national radar for a few days. It was a cheap, thuggish tactic, and Limbaugh would often parrot these groundless allegations on his radio show.
So it was with no small measure of schadenfreude that the left watched Limbaugh get a taste of his own medicine. A New York Post story hit the streets just hours after Limbaugh resigned, claiming he's under investigation in an ongoing probe of a Florida prescription drug ring. (Limbaugh has a mansion in Palm Beach.)
The article, citing a story the National Enquirer has apparently been sitting on for two years, says Limbaugh's former housekeeper had been selling him black market prescription pills, including OxyContin. The housekeeper allegedly wore a wire and has audiotapes of the drug transactions. Thursday, just prior to his NAB appearance, Limbaugh issued this statement: "I am unaware of any investigation by any authorities involving me. No governmental representative has contacted me directly or indirectly. If my assistance is required in the future, I will, of course, cooperate fully."
The meekness of that statement speaks volumes. That's not even a denial. Where's the righteous indignation of somebody wrongly smeared? Where's the vehement declaration of innocence? Last Friday he said the following on his radio program: "I really don't know the full scope of what I am dealing with. And when I get all the facts, when I get all the details of this, rest assured that I will discuss it with you and tell you how it is, tell you everything there is, maybe more than you want to know about this."
Huh?
So Limbaugh came out to address the convention. He's not quite as fat an idiot as he used to be, more of a pleasantly plump idiot than a morbidly obese idiot.
In all fairness, he wasn't even that much of an idiot. He mostly used that pompous baritone of his to talk about his rags-to-riches rise to the top of the talk radio heap and the ways the fat cats in attendance could make more money with it ("raise your rates!").
A half-hour into his speech, he addressed the controversy. He never quite apologized, although he did say, "I don't mean it to hurt anybody ... to be diminishing of anybody." Even his half-assed apologia came in code words.
For the record, "anybody" translates in plainspoken English to "black people." Even though there was a kernel of truth in Limbaugh's sputtering defense, that he was denigrating the media and not black people--yet somehow he managed to denigrate both--he's had this beatdown coming for a long time.[/i]
End of Part 1
Source: Los Angeles Radio People
And other brilliant insights from the last week's radio convention.
JONATHAN VALANIA, Philadelphia Weekly, orginally published 10.8
Last week the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the radio industry's trade group, held its convention in Philadelphia. Here's what we learned there: Rush Limbaugh is a pussy; Sean Hannity, Limbaugh's heir apparent, is a bully; and Clear Channel is an evil empire--or at the very least, a greedy and inconsiderate empire.
This was last Thursday, which turned out to be a momentous day for fans of poetic justice.
It doesn't take a CPA to figure out that the right wing in this country has been overdrawn at the karma bank since the Clinton impeachment hypocrisy festival, or at least the 2000 presidential election theft. Last Thursday the bill came due, and hoo boy did the right pay through the nose.
To recap: Rush Limbaugh went down in flames, a self- immolation ignited by his own inflammatory racial rhetoric. Word then came that he's under investigation for his connection to a black market prescription drug ring.
On Capitol Hill it was officially announced: No weapons of mass destruction--the central argument for our involvement in Iraq--have been found after six months of searching.
None.
Then Arnold, the right's beloved wolf in social liberal clothing, got hit with two bombshells from his past: dual allegations of pinching women's butts uninvited and singing the praises of Adolf Hitler. Ouch.
But wait. It gets better.
There's also now a full-blown Justice Department investigation into allegations that the White House outed a CIA employee in retaliation for her husband's criticism of our Iraqi policy--which, in a time of war, even Ann Coulter would have to admit is tantamount to treason.
On this one, the big fat finger of blame is being pointed at Karl Rove, the president's Mephistophelian political adviser. When it was revealed that Rove served as campaign adviser to John Ashcroft for a congressional race in Missouri, even Republican Sen. Arlen Specter called for Ashcroft to recuse himself from the proceedings, stopping just short of calling for a special prosecutor. All of this in just one day!
Okay, it's impolite to gloat, so let's get back to the three unassailable truths revealed at the NAB convention.
1) Rush Limbaugh is a pussy.
Before we even get started, I would like to give a "megadittoes" shout-out to Al Franken on behalf of the silent majority in this country. If last week's controversy, and the ensuing firestorm of condemnation (not to mention El Rushbo's hasty retreat), proved anything, it's this: We can all agree that Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot. This is important because the right likes to discredit any opposition by defining it as "outside of the mainstream." It became patently obvious last week that Rush Limbaugh, the right's chrome-plated megaphone, is outside the mainstream.
It is fitting that Philadelphia, the cradle of democracy, would serve as ground zero for Limbaugh's comeuppance. A quick recap for anyone in a coma last week: On a Sunday NFL pregame show on ESPN, Limbaugh said that Donovan McNabb was overrated by the media because they want to see a black quarterback succeed. In other words, this was another case of what Limbaugh calls "the compassion fascists" ruining our cigar-smokin', golf-playin' good time. The job of quarterback is, apparently, the white man's burden and his alone.
None of Limbaugh's fellow commentators picked up the thread, and the remark drifted into the digital ether until local sportswriters started hammering at it the following Tuesday. Soon the debate moved from the local sports page to the nation's editorial pages. By Wednesday, presidential candidates Howard Dean and Wesley Clark were calling for Limbaugh's head on a stick, backed by a chorus of some two dozen members of Congress. By late Wednesday night, Limbaugh had tendered his resignation, and ESPN had gratefully accepted it.
The very next morning Limbaugh was scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at the NAB convention in, of all places, Philadelphia, thus violating the cardinal law of the animal kingdom: Don't s--- where you eat.
Back in the good ol' '90s, the right used the tabloid press to plant the seeds of some of the most outrageous allegations against the Clintons--rape! murder! drug dealing!--knowing full well that the mainstream press would then be obligated to look into these charges. Even though these lurid accusations would be quickly dismissed, they would, at the very least, remain on the national radar for a few days. It was a cheap, thuggish tactic, and Limbaugh would often parrot these groundless allegations on his radio show.
So it was with no small measure of schadenfreude that the left watched Limbaugh get a taste of his own medicine. A New York Post story hit the streets just hours after Limbaugh resigned, claiming he's under investigation in an ongoing probe of a Florida prescription drug ring. (Limbaugh has a mansion in Palm Beach.)
The article, citing a story the National Enquirer has apparently been sitting on for two years, says Limbaugh's former housekeeper had been selling him black market prescription pills, including OxyContin. The housekeeper allegedly wore a wire and has audiotapes of the drug transactions. Thursday, just prior to his NAB appearance, Limbaugh issued this statement: "I am unaware of any investigation by any authorities involving me. No governmental representative has contacted me directly or indirectly. If my assistance is required in the future, I will, of course, cooperate fully."
The meekness of that statement speaks volumes. That's not even a denial. Where's the righteous indignation of somebody wrongly smeared? Where's the vehement declaration of innocence? Last Friday he said the following on his radio program: "I really don't know the full scope of what I am dealing with. And when I get all the facts, when I get all the details of this, rest assured that I will discuss it with you and tell you how it is, tell you everything there is, maybe more than you want to know about this."
Huh?
So Limbaugh came out to address the convention. He's not quite as fat an idiot as he used to be, more of a pleasantly plump idiot than a morbidly obese idiot.
In all fairness, he wasn't even that much of an idiot. He mostly used that pompous baritone of his to talk about his rags-to-riches rise to the top of the talk radio heap and the ways the fat cats in attendance could make more money with it ("raise your rates!").
A half-hour into his speech, he addressed the controversy. He never quite apologized, although he did say, "I don't mean it to hurt anybody ... to be diminishing of anybody." Even his half-assed apologia came in code words.
For the record, "anybody" translates in plainspoken English to "black people." Even though there was a kernel of truth in Limbaugh's sputtering defense, that he was denigrating the media and not black people--yet somehow he managed to denigrate both--he's had this beatdown coming for a long time.[/i]
End of Part 1
Source: Los Angeles Radio People