Sorry, I'm Arguing With A Guy In The MSM

I'm not slacking. I'm writing. But offline.

Here's David "The Frumbag Frum. No link.

"It's not fair!"

As advertisers quit the Rush Limbaugh radio program -- and as Republican politicians squirm uncomfortably -- the broadcaster's fans are complaining about double standards.

Yes, they'll concede, maybe Limbaugh went too far in denouncing a female law student as a "slut" and a "prostitute" and then demanding that she post a sex tape online for him to view.

But look (they continue) at all the liberal/lefty broadcasters who have also said obnoxious things! No one calls Democratic politicians to account for them. Why us?

It's a question that will be aired often in the week ahead. Here's the answer, in four points.

Point 1: Even by the rough standards of cable/talk radio/digital talk, Limbaugh's verbal abuse of Sandra Fluke set a new kind of low.

Speaking of dumb c***s, Sarah Palin-- Bill Maher.

Really? This is a new low?

I can't recall anything as brutal, ugly and deliberate ever being said by such a prominent person and so emphatically repeated.

Oh? Let's check the wayback machine to see what Letterman actually said.

Letterman's "Top 10" list Tuesday night focused on Palin's recent trip to New York, and included several cracks: "Bought makeup from Bloomingdale's to update her 'slutty flight attendant' look," Letterman said.

But it was a line in Letterman's monologue that set off a firestorm: "One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

Palin was in New York with her 14-year-old daughter, Willow.

A new low? Limbaugh joked about a 30 year old activist.

Letterman joked about a 14 year old girl slutting around.

This is a new low?

No, it's not.

This was not a case of a bad "word choice." It was a brutally sexualized accusation, against a specific person, prolonged over three days.

Sandra Fluke is not a rape victim and Limbaugh did not dredge up her sexual history.

His joke -- which I've called bad and strained in a previous post -- was that if she wants to be paid for sexual activity, that makes her a "slut" by this strained definition.

The way the left repeats it (and the Frumbag is now a member of the left) they make it sound like he was really, seriously calling her a slut.

He wasn't. He was making some dumb point which no one could have misunderstood to mean "I have information about her sexual history and she sleeps around a great deal."

By the very formulation he employed, he was saying she was a "slut" (as a joke, again) only by his silly formulation that if she demands someone else pay for her birth control, she's a "slut" by this goofy definition.

Crude? Sure. Lame? Yup. Strained? Yes. Sexualized? Also, alas, yes.

But seriously contending she's a loose woman? Like a cruel defense attorney might claim of a rape victim on the stand?

"Sexually brutalizing" her?

No.

Point 2: The cases that conservatives cite as somehow equivalent to Limbaugh's tirade against Fluke by and large did bring consequences for their authors.

After David Letterman for example made an ugly joke about Sarah Palin's daughter, he delivered an abject seven-minute apology on air. (To which Palin responded by refusing the apology and insinuating that David Letterman was a child molester.)

Rush apologized too. And Fluke, similarly, rejected the apology.

What the Frumbag insinuates is poor form by Palin turns out to be perfectly reasonable when done by his New Heroine.

When liberal talker Ed Schultz nastily called my dear friend Laura Ingraham a "slut" on his radio show, MSNBC responded by suspending Schultz for a week without pay from his TV show. Schultz likewise apologized in person on air. (Ingraham accepted the apology with grace and humor.)

Paid time off. By the way, people on the left, and especially on the right, get these paid one-week suspensions all the time.

Speeding ticket.

Why is it being contended that Rush must pay more than a fine?

The exception to the general rule is Bill Maher, who never apologized for calling Palin by a demeaning sexual epithet. But now see point 3:

Point 3: Limbaugh's place in American public life is in no way comparable to that of David Letterman, Bill Maher or Ed Schultz.

Letterman is not a political figure at all;

Yes he is. He's an intense partisan and has been, increasingly, since 2000. He was radicalized by the Iraq War.

The Frumbag doesn't notice this, because he's on the same page, politically.

... and while Maher and Schultz strongly identify as liberals, neither qualifies as anything like a powerbroker in the Democratic Party.

Maher's show is weekly One Hour Hate for liberals. He just did a free "comedy" concert whose point was to note his $1,000,000 donation to Obama's PAC, and his strident advocacy, then and since, that rich liberals must do likewise.

Speaking of dumb c**s, David Frum.

posted by Ace at 02:28 PM

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