TUESDAY, 07 OCTOBER 2003
The big, fat idiot - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER - It was not a good week for Rush Limbaugh. His conservative jowls tremble now, in the wake had following his resignation as a commentator on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown, and the constant barrage of media attention what with his drug scandal. His feet are on the proverbial fire, his character and persona under the glaring gaze of the collective public eye.
Al Franken wrote a book on the conservative firebrand, castigating Limbaugh as being nothing more than a "big fat idiot." His right-wing ideals, Franken believes nothing more than an oxymoron. Perhaps following the news that he's been buying massive quantities of OxyContin from his maid in a parking lot, Franken was probably right in his assessment of the conservative catcaller of the airwaves.
Two Sundays ago, on the ESPN broadcast Limbaugh stated the following: "I think what we have here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media have been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defence carried this team." Because the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb is black, so charges Limbaugh, he was part of some cultivated and contrived kid-glove treatment from the NFL and the media. No sooner had Limbaugh uttered those remarks, did the feces hit the fan and people like the Democratic Party's presidential candidates, Wesley Clark and Al Sharpton, not to mention the NAACP, capitalise on the situation and call for Limbaugh's resignation, calling him a racist and a bigot.
Looking at Limbaugh's comments, there's no way one, unless doing some rigorous and unnecessary reading between the lines, could infer that the comments were racially motivated. Frankly, if you look at the comments themselves, it's obvious Limbaugh wasn't off to any Mensa meetings following the Sunday games. The syntax was appallingly mangled for someone of Limbaugh's professed intellect. Therefore one would concur with the assessment of many, namely Al Franken, that though his talent is supposedly loaned from God, he's still an idiot.
Though, Rush Limbaugh didn't have to resign. He has frankly, been yet another unfortunate victim of the insane rigour of political correctness rampant in America today. For a country so hell bent on the proliferation of sex and violence in its culture, it's surprising the intolerance greeting what is otherwise not an intolerant remark. One wonders why there is a double standard when whites like Limbaugh or Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder or Al Campanis can make comments on race that all hell breaks loose, yet if a black like Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker makes an equivalent rumination, few call for his ouster. Folks like Howard Dean and opportunists of his ilk manage to temper their horror and outrage, while Limbaugh because he is right-wing and white, has to take the walk.
ESPN got what they wanted when they hired Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh, whose currency is to expound his conservative political views on radio, was expected to bring nothing less to his work on the sports channel. And ESPN reaped the benefits seeing their ratings climb 10% since he joined the broadcast. Lest Limbaugh get off scot-free however. The comments were poorly executed and by bringing social policy on to a sport broadcast, it's obvious Limbaugh's absurd grasp of common sense. Had someone of George Will's stature been brought in to comment on baseball, as Mr. Will is amply endowed with baseball knowledge, as well as the common sense to disallow his personal politics into the sports fray, it'd have been different.
There is much white guilt in American society. One would find it frightening if it weren't so absurd. The NAACP should call for Michael Irvin's resignation, who as a black, moments after Limbaugh's infamous remarks uttered, "Rush has a point." Let's see what ESPN does with that. Political correctness is not at all a bad thing, but when it's interpreted the way it is, then it's nothing but a joke. It corrects nothing, and rather adds to intolerance being bred throughout.
After acquitting himself of his duties as an ESPN pundit early Thursday morning, it didn't get better whence the New York Daily News had splashed across its front page, news of the National Enquirer's exposé on a drug investigation underway on Limbaugh's alleged purchasing of drugs from his maid. Folks inside and out of Rush's conceited conservative domain, should keep in mind the comments he made back in 1995: "Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up." Well see how much of his own medicine, Limbaugh is willing to endure.
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