Well, If the STFU Fits (and This Week's STFU Award Goes to...)

[NanceGreggs]

Read the full article on the blog.

In the wake of the shit-storm set off by his recent comments, Rush Limbaugh did the predictable: he issued a non-apology apology, and then blamed his behavior on others – most specifically, the Left.

This conduct is par for the course for the Limbaughs of the world – the right-wing spewers of venomous hate speech, hurlers of insults, panderers to the bigots and the just plain hateful among us. First be sorry (for getting caught), then assume the role of the victim who is merely guilty of doing what everyone else does.

“I don't expect morality or intellectual honestly from the left. They've demonstrated over and over a willingness to do anything. In fighting them on this issue last week I became like them.”

So it wasn’t Rush’s fault, as you can plainly see – he just “became” like all of those broadcasters on the left who use their airtime to insult, humiliate, belittle, and disparage their political opponents. But one can’t help but notice the absence of examples of same: “Remember the time Rachael Maddow said…” or “What about that time Keith Olbermann stated…”

One would think that if behavior like Limbaugh’s was as widespread on the left as he now claims, it would have been an easy task to cite one or two examples of this rampant assault on good, Christian Republicans.

But Limbaugh goes on:

“Against my own instincts, against my own knowledge, I descended to their level when I used those two words to describe Sandra Fluke, I descended to their level and I feel very badly about that.”

Against his own instincts? Really? This is the same man whose “instincts” have been dead-on throughout his broadcasting career, the same “instincts” that draw millions of listeners to his program in order to hear and cheer the vilest, most hate-ridden, bigoted speech permitted on the airwaves.

As for his comment about “against my own knowledge” I suppose the next chapter in this tawdry little affair will be an accusation that some leftist slipped a script into Rush’s unsuspecting little hands – and before he knew it, words like “slut” and “prostitute” slipped out of his big mouth before he was even aware of what he was saying. As if.

Again, the Master of Bloviation offers a qualifier to his misdeeds by pretending that his public evisceration of Ms. Fluke was limited to “two words.” Helpfully, John K. Wilson at Daily Kos has detailed fifty-three slurs that emanated from Rush’s unsuspecting mouth – uttered against his knowledge, no doubt.

But there is a bigger story here. Limbaugh’s sponsors are pulling their ads from his show; others have “suspended” their sponsorship. At first blush, it would seem that these advertisers are taking a stand and doing the honorable thing. Not quite.

Many have cited their reason for pulling or suspending their support of Limbaugh’s program being due to his comments about Ms. Fluke being “not consistent with their values.” Sadly, but oh-so-obviously, they only realized they actually had values after consumers pledged to boycott their services and products. In other words, they, too, first offered a non-apology apology (for getting caught funnelling their dollars into Rush’s daily hate-fest), and then blamed their own ignorance of the facts for having sponsored him in the first place.

“Not consistent with our values.” Really? Limbaugh’s program has never been anything but an assault on values – values like truthfulness, morality, and common decency. Are we now to believe that no one from the corporations that have put their money where Rush’s mouth is for years never listened to his show, never heard his disgusting diatribes, were never even remotely aware of the program’s content?

Are we now to accept that these sponsors’ values were consistent with making fun of Michael J. Fox’s struggle with the effects of Parkinson’s disease, Rush’s jokes about the tsunami victims in Japan, his “Barack the Magic Negro” routine?

I realize that freedom of speech, by its very nature, includes the freedom to spew hatred and bigotry. The First Amendment protects our right to do so – but it does not mandate anyone to support hate speech with their airtime, or their dollars.

Were it not for the radio stations that carry his program, and the corporate sponsors whose dollars make keeping his show on the air financially lucrative, Rush Limbaugh would be just another foul-mouthed customer at the local bar, telling jokes about magic Negroes, opining on the sluts and whores who drink at the same establishment, making fun of customers with physical afflictions, and bragging about his alleged sexual prowess while trying to score a few Oxys between beers.

Instead, thanks to the dollars to be made from giving airtime to an obnoxious tub o’ lard, the shoulda-been-a-nobody gets to be a somebody – and millions of like-minded and/or easily-led idiots get to listen to his hate-filled, ignorant rantings, and champion his unending slurs against the poor, the afflicted, women and minorities, gays and lesbians – and anyone else he chooses to vilify – as somehow being validated as the voice of reason.

The Limbaughs of the world don’t get where they are on their own steam. It takes money, power, political influence, and a willingness – nay, an anxiousness – on the part of those in possession of the aforementioned to ensure their success.

And so this week’s STFU Award goes not only to Rush Limbaugh, but to all of those who made his success possible, including the radio stations that air him, the Republican powers-that-be who support him, and the sponsors who make his program possible.

As for the latter group, their corporate identities are readily available via the internetz. Please let them know that their pearl-clutching, oh-my-God-we-had-NO-idea! statements are a day late – and, thanks to those who will continue to boycott their products – way more than a few dollars short.

[jaxx]

If ever an award for STFU was ever deserved, Rush Limbaugh is the front runner.
The man is mean and now his choice of words has brought him into reality.

Loved it!

[SeattleGirl]

A most deserving award for a most deserving tub o' nasty crap, Nance.

[KonaKane]

Once again, that nails it.

The evil little man in my brain, upon hearing that sponsors were jumping ship, screamed some question about why they were happily putting up with Stinkbo all those years before now.

[madamesilverspurs]

And - again - much, much nicer than I would be.

Well done in the extreme. Thank you!