Rush backtracks on racially charged comment, says it was just to "tweak the media"

[ck4829]

On the February 13 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, in the face of criticism by Sports Illustrated columnist Peter King for his February 5 comment that, as Media Matters for America noted, "(t)hey're (the media) dumping on this guy, (Chicago Bears quarterback) Rex Grossman, for one reason, folks, and that's because he's a white quarterback," Rush Limbaugh said of his claim: "And the whole point was to tweak the media, and another point was to demonstrate that these people in the sports media that comment on me don't listen to this program. They get what I said selectively and out of context from these liberal so-called watchdog media -- media watchdog websites," an apparent reference to Media Matters. Limbaugh claimed that, after making the racially charged comment, "Later in the program, I let the audience in on the gag, which was to tweak the media." He later said: "I'm the last person to see black or white, or sex. It's liberals that do this."

In fact, despite claiming to have "let the audience in on the gag" "(l)ater in the program," it wasn't until the next day, on the February 6 edition of his program, that he said the following about his Grossman comment: "I did that because I was trying to tweak the same media who went bonkers when I said the same thing about them and the way they treat (Philadelphia Eagles quarterback) Donovan McNabb" -- referring to his 2003 statement that "(t)he NFL is very desirous that a black quarterback do well," which led to his subsequent resignation from his position on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown. Limbaugh also said his statement was "(j)ust a new technique here to try to get people aroused and get them attentive to something that I do consider to be, you know, something that's pretty bad."

Also, during the February 13 edition of the program, Limbaugh said: "And then he (King) quoted me verbatim what I had said, but did not quote anything I had said about this being a tweak of the media, an illustration of the absurd by being absurd or any of that, which means King didn't hear what I said. He's simply relying on the left-wing media watchdog site, which is what they all do." He was addressing King's criticism in the February 11 edition of his weekly "Monday Morning QB" column on Sports Illustrated's website, in which King called Limbaugh a "race-aholic" and said: "He injects race where it has no business being injected." King rejected Limbaugh's assertion that the media "was dumping on (Grossman) ... because he's a white quarterback" and responded in part: "Rush, we're dumping on him because, in a five-point game in the fourth quarter, with the Bears in possession of the ball and still with a very good chance to win, he threw two ridiculous passes in the biggest game of his life. Two interceptions. Buried his own team."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200702150004

[Sequoia]

1. It's time to dump that fat slimy hog (sorry oinkers everywhere)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Rush did what he set out to do

he fed the racists in his viewing audience the raw meat of prejudice that they desired, and backtracked later, blaming it on the "liberal media", all the while winking at his friends wearing pointy white hoods.

I still like the bumper sticker I saw ca 1990: Oink if you love Rush

[classof56]

7. That's a good one. I also like this one, which I saw a few years ago:

"I think, therefore I do not listen to Rush Limbaugh."

Right on!

[AspenRose]

3. "He injects race where it has no business being injected."

Yep, pretty much it in a nutshell. "Halfrican," anyone? x(

[Bluzmann57]

4. King, of course, gets paid to cover football games

and so may have some sort of idea what he's talking about. limbaugh just gets paid for being an idiot, and never knows what he's talking about. So I'll believe King's version. I know a lot of Bears fans, and they dump on Grossman too. It has nothing to do with race, if Grossman was black and played that badly, the Bears fans and the sports media would still crticize him. If limbaugh knew anything about football, or life, he'd figure that out. But it's too late now.

[AlCzervik]

5. No, bells already rung on Rump Leakage long ago, it cannot be unrung.

[Bitwit1234]

6. I have asked these right wingers over and over

tell me one of the radio or TV spots that are liberal media. I would really truly like to listen or watch. Other than Air America nothing else out there exists.

[mitchum]

8. That bloviating, drug-addled piece of shit belongs to the media