Ire at Imus, Leniency for Limbaugh
Never assume that Rush Limbaugh couldn’t possibly sink to lower depths. And never assume he’ll pay a price for his destructive verbosity. The latest example:
LIMBAUGH: If this Virginia Tech shooter had an ideology, what do you think it was? This guy had to be a liberal. You start railing against the rich and all this other — this guy’s a liberal. He was turned into a liberal somewhere along the line. So it’s a liberal that committed this act.
The pundits will tell you that Imus crossed the line because he went after innocent and admirable young women rather than the usual big shots. True enough. But hasn’t Rush Limbaugh crossed a line - some kind of line - countless times? Yet Limbaugh’s poisonous rants don’t earn him anywhere near the outrage that was provoked by Imus. Far from it - just days after Limbaugh’s repugnant mimicry of Michael J. Fox, the president of the United States went on his program to exchange some friendly banter. And Vice President Cheney frequently appears on Limbaugh’s show.
At a speaking engagement once, I referred to Limbaugh as a modern-day Father Coughlin. The dittoheads in the audience jumped all over me, saying Limbaugh isn’t an anti-Semite, etc. That wasn’t my point, and I acknowledge that the comparison may not be apt in some ways. But like Father Coughlin, Limbaugh is a political propagandist who plays to people’s anger, fear and anxiety. No matter how many listeners he may have, political figures should stay away.