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Jewish World Review March 13 , 2012/ 19 Adar, 5772 Be careful what you demonize By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Blowback is a bitch. Just ask Louis C. K., an unintended victim of a liberal smear campaign.
Mr. C. K.'s troubles began Feb. 20 when Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke, testifying at an ersatz hearing, said she was having so much sex that paying for contraception was a financial hardship, so Georgetown should be required to provide it for her.
Ms. Fluke's insistence that a Catholic college subsidize her sex life was ripe for ridicule, which Mr. Limbaugh did on his radio program two days later. But then he called her a "slut," and she became a victim.
Democrats denounced Mr. Limbaugh to any reporter who had a microphone handy. Ms. Fluke should sue, said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Limbaugh should be prosecuted, said celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred. The FCC should ban him from the airwaves, said aging feminists Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem.
For a week, the flap drew more coverage on cable television than any other issue. The feeding frenzy accelerated after President Barack Obama called Ms. Fluke to commiserate.
"The reason I called Ms. Fluke is because I thought about my daughters," Mr. Obama told reporters. "I do not want them attacked or called horrible names because they are being good citizens (by taking public stands on issues)."
Nearly 30 advertisers dropped the Limbaugh program, prompting columnist Clarence Page to ask: "Could this be the end of Limbaugh?"
In your dreams, Clarence. Losing 29 of roughly 18,000 local sponsors isn't the big deal some journalists made it out to be. Other companies are eager to take their place, Mr. Limbaugh said. Two of the firms which pulled their ads have asked to return.
So Mr. Limbaugh will survive. The controversy has drawn attention to blatant liberal hypocrisy.
Many liberal commenters used sexual slurs to describe Sarah Palin, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, radio talk show host Laura Ingraham, columnists S.E. Cupp and Michelle Malkin and other conservative women without a murmur of protest from those who claim to be outraged by what Mr. Limbaugh said, noted liberal New York Post columnist Kirsten Powers.
The worst offender, she said, is comedian Bill Maher, who recently gave a $1 million contribution to Mr. Obama's SuperPac. Bill Bennett wondered on CNN how Mr. Obama would explain to Sasha and Malia why he kept Mr. Maher's donation.
"It's time for some equal-opportunity accountability," Ms. Powers said. "Without it, the fight against media misogyny will continue to be perceived as a proxy war for the Democratic Party."
Another liberal, Paul Theroux, agrees: "The folks who depicted George Bush as a chimp, and Sarah Palin as a skank, are indignant when these same words are used against their people in the virtue industry," he noted.
Democrats have twisted themselves into knots explaining why they think Rush Limbaugh should be hounded, but liberal misogynists given a pass.
The conservative women Mr. Maher slanders are public figures, but Ms. Fluke is a private citizen, argued former Democratic National Committee communications director Karen Finney on MSNBC. She didn't mention that Ms. Fluke is a liberal activist who sought the spotlight, and at 30 is closer to middle age than to childhood -- unlike Bristol Palin, 20, one of the targets of Mr. Maher's slurs.
Mr. Maher is just a comedian who is on late at night, so his sexual slurs don't matter, said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY.
That excuse isn't flying, Louis C. K. can attest. He was scheduled to perform at the Radio & Television Correspondents' Association dinner June 8 until Greta van Susteren of Fox News noted that his "humor," like that of Bill Maher, consists largely of sexual slurs against conservative women.
That Louis C. K. was chosen to entertain in the first place suggests much of the indignation liberal journalists have expressed about Mr. Limbaugh's remark is phony.
The blowback has been so great that Mr. Maher felt compelled to issue a statement defending Mr. Limbaugh -- and by extension, himself.
It could be that ultimately, the biggest losers in this flap will be liberal comedians who rely on sexual slurs against conservative women to get laughs, and those liberals who think those slurs are funny.
"I apologized for behaving like a liberal," Mr. Limbaugh said. "They live there."
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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration.
© 2011, Jack Kelly |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
