By now, everyone has an opinion on the latest controversy regarding Rush Limbaugh. When a Georgetown law student by the name of Sandra Fluke testified before Congress last week in favor of birth control being covered under health insurance plans, Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut” and “prostitute”. The comments caused such a firestorm of controversy that Rush apologized last weekend for the “insulting” comments he made and did so again on Monday. Fluke did not accept the apology, claiming that Rush was not sincere and his motives were largely to avoid losing sponsors, radio stations, and listeners. As of the time of this blog, over 40 sponsors have decided to stop advertising on the show. Two radio stations have stopped broadcasting his radio show, and two musician have demanded Rush stop playing their music on his radio show.
The reason that some advertisers have stopped sponsoring Rush’s show comes down to a basic reason: some of the company CEOs have daughters of their own and don’t like the idea of anyone’s daughter being called a “slut”. In short, the family values that Rush claims to embrace has been used against Mr. Limbaugh in this instance. And they’re right. Nobody likes their child to be denigrated in front of a national audience. It’s one thing if they are famous: denigration of celebrities comes with the territory of being famous. But, from all accounts, Ms. Fluke was just making a point in front a Congressional committee as a private citizen. Ironically, Rush’s denigration of Ms. Fluke might make her famous enough to be a future politician/celebrity that will almost certainly be progressive in her views.
Rush is without question the biggest radio personality in history by a wide margin. It’s not even close. The next biggest radio personality is Howard Stern, and Howard left standard radio airwaves 6 years ago for the uncensored world of pay satellite radio. Yeah, Howard says worse things about women, but the difference is Howard goes mostly after celebrities or after those who want to appear on his radio show and take the abuse. In short, you know what you are getting with Howard. He’s not a nuclear family values guy. Rush claims to be, however, so his comments on Ms. Fluke were viewed as worse than Howard’s usual shtick.
In the end Rush will survive because he owns his own network, and he can afford a smaller pay salary from sponsors if it means he can still speak his mind. But this controversy is just another headache that Rush could have avoided if he had just avoided saying something stupid about a heretofore private citizen. You may not agree with Ms. Fluke’s views, but calling her a slut is not a good way to try and win the people’s hearts and minds on the matter if you disagree with her.
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