As a follow up on yesterday's post, it's worth noting that Rush Limbaugh continues to spin his wheels concerning his assertion that Seung-Hui Cho "had to have been a liberal."
Yesterday, we saw that he tried to write it off as a joke and/or an experiment on how liberals (e.g., Media Matters for America) take things "out of context."
The problem with that explanation is A) MMFA quoted him in context, providing a transcript an audio version of his remarks, and B) Limbaugh said that he really believed what he said.
Yesterday, he repeated the idea that he was simply "baiting" MMFA. As we noted yesterday, however, the motivation behind his comments are immaterial insofar as they are offensive no matter what the context is.
Limbaugh went further by saying that MMFA (and others) should learn to "stop being baited when I am baiting you."
He also claimed that "everyone who listens to me agrees with what I said, so where's the controvesy?"
Such shabby argument barely warrants a response, but just for giggles, let's point out that this argument is akin to saying to an African American "You should learn to stop being baited when I call you a n****r" or saying that as long as David Duke is speaking to a rally of fellow clansmen (even if it's in the public sphere, as is the case with anything broadcast on the citizen-owned airwaves), no one should object to his racist rantings.
tjr
3 comments:
Citizen-owned airwaves - what ever happened to the idea that the public could own things or that people who use public property for private profit have an obligation to use it in the public interest?
These people who call themselves conservatives are really neo-feudalists.
You know, the only other time I've ever heard the "I'm just kidding... but I really mean it" defense was when I was in college, when-- usually after drinking-- one of my guy friends would oh-so-smoothly try to get one of our woman friends to have sex with him. You know, "Maybe you and I should... Ha ha. No, I'm just kidding. Unless you want to. No? Oh... ha ha. No, it's just a joke. But, you know, if you wanted to, we could... No, no. I'm joking. Unless..."
So, I suppose what I'm trying to say is that Rush Limbaugh is the rhetorical equal of a 19-year-old virgin who's shotgunned one-too-many cans of Milwaukee's Best.
I realize that probably sounds snide. And I just finished typing a response to the entry below wherein I said liberals need to resist the urge to be snide. Eh. So I'm a hypocrite.
ted,
great article on mediamatters about bill o'reilly's use of propaganda techniques. it cites an indiana university study and can be found either through the mmfa site or directly at: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/5535.html
enjoy,
O'Reilly's (nee Hyman's) Turtle
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