Limbaugh and Imus – Different Strokes
by Paul R. Hollrah
April 10,2007

 

Just for a moment, let’s take a little trip back in time to ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown on September 28, 2003.  Hosted by ESPN sportscaster Chris Berman, the show also featured expert commentary by Steve Young, former all-pro quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers; Tom Jackson, former all-pro linebacker for the Denver Broncos; Michael Irvin, former all-pro wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys; and Rush Limbaugh, America’s top conservative talk radio host and a dedicated and knowledgeable football fan.

 

As the discussion turned to the performance of some key NFL players, particularly Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, Limbaugh commented, “I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL.  The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.  There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve.  The defense carried this team.” 

 

The truth is, McNabb does not give 100% effort on every play of every game, and never has. 
As a quarterback, he has a tendency to “loaf” a bit.  Limbaugh was only making a judgment that is shared by many thousands of diehard Eagles fans, this writer included.  McNabb is simply not the quarterback that many in the media make him out to be.   

 

But Limbaugh wasn’t alone in his assessment.  Young, who happens to be white, commented that McNabb “certainly hasn’t matured,” while Michael Irvin, who is black, said, not once but twice, “Rush has a point… Rush has a point.”

 

So Limbaugh did not make an unfair or a racist comment about McNabb and he was not alone in his assessment.  He commented, accurately, that the media doesn’t always portray the Eagles’ quarterback fairly and accurately.  But we wouldn’t have known that from the anti-Limbaugh reaction in the days that followed... a media firestorm that resulted in Limbaugh’s resignation.

 

Then-Democratic presidential candidate, Gen. Wesley Clark, said, “Mr. Limbaugh should be fired immediately.” 

 

Another Democratic presidential contender, Governor Howard Dean urged ESPN to fire Limbaugh.
Reverend Al Sharpton, who should know a racist comment when he sees one, said, “I'm going to call for ESPN to terminate Rush Limbaugh …”

 

The NAACP condemned Limbaugh's remarks, calling them “bigoted and ignorant.”

 

In covering Limbaugh’s speech before the National Association of Broadcasters several days later, CNN reported that, while Limbaugh expressed regret over the McNabb comments, he failed to directly address questions about his name being linked… “to an investigation into a black market drug ring in Palm Beach County, Florida.”

 

Now, compare Limbaugh’s fate to that of TV-radio “shock jock” Don Imus, who last week referred to the mostly black Rutgers University girls’ basketball team as being “nappy-headed hos...” (“hos” being the pejorative term for “whores” widely used in rap and hip-hop “music” genres to describe young black females.)

 

CBS Radio, Imus’s chief employer, announced that, rather than fire him, they would take him off the air for two weeks. 

 

Reverend Al Sharpton, being entirely consistent, said the remarks were “repugnant, repulsive, and horrible” and called for Imus to be fired. 

 

But other liberals, those who would have joined in condemning Rush Limbaugh for a racist comment that was not a racist comment, quickly came to Imus’s defense.

 

David Rosenthal, publisher of Simon and Shuster, said that Imus has been “a fantastic forum for authors and for people with interesting ideas” and that it would be a shame if he was fired.

 

Rosie O’Donnell, liberalism’s biggest and loudest mouth, said, “Imus should be judged on his forty year career, not on just four words.”

The unfunny liberal comedian, Bill Maher, who makes a living spouting anti-conservative, anti- Bush hate speech; Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant; and journalist Jeff Greenfield wasted no time in going on the air with Imus to offer words of encouragement and support.

But it was left to Niger Innis, Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), an old line black civil rights organization, to put a bit of perspective on the issue.  While agreeing that Imus’s racist and sexist outburst was reprehensible and that severe punishment was in order, Innis said, “Don Imus only borrowed for a day what black “gangsta” rappers and hip-hop artists say every day.”

 

No one should excuse Imus for his incredibly insensitive choice of words, but those in the black community who condemn him should be looking into their mirrors and asking themselves what they’ve done to eradicate the unspeakable poison of rap “music” from our culture.  If every black male child in America is subjected to song lyrics dozens of times a day that refer to their sisters and their female classmates as “hos,” why should they be surprised when a white “shock jock” like Don Imus, whose gets paid big bucks for saying outrageous things, inadvertently lets one slip?