After decades of misogyny, talk radio bully Rush Limbaugh is finally paying a bit of a price: Advertisers are fleeing, and Republican pols, who previously bowed down to him, are publicly (albeit mildly) criticizing him. Rush was even forced to give a just-pretend apology to his latest target, Sandra Fluke:
Recently, [Rush Limbaugh] made himself and the political right look ridiculous by verbally abusing Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University law student who tried to testify before Congress about the cost of birth control.
Mr. Limbaugh twisted Ms. Fluke’s comments beyond recognition. In her statement (now posted on YouTube), Ms. Fluke drew attention to a friend who was prescribed birth control pills for cancer treatment, and had to pay for the treatment out of pocket. She said nothing whatsoever about her own sex life, or about her friend’s sex life.
But in Mr. Limbaugh’s propaganda chamber, her testimony became a declaration of sexual promiscuity. He accused her of expecting taxpayers to pay her to have sex, and suggested that she post videos of herself having sex on the Internet. He called her a “slut” and a “prostitute” and said she was “round heeled.”
Career-ending? I doubt it. In fact, Limbaugh remains an inspiration to many fellow bullies. And there’s even a Rally For Rush movement afoot.
Nevertheless, the movement against Rush is a step in the right direction. And this wingnut radio spectacle sure is fun to behold.
Limerick Ode To Rush Limbaugh
By Madeleine Begun Kane
A rebuke for Rush Limbaugh at last,
As his smears leave good people aghast.
He’s lost ads — it’s no fluke —
Even managed to spook
Those who always sucked up in the past.