On his radio show today, Dennis said about the prospect of Rush Limbaugh buying a part of the St. Louis Rams: "You can not be a good person, your moral character is shown by the opposition to a radio broadcaster on the right or left owning a part of a football team. Especially when the opposition lies."
"Somebody has lied and said that Rush Limbaugh said that the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr deserves an award. He never said it. The purveying of a lie is similar to taking stolen goods and selling them."
"This woman Karen Hunter on MSNBC. She spews this lie about Rush Limbaugh. Did you know that Rush Limbaugh’s top man his entire career has been a black man? His sidekick? Conservatives don’t make a big deal about it because we don’t think it is a big deal to have a person of color as our assistant or best friend. Unlike the Left, we don’t use race.
"I don’t recall us falling into a trap of wanting to believe something nefarious about someone we don’t like and then broadcasting it without having documented that it is true.
"This is so evil.
"You are bad. Your conscience has been dulled if you support the lies told about Rush Limbaugh.
"If Keith Olbermann, who really is a hate-filled man, far more hate-filled than Rush Limbaugh, wanted to own the Arizona Cardinals, do you think there would be ten seconds of attention paid on this show or any normative show to trying to obstruct it? That’s his business. I buy Ben & Jerry’s icecream. You can’t get to the left of Ben & Jerry. I don’t like the idea that we are trying to deny livelihoods to people we disagree with.
"Until MSNBC apologizes and does right, MSNBC is now the sewer network."
"Apparently she won a Pulitzer prize. For what? Was it for Why Men Go To Brazil For Sex? Did you see a listing of some of her books?"
"The black Left and the white Left are identical. But on the black Left, there is an additional factor. Because you are black and Left, you can lie about whites. Al Sharpton did that with the Tawana Brawley hoax. He never apologized and he’s continued to be taken seriously instead of being in prison."
"Apparently she is one of those who believes that being black she can say anything she wants about whites. She can lie. The Leftism moves her to lie and the black defends her lie. It’s a combination that makes war on truth."
"From its inception, the Left has been tempted towards totalitarianism, that is, the control of speech, assembly, society. You see it now in the Rush Limbaugh issue. The man is a conservative radio broadcaster and he can not own a team. It’s OK to lie about him being a racist."
"Rush Limbaugh said Donovan McNabb was over-rated as a black quarterback because the sports media was so happy to see a black quarterback."
"If someone says that the Nobel committee gave the peace prize to Obama in part because they were so happy to see a black president of the United States, is it anti-black? It may be wrong."
"That is his entire commentary on race in a lifetime of commentary, at least on race and football."
"There really is only one thing that bothers me when it is on the internet about me and there are a lot of attacks on me, and that is when someone lies about something I’ve done or said. If somebody calls me 27 different names, I yawn, but when there is a lie told, and there have been lies, straight out fabrications told about me, or, more frequently, people think I’ve said something and put it in quotes when I’ve never said that.
"I remember a newspaper I read every week, it is on the Left, it is called the Forward, they covered a speech I gave to a Republican Jewish Coalition meeting, and some young reporter who of course was on the Left, covered me and made up quotes. To his consternation, and this is a warning to everybody, I record every public word I say.
[Luke asks: Who was this reporter?]
"Not only was I recorded in this case, but my wife was present and videoed it. I saw what they wrote on the internet and I told them your reporter lied and made it up. He simply made it up. I have proof. Here is the file. I sent them the file of my speech. They never retracted it in print. They took it out. They dropped the article, but they never apologized."
"This should be career-ending for this woman Karen Hunter but it isn’t be career-ending because on the Left any tactic may be used to squash the Right. You are in a war against evil. To be on the Right is to be evil in the eyes of the Left. Morality and truth are not issues to be obstacles to the squashing of the Right.
"Karen Hunter’s career should end. Anybody who has Karen Hunter on is an accessory to lying. This should be it. I’ve never said this about anyone’s career, but I do not countenance lies. Lies and smears I do not countenance. We are doomed if this woman gets away with what she’s doing."
"Hunter College needs to rethink her employment. She teaches Journalism there."
"She probably… went online and looked for Rush Limbaugh’s top ten racist comments and believed all of them. And she’s a professor of Journalism?"
Prompted by a caller, Prager admitted that if Mitt Romney wanted to buy a team, there would not be an outcry. If George Bush wanted to own a team, there may not be such an outcry as this.
"Rush Limbaugh has been demonized," said Prager, who admits he doesn’t listen to his show.
I agree with what Jim Rome had to say today on his ESPN TV show: "Reports are that Rush Limbaugh will be dropped by Dave Checketts and the group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams. Sometimes doors will fly open for you if you’re Rush Limbaugh and sometimes they will slam shut. Sometimes it’s great to be Limbaugh and sometimes it’s not. Right now it’s not because being Rush Limbaugh is what’s keeping him out of the NFL. It’s like trying to join Augusta National or any other exclusive golf club — it doesn’t matter how much money you have or how famous you are, if they don’t like you, you’re not getting in. They don’t need to provide you with an explanation either. It’s their club. If they don’t want you, you’re out. You see it all the time. Wealthy powerful guys getting stoned at the door of exclusive clubs because the members don’t want their type coming around. Of course it’s exclusionary. We’re talking about private clubs. They let in who they want and keep out who they don’t want. There is not a club more private and exclusive than the NFL ownership club. Should they want him? It’s their club. They don’t want him. Being outspoken and controversial and polarizing is good for Rush Limbaugh’s brand… but it’s not necessarily good for the NFL brand… If you say what he says and you do what he does, while that may make you a ton of bank and a legend your own industry, it will make you plenty of enemies as well. In this case, it will get you on the wrong side of the selection committee, the owners."
Jeff Poor writes on Newsbusters:
One of the most damaging accusations you can level at opponent is call that individual a racist in one form or another. And that’s the tactic MSNBC and others left-wing opponents of Rush Limbaugh are taking to thwart his bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams.
During a segment on MSNBC on Oct. 13, former Pulitzer Prize winner Karen Hunter appeared to voice her opposition to the Limbaugh’s NFL bid. She made one of the most outrageous – likening Limbaugh’s ownership of an NFL team to being a plantation owner, a metaphor that invokes the image of antebellum South during the 19th Century, when slavery was rampant.
"I can just see the visions of plantation grandeur dancing in his head as we speak," Hunter said. "Yeah, it doesn’t make you a racist to want to own a team. But, it does kind of with all his history question his power position over these players who make millions of dollars and his ability to be able to move them around, deny them contracts and do whatever he wants willy-nilly. It’s the ultimate power position to be an owner of an NFL team."
Hunter is the author of notable works of literature – "Pimpology: The 48 Laws of the Game," "Don’t Blame It on Rio: The Real Deal Behind Why Men Go to Brazil for Sex"and "On the Down Low: A Journey Into the Lives of "Straight" Black Men Who Sleep With Men," which to MSNBC makes her uniquely qualified to comment on Limbaugh having an ownership stake in the NFL.
The journalism teacher also used to a highly questionable quote to further her charge against Limbaugh that he’s a racist. According to a post on the Smash Mouth Politics blog (cited by Limbaugh on his Oct. 12 radio program and his Web site) there’s evidence a quote frequently cited, which Limbaugh appears to show remorse for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassin, James Earl Ray, is completely fabricated.
Allen Barra wrote on Slate.com Oct. 2, 2003 that Rush was right about Donovan McNabb:
In his notorious ESPN comments last Sunday night, Rush Limbaugh said he never thought the Philadelphia Eagles’ Donovan McNabb was "that good of a quarterback."
If Limbaugh were a more astute analyst, he would have been even harsher and said, "Donovan McNabb is barely a mediocre quarterback." But other than that, Limbaugh pretty much spoke the truth. Limbaugh lost his job for saying in public what many football fans and analysts have been saying privately for the past couple of seasons.
Let’s review: McNabb, he said, is "overrated … what we have here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback can do well—black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well."
"There’s a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he didn’t deserve. The defense carried this team."
Toby Harnden writes for the Daily Telegraph:
Which public figure can be quoted as having said something bigoted and disgusting and it doesn’t matter whether he did or not because he might have? Who can Big Media brand a racist without checking the facts? Who has to prove he did not say something racist, rather than the accuser proving he did?
A pat on the back for anyone who guessed the answer: Rush Limbaugh (OK, the blog headline was a clue). From CNN to MSNBC to ABC, it’s been put about that Limbaugh said this:
I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.
It’s also been spread around that he said this, about the death of the man who assassinated Martin Luther King:
You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honour? James Earl Ray. We miss you, James. Godspeed.
Here’s CNN’s Rick Sanchez baldly stating at the 1.14 point that Limbaugh made the slavery comment:
Trouble is, he didn’t say either of these outrageous things. And it wasn’t difficult to check, as protein wisdom shows here. They originated from, er, Wikipedia and Wikiquotes. Both quotes ended up in this book – a hit job that doesn’t cite any sources. They’re also included in this internet list posted a year ago and endlessly ripped off ever since.
The irony is, of course, that the people reporting this as fact are the same types who are always denouncing bloggers and the internet as forces of evil intent on destroying proper journalism – proper journalism being the kind that involves checking facts. In the case of Rush Limbaugh, however, it seems to be enough that the intention (i.e. to show the talk radio host is a racist) is considered pure.
