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Prior to this morning I was busy with client-related work that forced me to miss out on writing about the holier-than-thou race-baiting — by Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Michael Wilbon and others — of Rush Limbaugh, who had the chutzpah to try to buy a minority stake in the NFL’s St. Louis Rams.
He’s a hefty rich white conservative guy with a big mouth. Why did he think that he’d be allowed to own a piece of the NFL?
It’s not like he’s a hefty rich white liberal guy with a big mouth, like Michael Moore. Now who would object to Moore wanting a piece of the NFL?
The question boils down to: why are race-baiting, false quotes and smear tactics fielded to block Limbaugh’s business activities? (It’s bad enough that such tactics are fielded to counter Limbaugh’s political activities.)
The answer: such tactics work.
But the tactics work at the price of disillusioning those who voted for Prez B Cool because they thought we could at last pat one another on the back, shake hands and move past race baiting. The president’s swooning approval rating is part and parcel of the serial race-baiting attacks since his inauguration.
Rush isn’t much hurt by the libel — he’s a big boy and can find other business activites.
But NFL football is diminished, and sports writing is diminished, and the nation that is forced to again pay attention to race-baiters like Al Sharpton is diminished.
Here are the closing paragraphs of an op-end by Limbaugh published in this morning’s Wall Street Journal:
There is a contempt in the news business, including the sportswriter community, for conservatives that reflects the blind hatred espoused by Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson. “Racism” is too often their sledgehammer. And it is being used to try to keep citizens who don’t share the left’s agenda from participating in the full array of opportunities this nation otherwise affords each of us. It was on display many years ago in an effort to smear Clarence Thomas with racist stereotypes and keep him off the Supreme Court. More recently, it was employed against patriotic citizens who attended town-hall meetings and tea-party protests.
These intimidation tactics are working and spreading, and they are a cancer on our society.
As tea party activists, I and good people I know are libeled every time Janeane Garofalo wants to get on television.
So, yeah: I stand with Rush. He’s much better company than Janeane (“teabaggers”) Garofalo, Whoopi (“it wasn’t rape-rape”) Goldberg and Jon (“most trusted journalist”) Stewart.
A postscript aimed at NFL players and owners: I’ll be sticking to college football (Go, Trojans!) until you guys get your heads screwed on straight. I refuse to help support you and your organization if you’re going to accuse me and mine of racism.
Update: Sharpton is threatening a defamation lawsuit against Limbaugh based on the WSJ op-ed. Really.
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Tags: Al Sharpton, David Checketts, football, Janeane Garofalo, Jesse Jackson, National Football League, NFL, rush limbaugh, St Louis Rams
