Anderson Cooper The Journalist

Rush Limbaugh

You live by the sword, you die by the sword.  Rush Limbaugh has now done both.

For two decades, Limbaugh has amassed a sizable personal fortune through making inflammatory political remarks that are designed to incite, inflame and enthrall.  Does he truly believe everything he has said over the years?  Probably not, but he has said them, because, as he tells us, he is an entertainer, and his audience enjoys his schtick.

Very much so, as it has catapulted him to an income of millions for many years.  How has he done it?  By appealing to the base instincts of his audience, often crossing the line beyond reasonableness and good taste to personal attacks on whatever target may be convenient at the time.  In Limbaugh’s conservative world, that generally means anyone who is not straight and white like he.  They can even be drug abusers, despite his admitted addiction to Oxycontin a few years ago.

To Limbaugh’s credit, he has found an act that America buys, and he should be allowed to sell it under free speech and open market provisions.

But now Limbaugh has sought to enjoy the fruits of the poisonous tree, and he is whining because he will not be allowed to do so.  He has been dropped from an investment group that hopes to buy the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League (NFL).  The NFL, ever so cautious with its product, does not want Limbaugh included after howls of protests from the many he has offended over the years.

Sounds like the free market at work.  The same free market that Limbaugh has constantly defended from attacks by the liberals of the American society.  Limbaugh is trying to paint the argument in those terms, saying it has nothing to do with him but is a continuation of the liberal assault on conservative principles.

Limbaugh is being much too modest and humble.  It is all about him, and not much beyond.  Rather than a liberal assault on conservative principles, the situation is much simpler than that.  It is more that groups of people who have been ridiculed and treated by Limbaugh as if they were less than human for the past two decades now see a chance to land a blow of their own, and they are doing exactly that.  Even more so, it appears they have prevailed in this latest skirmish.

Limbaugh needs to suck it up and move on.  Instead, he will make this his latest cause celebre; no doubt his audience will hear about it for the next few days, if not longer.  Limbaugh will distort the situation so he can exploit it, painting it as a liberal assault and an attack on his free speech rights.  What he will fail to note, however, is he has not used that free speech responsibly, and, in a way he never imagined, he is being held accountable, as he constantly laments that all others should be.  Limbaugh has learned what he has long preached:  with rights comes responsibility – George Curcio