Rush Limbaugh: Legitimate Consequences or Smear Campaign?

Rush Limbaugh is no favorite among the Left.  No one is denying that.  But how far will the Left go in order to silence their opposition?  Is that what is happening here in the case of Rush Limbaugh and the NFL?  OR, is this exactly what those involved in this decision say it is–a legitimate consequence for Rush’s alleged racist statements?

Here are some facts and thoughts about it. . .then you can decide. 

To begin with, just who are those that booted him out of the bidding process?

“The plot thickens on the media’s character-lynching of Rush Limbaugh. Of the four stories run on ESPN.com about Limbaugh’s bid for the Rams (October 6, October 12, October 15, and another October 15) none of them mention that NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith served as counsel to Attorney General Eric Holder and was a member of Barack Obama’s transition team.
 
The October 12 article references Smith’s anti-Limbaugh email meant to garner opposition against the radio host’s bid. The report refers to Smith only as the executive director of the NFLPA. Despite the fact that Smith’s opposition was based on Limbaugh’s political commentary, the report failed to mention that Smith’s political connections (including those to whom he donated thousands of dollars) have a vested interest in Limbaugh’s discrediting” (source).

Or how about an opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal:

“What happened here, and is happening elsewhere in American life, is that Mr. Limbaugh’s outspoken political conservatism is being deemed sufficient reason to ostracize him from polite society. By contrast, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who fires off his own brand of high-velocity, left-wing political commentary but lacks Mr. Limbaugh’s sense of humor, appears weekly as co-host of NBC’s “Football Night in America.” We haven’t heard anyone on the right say Mr. Olbermann’s nightly ad-hominem rants should disqualify him from hanging around the NFL. Al Franken made it all the way to the U.S. Senate on a river of political vitriol. . .It is no secret that this country’s politics has become intense across the ideological spectrum. Rush Limbaugh lets his listeners blow off steam and then get on with the rest of their day. But if the people who claim to worry about such things want to see a truly angry right develop in this country, they should continue to remain silent while the left tries to drive Rush Limbaugh and others out of American political life. If that happens, the NFL by comparison will look like an afternoon tea. “

So what are the statements that have disqualified Rush, and are they true?  The comment about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, Donovan McNabb. . .here is National Review’s Stephen Spruiell:

“In 2007, four years after Rush made his comments, McNabb told HBO’s Bryant Gumbel that, as a black quarterback, he felt pressured to live up to unreasonable expectations. “There’s not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we have to do a little bit extra,” McNabb said. “Because the percentage of us playing this position, which people didn’t want us to play . . . is low, so we do a little extra.”

McNabb’s analysis is flawed in one respect: Black quarterbacks face more pressure not because people don’t want them to play, but because people — primarily the sports media and the NFL— want a black QB to hurry up and make history by joining the pantheon of the greatest QBs of all time. One will, eventually, but, in the meantime, average-to-good black QBs face unrealistic pressures to be that guy. That says more about the media and the league than it does about the ability of blacks to be great quarterbacks, and Rush said so. Six years later, he’s still being punished for it.”

Spruiell explains how Rush’s comment calls to mind other expectations that the public, the media, or the NFL have had over the years. . .for Dallas Cowboy’s quarterback Tony Romo. . .or even more recently, for once presidential candidate Barack Obama.

And Rush’s alleged comment about slavery?

MSNBC’s host, David Shuster, had something to say about that:

“And Tamron, speaking of influence, we do have an update involving talk show host Rush Limbaugh and the controversy over his effort to help buy an NFL football team. Limbaugh denies he said quote, ‘slavery has its merits,’ it was a quote that appeared on MSNBC this past Monday and Tuesday. MSNBC attributed that quote to a football player who was opposed to Limbaugh’s NFL bid. However, we have been unable to verify that quote independently. So, just to clarify.”

And in Rush’s words:

“Nobody can source it because it wasn’t ever made.  I never said it.  And look at all of these people who are repeating it without checking, and these are the people who tell us that they are the professionals, that they are the ones we should trust to week out what’s garbage and what’s not garbage in the ”sewer,” they say that is the Internet.  They are the sewer!  They are the sewer, and they are in the midst of it. . .These people repeat lies because it fits their already prejudiced agenda.  They are the ones with prejudice and bigotry coursing through their vanes, through their hearts, and through their souls.  They are consumed with jealousy and rage.  They are all liberals — and make no mistake:  That’s what this is about.  It is about ideology.  It isn’t about race.  It’s about their being jealous and attempting to discredit me, and they’ve now sunk to the low of repeating fabricated quotes that they cannot source.”

I have my opinion, and it is found in the Word of God:

^“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.  For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth“ (2 Timothy 3:1-7).

It’s going to be more difficult in the coming days, years and decades to stand on Truth.  That doesn’t mean we should stop.