Rushing to Race Bait (Updated)

By Joseph Ashby

Reaction to Rush Limbaugh’s bid to become a minority owner in the St. Louis Rams football franchise has been breathtaking.

The examples are too many to number, but a column by Fox Sports writer Jason Whitlock has all the hallmarks of the misguided Rush critics.

Whitlock begins by calling Rush an opportunistic, race baiting, anti-black entertainer who is trying to one up Glenn Beck in popularity. (The left lies awake at night hoping Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh will fight.)

Whitlock goes on to explain that it’s fine for rapper Jay-Z to own a part of the Cleveland Cavaliers despite using lyrics laced with violence, racism and sexism.

This is the major difference between Rush and Jay-Z. Beyonce's boyfriend raps a bunch of dumb, racist, sexist (spit) but serious people don't take Jay-Z or his music seriously.

Right. So “serious people” are allowed to decide when Jay-Z is being serious, but Rush gets no such indulgence.

The piece goes on to cite utterly false and libelous statements that Rush never actually said as proof of his racism.

To top it off, Whitlock ends with this gem:

Do you think Goodell would allow Michael Vick to go on radio and crack jokes about dogs?

Micheal Vick just completed a federal prison term for running an illegal dog fighting ring in which he brutally killed several innocent animals. Last I checked Rush hasn’t killed anyone and then joked about it over the airwaves.

In short the media’s argument (exemplified by Whitlock) is made up of name calling, pretended rivalries, phony quotes and fallacious analogies. In other words, this is what liberals would call an airtight case.

The truth is that, however you feel about Rush’s style, he has been perhaps the foremost advocate for freedom in America for over two decades. Glenn Beck put it succinctly yesterday on his radio program when he said this about Rush:

I don't believe…I just owe my success to Rush Limbaugh. I believe I owe my country to Rush Limbaugh. How's that? I think if it wasn't for Rush Limbaugh back in the Eighties, if somebody wouldn't have taken the bull by the horns and started saying the things that people were thinking but would not say, I don't think we'd have a country left today.

Update:

There is another aspect worth noting concerning the media’s attacks on Rush. Jason Whitlock wrote an article last week featuring a nude picture Serena Williams, the word ‘sexy’ in the title and positive and negative opinions about sports figures and teams around the country. It was a smorgasbord of internet intrigue. For Whitlock's efforts the column garnered over 900 comments in the week after its posting (a more than respectable amount of reader discussion).

The anti-Rush column, just one day after its release, has nearly 5,000 reader comments. This is why the mainstream news and sports outlets can’t talk enough about Limbaugh. Rush fills the seats.