EIB: Excessiveness In Broadcasting

Image via WikipediaRush Limbaugh has been outraging people on the radio for over two decades, singlehandedly redefining conservatism as a take-no-prisoners ideology that progressives still don't know how to deal with.

But there are those occasions when Limbaugh says or does something that crosses the line.  This is one of those occasions.

Sandra Fluke is a law student at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.  Recently, she testified in Congress as an advocate for President Barack Obama's policy on contraception, listing her support for birth control coverage in student medical insurance.

For Ms. Fluke's trouble, she was labeled a "slut" and a "prostitute" by Limbaugh.  He has apologized twice, on his website and on the air.  But that was only after more than 20 companies to date dropped their advertising from Limbaugh's show, and two radio stations in Massachusetts and Hawaii have canceled it.  Clear Channel, whose Premiere Radio Networks distributes the show, has said it is standing by Limbaugh.

Fluke has not accepted Limbaugh's apology, but is considering suing him.  Which would be a waste of time because this would never see the light of day in a courtroom.  Instead, Limbaugh and his attorneys might be paying an unspecified amount of money to Fluke to buy each other's silence.

Unfortunately, calling a woman vile names is not a fireable offense in the broadcast media.  Commentators on the right and left (mostly male) have done it, and never get so much as a slap on the wrist--unless they're making jokes about rape.  About the only thing that can get you a pink slip is for making a racial slur, intentionally or not.  Just ask Don Imus.

Limbaugh is often dismissed as a conservative entertainer, with his millions of listeners around the world nodding in agreement with everything he says as if they were bobblehead dolls.  So how come he holds so much sway over the Republican party?  Even on an issue like this, GOP officials, lawmakers and presidential candidates walk on eggshells so as not to offend the Great and Powerful Rush.  Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

But Limbaugh is not infallible.  He's had well-publicized drug problems, for which he almost went to prison.  He's also on his fourth marriage, for which he needs those little blue pills.  And ratings for his radio show have been eroding long before this latest controversy.

As much as anyone wants to see Rush Limbaugh dethroned as the King of Talk Radio, that's not going to happen any time soon.  Whatever he says behind that golden EIB microphone will still cause paroxysms of fury on the left, and almost universal agreement on the right.  But now, he has to choose his words a little more carefully.