Oh, That Rush! He's Such A *Kidder!*

[Cindy C.]

Hey, all!

Man.  I've been following the sorry tale of Rush Limbaugh's implosion,
and since it is a downright fascinating little story, I'm moving a
discussion from another HPfGU list to this one for exploration.

For those unfamiliar with Rush, he's a radio talk show personality of
the conservative persuasion.  He's actually quite successful -- his
show was once (and probably still is) the most popular radio show in
the U.S.  (Is he heard internationally, BTW?)  

He also has a rather unfortunate history of saying things that range
somewhere between "racially insensitive" to "outright racist."  He
once told an African American caller to his show to go "take the bone
out of your nose and call me back."  

Anyway, despite his partisan background, he was hired by ESPN (cable
sports channel) to do American football coverage a month ago -- which
he said was his dream job.  And Rush immediately shot himself in the
foot in discussing Donovan McNabb, the African American starting
quarterback (who led his team to the NFC playoffs at least once) for
the Philadelphia Eagles football team, saying on-air:

*****************************

"I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we've
had here is a little social concern in the NFL. I think the media has
been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They're
interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. I think
there's a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit
for the performance of his team that he really didn't deserve. The
defense carried this team."

*****************************

For this, Rush was forced to resign.  He offers no apology and stands
by his statement.

Here's what I don't get though.  

If you think an athlete isn't very good, why not just say so and leave
race out of it?  You know, talk about the person's accomplishments and
failures on the field.  Why do some folks have such a hard time
accepting that a person of color might actually be *good* at something?

Ahem.  I'm glad ESPN took care of the problem rather than look the
other way.

Cindy -- who would have cut Rush a break had he backed down and
admitted his mistake, because we all slip up sometimes