Onnes
Member
I'm sure a number of people have been watching this insanity unfold, so I'll keep the recap brief. A few weeks ago, after the administration announced new rules requiring insurance companies to cover contraceptives, the Republican controlled House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform decided to hold a day long hearing on the issue. While this hearing was ostensibly on the broader topic of religious freedom, it was obviously concerned with the very specific issue of religious organizations being allowed to not only refuse to pay for but outright deny insurance coverage for female contraception. With this as the topic, Republicans then made the hilarious move of staffing the morning testimony with only conservative religious men and denying Democrats their one minority witness, Sandra Fluke.
Fluke was instead invited to the capitol a week later to speak at an unofficial hearing while Congress was on break. As a student of a Jesuit university, her testimony was mainly concerned with the high cost of birth control and the fact that such contraceptives are frequently prescribed due to medical need. The headline example Fluke provided was of a student who was prescribed birth control to treat polycystic ovarian syndrome, was denied coverage under the university's insurance plan, and could not afford to pay for the treatment out of pocket resulting in the eventual removal of one of her ovaries after a cyst developed. When considering Limbaugh's response it should be remembered that the speech largely focused as birth control as a medical necessity.
So now enter talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who immediately decided that the best tact to take was a sustained line of personal attacks on Sandra Fluke and her fellow students. He called her a "slut", a "prostitute", and further said she “wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.†He also suggested she post sex tapes online "so we can all watch." This isn't satire; Limbaugh really said those things, and he is the most heard voice on radio with over 15 million listeners each week. Even after the universally negative reactions across both political parties denouncing his statements--the outrage was sufficient for Fluke to get a phone call from President Obama--Limbaugh stood by what he said and added to them over the period of days.
It was only after advertisers started pulling their ads from his show that Limbaugh issued something resembling an apology this last Saturday. In it he said his "choice of words was not the best." I think most people realize there's a bigger issue with what he did than simple word choice. Is there really a nice way to repeatedly call someone a "slut"? Two sponsors actually pulled out after the issuance of the apology, and Fluke herself certainly doesn't appear to accept it as sincere or sufficient.
Is this the beginning of the end for the man who has been one of the most consistently revolting personalities in politics? He's done awful things before and survived, but the level he took it to here seems particularly beyond the pale and the resulting condemnation universal. Or is there truly no limit to what he can say on air and still maintain his show and his audience?
Fluke was instead invited to the capitol a week later to speak at an unofficial hearing while Congress was on break. As a student of a Jesuit university, her testimony was mainly concerned with the high cost of birth control and the fact that such contraceptives are frequently prescribed due to medical need. The headline example Fluke provided was of a student who was prescribed birth control to treat polycystic ovarian syndrome, was denied coverage under the university's insurance plan, and could not afford to pay for the treatment out of pocket resulting in the eventual removal of one of her ovaries after a cyst developed. When considering Limbaugh's response it should be remembered that the speech largely focused as birth control as a medical necessity.
So now enter talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who immediately decided that the best tact to take was a sustained line of personal attacks on Sandra Fluke and her fellow students. He called her a "slut", a "prostitute", and further said she “wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.†He also suggested she post sex tapes online "so we can all watch." This isn't satire; Limbaugh really said those things, and he is the most heard voice on radio with over 15 million listeners each week. Even after the universally negative reactions across both political parties denouncing his statements--the outrage was sufficient for Fluke to get a phone call from President Obama--Limbaugh stood by what he said and added to them over the period of days.
It was only after advertisers started pulling their ads from his show that Limbaugh issued something resembling an apology this last Saturday. In it he said his "choice of words was not the best." I think most people realize there's a bigger issue with what he did than simple word choice. Is there really a nice way to repeatedly call someone a "slut"? Two sponsors actually pulled out after the issuance of the apology, and Fluke herself certainly doesn't appear to accept it as sincere or sufficient.
Is this the beginning of the end for the man who has been one of the most consistently revolting personalities in politics? He's done awful things before and survived, but the level he took it to here seems particularly beyond the pale and the resulting condemnation universal. Or is there truly no limit to what he can say on air and still maintain his show and his audience?
