If the voice of a burning cross could talk, it would sound like the late conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh.
Limbaugh, among other things, told a black listener to “take that bone out of your nose and call me back”; aired a parody song, “Barack, the Magic Negro” (to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon”) that mocked then-Sen. Barack Obama’s popularity with white voters; and compared National Basketball League teams to street gangs.
He, furthermore, referred to feminists as “feminazis”; said that “feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women access to the mainstream of society” and that “women should not be allowed on juries where the accused is a stud.” In addition, Limbaugh mocked gay men dying of AIDS; said, “When a gay person turns his back on you, it is anything but an insult; it’s an invitation”; and that legalizing gay marriage would lead to people marrying animals.
https://people.com/politics/rush-limbaugh-most-controversial-moments/
When Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student, testified to a Congressional committee that religious institutions should provide contraception to students. Limbaugh, who mistakenly called her “Susan,” said she was arguing that “she must be paid to have sex.”
This, he said, “makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. 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.”
After advertisers left Limbaugh’s show in protest, the commentator released a tepid apology.
“In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke,” he said.
He did not mention who he meant to personally attack.
Limbaugh worked for a brief time as a football commentator on ESPN but was fired after saying that Donovan McNabb, a Black an All-Pro quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, got more credit than he deserved because “the media has been very desirous that a Black quarterback can do well.”
Limbaugh, who argued that drug addicts should be convicted and “sent up the river,” modified his opinion after being charged with prescription fraud. Limbaugh, who had told his listeners that “too many whites are getting away with drug use” and should all be sent to prison, paid a $30,000 fine and avoided jail if he continued treatment for his drug addiction.
Limbaugh denied that Barack Obama was born in the United States.
He also – and this will shock you — supported President Trump. In February 2020, Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest award for a civilian, “for decades of tireless devotion to our country.”
Trump did not say what country he was referring.
After Limbaugh received the medal of freedom, there were stories about the awful things he had said in his career in broadcasting. One said he had once referred to Socks at Clinton White House’s cat and the Clinton’s 13-year-old daughter Chelsea as the family’s “dog.”
There had to be limits to Limbaugh’s cruelty that even he wouldn’t make fun of the looks of a 13-year-old girl.
The fact-checking website Snopes was dubious that Limbaugh had actually said what he had actually said.
It tracked down the quote and, yes, Limbaugh made the quote.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/rush-limbaugh-chelsea-clinton/
Limbaugh and Donald Trump had so much in common.
He repeated Donald Trump’s lies that the president had lost the 2020 presidential election because of widespread voter fraud. He said the violence outside the Capitol included “some antifa Democrat-sponsored instigators.”
The FBI reported that there was no evidence supporting Limbaugh’s claim of anti-fascists involved in the rioting.
Limbaugh then said there hadn’t really been an attack or any looting and the protesters only “took selfies” – when there was video of rioters looting the Capitol and attacking police officers.
Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of Media Matters for America, a left-wing media watchdog organization, responded to Limbaugh’s death as follows:
“Rush Limbaugh made his career lying to his audience, stoking misogyny, and fueling racism,” Carusone said. “He entertained listeners by mercilessly mocking and maligning anyone who didn’t resemble his typical listener — straight, white, conservative, and male — and that cruelty eventually became a central tenet of modern conservatism.”
After his death, Limbaugh received the rare tribute of having his body lay in state on the eighth circle of hell.
