Rush: "He's overrated, because he's black"

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2003-10-02 02:25am

For the second time: Nazi blimp crashes in flames. History repeats itself.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-10-02 02:51am

Frank Hipper wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:
Frank Hipper wrote:I take it no one got my Howard Cosell comment?
I remember that Cosell got in shit for some kind of racial comment, but I don't recall what it was.
He said, while on air, "Look at that monkey run!".
I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find out who it was he was talking about, and during what game. But that line I will never forget...

I don't know if it was Cosell, but I remember my dad telling me once about a basketball game where this black player made something like a game-winning play, and everyone's cheering and he's got a huge smile plastered on his face, and he happens to have a gap between his front teeth.

The first commentator says something like "And just look at that big old watermellon eatin' grin." and his co-commentator (who was like a retired player and also black) just looks at him in astonishment and goes "what did you just say?"

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-10-02 03:26am

Limbaugh quit ESPN

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-10-02 03:34am

From the article:

Rush Limbaugh hasn't apologized for his comment. 'This is such a mountain out of a molehill.'(AP) Limbaugh insisted earlier Wednesday he had "no racist intent whatsoever." In fact, he said he must have been right; otherwise, the comments would not have sparked such outrage.

Naturally, he is basking in the adulation of his yes-men again, and declaring that he was railroaded

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-10-02 03:42am

Freeper reaction to resignation incoming, and HARD!

This calls for a new sig quote! *pops champaigne*

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2003-10-02 03:44am

Darth Wong wrote:From the article:
Rush Limbaugh hasn't apologized for his comment. 'This is such a mountain out of a molehill.'(AP) Limbaugh insisted earlier Wednesday he had "no racist intent whatsoever." In fact, he said he must have been right; otherwise, the comments would not have sparked such outrage.
Naturally, he is basking in the adulation of his yes-men again, and declaring that he was railroaded

Empty bluster. At a guess, his "decision to resign" came just as the ESPN board were voting on just when to announce his firing. Now he gets to spend the remainder of a fading career in his AM-band ghetto, sliding into irrelevancy while being remembered in broadcast history for the quickest flameout from network TV —and also in the same vein as Jimmy the Greek and Al Campanis.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-10-02 05:04am

Aren't his adoring fans called 'ditto-heads', IIRC?

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-10-02 05:06am

You got it

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2003-10-02 06:33am

Frank Hipper wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:
Frank Hipper wrote:I take it no one got my Howard Cosell comment?
I remember that Cosell got in shit for some kind of racial comment, but I don't recall what it was.
He said, while on air, "Look at that monkey run!".
I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find out who it was he was talking about, and during what game. But that line I will never forget...

I thought the line was "look at that chucker go!" But it's the same general idea.

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2003-10-02 06:48am

Patrick Degan wrote:Empty bluster. At a guess, his "decision to resign" came just as the ESPN board were voting on just when to announce his firing. Now he gets to spend the remainder of a fading career in his AM-band ghetto, sliding into irrelevancy while being remembered in broadcast history for the quickest flameout from network TV —and also in the same vein as Jimmy the Greek and Al Campanis.

Limbaugh simply can't hack television. He's bad enough when all he's got is a studio audience, a radio booth, and a listening public composed mostly of die-hard fans who haven't an opinion of their own, so they need somebody like Rush to give them one (and isn't that a sad statement on America when there are enough such idiots out there to make a rich man out of a big fat idiot like Rush Limbaugh?). The last time he tried TV, it was in a format that extended his radio show onto television - essentially, Limbaugh Radio with visual aids (the photo of Chelsea Clinton after Limbaugh commented on the "White House dog" is a particularly infamous - and heinous - example (I could rant all day on how small a man it takes to rag on another man's daughter)).

Limbaugh's proven time and again that any time he ventures out of his studio into a real-world setting where he can't control the format, the viewers, the callers and the situation, it turns out disastrously for him. I re-read "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" this week after the ESPN thing came up - the parts that are specifically about Limbaugh are just as topical, and just as funny, as they were in 1996.

theski · Post by **theski** » 2003-10-02 07:19am

Limbaugh resigns from NFL show

http://msn.espn.go.com/gen/news/2003/10 ... rsite=espn

In the wake of his controversial statements regarding Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, Rush Limbaugh has resigned from his position on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown pregame show. ESPN has accepted the resignation.

Limbaugh issued a statement late Wednesday night in which he wrote:

"My comments this past Sunday were directed at the media and were not racially motivated. I offered an opinion. This opinion has caused discomfort to the crew, which I regret.

"I love NFL Sunday Countdown and do not want to be a distraction to the great work done by all who work on it.

"Therefore, I have decided to resign. I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the show and wish all the best to those who make it happen."

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-10-02 11:31am

Darth Wong wrote: Yes, but on the basis of performance vs expectations, not on Limbaugh's idiotic claim that he's only got a starting job in the NFL because he's black.

The more this thing with Limbaugh shooting off his mouth stays around I've started thinking that he really hasn't watched much football lately because there are a lot of black quarterbacks in the NFL now, and I certainly haven't heard a bunch of hype about how great Donovan McNab is. Yes he's a star/featured player for the Eagles and there's plenty of talk about him being good and a "threat" , "dangerous", (all that football commentator crap) but I think you hear more about Michael Vick and Steve McNair right now than you do about Donovan McNab.

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2003-10-02 12:30pm

theski wrote:Limbaugh resigns from NFL show

http://msn.espn.go.com/gen/news/2003/10 ... rsite=espn

In the wake of his controversial statements regarding Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, Rush Limbaugh has resigned from his position on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown pregame show. ESPN has accepted the resignation.

Limbaugh issued a statement late Wednesday night in which he wrote:

"My comments this past Sunday were directed at the media and were not racially motivated. I offered an opinion. This opinion has caused discomfort to the crew, which I regret.

"I love NFL Sunday Countdown and do not want to be a distraction to the great work done by all who work on it.

"Therefore, I have decided to resign. I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the show and wish all the best to those who make it happen."

This sounds for all the world like a "You can't fire me, I quit" letter. The network probably informed him that being fired was the probable result of his statement, and gave him the opportunity to resign "of his own volition" to save face.

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2003-10-02 01:18pm

Tsyroc wrote:
Darth Wong wrote: Yes, but on the basis of performance vs expectations, not on Limbaugh's idiotic claim that he's only got a starting job in the NFL because he's black.
The more this thing with Limbaugh shooting off his mouth stays around I've started thinking that he really hasn't watched much football lately because there are a lot of black quarterbacks in the NFL now, and I certainly haven't heard a bunch of hype about how great Donovan McNab is. Yes he's a star/featured player for the Eagles and there's plenty of talk about him being good and a "threat" , "dangerous", (all that football commentator crap) but I think you hear more about Michael Vick and Steve McNair right now than you do about Donovan McNab.

If Limbaugh had said that about a QB like Daunte Culpepper, who's been having a great year by any standard, he'd have been hung by his nostrils by angry Vikings fans.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-10-02 06:06pm

Iceberg wrote:If Limbaugh had said that about a QB like Daunte Culpepper, who's been having a great year by any standard, he'd have been hung by his nostrils by angry Vikings fans.

Or Golden Knights. A lot of the UCF students I know (mostly Orlando locals) still keep up on his career, and woe betide the man who speaks ill of Culpepper.

Perinquus · Post by **Perinquus** » 2003-10-03 07:00am

Just to play devil's advocate here, let me cite an opinion from this morning's column by Thomas Sowell, a distinguished conservative, and economist, who also happen to be a black man:

It is one of the sad signs of our times that a furor was created because Rush Limbaugh expressed an opinion as to why a particular quarterback seemed to him to be over-rated. In his view, it was because the powers that be in professional football were anxious to have a star quarterback who was black.

If this was a criticism of anybody, it was a criticism of the powers that be in the National Football League. Nevertheless, people have gone ballistic, just as if he had criticized blacks as a race. But you have to twist the truth like a pretzel to reach that conclusion.

Rush's resignation from ESPN may stop the dogs from barking at his heels and all this may soon be forgotten -- but it shouldn't be. Hyper-censorship about anything in any way involving race is a danger to this whole society, on matters far more weighty than football.

When the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan first warned of the social dangers in the decline of black families back in the 1960s, and called for government policies to help deal with these dangers, he was attacked viciously for saying something that everyone now recognizes as true because the problem has grown even worse than it was when he issued his warning.

The denunciation and demonization of Pat Moynihan marked a major turning point in public discussions of racial issues. From then on, the test of what you said was no longer whether it was true but whether it was politically correct. This silenced the faint hearted -- which is to say, most of academia and virtually all of the media.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2003-10-03 08:50am

Perinquus wrote:Just to play devil's advocate here, let me cite an opinion from this morning's column by Thomas Sowell, a distinguished conservative, and economist, who also happen to be a black man:

This brings to mind an older gem:

Were his parents black? (Oh yes they were)
And they fucked? (I believe so, yes)
Then where's the surprise part? I'd be more surprised if he happened to be Scandinavian.
- George Carlin

Thomas Sowell wrote:It is one of the sad signs of our times that a furor was created because Rush Limbaugh expressed an opinion as to why a particular quarterback seemed to him to be over-rated. In his view, it was because the powers that be in professional football were anxious to have a star quarterback who was black.

Wrong. Sowell may be a smart man, but he's clearly not paid attention here. Limbaugh said that the media was anxious to have a star quarterback who was black. He was also being a dipshit in doing so, because over the past two and a half decades, there have been MANY extremely talented star QBs who were black (Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham and Daunte Culpepper come immediately to mind - what do the three of these have in common? They're all black men who have all QB'ed a team named after blonde, blue-eyed Nordic sailor/warriors). The implication being that a black man is incapable of becoming a star quarterback without being hyped up as such by the media. There's a difference between being a star because the media want you to be a star, and being a star because you're good at what you do. Sports stars who aren't good at their job don't remain stars for very long, unless they're extremely charismatic to make up for it - see Eagle, Eddie the.

Sowell should get his facts straight before he tries to make dumb apologies for people who don't deserve it.

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2003-10-03 11:55am

The Dark wrote:
Iceberg wrote:If Limbaugh had said that about a QB like Daunte Culpepper, who's been having a great year by any standard, he'd have been hung by his nostrils by angry Vikings fans.
Or Golden Knights. A lot of the UCF students I know (mostly Orlando locals) still keep up on his career, and woe betide the man who speaks ill of Culpepper.

I can see why - he's one of the best QBs the Viqueens have ever had. Hell, I'd put him up against Fran Tarkenton any Sunday.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2003-10-03 12:50pm

Sowell had two purposes in writing that particular bit of sophistry: one, to try to handwave-away Rush Limbaugh exposing himself on national network TV as an asshole (as well as an ignoramus who knows fuck-all about the subject he was hired to comment on) by pretending that it's an issue of censorship, and secondly to use it as a Red Herring to "prove" an issue he regularly grinds an axe upon and one which he seems to use to try to handwave-away the fact that institutional racism still exists in this society.

The Limbaugh/Donovan McNabb controversy had nothing to do with "racial censorship" or the structure of black families or whatever happened to Pat Moniyhan or affirmative action or anything else Thomas Sowell yammers on about. It had everything to do with Rush Limbaugh shooting off his fool mouth and thinking that what plays for his nanoceph radio audience will play for the country at large. It had everything to do with one evident fact: that it is Limbaugh's belief that a black man got his laurels as a QB in the NFL not because of his actual on-field performance and career stats (which are verifiable), but because of an NFL/"liberal media" affirmative-action scheme (which exists only in Limbaugh's tiny mind), robbing the plaudits and honours which should have gone to more "deserving" (re: white) players to "unfairly" favour McNabb. Sowell can write ten fucking books trying to say otherwise, but two minutes of ESPN videotape are enough to show Rush Limbaugh for what he is: a bigot and an idiot. Period.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-10-03 12:55pm

God damn stupid ass motherfucking cunt Freepers.

The same idiots that harped on the Dixie Chicks say that Rush's right to free speech is being violated.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-10-03 12:55pm

I really must read Al Franken's classic work, "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot"- surely it'll be popular for generations.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-10-03 01:12pm

Nightline last night had a very interesting show on this topic where the idea that what's acceptabel for people to say and opine about on the radio is vastly different than whats allowed on TV. In essence what the argument boiled down to is that Rush has been spewing tripe like this and far worse on his radio show for years but he utters one opinion on TV and he's suddenly a bad man.

It was a good study on the differences of whats acceptabel in various media. I happen to think that what was being ignored was the fact that conservatives tune in to listen to Rush and so his message is geared to them. No one tunes in to a radio show that they don't like or want to hear.

The difference with TV in this instance is that this was a SPORTS show and as such liberals, communists, consrevatives, neo nazis what have you all tune in because sports is one of those things that cuts across idealogical lines and so the comentary meant for a far more conservative sub audience was not welcomed.

aronkerkhof · Post by **aronkerkhof** » 2003-10-03 02:02pm

For the record, I think Rush is an idiot about many, many things. However...

Can it be argued that Donnovan McNabb is overrated? I think so. People before Rush have made this argument, and as the season plays out, more people will do so. A cogent analysis of his stats could lead one to conclude that he is too one dimensional to continually pillage NFL defenses as he's done in the past.

If someone argues that McNabb is overrated, can it then be argued, that America's unease with racial issues could cause a black quarterback to be more hyped up than perhaps is deserving? That's the sticky point, right there. This point has nothing to do with the fact that other black quarterbacks have had great success at QB before.

Consider boxing, where the media used to hype up the "Great white hope" that would knock out the black guys that were growing dominant in the sport. They would be built up, and built up, and then enevitably, knocked down. The hype machine worked in reverse back then. So if you have a position that is dominated by white guys, could the media want to see each black guy entering it do well? Is it racist to put forth the question? I think that was the thrust of Thomas Sowell's piece.

One of these days I hope we move past having to discuss shit like this, or barring that, we interbreed so much that we're all just one big happy light-brown race of people. If Dr. King was right, maybe it'll occur in my lifetime.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-10-03 02:10pm

aronkerkhof wrote:For the record, I think Rush is an idiot about many, many things. However...

Can it be argued that Donnovan McNabb is overrated? I think so.

Many quarterbacks are overrated. The difference is that when it's a black quarterback, people like Limbaugh assume that it must be because he's black. When a white quarterback is overrated, do people assume it's because he's white? Of course not. So why the racial connection when it happens to be a black person? Because some people are predisposed to make that connection; they see a black person and automatically make that connection because it comes so fucking naturally to a bigot.

Warren Moon was mercilessly lambasted as the most overrated quarterback in football for years, by a lot of people who didn't seem to realize that the constant and widespread public denigration nullified their own argument: he was not overrated.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2003-10-03 02:24pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Frank Hipper wrote:
Darth Wong wrote: I remember that Cosell got in shit for some kind of racial comment, but I don't recall what it was.
He said, while on air, "Look at that monkey run!".
I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find out who it was he was talking about, and during what game. But that line I will never forget...
I don't know if it was Cosell, but I remember my dad telling me once about a basketball game where this black player made something like a game-winning play, and everyone's cheering and he's got a huge smile plastered on his face, and he happens to have a gap between his front teeth.

The first commentator says something like "And just look at that big old watermellon eatin' grin." and his co-commentator (who was like a retired player and also black) just looks at him in astonishment and goes "what did you just say?"

And here I thought my father was bad, talking about watermelon-stealers making the best runningbacks.

My father was no more politically correct than Archie Bunker.