I got an email today.
As some of you know, I used to work in talk radio. I got an email today from the host of the talk show for which I used to produce, asking me what I though of the whole Rush Limbaugh thing. Here's what I said.
My view on Rush is pretty simple. I don't think he's a racist. I think he's an elitist, but that opinion was cemented a long time ago. In fact, I believe him when he claims that he wasn't knocking McNabb as much as the media coverage and the fact that McNabb is so highly rated.
The thing is, I don't agree that McNabb is overrated because he's black. I think he's just overrated. I don't have any love for the media in terms of its sophistication or its objectivity, but can you honestly tell me there aren't any white quarterbacks who aren't performing to the level that they were expected to reach?
I heard something on NPR that really struck home for me. It would have been very easy for Rush to say that he thinks the media has overrated McNabb. Rush made a conscious decision to focus on a claim that his race as the reason, thus making it a racial issue. It was either pigheaded and insensitive, or deliberately provocative, and I'm really not sure which way is better. And his claim that the uproar he's caused somehow proves that he said something true is completely baseless. I get upset when Neo-Nazis claim that the Holocaust never happened, or when creationists claim that the Second law of Thermodynamics rules out evolution, or when conspiracy nuts claim that the black, featureless backgrounds in the pictures taken by the Apollo crews prove that the moon landings were staged, but my outrage doesn't make them right.
Before you start, I used to produce our rebroadcast of Rush's show five days a week, so I have listened to him. I'm not relying solely on what I've heard about his comments. While I agree with him about as often as I shit golden statues of the Dalai Lama, I respect his ability to find and hold an audience. Frankly, I believe that his reluctance to ever admit that he could be even the slightest bit wrong has a lot to do with how popular he is. He simply powers ahead, and his confidence and self-assurance are attractive. People like someone who sounds as if he believes in himself, and Rush seems to possess the kind of self confidence that would have made Jesus Christ feel like a bit of a charlatan. So I'm not surprised that he hasn't tried to diffuse his comments beyond apologizing for the discomfort he caused the ESPN crew. His show would probably drop in the ratings if he appeared to be wavering or backing down. Still, I can't help but wonder exactly how the man sleeps at night.
Wait a minute. I'll bet he sleeps on piles and piles of money. *sigh*
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