Bill Maher versus Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh has fallen on hard times. I heard yesterday that his network that distributes his show is going to do so with no ads for a couple of weeks. This is meant to let the recent controversies settle down and spare those advertisers still with him the trouble of being linked to him at this time.

Limbaugh as the whole world knows got in trouble recently by commenting on a young Georgetown student who spoke about contraception issues before Congress. Limbaugh went too far. The surprising thing is that this is a surprise. Limbaugh had a long list of offensive things he has said.

Bill Maher who has become the Conservatives whipping boy of late made a statement if not defending Limbaugh personally, defended his right to be an idiot. Of course in the same episode Maher attacked Rick Santorum as anti-knowledge.

Now I have defended Santorum in several posts and will continue to do so as I think he is the truest Republican in the field. However compared to some of the slurs that Limbaugh makes daily on Democrats and the President in general calling a candidate such as Santorum, who has publicly said that the President was a snob for wanting everyone to go to college, anti knowledge is not a huge slander. Is Santorum anti knowledge, of course not, is the statement within bounds considering his public postions and statements, yes.

Maher on his show stated that Limbaugh was being treated unfairly as in being a public figure paid to make controversy he was doing only what he traditionally had. Maher also felt that the pressure being put on advertisers to leave Limbaugh's show was unfair and amounted to censorship. He is correct. To me another point to be made is that the advertisers themselves are hypocrites. Everyone knows what Limbaugh is by now, twenty years on the air will do that. Each day one could find something offensive said by this man. This, however, is the issue that breaks the back.

If we start having sponsors leaving controversial programming we will soon have free dull speech. We need to encourage free speech. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

People are free to choose to listen or not. Air America did not get enough ratings and soon was off the air. That is the market reacting. Limbaugh and Maher both say controversial things that appeal to their base. They both mistakes. And they both have apologized. I think that us trying to then say that an apology is not sufficient or sincere enough is a bit silly.

In this story the villians are many.

First we have the advertisers with their " Oh my goodness we had no idea he was such a flamethrower " attitudes

Second we have the wacko left who is attacking Limbaugh with glee. They fail to see that in all these cases your perspective is based on where you stand on the aisle. You cannot defend left wing flamethrowers and attack Rush Limbaugh.

Third you have the Republican political candidates who would not strongly distance themselves from Rush's position for fear of losing ground with the far right who loves him. Another point to be made is that the only thing worse than someone not saying something strongly against Rush would be a Republican who previously kowtowed to him and now attacked him. See Advertiser statement before.

Fourth is Limbaugh himself. He makes stupid statements all the time.

Lastly would be Maher himself. I found his defending Limbaugh to be along the lines of " I do not agree with what you say but I will fight for your right to say it." Actually in this case I do not think Maher did anything wrong in this case. He attacked in sharp satire Rick Santorum. This should be no surprise. Like Limbaugh it is what he does each week.

To me the case is simple. If you don't like what they say do not listen. If you think that folks like Limbaugh and Maher coarsen the culture and deepen the divide between the two parties you are right and can say that. What you should not do however is

A Be a liberal and applaud Maher and attack Limbaugh.

B Be a conservative and applaud Limbaugh and attack Maher

C Be an advertiser and act like you are shocked by what Limbaugh says

In short grow up, do not be a hypocrite.