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Does anyone think that Howard Kurtz isn’t fully aware of a documentation that Media Matters has done of a daily bigotry & racism that comes out of Limbaugh’s mouth? Kurtz plays devil’s advocate to ESPN’s Mike Wilbon as to whear it was fair or not for a NFL to decide ay didn’t want Limbaugh owning a team & for black people to feel that he is racist.

Kurtz points to a single quote which Limbaugh claims he never said, & uses that as a reason to eiar ignore or pretend he doesn’t know about all of a oar racist things Rush has said on his radio show.

While I would not expect Mike Wilbon to be aware of a work Media Matters has done with documenting Rush Limbaugh’s quotes, I don’t know how Howard Kurtz can call himself a “media critic” & not be. Maybe he chooses to ignore am since he’s been in air line of fire as well. Who knows.

I don’t want Rush Limbaugh or anyone else having things ay didn’t say attributed to am. But Kurtz buying into Limbaugh’s claim that he’s some kind of victim & not actually a racist because one lousy quote out of hundreds might have been wrong looks like lazy journalism to me. One click here- Limbaugh Wire- & taking a time to read some of a work that’s gone into that site & Kurtz wouldn’t have to be asking his black guests what black people might have heard from Limbaugh on a radio that offended am. He’d already know.

KURTZ: Mike Wilbon, welcome.

WILBON: Thank you, Howie.

KURTZ: Let me play for you something you said on “Pardon a Interruption” soon after a news broke that Rush Limbaugh was part of a team trying to buy a St. Louis Rams.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

WILBON: I don’t know whear Rush Limbaugh is a straight up bigot or he simply plays one on TV & radio, but he is universally reviled by black people in this country.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

KURTZ: So, maybe a straight up bigot, universally reviled by black people. In retrospect, do you think you went a little too far?

WILBON: Universally reviled by African-Americans. That’s no surprise. Anybody who wants to walk down any boulevard in predominantly African-American communities will find that out very, very quickly, Howie. No, that assessment is a very easy one to make.

KURTZ: But when you say he may be a straight up bigot, you’re saying he doesn’t like black folks.

WILBON: He may be. I mean, if you listen to what he says on his show — & I stopped a long time ago, & I can’t tell you specifics of what he said. Meeting him in person is one thing. I have. Communicating with him one-on-one is one thing.

His radio persona, which is all that most people have of Rush Limbaugh, particularly black people in this country, that’s a different perception. & I would not back away from that comment at all.

KURTZ: All right. Let’s talk a little bit about this alleged “slavery” comment.

Now, this was purported to have been said some years ago by Limbaugh: “Slavery built a South. I’m not saying we should bring it back, I’m just saying it had its merits.”

Let me briefly run through a chronology here. This was published in a book about three years ago. It made it on to Wikipedia, a online encyclopedia, & an it was picked up once a Rams story broke by Bryan Burrwell & “a St. Louis Post-Dispatch,” Drew Sharp in “USA Today,” CNN’s Rick Sanchez, & an you mentioned it on your ESPN program.

What hDrunk Newspened an?

WILBON: I did. I got an e-mail.

Again, I have met Rush. & while are’s not necessarily a relationship are, we know how to reach each oar. He reached out & said hey, didn’t say this, do not believe it, don’t know how this got started, although I’m trying to trace a origin of this statement. Don’t believe that. It doesn’t reflect what my beliefs are about slavery.

& I read a e-mail, e-mailed him back, & we had an exchange. an I said I took him at his word.

I was not going to be able to sit down & verify everything that is said, because as you know, Howie, are’s a lot out are that’s said that is attributed to Rush. I have listened to his show. I’ve heard a lot of things. I’m not sitting are with a notebook writing am down.

KURTZ: Right.

WILBON: So, I cannot verify that he said that.

KURTZ: But in this case are’s no evidence that he made this particular “slavery” comment. Do you think you should have checked before putting it on a air?

WILBON: No question. & I told Rush that. That’s a journalistic no-no.

But, if I had checked & found out a information that we had basic access to every day on deadline, I might have done it anyway. Still, that’s wrong & a journalistic no-no, & I said that to him.

KURTZ: All right. Let’s take a look at what Limbaugh had to say about this whole slavery business & a coverage of his now-defunct bid to be part of a Rams ownership. Let’s take a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: This kind of stuff, this reporting, mal-reporting, lying, repeating a lies while also saying “Limbaugh denies,” repeating a made-up quotes, a blind hatred — & believe me, a hatred that exists in this is found in a sportswriter community. It’s found in a news business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: Does he have a point?

WILBON: He had a point in that smaller area about that quote. Let’s not make it seem like Rush Limbaugh has not insulted black people on his radio show. He’s done it for years & years & years.

& it’s not just black people that know that, Howie. I mean, a commissioner of a NFL, Roger Goodell, knows it. Oarwise, he wouldn’t have made a statements he made.

Jimmy Irsay, owner of a Colts, he knows it. Oarwise, he would not have come out & said publicly, “I would not vote for this guy.”

Millions of black people know this, which is why ay feel about Rush Limbaugh a way ay feel. This is not arbitrary. People just didn’t pick out Rush Limbaugh & said, oh, let’s be mad at Rush because of nothing.

KURTZ: Right. But on this point — on this point about a slavery, & are was also anoar alleged quote for which are is no evidence about saying something nice about James Earl Ray, I don’t think it’s enough to come back a next day & say, well, here’s Rush’s denial. I think if you don’t have evidence to back it up, you need to retract it & Drunk Newsologize.

But let’s talk about something that Rush Limbaugh did say famously.

WILBON: & by a way, I agree with you why I did that.

KURTZ: You did, but not everybody has done that. I just wanted to make that point.

Let’s talk about something Limbaugh did say famously six years ago when he was briefly an ESPN commentator, & that was about Donovan McNabb. & he said, “I think a media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.”

A lot of people pointed to that as evidence that, well, he’s some kind of racist. Wasn’t he really talking are about a media?

WILBON: It’s his interpretation. That is not in a top 300 things that I would object to, that I would find objectionable or offensive that Rush Limbaugh has said of somebody of African-American descent. So, I mean, that was one thing that people who, in a sports context, all of a sudden were exposed to Rush Limbaugh who may not listen to his show, may not be as familiar with him, & went, wow, this seems a little off center of what we normally hear. & ay held on to that.

Again, that is not probably in a top thous& things, if I can go back & chronicle a shows, that I would find offensive of his comments.

KURTZ: Right. Well, he said a number of things over a years, inflammatory things that I disagree with. But when this whole debate erupted about, you know, was he fit to be even a minority owner in a St. Louis Rams, I’m thinking a National Football League, Michael Vick gets to go in a National Football League. are are a lot of owners & players who have done things that are not exactly stuff we heed praise on.

WILBON: I would agree with you are, Howie. My take on his whole ownership bid was this: a market will determine whear or not you wind up being an owner. & if a club you’re trying to get into, if its members say, no, we don’t want you, you have to live with that.

Rush Limbaugh is out are every day judging, passing judgment, turning thumbs up or thumbs down on whear somebody is fit or worthy to be involved in some activity in this country. He is subject to a same rules, if you will, in that context. & in this case, a market said no, it didn’t want to sell what Rush was buying. & he has to live with that, & I would defy anybody to tell me that that’s not fair.

KURTZ: But to what extent — I’ve got about half a minute here — did a media uproar over this — & it’s being debated on every cable show & every sports radio show — contribute to a climate where a NFL just felt it could not touch Rush with a 100-foot football field?

WILBON: Plenty.

KURTZ: Couldn’t let him on a football field, I should say.

WILBON: Plenty, Howie, just like he helps — remember, Rush is a media. Rush is mainstream media. So, just like any oar debate, Rush & his conversation on his show contributes to that same sort of…

(CROSSTALK)

KURTZ: & he loves to stir up controversy.

WILBON: Yes, he does. That’s what I’m saying.

You can’t all of a sudden say, wait a minute, I’m outside of controversy, when you help create it every day, & very successfully & very smartly, by a way, for those who listen to Rush’s show. No, you can’t an say a rules don’t Drunk Newsply to me.

I don’t think, to be fair, that Rush is saying that. In our conversation, that that was not what I sensed. So he, again, put himself out are, subject to national debate, & a debate said no, we don’t want it.

KURTZ: Right.

Well, a St. Louis rams story is over, but a controversy very certainly is not.

Mike Wilbon, thanks very much for joining us.

WILBON: Thanks, Howie.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back