For far too long, FOX has devoted hours a day pondering why Barack Obama does not denounce comments made by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, even after Obama denounced them repeatedly, saying that he does not agree with some of Wright's statements and that Wright does not speak for him. But FOX has continued to assert that Obama is responsible for everything done or said by anyone who has any association with him, no matter how weak, tangential, or inconsequential.
But if FOX believes Obama should answer for the comments and actions of everyone he knows (as well as anyone those people know), why won't FOX denounce frequent guest Rush Limbaugh?
Some of you may have heard that last week, Limbaugh was a phone-in guest to FOX's Live Desk, where he recounted meeting Bill Clinton and Los Angeles mayor Anthony Villaraigosa in New York: "[Clinton] came over three or four times, had Ron Burkle with him and the mayor of Los Angeles, who I thought was either the shoeshine guy or a Secret Service agent."
That's right -- Rush thought the mayor of a major American city was a "shoeshine guy." Does anyone think that Rush would have thought this if Villaraigosa were white? Yeah, me neither.
But that only touches the tip of a fat, bigoted, misogynistic iceberg. Just check out what Media Matters has on Limbaugh and you'll get a sense of how truly hate-filled, offensive, and disgraceful Limbaugh is on a regular basis.
So if FOX feels that Obama needs to denounce the statements of Wright, the 40-year-old actions of William Ayers, and a non-existent relationship to Louis Farrakhan, shouldn't FOX denounce the countless hateful statements of Rush Limbaugh? And shouldn't they stop inviting him on their channel so he can spout more as he did last Monday?
I put together this little video to illustrate my point. Before anyone gets their undies in a knot, the video is a parody of republican attack ads, largely patterned after this ad from the North Carolina Republican party that tried to connect NC democrats to Rev. Wright because those Democrats endorse Obama. I wish this piece of trash was a parody, but it's actually a real ad put out by the NC GOP. John McCain claimed he'd "do everything" in his power to stop the NC GOP from running the ad, when in reality, McCain never even contacted them.
George W. Bush has been a guest on Limbaugh's show, as has Dick Cheney and countless Republican politicians. Shouldn't they have to explain why they would be the guest of such a racist, sexist, hate-filled liar?
I'm sick to death of Republicans screeching about how Democrats need to answer for anything potentially offensive that's ever been said or done by anyone associated with a Democrat, yet say absolutely nothing about the hate-filled statements of their champions like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Weiner Savage, Pat Robertson, Sean Hannity, etc. etc. etc. etc. I'm also sick of Democrats not throwing it back in their face and calling Republicans out for it. When Republicans threw a fit over MoveOn's "General Betrayus" ad (which, as I said before, was factually accurate), Democrats folded like origami, never mentioning the mountains of offensive statements made daily by prominent Republicans and conservatives. If Republicans want to play the game of acting shocked, SHOCKED! at something a Democratic supporter says, Democrats should play that game -- because they'll win easily.