Ed Shultz Versus "the Drugster"

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist


Friday's are nice.

I like Fridays not only because that day signifies the end of the work week, but also because I get every other Friday off by working an extra hour every Monday through Thursday.  And on the alternate Fridays when I do have to work, I only have to put in eight hours instead of nine.  So every Friday is special.

The Fridays that I do have to go into the office are also special because the drive home is so much nicer. By leaving at 4:30 p.m. instead of 5:00 p.m. I get to listen to MSNBC's Ed Schultz on the radio instead of psychopathic Rush.  Ed doesn't yell nearly as loud as the mouth from Cape Girardeau, and he certainly makes much more sense.

Tonight, in fact, Ed was talking about Rush, whom he refers to as "the drugster."  Ed has the notion that Limbaugh is just a wee bit racist (sarcasm is mine), and that he spews racist garbage all over the airwaves.  Ed's chief complaint is that the FCC allows Rush to wax racist and has no guidelines in effect that could curb this dangerous behavior.  He questions why radio stations that require a license from the government in order to operate couldn't have some basic rules in place that would require "the drugster" and others of his klanish ilk to be civil or silent on the subject of race.

I suspect that a Limbaugh response would be that he has a First Amendment right to say whatever he damned well pleases, but, as Ed Shultz pointed out this evening, with rights also come responsibilities. But assuming that responsibility is not the Limbaugh strong suit (and it's not), and agreeing that he can spew his hatred in any private venue where citizens aren't tied to their chairs and forced to listen, does that "freedom" bar the government from setting a few rules regarding issuing and re-issuing licenses to use the public airwaves?  Do our young people who came of age in a fairly open society have to be subjected to Missouri bootheel racist crap vintage 1960?

Okay, Rush is bitter that a black family lives upstairs in the White House, especially a very bright and energetic black family.  But does his racial hatred have to be sprayed across the land like so much liquid manure?

There are some communities where only one radio news outlet exists - such as mine, and in those communities we may have to suffer opinions with which we strongly disagree - but must we be condemned to "the drugster's" raging renditions of Orville Faubus and Lester Maddox?

Racist rants beget violence - always have and always will.  Americans have worked to pull ourselves out of that ugly swamp since the country's founding.  We are making progress, but that progress is put in peril when paid performers like Rush Limbaugh lend legitimacy to racism by spewing it from hundreds of radio outlets.  He will never act responsibility unless he is forced to do so - and the time for that is now!