The Mau-Mauing of Rush

Rush took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to address the mau-mauing that scuttled his NFL dreams. Personally, I’m a little mystified why Rush would want to own part of a football team. Oversized, preening and pampered athletes set in strictly defined roles and running elaborately orchestrated “plays” designed by a full bureaucracy of coaches seems, frankly, I dunno…unAmerican. Quite unlike the other football, where there are no plays, few coaches and wide latitude for individual initiative and improvisation. (How did we get stuck with the collectivist top-down heavy sport?) But, to each his own.

Of course the NFL is a private institution which can invite–or deny–whomever they’d like to join their owners’ club. But the manner in which Rush was sidelined is, at best, distasteful and definitely more than a little troubling. Alas, it was also utterly predictable. To wit:

Shortly thereafter, the media elicited comments from the likes of Al Sharpton. In 1998 Mr. Sharpton was found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay $65,000 for falsely accusing a New York prosecutor of rape in the 1987 Tawana Brawley case. He also played a leading role in the 1991 Crown Heights riot (he called neighborhood Jews “diamond merchants”) and 1995 Freddie’s Fashion Mart riot.

Not to be outdone, Jesse Jackson, whose history includes anti-Semitic speech (in 1984 he referred to Jews as “Hymies” and to New York City as “Hymietown” in a Washington Post interview) chimed in. He found me unfit to be associated with the NFL. I was too divisive and worse.

Really. Sharpton and Jackson? Please explain to me, Mr. Big Media, how do these two have any credibility to comment on anything? Fitzgerald was wrong when he said there are no second-acts in America. If you can fill the role Big Media needs played, you can have never-ending redemption regardless of the scandal that trips you up. (See for example, ACORN. Has any news organization followed up on their “internal review”. No? Didn’t think so.)

Soon enough, the Rush saga moved beyond the poverty pimps:

Next came writers in the sports world, like the Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon. He wrote this gem earlier this week: “I’m not going to try and give specific examples of things Limbaugh has said over the years because I screwed up already doing that, repeating a quote attributed to Limbaugh (about slavery) which he has told me he simply did not say and does not reflect his feelings. I take him at his word. . . . ”

Mr. Wilbon wasn’t alone. Numerous sportswriters, CNN, MSNBC, among others, falsely attributed to me statements I had never made.

Savor Wilbon’s comment that he wasn’t going to try and give specific examples. Why Michael? Because you can’t find any, you know, specific examples that Rush was the screaming racist you just knew he had to be? I guess Michael can’t let facts get in the way of a good story. Sometimes, it seems, a story is just too good to fact-check.

And, of course, there was a political component:

The NFL players union boss, DeMaurice Smith, jumped in. A Washington criminal defense lawyer, Democratic Party supporter and Barack Obama donor, he sent a much publicized email to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell saying that it was important for the league to reject discrimination and hatred.

Two wars, a tanking economy, a near-nuclear Iran and balloning deficits and Obama’s allies are worried about who owns a middling pro-football team?

Read the whole Rush column here.