{"id":15589,"date":"2021-02-24T00:25:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T00:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=15589"},"modified":"2021-02-23T20:16:13","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T20:16:13","slug":"a-rush-to-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/24\/a-rush-to-judge\/","title":{"rendered":"A \u2018Rush\u2019 To Judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Rush Limbaugh, 1951\u20132021. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you want to stir someone up, say something about the passing of Rush Limbaugh. Pro or con, harsh or kind, your words will\u2014like so many of his\u2014divide.<\/p>\n

That division for some was not \u201cdivisiveness.\u201d Rather, it was a line in the sand to stand up and speak out about what they stand for and what they believe America should stand for. Limbaugh\u2019s mostly radio broadcast diatribes went beyond whether we tax the rich too little or too much. His dug deep into the soul of people. During the height of the HIV-AIDS crisis, Limbaugh had a show segment where he would joyfully announce to music the deaths of people he described as \u201cmilitant homosexuals\u201d who had AIDS.<\/p>\n

So when social media threads ridiculed his demise with words and thoughts reserved for only one\u2019s worst enemies, some Limbaugh supporters decried it as examples of liberal hypocrisy and hate. Defensively postured liberals then retorted with, among less printable slurs, scripture quotes like Galatians 6:7, a person will reap what one sows. Others asked the question: Did you speak up when Rush was being offensive?<\/p>\n

Silence.<\/p>\n

And there passed the opportunity to discuss and debate and develop ideas clearly concerning to people who love their country and want what they feel is best for culture and society. Yes, love him or hate him (there\u2019s often no in between), Limbaugh was a man of ideas. How one opines on an idea is only critiqued because the idea is critical. It doesn\u2019t mean Limbaugh was ever right or wrong, it doesn\u2019t mean he did or didn\u2019t deserve a Medal of Freedom, it doesn\u2019t mean he was fairly compensated or just grifted America with sensationalism. But it does mean his impact was important. And to not see a connection\u2014intended or inadvertent\u2014between the career of Limbaugh and where America finds itself today in its battle with fact and truth, is to be blind.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s the Rush Limbaugh show or [insert the show of an equal villain representing the left], I do believe our country would be better off without them. I don\u2019t mean that in the mean way. And, I\u2019m not alone. From Wikipedia: \u201cThe fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was honest, equitable, and balanced. The FCC eliminated the policy in 1987.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll give you one guess when \u201cThe Rush Limbaugh Show\u201d was first broadcast. Hint: Ronald Reagan was still president.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear: one well-intended policy does not change a nation\u2019s soul. But a nation\u2019s soul does impact our policies. And now, nearly a quarter century after that policy\u2019s demise, one of its biggest beneficiaries is now dead. Very alive though is the void of equitable presentation of ideas in American media. I\u2019m not talking about the news. For the most part, news broadcasts report the facts of a matter and the interpretations of those facts by stakeholders on either side. It\u2019s the broadcasts where larger ideas are discussed that have become problematic. Some of them are designed simply to shock. Others are so worried about offending someone, honest dialogue isn\u2019t heard from anyone.<\/p>\n

So, let me be fair right now. That early controversy Limbaugh found himself in related to victims of AIDS, he tried to make up for it, at least a bit. Not long after a group of activists disrupted Limbaugh\u2019s appearance on The Pat Sajak Show, he discontinued the \u201cAIDS Update\u201d segment of his show. He also donated $10,000 to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation.<\/p>\n

Does that make him a saint? Hardly. But it shows he had a conscience, our primitive sense of basic fairness, that ability to empathize to two sides of a story to at least some degree. So, when you watch or listen to or read something controversial that only makes you feel how right you already are, your conscience may not be conscious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eric Valentine If you want to stir someone up, say something about the passing of Rush Limbaugh. Pro or con, harsh or kind, your words will\u2014like so many of his\u2014divide. That division for some was not \u201cdivisiveness.\u201d Rather, it was a line in the sand to stand up and speak out about what they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15592,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15589\/revisions\/15592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}