Limbaugh brings baggage with his ESPN blabber | Derrick Z

[ima_sinnic]

Derrick Z. Jackson
Boston Globe, July 16, 2003

IT IS A TOUCHDOWN at the old-boy network when ESPN hires Rush Limbaugh for pregame blabber about pro football. It is an extra point when the media think nothing of this event. They both should be penalized for roughing the past.


Mark Shapiro, ESPN's executive vice president of programming and production, claimed that the move was made to "give fans a voice." Shapiro said: "Rush is a great communicator and a fan's fan. His acute sense of what's on the minds of his listeners combined with his ability to entertain and serve as a lightening rod for lively discussion makes him the perfect fit for this new role."

<snip>

Limbaugh has always had crime and black people on the brain. He once said, ''Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?'' He said, ''The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.'' When Spike Lee said that African-American children should be allowed to skip school to see his movie on Malcolm X, Limbaugh said: ''Spike, if you're going to do that, let's complete the education experience. You should tell them that they should loot the theater, and then blow it up on their way out.''

<snip>

ABC considered hiring Limbaugh for ''Monday Night Football'' three years ago. After a flurry of protests, the network selected someone else. Now, it appears that the Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, is trying to slip Limbaugh through the old-boy back door into brother cable network ESPN. If Limbaugh's words were unacceptable for a broader TV audience then, they should remain so now. Limbaugh once complained about African-Americans: ''They are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?'' ESPN and Disney should be made to care about hiring someone to cover a majority black sport who does not care about black people. Most important, newspapers should care, even if ESPN and Disney do not.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/197/oped/Limbaugh_brings_baggage_with_his_ESPN_blabber+.shtml

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Derrick Z. Jackson is dead-on as usual!

[trumad]

1. Yep

I would love to see a massive protest with regards to this..

[meegbear]

2. I'm a Patriots fan ...

and remember hearing how they were socialists because they played as a team and didn't spotlight particular players. Yeah, I'm sure a majority of "normal" Americans thought the same thing.

[ilpostino]

3. Go Pats

Did you you see the message I posted on this at the Pats website? If not, please go there and add your two cents. We have to let ESPN know we're not going to take this lightly.

[Proud_American]

6. I applauded the Patriots

I literally stood up and applauded them for being introduced as a team.

[acerbic]

4. I wish I could stop watching ESPN now, but I can't

...because I never started. :-)

[ima_sinnic]

5. but as fas as ESPN knows

I'm a FORMER devoted fan--me and my whole family :evilgrin:

[indepat]

7. I have spent (wasted) far too many hours watching ESPN/ESPN2 but

will not make that mistake again. The day Rush goes on, the ESPNs and ABC have lost this viewer in perpetuity.

[Career Prole]

10. ESPN just got my vote

in their e-mail inbox...
Rush Limbaugh!? Are you crazy? I have DirecTV. Your station's been a big part of my life from it's inception, but this "hiring move" you've made is completely asinine. So who will you have doing the "fan's voice" when Bush and his criminal cronies are out on their ass in '04? I won't be around to see anymore. I've got too many channels to watch to bother with a "sports" network that hires Limbaugh to do football. Kiss my Democratic butt.
Maybe they'll read it, maybe they won't...but it had a therapeutic value for me.

[ilpostino]

8. How bad is it?

How badly have they ruined a good show? This bad: It's as if Marge divorced Homer, married Fred Flintstone and moved the whole family next door to the Rubbles (and then Bart died).

[mistertrickster]

9. I think this may not be such a smart thing for old gasbag

The people who want to hear him are already tuning in to froth-lipped right wing diatribe hour. Now he's going to be imposing his wacked out ideology on sports fans who are watching the game precisely BECAUSE they don't want to think about politics etc.

This combination could work as well as Dennis (I-used-to-be-funny) Miller on Monday Night Football--e.g. not very well.

[shirlden]

11. I want to write and thank ESPN

for helping me break my addiction to NFL football. I am overjoyed now that I don't have to waste all that time in front of a TV. I'll be outside enjoying the polluted air, riding my bicycle behind the tailpipes of SUVs and Hummers, hugging the last tree before it is cut down and shipped to Japan, and dreaming of the days I was so proud to be an American.

However, I will still cheer on my beloved Ohio State Buckeyes

:toast: