Birth Control

In the second half of his second hour today, Rush Limbaugh followed up on a phone call from a "Victor in Atlanta." Vince is concerned that many Americans like him, even though they want a different president, are "zapped out of enthusiasm."

Rush took Vince's call as an opportunity to look at the Sandra Fluke controversy of the past week and use its results as an indicator that enthusiasm for defending conservatives and conservative principles against the hate-filled left is as great as ever -- great enough to not only defeat the attempt to marginalize him but to force the left and the leftist establishment press to at least for the moment go into strategic retreat and to temporarily clean up its act (bolds are mine):

Linda Greenhouse the New York Times's former Supreme Court reporter (and left-wing ranter at commencement speeches), now writes a twice-a-month column for nytimes.com. Wednesday she hailed birth-control activist and new liberal martyr Sandra Fluke as a civil rights pioneer on the level of (naturally) Anita Hill, while tarring Rush Limbaugh as a thug, in "Accidental Heroines."

I like to think of Miss Sandra Fluke's contretemps with the madly admired Mr. Rush Limbaugh as, well, a fluke. She objected to his joke about her being "a slut" and "a prostitute," and hesto presto the part-time Georgetown University law student struck pay dirt. You object to my characterization of her as "part-time"? How could she be a full-time law student and still be appearing before Congress explicating the plight of coeds with $3,000 contraceptive bills or others suffering the heartbreak of being rejected publicly at the pharmacy for insurance coverage of a birth control bill? Then there was all the other media attention that came from Rush's little joke. Yes, I see it as a fluke, defined by the Dictionary of American Slang as "a fortuitous accident." Was not Miss Fluke felicitously named years ago before anyone ever thought of talk radio?

Having spent the past week mercilessly attacking conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh for his comments concerning Georgetown University law student and women's rights activist Sandra Fluke, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow closed Wednesday's program by discussing at length Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum's vulgar "Google problem."

You see, calling a liberal woman a slut is practically a hate-crime, but referring to a conservative man as the disgusting byproduct of anal sex is "genius" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

When FNC's Bill O'Reilly brought up "ABC News's coverage of this Rush Limbaugh/Fluke situation" on Wednesday's The O'Reilly Factor, guest George Stephanopoulos not only misled FNC viewers about ABC coverage by focusing only on how much time his weekday edition of Good Morning America devoted to the story while ignoring other ABC shows like World News and the weekend edition of GMA, but he even substantially understated the amount of time his own weekday GMA show spent on the controversy.

He also failed to mention that he repeatedly brought up the story as he hosted Sunday's This Week on ABC.

Liberal comedian Pete Dominick, a CNN contributor, listed the "differences" he saw between Rush Limbaugh's crack at Sandra Fluke and Bill Maher ripping Sarah Palin in vile fashion, on CNN Wednesday. "[T]here still is a difference in terms of what comedians say," he said of Maher versus "arguably" the "most influential commentator in all of politics" Rush Limbaugh.

Perhaps his most ridiculous point was that Limbaugh was "quite literal" calling Fluke a "slut," whereas Maher just made "gender-based insults" calling Sarah Palin obscenities that were just as vile. [Warning: this article contains obscenities that are uncensored to accurately portray what Bill Maher has said about women.]

No political motivations here! Devoting a full story to President Obama calling birth-control activist Sandra Fluke for the sake of his daughters, New York Times reporter Jackie Calmes (and her headline writer) on Wednesday gave the president the benefit of the doubt by not questioning the propriety of dragging his young daughters into the debate over Fluke, who was called a "slut" by Rush Limbaugh on his radio show: "Obama Call Was a Lesson For His Girls."

In an obnoxious question to MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough during NBC's Super Tuesday special coverage, Nightly News anchor Brian Williams mocked the GOP as he pondered: "Who woke up in the Republican Party one day recently and said, 'I know what let's go after, let's go after reproductive rights in the United States'? What was that about?"

During live coverage of Super Tuesday, MSNBC's Chris Matthews harkened back to a famous historical phone call from then-Senator John F. Kennedy to Coretta King, after her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was arrested, as he suggested that President Barack Obama's recent phone call to Georgetown Law School student Sandra Fluke would be similarly remembered as important to this year's presidential campaign.

Matthews asserted:

In a March 5 post in which she deemed Rush Limbaugh's Saturday apology to Sandra Fluke as insufficient to be rewarded by her holiness, Washington Post "On Faith" feature editor Sally Quinn pounded her electronic pulpit yesterday, condemning Rush's audience for being complicit in Limbaugh's sin of daring to bombastically criticize the Left (emphases mine):

Liberal media outlets have proven pathologically incapable of telling the truth about the Obama administration’s birth control mandate, portraying the issue as a war on women. Now, the Washington Post is even using a woman’s military conference to defend the Obama administration’s blatant violation of religious liberty, and to attack its critics.

Washington Post columnist Petula Dvorak launched into a vicious tirade against the opponents of Obama’s birth control (and morning-after pill and sterilization, which is conveniently ignored by the media) mandate.

Good Morning America's Dan Harris on Tuesday highlighted liberal hopes to turn Rush Limbaugh's "slut" comments into a "Don Imus moment." The March 6 segment brings the total number of ABC stories on the subject to eight in just four and a half days.

Harris played two nasty clips, one showing Jon Stewart mocking the conservative host as a "terrible person." Harris excitedly related, "This morning, liberal groups are going all out. They're mounting an aggressive online campaign to get Limbaugh's sponsors to pull their ads. They are hoping this is Rush Limbaugh's Don Imus moment."

During the weekly left-wing panel discussion on Tuesday's NBC Today, advertising executive Donny Deutsch announced: "The advertisers that are still on [sponsoring Limbaugh's radio show] are basically voting, 'Yes, we're okay with it.' They have no choice – I'm an ad guy, obviously – they have no choice but to go away." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Deutsch predicted: "Advertisers will speak and they will speak loud, and you're just seeing the beginning of it." Near the end of the segment, he berated Limbaugh's other advertisers: "I'm actually imploring advertisers to make – maybe we can use this to make a change in the voice out there, forget even Rush. Advertisers, take a stand right now. Every single one of you."

As NewsBusters reported Monday, the ladies of ABC's The View were tremendously sympathetic to Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke's tale of woe and misery having been called a "slut" by conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh.

Yet as Laura Ingraham pointed out on Tuesday's Fox & Friends, her being called a "slut" by MSNBC's Ed Schultz last year was a source of great amusement on The View with Barbara Walters acknowledging to great laughter, "Joy Behar on this program has called me a slut" (videos follow with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Of all the pathetic media defenses of Georgetown University law student and women’s rights activist Sandra Fluke, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart on Monday might have mounted the silliest one.

During a lengthy segment about “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Gross” Rush Limbaugh, the Daily Show host also went after Fox News’s Megyn Kelly by hysterically claiming institutions paying for contraceptives is the same as employers paying for maternity leave (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

On Monday's The Ed Show on MSNBC, host Ed Schultz and guests Terry O'Neil of the National Organization for Women and former Democratic congressional candidate Kristal Ball were unaccepting of Rush Limbaugh's apology for disparaging Georgetown Law School student Sandra Fluke, with Schultz suggesting that now is the best time to push Limbaugh off the air.

O'Neill claimed that there were "overtones of violence" to the conservative talk radio host's comments about Fluke. O'Neill:

As NewsBusters reported Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich scolded Meet the Press host David Gregory for beginning their interview with a question about the Rush Limbaugh-Sandra Fluke controversy.

On Fox News's On the Record Monday, Karl Rove said of this exchange, "God bless Speaker Gingrich for taking David Gregory out behind the barn and giving him a whooping" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd made the front of the Sunday Review describing how she once had her feelings hurt by Rush Limbaugh, who is drawing liberal fire by calling leftist birth-control activist Sandra Fluke a "slut" on his radio show (he has since apologized): "Have You No Shame, Rush?" Also: Rick Santorum has a "medieval" view of women.

As a woman who has been viciously slashed by Rush Limbaugh, I can tell you, it’s no fun.

Not surprisingly, MSNBC has spent much of the day trashing conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh's apology to Georgetown University law student and women's rights activist Sandra Fluke.

Doing her part was Salon editor-at-large Joan Walsh who appearing on The Ed Show said, "Rush has been like crack for the Republican Party, and they need more and more of it to get them high. And he needs, he personally needs more and more outrage and more and more abuse and misogyny to get himself excited" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters reported, liberal Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers published a rather surprising column at the Daily Beast Sunday called "Rush Limbaugh Isn’t the Only Media Misogynist."

On Monday she appeared on Fox's America Live taking this issue even further saying, "This isn't really about misogyny...It's a proxy war for the Democratic Party: they can use it in the election for part of the war on women, and they can attack Rush Limbaugh because they hate Rush Limbaugh because he's conservative" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

In the wake of Rush Limbaugh calling a Georgetown law student a "slut," CNN hosted the president of the liberal National Organization for Women who called for Limbaugh to be fired, on Monday morning's 10 a.m. hour of Newsroom. They did not give such a voice to supporters of conservative women last year when those women were under attack from liberals.

When liberal radio host Ed Schultz called Laura Ingraham a slut last May, CNN did not host the president of NOW to call for his termination at MSNBC. In fact, the network covered the outrage over Limbaugh's smear of Sandra Fluke far more than Ed Schultz's rant last May. A Nexis search revealed 35 hits for CNN's coverage of Limbaugh's "slut" remark since March 1, versus just four reports on Schultz in the week following his comment. [Video below the break.]

On Monday's CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose hinted that Republicans needed to go further in decrying Rush Limbaugh's slam of radical feminist and law student Sandra Fluke. Rose asked Senator John McCain, "Are you satisfied that those Republican officials have gone far enough in condemning these statements?" McCain replied, "Oh, I'll leave that up to pundits like you, Charlie" [audio available here; video below the jump].

The morning newscast also highlighted how "seven companies have pulled commercials from Limbaugh's nationally syndicated show. Online data company Carbonite said the on-air attack crossed the line....Limbaugh had some defenders, but they were drowned out by those protests on the left, and critics on the right."

Appearing on Saturday's NBC Nightly News, Meet the Press host David Gregory argued that the issue of contraception was a loser for the GOP: "I think there are a lot of Republicans who are worried that this is...a fight that the Republicans probably should not be having right now, over contraception of all things, which is pretty much a settled matter in terms of access for women..."

In addition, Gregory hit Rush Limbaugh for taking the debate over the ObamaCare contraception mandate to "a much more offensive level," and argued: "...he escalated it to a degree, there's a lot of female voters who are energized on the Democratic side of all this."

On Saturday, NBC's Today actually had the nerve to give left-wing activist and MSNBC host Al Sharpton a platform to condemn Rush Limbaugh, with co-host Amy Robach wondering: "...is this something the Republican Party needs to deal with right now?"

Sharpton mounted his high horse as he proclaimed: "They're going to have to deal with it, one, because they have really made Rush Limbaugh such a great part of the conservative movement....you can't have him as a major spokesman in your movement and then he says something as offensive and misogynist as this and you act like he's just an entertainer." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Jon Meacham has come down with a particularly virulent strain of Limbaugh Derangement Syndrome that is bringing him to the brink of insanity. How else could one explain the Time magazine writer hailing an anti-Limbaugh speech as "timeless"  just like Jesus's Sermon on the Mount or Lincoln's Gettysburg Address?

Yes, I kid you not, he really went there, and in a Time.com "Ideas" blog post nonetheless (emphasis mine):

For over two months the Left and their media minions have been making a big stink about the need for mandatory health insurance coverage of contraceptives.

In all this fuss and distraction from the real problems this nation is facing, nobody noticed that since 2007 Walmart has been offering a month's worth of birth control pills for only $9 (emphasis added):