Rush Limbaugh is a desperate man. He stuck his foot in his mouth so deep that he's resorted to grasping at straws to try to get himself out of trouble.
The conservative talk show host referred to Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke as a "slut" and a "prostitute" on air, after she testified to congressional Democrats that her Jesuit college's health plan should cover her birth control, because she spends $3000 a month on it.
"If we're going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch," he added the next day.
President Obama reached out to Fluke after hearing about Limbaugh's comments.
"He encouraged me and supported me and thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women," she told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. "What was really personal for me was that he said to tell my parents that they should be proud. And that meant a lot because Rush Limbaugh questioned whether or not my family would be proud of me. So I just appreciated that very much."
That call seemed to set Limbaugh off even more because he had more to say the following day.
"I'd be embarrassed," he said. "I'd disconnect the phone. I'd go into hiding."
Now advertisers are pulling out of his show left and right. At least nine, including AOL have pulled the plug. And one station in Hawaii has dropped the show completely.
Limbaugh has since apologized for the comments he made last week, but he's found a scapegoat. He's now blaming hip-hop. His argument being he should be allowed to say what he wants because rappers do it all the time.
"You talk about the double standard, one of the greatest illustrations of it is that rappers can practically say anything they want about women, and it's called art," he wrote on his website.
The Huffington Post compares Limbaugh's comments to Don Imus and Jackie Magazine. Check out their take on it below:
Limbaugh's original comment about Fluke and his rapper defense are reminiscent of a similar incident in 2007 when another radio host, Don Imus, referred to the primarily black Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy headed ho's." Imus said that the phrase "originated in the black community," citing the degradation of women in hip hop music.
More recently in December 2011, the Dutch fashion magazine, Jackie came under fire for referring to singer Rihanna as "the ultimate n*ggabitch." The magazine editor (who later resigned after the backlash) issued an apology on their Facebook page. Hoeke also referred to the prevalence of the expression in the media:
"It was stupid, it was naive to think that this was an acceptable form of slang--you hear it all the time on tv and radio, then your idea of what is normal apparently shifts--but it was especially misguided: there was no malice behind it."
Are Limbaugh's comments about rap as outrageous as what he said about Fluke? And can you even compare an art form to a talk show?
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