I guess anyone who doesn’t live in a vaccuum has heard about Limbaugh’s comments by now. A quick rundown anyways:
Several weeks ago, the debate on birth control legislation erupted in the U.S. and became so controversial that even hockey players stepped in with their commentary. This sparked a huge debate on religious freedoms and the separation of church and state, etcetera, which resulted in a hearing called by the House Oversight and Government Reform committee. The hearing was newsworthy due to the fact that there were no women invited to participate in the first panel of witnesses. For a quality and comedic reaction to this “oversight” (pun intended), I encourage all of you to look up Seth Meyers’ and Amy Poehler’s Really?! skit on Saturday Night Live the following weekend.
Finally, in a second panel created for the purpose of including more women (which at this point was any women at all), Sandra Fluke gave testimony, in which she supported birth control coverage being required even by religious organizations. On February 29th, Rush Limbaugh publicly commented on her testimony using some terms I’d prefer not to use in this blog post. His comments resulted in public uproar, but far from apologizing, Limbaugh continued his public attack on Fluke for the following week. On March 3rd, several advertisers pulled their business from his show (source). It was under this pressure it seems that he provided an “apology”, if it can be called that.
This incident brings the topics of public debate and free speech into an interesting light. There was certainly a way for Limbaugh to disagree with Fluke’s comments without attacking her character. It’s easy to advocate for free speech when you’re supporting those who agree with you, but in the end, we all have to learn to tolerate the other side.
With that being said, I refer you all to this epic speech from The American President.
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