Ed Schultz Barry Bonds Baseball Remarks, Rush Limbaugh

ON THE LEFT FOOT

Libtalk Hypocrisy On Racial Sports Analogies?







Nearly four years ago, talk titan Rush Limbaugh was raked over the coals for injecting a bit of racial politics into football commentary. During an ESPN broadcast, El Rushbo essentially called Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb overrated:

I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They're interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well... McNabb got a lot of the credit for the performance of the team that he really didn't deserve. The defense carried this team.

The subsequent media firestorm endured for weeks, involving the usual "civil rights" suspects and resulted in Limbaugh's resignation as commentator on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown pregame program.


Given the headache that particular comment created for Rush, would it be reasonable to believe other talk show hosts would very carefully choose their words while discussing sport and race?

And what happens when the shoe is on the other foot, as in the "left" one? Are white libtalk hosts held to the same standard as Rush in 2003?

For your consideration, here's nationally- syndicated "progressive" talk host Ed Schultz comparing Barry Bonds (who he has been adamantly supporting on-air for some time) to Babe Ruth:

SCHULTZ: (Wednesday, 8 August 2007, 14:07EDT) Babe Ruth didn’t play against any brothas. He didn’t play against any Latin Americans. He didn’t face the pitching that Barry Bonds faced, or Roger Maris faced, for that matter, right?

I mean, when Babe Ruth played baseball, everybody basically sucked compared to today’s standards. So it’s all relative. So who’s the greatest? Ah, how do we know that the booze that Babe Ruth, I mean, he had a couple of cool ones, right?

Alright, we all know that. How do we know that he didn’t have a few cool ones before he went to the plate? Made him a little juiced up, his adrenaline, so to speak. We don’t know. But in today’s world, man, we’re under the microscope big time.

I say give Barry Bonds his due right now and I’ll respect the brotha’ for the 756th home run last night, when the focus should be on the Mets fan that got the ball. We gotta find out if he’s gonna be paying any taxes on this thing or not.

So, I found that to be an interesting e-mail, you should have an asterisk by ALL of Babe Ruth’s records, cause he played against zero black guys and that’s like playing hockey with no Canadians!

That would be a lousy league, wouldn’t it. That would be a very lousy league. The National Hockey League with just Americans? The NHL wouldn’t even have a TV contract if that was the case.

So, from the great wisdom of Ed Schultz, here's what we've learned to date:


Barry Bonds is a better player than Babe Ruth ever was because the former is up against black and latino opponents, while the white players "sucked" during the latter's reign.


Because Barry was never officially caught using steroids, we must give him the benefit of the doubt.


Pro sporting events without black players simply can't hold the public's interest.


So far, the reaction to Big Eddie's remarks has been less than zero. Sure, he didn't say it during an ESPN pregame show and libtalk's audience is considerably smaller than El Rushbo's. For all we know, your Radio Equalizer may have been the only one listening.

Nonetheless, what entitles Schultz to a free pass, when the same remarks by a conservative would set off a firestorm? The question is certainly worth asking.


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