State-Run Media Clearly Upset Over Potential Limbaugh NFL Purchase

RUNNING INTERFERENCE

Will Smear Campaign Derail Limbaugh's NFL Hopes?







While there's nothing more predictable than knee-jerk outrage from the state-run media when Rush Limbaugh is portrayed in a positive (or even merely neutral) light, it's hard to believe they would care about his potential purchase of a NFL team.

But that would be underestimating our media friends, who've never met an opportunity to smear El Rushbo they didn't happily accept. In this case, that means inserting an irrelevant issue from years ago into the mix.

In fact, there was a similar effort last year with the first indication Limbaugh might be interested.

From the Los Angeles Times, here's the first of the latest examples:

Rush Limbaugh says he's trying to purchase Rams

October 6, 2009 | 9:28 am

Rush It appears conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh wants to be an NFL team owner.

In a statement released today, Limbaugh said he's partnering with St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts in a bid to buy the St. Louis Rams. Limbaugh didn't go into details, but said he and Checketts "have made a bid to buy the Rams and are continuing the process."

It's unclear whether Limbaugh and Checketts will buy the team outright or purchase a majority or minority stake in the franchise. Georgia Frontiere's children own a 60% stake in the team, and billionaire Stan Kroenke owns a 40% stake.

Hopefully, Limbaugh's latest foray into the pro football will go a little more smoothly than when he worked briefly as an NFL commentator for ESPN in 2003. Limbaugh resigned after saying Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback do well in the NFL.

And from the AP, another:

Limbaugh is a native of Cape Girardeau, Mo., about 100 miles south of St. Louis. He's so popular among conservatives — fans of his show call themselves "dittoheads" — that he has been called by some the voice of the Republican Party.

Limbaugh, who lives and works in Palm Beach, Fla., once worked for the Kansas City Royals and is an avid sports fan.

In 2003, Limbaugh worked briefly on ESPN's NFL pregame show, but resigned after saying Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.

And here, the Atlanta Journal-Consitution takes it all several steps further:

6. The Rush to misery tour

We go from rap to Rush Limbaugh (sorry for the whiplash.) Limbaugh is part of a group bidding to purchase the St. Louis Rams. I didn’t think it was possible for a franchise to take a step back from once being owned by the late Georgia Frontiere, a former Miami dancer who married Carroll Rosenbloom and inexplicably inherited the team after he mysteriously drowned while swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. She then fired her stepson (Steve Rosenbloom) as the top team executive, ran the Rams into the ground and moved them from Los Angeles to St. Louis. But yeah. This beats that.


5. A drug-abused racist should go over well at owners’ meetings


"Sometimes I can't believe the things that come out of my mouth!"

Rush Limbaugh as NFL owner? Wonderful? He has first-hand knowledge of being criminally investigated for drugs after his abuse of prescription painkillers (OxyContin). He had that great stint with ESPN, during which he basically accused the media of going soft on Donovan McNabb because he’s an African American quarterback (and word of going “soft” must’ve been news to the Philly media). And maybe he can do one of those NFL United Way commercials, given that he accused actor Michael J. Fox of exaggerating his Parkinson’s disease. And finally, he’ll be a real popular guy in the locker room for playing a satirical song, “Barack The Magic Negro” (sung to “Puff the Magic Dragon”) in 2007 on his talk show. Yes, just the kind of good-will ambassador NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is looking for.

Beyond the topic of football, what does Limbaugh's ESPN stint have to do with buying a team? Or the past addiction issue that is so frequently utilized by the left? Unless the goal is to undermine Rush's bid by injecting political controversy into the process, there's no reason to include this irrelevant topic.


Here's what Rush himself had to say about the McNabb row back in 2007:

CALLER: I appreciate you taking the call. I was just making a comment on the Imus situation. It seems hypocritical from the media that they're bashing him and you were unfortunately released from ESPN way back in the early 2000. The crew from Inside the NFL, HBO, got on the bandwagon and bashed you for supposedly being racist when you were just making a comment on Donovan McNabb.

RUSH: Making a comment on the media, not McNabb. I made a comment on the media, not McNabb.

CALLER: Right. They misconstrued it as you making a comment on Donovan McNabb.

RUSH: Look, those guys are all liberals. You want to know what the real problem here was? The real problem was -- and I've had a couple people who are big-time sportscasters on the networks tell me this -- "They were laying in wait for you, Rush. They were just offended to no end that you were coming into their world, the world of sports, and they were going to get you somehow. They were going to try to get you no matter what, because they resented the fact that you were entering sports, and you're not a sports guy, and you haven't paid your dues, and you're not a journalist and all that." What you said you saw happen on HBO's Inside the NFL is a classic example. HBO is a very liberal-oriented network, anyway. Inside the NFL has its share of liberal producers and so forth -- and a liberal host, who is obsessed with race, Bob Costas -- and then of course they have got that babe in there Wanda Sykes, who is this black comedian. She can run around and say whatever she wants like a rapper, and of course nobody says a word. They just laugh at that and she's protected because she is a minority. Therefore, like all minorities they can say what they want because they "don't have the power to be racists or bigots" or what have you.

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