I've been reading a few message boards - at Hannity.com and on the articles from Yahoo news that report that Rush is losing advertisers, and more than one of the commenters said that Rush said that college students who used birth control were sluts and prostitutes.
That's not what he said.
He said that Rebecca Fluker, who does not want to pay for her own birth control, was *similar* to a prostitute who wanted to be paid to have sex. He was talking about the financial aspect of it, of someone who wants free stuff.
Yes, it was poorly worded and stupid, but if you listen to the context in which he was saying it, you know it was just a bad joke.
Should FLuker sue? She probably will, but I don't think she has to. She's gotten so much *good* publicity (*good* for her cause) that she won't be able to prove that she was damaged in any way.
On the other hand, Rush doesn't seem to understand the distinction between "Freedom of speech" and slander. The very last thing he said on his program today was, "Whatever happened to free speech?" presumably ticked off because his advertisers were leaving him.
But, there's "freedom of speech" and then there's calling someone who is not a prostitute a prostitute - which is slander. (And the definition of a slut being someone who has sex indiscriminately - if she can prove that she only ever has sex with a steady boyfriend, that's slander, too.)
But bottom line, he's apologized. Now, if he'll continue to accept responsibility for what he said and stop saying silly stuff like, "I found myself descending to the level of the Left", all will perhaps be well. (I say that because it's Rush who refers to people as "Dingy" Harry, Dick "Turban," and so on and yet he says it's the Left who does the name-calling? Well, "entertainers" like Bill Maher - I think that's how you spell his name - certainly do. But actual politicians?)
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