(Image source: The New York Times )

 

BY ALYSSA CARTEE

ANCHOR  MEGAN MURPHY


A week later and Rush Limbaugh is still in hot water. After Limbaugh called reproductive rights activist Sandra Fluke a “slut” on his radio show, sponsors are dropping like flies and critics continue to hammer the controversial conservative. Fellow radio host Don Imus , no stranger to controversy himself, engaged in some name calling of his own.

“First of all, he’s a fat, gutless, pill-popping loser.  And to apologize, a lame apology on his website that says he didn’t mean it as a personal attack, is gutless.”

Limbaugh has apologized for the comments — but his apology didn’t calm things down. Now — conservative blogs are coming to the host’s defiance. A blogger for Ethika Politika says Fluke wanted to be in this situation.

“A Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies major at Cornell, Fluke is also a past president of Law Students for Reproductive Justice. While she’s presented herself in persona a woman suffering because of Georgetown’s policies, it’s more likely that Fluke has had her sights set on the school for quite a while.”

And conservative commentator Laura Ingram tells Fox News critics are using the comments as an excuse to shut Limbaugh down.

“This is about free speech and the idea that they are going to target this man’s advertisers because of this with a 20-year career. You know why they’re going after Rush. Because he’s really effective.”

Writing for Slate — blogger Amanda Marcotte writes — the controversy isn’t like to die — because this is bigger than Limbaugh now.

“Of course most people are still angry! Until the argument that women who use health insurance for sexual health services are bad people is retracted, anyone who has a scrap of common sense left is going to be furious.”

Finally, as if the firestorm weren’t bad enough for Limbaugh, MSNBC explains advertisers aren’t the only ones dropping his show.

“Singer Peter Gabriel pulled his music from Limbaugh’s program after learning his 1986 hit ‘Sledgehammer’ was played during last week’s rant.”