Why are media so soft on Limbaugh?

Why is the mainstream media treating the Rush Limbaugh story with kid gloves?

Sure, the story of Limbaugh calling a college girl a “slut” is everywhere. It’s widely assumed that the talk show host hurt the Republican Party with his outrageous remarks.

But the media seems comfortable with reporting the remark and then adding that Limbaugh apologized.

If you take a closer look at what the right-wing commentator said, what was involved in his so-called apology, and who started the nationwide push for advertisers to boycott his radio show, the story is actually much worse than it sounds.

And if all the facts get out into the mainstream, they may make many more conservatives – perhaps even a few of Limbaugh’s “ditto heads” — extremely uncomfortable. Maybe even Mitt Romney will admit that Limbaugh’s comments made him mad as “H-E-Double Hockey Sticks.”

Take a look:

*  The ugliest portion of Limbaugh’s vitriol aimed at Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student who supports health insurance coverage for contraceptives, was frequently ignored by news reports. Sure, he called Fluke a slut and a “prostitute” and said that her support for contraceptive coverage at Georgetown, a Catholic university, amounted to her wanting to be paid for having sex. Then he followed up that twisted logic with this bit of misogyny: “So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Femi-Nazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives … We want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”

*  Limbaugh brushed aside the argument that birth control is sometimes used for health reasons. But he probably did not know this: When Fluke was initially refused an opportunity to testify on Capitol Hill by congressional Republicans, a key part of her message cited a friend who had to have an ovary removed because she was not able to get medically necessary birth control that could have shrunk her ovarian cysts.

*  Limbaugh still seems incapable of understanding that, in essence, he called tens of millions of mothers and wives and grandmothers sluts because they use (or used) birth control that’s covered by their insurance. He’s the key portion of his apology: “My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.” The radio fat-cat knows that this was not an attempt at humor. Look at the web cam video – he is angry, almost ranting, when he used “not the best” words. How many men in this country would accept Limbaugh’s words of apology if he called their wife or mother a slut?

*  The woman who started the social network campaign to target Limbaugh’s advertisers is no “Femi-Nazi,” she is a 17-year Army veteran, a second lieutenant, who took birth control so she didn’t get pregnant (from her soldier husband) and blocked from her deployment in Iraq. A company commander at Fort Hood in Texas, she lit into Limbaugh for his buffoonish remarks and unwittingly started a national movement by sending a tweet (which quickly went viral) with the hash tag #iamnotaslut.

*  It’s worth remembering that in the past Limbaugh issued half-hearted apologies, in his usual arrogant manner, for: calling Amy Carter “the most unattractive presidential daughter in the history of the country,” for implying that Chelsea Clinton was the family “dog,” and for claiming that actor Michael J. Fox was faking the symptoms of his Parkinson’s Disease.

(By the way: Limbaugh has been married three times and, I would assume, had various girlfriends along the way. Yet, he has no children. What do you think the odds are that none of those women ever used birth control covered by insurance?)

Scott’s comments led to a social network campaign that has already cost Limbaugh seven of his show sponsors. She also demonstrated that the military provides contraceptive coverage for some awfully good reasons. It’s not, as Limbaugh disingenuously tried to imply – the start of some new welfare entitlement.

Obviously, when you call a woman who takes a pill so she can remain in harm’s way and put her life on the line for America a slut, you’re going to get a pretty strong reaction.

Here is a quote from Scott:

“Birth control is a means to an end for me,” Scott said. “I can control when/if I have children and therefore I get the chance to be a soldier, a writer, a teacher. I get to be any of the things I’m capable of being because I have control over when/if I have children.”

Then she added this, directing her remarks directly at Limbaugh and hitting him right between the eyes:

“By all means, call me a slut. Call me a whore who expects the government to pay for my birth control so that I can abdicate my responsibilities as a parent. Call me a ‘Femi-Nazi’ for forsaking my duties as a mother and using birth control so that I did not get pregnant again and miss the deployment. Call me a slut for wanting something more for myself and my daughters than to be someone’s breeder. By all means, call me a whore for wanting my daughters to be able to fulfill their potential by being able to decide when they want to start a family.”

Rush, that roar of applause you hear for Scott is not from some group you claim are feminine versions of Nazis, it comes from independent-minded women across the country who have concluded that they’re not voting for your Republican Party in November.