MEDIA OVERLOADED—RUSH LIMBAUGH, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND THE GHOST OF BOB IRSAY
That Rush Limbaugh was in the middle of a shitstorm hardly counts as news, but the subject matter and those making the arguments were most interesting and revealing. Limbaugh, wannabe NFL owner, got trashed by some of the usual suspects—namely Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson—but a couple of other notables hit their target with accurately fired shots and brought him down. Rush Limbaugh and the NFL will not be bonding anytime soon.
Coincidentally this week, Barry Levinson’s ode to the Baltimore Colts band aired on ESPN. Titled The Band That Wouldn’t Die, the documentary chronicled the Baltimore Colts Marching Band. In relating the story, Levinson goes all out in detailing the origins of Baltimore’s history with the Colts. No Diner quizzes with this one, just a tale of endurance by the fans and the band that helped define Baltimore and its role in the mainstream of professional football.
Levinson’s story covers all the bases and talks to all the important participants, including former Baltimore Sun reporter Mike Olesker, who comes out of exile to appear as the social historian of record, and former Mayor/Governor Willie Don Schaefer, who is interviewed at the senior home where he resides, and who still has most of his marbles, former owners Art and David Modell, current Ravens owner Steve Biscotti and the principles of the band, who deserve all the kudos for persevering.
The killer film clip of the documentary, and one most familiar to Baltimoreans, is the one where Robert Irsay arrives at a press conference directly off an airplane at the airport with then-Mayor Schaefer vouching for his integrity and honorable intentions. Irsay is completely wasted, vulgar, and totally incoherent. Next comes the moving vans in the middle of the night.
Now of course, we have the Ravens. We’re secure in the NFL, and the loss of the Colts has been mitigated by time and Ray Lewis. We’re in and so is Indianapolis, and St. Louis, formerly the Cleveland and Los Angeles Rams, is struggling with their team. Unless a group of locals from St. Louis buy the team, they could be shopping for a new locale. Former Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom’s widow, Georgia Frontierre, was the owner of the team. How’s that for karma?
So anyway, after Rush got blasted in the media by the Reverends’ Jackson and Sharpton, Jimmy Irsay, son of the despised Robert, added his two thumbs-down to the Limbaugh ownership maneuver. Irsay threatened a blackball.
Then of course, because these matters were of major national significance, right up there with the health care reform debate, and the discussion over what to do with Afghanistan. The venerable Wall Street Journal, now owned by Rupert Murdoch, chimed in Thursday with an editorial. Read a portion for yourself. The title to the piece is “Leveling Limbaugh.”
After this, opposition to Mr. Limbaugh emerged from Baltimore Colts owner Robert Irsay and, most disappointing of all, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Mr Goodell implied in a statement that Mr. Limbaugh’s off-the-cuff comment in 2003 about Donovan McNabb (that the media wanted a black quarterback to do well) violated the league’s “high standard.”
How amazing is that for a supposedly serious newspaper? Wrong team, wrong owner and wrong on the statement. Limbaugh was not off-the-cuff. He said his race-baiting remarks about McNabb on a pregame show on ESPN, and he knew exactly what he was doing. He is a calculating wise ass, and does and says nothing that isn’t in sync with his dogmatic attitudes. And then on Saturday, they gave Limbaugh his own opportunity to comment on the editorial page and he delivered another diatribe where he trashes all those who were out to get him. The missive is titled “The Race Card, Football, and Me.” Read it at your own risk!
Next, the Journal will be editorializing on the Colorado Balloon Scam. The title of the editorial will be “Blowing Hot Air Up Your Ass, or Why You Should Read The Wall Street Journal?”
Posted by Jay Liner on 10/19/09 at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)