The MRC’s Brent Bozell has condemned Bryant Gumbel’s statement on HBO’s “Real Sports” that the Winter Olympics has “a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention.” Saying that “Gumbel’s remarks reek of racism and arrogance,” Bozell added:
What if Gumbel had said ‘a paucity of whites makes the NBA look like a Democratic convention?’ Rush Limbaugh was roundly denounced by the media when he made allegedly racist remarks about a football player. So where are the media condemnations now against Gumbel?
Bozell’s criticism is cynical and meaningless because he defended Limbaugh’s 2003 remark that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was getting a free pass because “the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.” In an Oct. 3, 2003, column — in which he mis-paraphrases Limbaugh by saying that “liberal sports reporters are blinded by a desire to see a black quarterback succeed”; Limbaugh said “the media” but didn’t narrow it down any further at the time of his remarks — Bozell said that Limbaugh was correct and that he was getting a bum rap for being a racist:
There are countless examples – we’ve all heard them – of commentators, columnists, and editorial writers agitating for more black coaches and quarterbacks in the NFL.
[…]
Maybe that wasn’t what got Rush in trouble. Maybe it was that he had the temerity to slam the “liberal” sports writers. But again Rush makes a defensible point: many sports writers are liberal and use their sports forums to agitate politically.
If Bozell doesn’t think Limbaugh was being racist, then he has no basis for asserting Gumbel is racist. And anyway, how does he know Gumbel wasn’t joking? That defense seems to work for Ann Coulter, and MRC has raised no known objection to any of her inflammatory remarks.