On March 5, as part of Brent Bozell’s campaign to downplay Rush Limbaugh’s misogynistic attack on Sandra Fluke, the Media Research Center created an “I Stand With Rush” website, where visitors could sign a petition denouncing “attempts by radical left-wing organizations and the media to censor Rush and his commonsense conservative message.” In the accompanying video, as we noted, Bozell couldn’t be moved to criticize Limbaugh beyond tepidly claiming we can “all agree Limbaugh crossed a line” and changed the subject to attack liberals.
The also provided a place for Rush fans to contact advertisers who announced they were abandoning the show “but still advertise on left-wing hate radio. Call them and tell them to end the double standard.”
It’s only been a week, but the MRC seems to have changed its mind about standing with Rush. IStandWithRush.org now redirects to the MRC’s “Tell the Truth!” website, its hypocritical anti-media campaign. That website, however, does not link to the Limbaugh petition. (Here’s what’s left of the site’s main page in Google cache, and here’s the cache of the advertiser target page. The site’s Bozell video remains embedded at NewsBusters.)
So what happened? Did Bozell and the MRC suddenly have a fit of conscience and realize that their pro-Rush website looked like it was rewarding Limbaugh for his hateful remarks? Did they suddenly remember that Limbaugh’s three-day-long tirade of misogyny, from which Bozell and crew are trying to distract, was inspired by an MRC employee? Or did so few people sign the petition that the plug was pulled after a week?
Whatever the reason, the MRC is keeping quiet so far, perhaps out of embarrassment.