Scott Whitlock uses a March 16 NewsBusters post to complain that Stephen Colbert said that the Taliban “evidently have a better track record on women’s issues” than Rush Limbaugh. Whitlock further complains:
Liberals, including Colbert and Jon Stewart themselves, will immediately jump to the “we’re just comedians” defense. However, considering that outlets like MSNBC routinely promote their clips and portay them simply as cultural satirists, it’s worth noting the extreme, often hateful tilt of their comedy.
Whitlock seems to have forgotten that his NewsBusters colleagues defended Rush Limbaugh’s misogynistic attack on Sandra Fluke as a joke.
As we’ve documented, Whitlock’s fellow MRC employee Brent Baker said of Limbaugh’s hateful demand that he wants video of Fluke having sex: “Obviously, a bit of humor which escaped the overly-sensitive left-wing/media axis always looking to be offended.” And another MRC co-worker, Ken Shepherd, insisted that Limbaugh was speaking “facetiously” when he denigrated a female author by saying, “What is it with all these young, single white women, overeducated — doesn’t mean intelligent.”
It’s more than a bit hypocritical of Whitlock to denounce the comedian defense when his own co-workers used the exact same defense to try and protect Limbaugh.