Limbaugh defenders ignoring long record of racist remarks

In the wake of Rush Limbaugh being booted from a group of investors bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams football team, a minor media tempest has been stirred by conservative commentators who charge that Limbaugh has been falsely accused of making racist remarks. Central to their charge are two quotes allegedly made by Limbaugh--in which the radio host supposedly praised slavery and Martin Luther King assassin James Earl Ray--that cannot be documented and may be bogus. Many of the commentators claim that the case against Limbaugh is based on little more than the two dubious quotes. For instance, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly (10/15/09) claimed that besides one well-documented racist remark Limbaugh made in the 1970s, the case that Limbaugh says racist things is non-existent: "The reason that Limbaugh is not going to be able to buy into the NFL is because a bunch of made-up stuff became legend. And he got hammered." O'Reilly added: "So what we have here are accusations without merit. But in our hypermedia age, that's enough to paint someone as a racist." Limbaugh defenders, however, have to ignore many well-documented and easily checkable racist and race-baiting remarks made by the talkshow host over a long period of time.