March 3, 2012: New York Times Columnist Lambasts Limbaugh over Attacks on Law Student

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd takes aim at conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh and his three-day diatribe against Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke (see February 29, 2012, March 1, 2012, and March 2, 2012). Dowd begins: “As a woman who has been viciously slashed by Rush Limbaugh, I can tell you, it’s no fun. At first you think, if he objects to the substance of what you’re saying, why can’t he just object to the substance of what you’re saying? Why go after you in the most personal and humiliating way? Then, once you accept the fact that he has become the puppet master of the Republican Party by stirring bloodlust… you still cringe at the thought that your mom might hear the ugly things he said. Now he’s brutalizing a poised, wholesome-looking 30-year-old Georgetown law student as a ‘slut,’ ‘a prostitute,’ and ‘round-heeled’ simply for testifying to lawmakers about wanting the school to amend its health insurance to cover contraception.” She points out that Limbaugh is wrong about contraception becoming yet another “welfare entitlement,” as tax dollars will not pay for contraception—employers and insurance companies will. Women are not being paid to “have sex,” as Limbaugh has said: “They’d be getting insurance coverage toward the roughly $1,000 annual expense of trying to avoid unwanted pregnancies and abortions, and to control other health conditions. This is something men and conservatives should want too, and not just because those outcomes actually do cost taxpayers money.” Dowd is clearly angry over Limbaugh’s crude personal response to what Georgetown University president John DeGioia called Fluke’s “model of civil discourse” (see March 2, 2012), particularly his “leering” suggestion that Fluke “pay back” taxpayers by posting sex videos online. She writes: “Rush and Newt Gingrich can play the studs, marrying again and again until they find the perfect adoring young wife. But women pressing for health care rights are denigrated as sluts.” She is dismissive of the “tepid” response from Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates (see March 2, 2012 and March 2, 2012). Dowd’s column is later updated with a note that Limbaugh has issued a statement, meaning his apology (see March 3, 2012). [New York Times, 3/3/2012]