March 2, 2012: Conservative Media Figures Speak Out against Limbaugh’s Attacks on Law Student

Jacob Sullum. [Source: Garden State Journal]David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, and conservative-libertarian Jacob Sullum, the editor of Reason magazine, condemn recent comments by conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh attacking Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke for her position on contraception (see February 29, 2012, March 1, 2012, and March 2, 2012). Both speak in interviews with the liberal media watchdog organization Media Matters. Asked if Limbaugh’s comments were “wrong,” Frum responds by email: “Well obviously it was wrong! Appalling! I feel sorry for the young woman, the first time you encounter this kind of large-scale personal attack, of course it hurts. And it’s destructive too, because on the merits—should religious institutions be allowed to follow their consciences in providing health services—Georgetown U is in the right.” Frum is referring to Georgetown’s resistance to pay for contraceptives as part of the university’s health care coverage for students. Sullum, in a telephone interview, says of Limbaugh: “I don’t really listen to his show much. He is deliberately inflammatory, it was stupid and sexist, obviously, all he knows about her is that apparently she has sex.” Limbaugh “wouldn’t say that about a man who had sex, it is gratuitously sexist.” Sullum calls the comments “outrageous, deliberately outrageous” and “needlessly inflammatory.” [Media Matters, 3/2/2012]