The real culprit behind Rush Limbaugh's 'slut' comments? All of us
Rush Limbaugh, Bill Maher, Gov. Christie and shock jocks make you look at who’s cheering
Commentators are seeing how low they can go, and audiences are egging them on
Rush Limbaugh calls a Georgetown law student a “slut.”
Bill Maher calls Sarah Palin two vulgar words for parts of the female anatomy.
A Los Angeles radio team does a bit referring to the late Whitney Houston as a “crack ho.”
Some days you just wonder where civility and a basic sense of decency have gone.
Except we know exactly where it’s gone and exactly where to find it, which is in the mirror.
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That truth doesn’t excuse any of these gentlemen, or mean they should not acknowledge they have done their small part in making us a little coarser, a little colder and a little meaner.
John, Ken and Rush, in fact, have done so, sort of.
But it’s doubtful that none of them made their comments because they grew up aspiring to become verbal bullies.
They did it because we pay them to. They did it because they learned the fast track to a high-profile media gig these days is not to be academic, balanced and reasoned, but to say something a little more outrageous than the next guy, or gal, has already said.
That isn’t to say we all view demeaning other people as high sport. For most of us, even if we agree with the sentiment, the tone makes us uncomfortable.
But a modest percentage of the population can create a profitable niche audience today, and one of those niches loves shows built on things neither they nor the hosts would say to anyone’s face.
So we’re pounded with this stuff day and night, and to assume we only breach civility with an occasional random vile word would be, at best, naive.
Part of what has elevated Limbaugh and Maher is their ability to express disdain in ever-more-creative ways.
If you call someone “lame” today, you need a harsher word tomorrow, and one of these days you’ll say something that feels clever and right, but isn’t.
Sure, language standards are a moving target and hardly just for talk shows. Watch a night of reality TV and you’d assume rude comments and constant insults are the way America talks.
They aren’t. But because some folks find them entertaining, they’re out there.
Then there’s real life. A few weeks ago, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called a Democratic legislator a “numb nuts.”
He’ll do that. And people will ask about it, and he’ll shrug and say that’s why they like me, because I call it like I see it.
Or forget the governor. Listen to a couple of random teenagers in a supermarket checkout line.
So are we a coarser country than we’ve ever been?
Nah, we’re not. We used to lynch black people and work 8-year-olds in sweatshops and not care if men beat their wives.
We had a Civil War that killed 600,000 people.
We can survive bad words.
But we also might remember that if no one were in the stands cheering, they wouldn’t be playing the game.
Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...augh-cheering-article-1.1033489#ixzz1oLt2GNhw
