THE WANDERER, OCTOBER 23, 2003
JOSEPH SOBRAN'S
WASHINGTON WATCH
Revenge of the Liberal Media
"Limbaugh's long-running act as a paragon of virtue
is over," crows Evan Thomas in NEWSWEEK. The magazine
devotes its October 20 cover story to a snide portrait of
the talk-radio superstar, who has been illegally buying
prescription painkillers and publicly confessed his
addiction.
Its columnist Jonathan Alter also chimes in,
predicting that Limbaugh will receive "the compassion he
routinely denies to other people" and hoping he'll now
offer "a more tolerant and less vitriolic message."
Say what you will, over the past decade or so Rush
Limbaugh has had a truly remarkable impact on American
public life. He has totally shattered the old liberal
media monopoly. Even conservatives (like me) who now find
him disappointing are judging him by standards he himself
has done so much to change. He has come to seem routine,
almost conventional; but not so long ago liberals were
portraying him as sinister, dangerous, possibly
fascistic.
Since Limbaugh is far too familiar and genial to
paint the swastika on, Thomas and his team of crack
investigative reporters are now showing him as a shy,
overweight, pathetic loser, and near-recluse, from high
school onward. We learn that he never finished college,
and is "a childless, twice-divorced, thrice-married
schlub." We are even told that (unnamed) women who have
dated him complained that he "talked about himself and
didn't seem interested in them at all," the brute!
No stone is left unturned, or unthrown: "He was not
much of a success as a disc jockey, either." His father
urged him to become a lawyer and tried to dissuade him
from pursuing a career in radio; after phone calls from
him, Limbaugh would be "depressed and deflated." He also
"smoked a little pot and watched a little porn."
I have my own reservations about Limbaugh, but I
could never wish this on him: an ugly dose of liberal
tolerance. I think his jocose boasting is tiresome, but
after all, it's a joke. He has never posed as "a paragon
of virtue." He argues for more-or-less conservative
public standards without pretending to exemplify them.
As John O'Sullivan has put it, "The defense of
virtue must not be left to the virtuous." There aren't
enough of them. Some of the best people in the world are
inarticulate, and they need the support of those who,
though imperfect, have the polemical skills to make the
case for God's law in the public forum.
The liberal charges of hypocrisy against Limbaugh
are totally false, as were those against Limbaugh's pal
William Bennett when he turned out to be a serious
gambler. Bennett's fabulously successful book THE BOOK OF
VIRTUES was a collection of aspirations, not a claim of
sanctity. The truth is that liberals in the media have
been yearning to destroy these prominent conservatives,
and now they think they finally see their chance.
No doubt Limbaugh, like Bennett, will be chastened
by the experience, but, like Bennett, he is taking his
embarrassment like a man. Most of us don't have to pay
for our faults in the public eye, thank Heaven.
I love the story related by the French
writer-statesman Andre Malraux. Malraux once asked an
old priest what he'd learned about human nature from
listening to thousands of people's darkest secrets in
the confessional.
The priest was naturally reluctant to answer.
Malraux stressed that he wasn't asking him to violate the
seal of the confessional, merely seeking generalizations.
Finally, the priest said he'd learned two basic things.
First, people are more unhappy than they seem. Second,
nobody ever really grows up.
To me that's a priceless observation. This is a
world of children trying to act like adults. Now and then
we get a glimpse of the real child behind the grownup
facade. You can take a malicious glee in what you see; or
you can say, "There but for the grace of God go I."
Liberals are now gloating like little brats at Limbaugh's
discomfort.
Limbaugh is actually proving he's the opposite of a
hypocrite. He's following his own advice, which is to
take your medicine without blaming others for your fate.
He doesn't deny people compassion; he just refuses to
equate compassion with government programs. The liberals'
great hypocrisy is to claim a monopoly of compassion for
referring all social problems to the state. Talk about
posing as paragons of virtue!
So part of Limbaugh's punishment is an ordeal by
slander. It's not even as if he were smoking pot or
taking "recreational" drugs. Like many other people, he
got addicted to painkillers after surgery. How much he is
to blame for this, only God knows; but NEWSWEEK is ready,
willing, and eager to assume the worst. Liberal
tolerance! Liberal compassion! Take a good look.
Limbaugh and Buchanan
In all my years of producing and suffering
journalism, I've seldom seen such a hatchet job on a
man's character. But one parallel comes to mind, from
NEWSWEEK itself: Some years ago the magazine ran a
similar story on Patrick Buchanan, labeling him a "bully"
on its cover.
This too was the precise opposite of the truth: I've
never known anyone in public life who surpassed Buchanan
in the courage to fight alone against all odds.
But when you defy this herd, they feel bullied. The
one virtue the Grand Confederation of Cowards will never
honor is courage. It puts them to shame, and they must
have their revenge on it.
Limbaugh and Buchanan also have this in common: It's
hard to imagine either of them kicking a man when he's
down. As a friend of mine puts it, the men Limbaugh kicks
are very much up. Judging by the kicking he's now getting
in the media, the liberal attitude is very different.
I almost hate to say it at just this moment, but
Limbaugh's brand of conservatism strikes me as
essentially timid. He plays it safe and stays well within
the neoconservative guidelines for "respectable"
conservatives. He's more a Republican apologist than a
principled conservative. But, unlike his enemies (and
even some of his allies), he's too decent to attack the
weak. His foes rarely attack anyone else.
NEWSWEEK inadvertently makes Limbaugh a sympathetic
figure. It wasn't able to dredge up anything shocking.
Instead, it found a rather sad, shy loner, discouraged by
his own father, who dreamed of success in radio and was
resilient enough to achieve it.
Straining, however, to put the pretty tame facts in
the worst light, the magazine only underlines the
magnitude of Limbaugh's achievement and its own
irrational hatred of anyone who looks like a
conservative.
+ + +
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--- Joseph Sobran
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