20 Jul 2004 Give Ted Rall the Rush Limbaugh Treatment

Project 21 is asking the civil rights establishment to hold cartoonist Ted Rall to the same standard to which it held Rush Limbaugh.

Project 21 notes that during last year’s Limbaugh/ESPN controversy, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume called Limbaugh’s remark about Donovan McNabb (Limbaugh opined that the news media wishes black quarterback Donovan McNabb well and said this is reflected in their reporting) “bigoted and arrogant.” Mfume called for Limbaugh’s removal. The National Association of Black Journalists demanded ESPN “separate itself” from Limbaugh. Rainbow/PUSH Coalition president Jesse Jackson, not previously known to be an expert on quarterbacks, called Limbaugh’s remarks “not accurate and… insulting.”

Ted Rall, through the vehicle of one of his cartoons, called White House National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice a “house nigga.”

Imagine for a moment what might have happened, had Rush Limbaugh called a prominent black a “house nigga.”

Ted Rall, by the way, is a white guy, so he doesn’t get to take advantage of that unofficial-but-nonetheless-enforced PC statute that says blacks can use the “n-word” while white people cannot. (Except Senator Byrd, that is, so maybe there is an n-word white guy exemption for former Klansmen. But a KKK exception wouldn’t give Ted Rall a pass.)

Project 21’s Michael King discusses the issue here in his blog while providing a copy of the comic strip for those who which to make their own judgement.

Last October I got quite steamed about the entire Limbaugh/ESPN matter, putting out two press releases (here and here) quoting an NFL team owner, sporterswriters and others making comments that, ten months later, still strike me a breathtakingly stupid. In this blog post from back then, I noted that no one from the NFL had refuted a team owner’s implication that conservatives aren’t wanted as NFL fans (have they yet?) and also noted that the NFL can’t — apparently literally — count to ten.