Can you say “hypocrite”? Limbaugh lectured Rather on “sexist comment”

Written by Andrew Seifter

Published

In his description of a September 15 interview on CBS's 60 Minutes by Dan Rather (CBS News anchor and managing editor), radio host Rush Limbaugh chided Rather for making a “sexist comment.”

The interview to which Limbaugh referred was Rather's interview of Marian Carr Knox (secretary for President George W. Bush's former National Guard supervisor, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian, who is the purported author of the disputed memos exposed by CBS). Knox has said that she believes that the controversial memos raising questions about President George W. Bush's National Guard service are fake, but she also believes that the contents of the memos are accurate.

From the September 16 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: Let's listen to Dan Rather talking to Marian Knox on 60 Minutes II last night. Rather says she spent more than two decades keeping pilots and officers in line at -- what the hell is that? Secretary kept pilots and officers in line? That's a little sexist comment if you ask me.

Media Matters for America has monitored The Rush Limbaugh Show since April, and has documented several sexist comments made by Limbaugh:

  • On April 26, Limbaugh claimed that women “actually wish” for sexual harassment, and said he then “laughed [him]self to tears” when MMFA documented that and other sexist remarks Limbaugh has made. The MMFA report also noted that Limbaugh used the term “femi-Nazis” eight times between March 15 and April 29.

  • Responding to an Associated Press report that four women had been recently appointed as chiefs of police in four major U.S. cities, Limbaugh referenced the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib as follows on May 27: “If we've got four new female police chiefs out there, then I guess we can watch out for some naked pyramids among prisoners in these new jailhouses that these women ran, because we had a woman running the prison in Abu Grab [sic].”

  • On June 14, Limbaugh shared with listeners his “pet name” for the National Organization for Women (NOW): "National Association of Gals" (his acronym: “NAG”). Limbaugh claimed that the “militant feminists” who make up the "NAGs" “aren't determining who wins elections. White men are.”

  • On July 15, Limbaugh revived the false rumor of Senator John Kerry's alleged affair with journalist Alexandra Polier, and advised Kerry to "keep that babe in Africa."

  • Limbaugh noted on August 9 than in recent television appearances, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd appeared “just joyless,” “miserable,” and “did not seem happy at all.” Limbaugh then concluded: "[m]ust be a guy. Isn't it always a guy when a woman's unhappy?"