Rush Limbaugh Uses North Dakota Flooding Tragedy To Make Gratuitous Jokes
March 30, 2009
Last week syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh used the dire flooding situation on the Red River in Fargo, North Dakota to make jokes about the word, “dike,” which newscasters have used interchangeably with the word levee in their descriptions of the area.
Media Matters for America posted audio of the nonsensical Limbaugh commentary.
It is not entirely clear why Limbaugh decided to fixate on the word “dike” but using Fargo’s tragic circumstances to make jokes is a slap in the face to the people of North Dakota who are dealing with this disaster.
Yet another crass move from the notoriously offensive Limbaugh.
Anti-Gay Humor in Sports Media Has to End
November 18, 2008
On Wednesday November 12, WEEI 850AM Sports Radio in Boston produced and aired a recorded skit about the possibility of the 2014 Gay Games taking place in Boston. The skit was filled with tired jokes about gay athletes that we’ve heard a thousand times over. For example, in the skit, one of the characters – a reporter on the scene of the future Gay Games – comments that “the Gay Games flame is coming into the stadium, his name is Bruce and he’s from San Francisco.”
Click here to hear the audio.
It’s almost like the producers had a board filled with clichés and threw a dart to pick which one they’d choose. It wasn’t funny 10 or 20 years ago, and it’s even less funny today.
WEEI
According to the Boston Globe, “callers reacted to the news that Boston had been named a finalist to host the 2014 Gay Games with a stream of homophobic jokes and slights, as the show’s hosts cackled with glee and added their own antigay wisecracks.”
The way to stop this kind of juvenile, anti-gay humor is to make your voice heard to the gatekeepers – talk show hosts, producers, general managers, etc – of the media. The gatekeepers need to know that the LGBT community is tired of hearing these same old stereotypes, when there are countless LGBT athletes making their mark all over the country and the world. Ask them to produce fair, accurate and inclusive coverage of the LGBT sporting community and sporting events.
I’m sure if any of the talk show hosts or callers went to a Boston Ironsides Rugby Football Club game or played against a Boston Pride Hockey team they’d realize how amazingly talented and tough LGBT athletes can be, and maybe then the same old tired jokes will end.
