Rush Limbaugh and the First Amendment

For those living under a rock for the last week, Rush Limbaugh is in hot water over a three day tirade on his radio show where he called Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a “slut”, among other things. This all started because Ms. Fluke wanted to talk to Congress as part of a panel on whether or not contraceptive should be paid for by insurance companies, even if the company they work for is against it on moral grounds. As a result of the three day assault, several of Rush’s sponsors pulled out, causing Rush to issue an “apology” and for some of his detractors to mobilize to try and get him off the air. The whole fiasco also has his supporters screaming about his First Amendment rights and quite frankly they are wrong to do so. The truth is that this has nothing to do with the First Amendment.

You might be wondering why this has nothing to do with the first amendment. Well, quite simply, the First Amendment was designed to protect us, the ordinary citizen, from the government coming in and punishing us for what we say. What the First Amendment doesn’t do is say that we are not responsible for what we say.

Like all of our freedoms, this one comes with a price. The price is accountability. Rush has every right to call her a “slut” but we the people also have the right to contact his sponsors and threaten to boycott their products unless they pull their ads off his show or contact his affiliates to ask them to drop his show. Think of it this way, you have the right to storm into your boss’s office and tell him off. You have that right, but if you do that, you will probably lose your job. Does that mean that your First Amendment rights have been violated? Of course it doesn’t. As I stated at the beginning of this paragraph, the freedom of speech does come with a price.

Personally, even though I wish he would, I don’t think Rush will get kicked off the air over this. Unlike Don Imus, who was fired from his job after he made a disparaging remark about the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team, Rush’s popularity and ratings are still pretty high. Even though he lost several sponsors, I am sure that they will come back after all this all blows over.