Leaping to the Defense of Controversial Airwave Kings

Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern have their share of detractors. Limbaugh can be bombastic and fiercely partisan and occasionally indulge in rumor-mongering. Stern can be rude and crude and occasionally obliterate the boundaries of good taste.

But to call them “hatemongers,” as veteran columnist Carl Rowan does, is unfair. It also misses the point of what they do and why millions of loyal fans tune in each day.

In his new book, “The Coming Race War,” Rowan rather casually tosses out his Top 10 list of hatemongering, a sort of Hate Hall of Fame. Those on the list are quite capable of defending themselves, from House Speaker Newt Gingrich to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, who has been exchanging brickbats with Rowan on the Post’s op-ed page.

What is most striking about Rowan’s assault on Limbaugh and Stern is that he marshals almost no evidence of their supposedly hateful appeals. One is left wondering whether Rowan actually has listened to these radio loudmouths.

Rowan says Limbaugh is an “entertainer” who cracks “wicked, often bigoted, jokes.” Not a single example is offered, most likely because there are none. While many blacks would object to Limbaugh’s conservative philosophy, that hardly amounts to evidence of bigotry.

The book says that “Limbaugh ingratiates himself with piggish men when he says, ‘I love the women’s movement, especially when I’m walking behind it.’ ” True, Limbaugh once made this sexist crack--so what? He mercilessly skewers liberals, feminists, journalists and those he views as Hollywood elitists and environmental wackos. Sometimes Limbaugh goes too far in talking about Bill Clinton’s personal life. But mostly his show is three hours a day of mainstream conservatism, in language far more decorous than that heard on daytime television.

Limbaugh fired back on his radio show, calling Rowan “demented” and “an aging hypocrite who I think has lost his mind. . . . It really is sad . . . that he’s got to write some inflammatory book trading on the race divisions in this country.”

Stern, by contrast, has made fun of blacks--along with Jews, Mexicans, Filipinos and other racial and ethnic groups. Some people can’t stand this sort of satire, but it is more an effort to play off dumb stereotypes than to perpetuate them. Stern often talks about growing up in a predominantly black Long Island neighborhood. He has a black sidekick, Robin Quivers. He used to play tapes of a Ku Klux Klan rabble-rouser--to ridicule the man’s racism.

As Stern told the San Diego Union Tribune (in a passage quoted by Rowan): “I don’t feel I have a racist bone in my body. But because there are so many racists in our society, if you even talk about race, if you talk about how sick it is that we’re all at each other’s throats because of the color of our skin, people misconstrue that and think I’m a racist.”

So where’s the hate? Rowan leaps on Stern’s comment about the police beating of Rodney King: “They didn’t beat this idiot enough.” But Stern was apparently using hyperbole to argue that the drunken King intimidated the officers. “I love cops,” he says. “Every time they’re on a high-speed chase like that, they’re taking their lives in their hands.”

Stern has also joked about “black athletes fornicating with white women,” Rowan complains. Is this truly unmentionable in our society?

Finally, the shock-jock mocked the music of Selena after the Mexican American singer was killed last year. That was clearly insensitive, and Stern apologized.

To be sure, some people in this hypersensitive age find almost any satire offensive, and those who indulge in such sport sometimes cross the line. But that’s a far cry from hatemongering. Folks who don’t like Limbaugh or Stern, who has been relentlessly penalized by the Federal Communications Commission, have a clear option: Turn them off.