Rush Limbaugh Comment On Steinbrenner Death Creates Controversy

Rush Limbaugh

In the wake of the death of NEW YORK YANKEES owner GEORGE STEINBRENNER -- syndicated talker RUSH LIMBAUGH's remark that STEINBRENNER was "a cracker who made a lot of African-American millionaires" has drawn fire from liberal media critics MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA and competing talker Rev. AL SHARPTON. LIMBAUGH's comment, which came at the beginning of a segment, was a reference to LIMBAUGH's previous discussion of the "NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY" and the group's criticism of "crackers," was immediately ripped by MEDIA MATTERS and widely covered in other media.

REV. AL SHARPTON, who hosts his own syndicated talk show and was a major figure in the DON IMUS controversy, called LIMBAUGH's comments "repugnant and offensive whether they were intended to be facetious or tongue-in-cheek. For the last 20 years I have known GEORGE STEINBRENNER, and we have quarreled over diversity and community programs, but I always found him fair, direct, and genuinely prone to do what he felt was right." 

LIMBAUGH responded on TODAY's show regarding MEDIA MATTERS and the media coverage of the comment, "I mean, they are so upset, angry, jealous, this is the best they can do is to take an out-of-context comment by MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA and twist it into something that I didn't say. And the MEDIA MATTERS people, I'm really offended they left out one of the most relevant things I said yesterday. I talked about what a great capitalist GEORGE STEINBRENNER was that he even knew when to die. This year when there is no estate tax, his family has saved a half a billion dollars alone on the asset value of the NEW YORK YANKEES. GEORGE STEINBRENNER was able to grow the NEW YORK YANKEES from a $10 million franchise to being worth at least $1.2 billion, and along the way he made a lot of African-American millionaires. As a lot of capitalists do, everybody around STEINBRENNER got wealthy. And to show that STEINBRENNER had all kinds of street cred while making these African-American millionaires rich and wealthy, he fired a bunch of white guy managers. I mean this guy's got street cred like you couldn't find anywhere else in sports."

"They're launching their salvos, but at the root of it folks they're angry, jealous, ticked off like you can't believe because I sold my NEW YORK condo for a 125% profit when their houses are underwater," continued LIMBAUGH. "It just drives them insane and this is gonna drive 'em insane to point out they are the ones that had all the rotten, mean things to say about STEINBRENNER throughout his tenure as the owner of the NEW YORK YANKEES. The same left-wing political opportunists out there say nothing about the NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY and MALIK ZABU SHABAZZ talking about crackers and killing crackers or KING SAMIR SHABAZZ who talked about killing cracker babies...."

[What do you think? Was this just an attempt to rattle some chains and get a big reaction? Or is there a pattern of comments that displeases you? Share your thoughts below.]

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