Ed Schultz and MSNBC: You've Got It All Wrong

Ed: There's no need to apologize to Laura Ingraham, except that you mischaracterized her. She's not a "right-wing slut;" sluts do it for free. Ingraham gets paid a handsome sum to spew hatred every day. She's a right-wing whore, not a slut.

MSNBC Management: You need to ask yourselves: are you a news organization, an opinion channel, or just a bunch of cowardly jackasses? Ed didn't need to, and shouldn't have had to offer to apologize to Ingraham, much less take some unpaid time off. The truth may hurt, but that's the way it goes. Every day, Laura Ingraham spews out such hatred and vile lies that it's a wonder she hasn't either been shot down in the streets like the dog she is, or just collapsed before the mike, foaming at the mouth. (She must get the same vaccine that Rush, Beck, Malkin, and others of their ilk receive.) Ingraham tells her vicious lies for a nice chunk of change, and gets nothing but support from her management. She is a whore, a vile, hate-filled, evil whore.

I'm damn sick and tired of hearing lies, insults, distortions, and other such utter bullshit flow from the mouths of right-wing talk show hosts every damn day, with nary an outcry from their management; but let a progressive tell the unvarnished truth about some of these wingnuts, and what happens?--they get suspended, they have to make humiliating apologies to their inferiors, and then they have to receive the opprobrium of the progressive blogosphere, too!

I've been surfing around the progressive blogosphere tonight while writing this piece, and the amount of anger and scorn directed at Ed is frankly amazing. You'd think he spit on Pres. Obama, the way some of my fellow liberals are talking! Granted, it was a poor choice of words for public discourse - and I still think he should have said "whore," not "slut" - but dammit people, grow a pair! Not everyone is as polite and soft-spoken and just fuckin' considerate as some of the people on the left. And you know what?--there's not a damn thing wrong with that! We need people willing to shout from the rooftops, as well as men and women who can argue in the ivory towers. We need people who are willing to shout back in the wingnuts' faces, people who can grab a sword as quickly and easily as they can pick up a pen. What's wrong with a little passion?

And you know, I've been trying to put Ed's words in perspective. I realize that "slut" is an offensive term to women, and I personally don't use it. But I've been substituting "nigger" for "slut" in my head, and I just can't get that upset. Maybe I'm a closet misogynist, or maybe I don't find "nigger" offensive enough. Maybe I'm considering the source. At any rate, if someone were foolish enough to call me that, I'd either laugh in their face, or fire back with something truly vile. Either way, I wouldn't let some stranger's words get to me that deeply.

OK, most of the time I wouldn't....at least, not while witnesses are present!

But I don't think Laura Ingraham, by her own words and deeds, deserves the consideration and defense that I'm seeing for her in the progressive blogosphere tonight, or, indeed, anywhere else on the intertubes. I don't think she deserves any defense at all, and the only offense I think Ed Schultz committed was offending some of his listeners. Ingraham doesn't deserve one damn bit of his courtesy, consideration, or respect.

I promise you this: I don't get paid for this blog, and if I ever were to receive as much as a freakin' dime for it, it would have to be with the stipulation that I can write whatever I damn well please. I will ALWAYS speak my mind, speak the truth as I see it, and damn the consequences.

Keep the faith, Ed, and keep on giving 'em hell!