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RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, as you are undoubtedly aware by now, the A&E network, which stands for Arts & Entertainment, has put the patriarch of Duck Dynasty, Phil Robertson, on indefinite hiatus. I think they’ve essentially fired the guy, and in the process, they have thrown away the largest audience on cable television. They’ve just thrown it away. They’ve thrown away all that advertising. I want to get into that aspect of this as it relates to what a free market is in a moment.

But first, it is obvious that Robertson’s goose is cooked. The Duck Dynasty goose is cooked at A&E. I don’t know how long it’ll be, but some other network will pick up this show. Some other network at some point will pick up this program. Look, strictly in terms of numbers, the gay population, which supposedly is offended here, is max 2%. The Christian population is 250 million people. So the market is going to reflect that at some point in regards to this program.

Now, Phil Robertson, I don’t know him, and I never heard of Duck Dynasty until the reports not long ago about what a great ratings success it was. I downloaded some episodes from iTunes. I’ve been watching them periodically, helter-skelter, here and there. And you know what’s clear to me? Now, Robertson’s apologized, by the way. I’m a little bit surprised given what I think Robertson is all about, but he did apologize. It’s not gonna do him any good, and it’s probably even too late to do a tirade against unfettered capitalism. I was thinking if he maybe did that, he could turn around some of this hate that the left has for him and turn it into love.

It’s a popular thing to do today. If you want love and appreciation from the left, you attack capitalism in America. But I think even that might be too late. It may even be too late for my help. I was even thinking I could possibly save his career if I launched into an attack on the guy. It’s probably even too late for that. I doubt that that would do the trick, at this stage. But I do love what the gay rights group, GLAAD, did. GLAAD wrote to A&E commending them for firing Robertson, they said. And I quote, “By taking quick action and removing Robertson from future filming, A&E has sent a strong message that discrimination is neither Christian nor an American value.”

Now, excuse me for just a second here, but who is being discriminated against here except Phil Robertson? Who just lost a job because of religious beliefs? Phil Robertson. Nothing happened anybody at GLAAD. Nothing happened to any gay people or homosexual people. Nothing happened to them. He says what he says in GQ. He ends up getting fired, and GLAAD starts running around talking about, “We’re not gonna put up with this kind of discrimination.” Well, then you better start demanding he be rehired, because he’s the only guy that’s been discriminated against, if you ask me.

Now, a lot of people are saying, “Rush, when are the people on our side gonna learn you don’t do interviews for GQ?” I was talking to some people last night about this. I don’t think Phil Robertson is dumb or naive. I actually believe that the purpose of Duck Dynasty is to spread their religious views, not to spread the word about their duck business. I think they are devout Christians, and I think they’re using that program to spread, in their own subtle way — I mean, they don’t preach it, they live it, and in the process I think they’re trying to speak up and spread their Christian values. They’re looking at this as, “Gosh, we got a TV show to do this,” and they’re taking full advantage of it.

I’ll bet he’s not even that concerned about being fired for this. I don’t know him, so I could be dead wrong about this. But it appears to me that spreading the word of God and his belief is a paramount desire that he has and mission accomplished here, in that sense. I mean, even people that didn’t watch Duck Dynasty now have heard what he believes is the Word of God, and that’s what his avowed purpose was with the program. But really, who’s been injured here? Really, who has been hurt? This is the whole point. We’re talking about political correctness, a bunch of words. Who really has been harmed here, at the end of the day? Nobody but Phil Robertson.

Now, John Podesta, has he been suspended yet? Has he been fired yet? ‘Cause he went out and he called the entire Republican Party Jonestown. He compared the Republican Party to Jim Jones and that cult at Jonestown. Well, they were mass murderers. They were a genuine cult. The Duck Dynasty guy here is suspended and fired in an eye blink after what he said. Podesta, what he said offended 10 to 20 times as many people as what Phil Robertson said.


Podesta compared Republicans to Jonestown. That is vile, that’s vulgar, that’s hurtful, that offends almost half the country. Half the country is Republicans. Does anybody really want that kind of hate speech from the White House? We already have it there, folks, in case you’re not aware. This is common, ordinary, everyday stuff in the White House. This is who the left is. That’s what they believe.

This is why I get so frustrated the Republicans don’t understand who they’re up against, and what the people they are up against really think of them. They really believe this. There’s a strain of belief, true belief of what Podesta said. They do think Republicans are the most vile, evil bunch of people running around. It is a perversion that they think this, but they think it. But nothing’s gonna happen to Podesta. You know what’s her name, Jennifer Lawrence?

I have the audio sound bite here. Jennifer Lawrence, the latest rave in Hollywood was on Conan O’Brien last night talking about… I’m just gonna say it. I better not. I’ll count down from five. If you have young kids listening, turn off the radio or change the station, whatever, for 30 seconds, and then come back. Five, four… No, no. I’m gonna count down to one and if you’re still here and you’re offended, it’s your problem and not mine ’cause I’m giving you abject warning here, plenty of time.

I don’t want to shock anybody. I’m just gonna… Well, here. I don’t even need to say it if I can find the sound bite. Number nine. Grab sound bite number nine. This is Jennifer Lawrence last night on Conan on TBS, and Jennifer Lawrence and the sidekick Andy Richter and Conan O’Brien have this discussion. Now, this is the hottest actress in Hollywood casually telling jokes about (well, you’ll hear it), and everybody’s laughing, and it’s just fine, and nobody thinks it’s offensive, and nobody thinks it’s vile.


It’s just perfectly normal, American pop culture conversation.

LAWRENCE: Somebody, as a joke, bought me a bunch of butt plugs. It’s a long story.

AUDIENCE: (wild laughter)

O’BRIEN: Really not a long story at all. Out here, though, that’s a standard Oscar gift.

LAWRENCE: Trust me that it’s normal, the story. Yeah. So I had a copious amount of butt plugs, huge amount of different colored butt plugs, and then the maid is coming. So I was like, “Well, I’ll just shove this under the bed so she doesn’t see all these butt plugs,” and then —

O’BRIEN: To get the wrong idea. Yeah.

LAWRENCE: Yeah. She might not know they’re for a joke. And so — and then I came back, and all of them were brought out of the bed and were in this beautiful display.

AUDIENCE: (laughter)

LAWRENCE: On the bedside table!

O’BREIN: No, no, no! The maid found them and then put them out for you.

LAWRENCE: Yeah.

RUSH: Butt plugs. Does anybody out there know what a butt plug is. Snerdley, you probably do. You know what a butt plug is? (interruption) Well, then, I mean, here it is being casually discussed. It’s a late-night TV show. (interruption) I know there’s nothing casual about a butt plug. But nobody’s offended. They’re laughing and they’re joking, and they’re having a wonderful time and all. Here’s the thing, folks — and my question is for all of you at GQ and all of you leftists who are just mock outraged over this, and that’s what it is. It’s mock outrage.

You don’t care what Phil Robertson thinks. Why would you? If there’s no God, why worry about what Phil Robertson thinks? If sin is this made-up, crazy, wacko Christian thing, why worry about it if it doesn’t exist? Why get worried about what some hayseed thinks about sin and homosexuality and vaginas and anuses? Why does any of that bother you if what he believes isn’t even real?

Why get so upset about it, if there isn’t any God, if there’s no sin?

If there’s no morality, no judgment, no rules that apply to you, then why all the fuss? Who cares if you’re called sinners by some backwoods hick on a duck show, if it’s all BS? If there’s no accountability for the way you live and if everything’s cool and hunky-dory and the nearest god you can find is whatever tree you think runs the environment that day (which could be Algore) then what’s the problem?

Jennifer Lawrence, by the way, not long ago — I think this week. Jennifer Lawrence said that the word “fat” should be banned. It’s too offensive. It’s too insulting. It’s demeaning. It hurts people’s feelings. They can’t help it. “Fat” should be banned by the media, because that hurts people’s feelings and that’s just not nice. You know, I tell you what. I’ll tell you who would be interested in this whole thing about butt plugs would have to be Al Roker.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Well, I just found out what a butt plug was. I didn’t even know. I had to engage in deep consultation to find out. I’m not gonna even go there. I know what it is. If you care enough, ask your mom. No? Okay. Ask your dad. What would be more appropriate? Who’d be more likely to know? Folks, a butt plug, a lot of people look like they’re wearing one when they’re not, just to give you an idea. You’ve seen them. You can spot ’em all over.

They’re all over MSNBC.

Everybody on MSNBC is using one, except Al Roker. He needed one when he was at the White House. See, we can casually discuss this. It’s not a problem. But let Phil Robertson go out there and talk about his views on homosexuality as expressed in the Bible and so forth? You look at what he said. He didn’t really say anything, didn’t attack anybody. It really is amazing.

When you look at the relative tiny percentage of the population represented by people who are homosexual versus the 200-plus million who are Christian, who are not homosexual — and then you put that in the same context of the market here and what A&E has done — it’s fascinating. I believe throughout our culture, politically, culturally, we’re being governed by a minority, led by, governed by, intimidated by a minority which sits in control of political correctness and speech and even behavior in certain ways.

You know, a lot of Christians are afraid. I had a woman call last week, two weeks ago, when Obama’s poll numbers started to plummet. She felt comfortable finally when the polls started reflecting what she always thought. She finally felt comfortable calling and talking about. She said, “Rush, the secret is that everybody has had this low opinion of Obama’s job approval. They just have been afraid to say so, even to a pollster.

“They’re afraid to say so ’cause the president’s the first African-American president and they just don’t like controversy,” and I think that’s true of a lot of Christians. They’re afraid of having the world hate them, so they keep silent, even when guys like Phil Robertson are attacked. It’s just the path of least resistance.

Everybody that doesn’t have happen to them what has happened to Phil Robertson does not want that to happen, so they shut up — and in their silence, they acquiesce. So here we have a guy, basically Phil Robertson, who quotes the Bible, and he’s said to be behaving in an un-Christian way. Let’s go the audio sound bites. These are some sound bites here the Drive-Bys reacting to Phil Robertson’s remarks, calling them vile, crude, and offensive.

HOWARD BRAGMAN: (b-roll noise) Truly vile and offensive.

GERALDO RIVERA: His views are vile.

REENA NINAN: Vile and extreme.

WILSON CRUZ: Shocked and appalled really.

DON LEMON: It’s deeply offensive to many people in this country.

CAROL COSTELLO: Crude, anti-gay remarks.

PIERS MORGAN: I think he should be fired. I think it’s absolutely repulsive.

RUSH: That was Piers Morgan. Well, Piers, you got your wish. Phil Robertson’s been fired. For what? I mean, who did he really discriminate against? What power does Phil Robertson have over anybody? I mean, that’s my real question. Now, A&E folks don’t misunderstand. I’m a big believer in the free market. It’s called capitalism. If A&E wants to get rid of anybody, that’s their decision. If they want to dump the highest rated show in history on cable, they’re more than free to do it.

If their top brass doesn’t like being associated with this kind of thing, they’re perfectly free to do this. If the government came in, if the Regime came in and demanded they do it, that would be another thing. But A&E is free to do it. This happens all the time in the media. I’ve been doing what I’ve been do since I was 16, and this is common, for station management or ownership or whatever. Some don’t want any controversy at all, some don’t want the kind of controversy that might erupt, and so they make a decision that sometimes is not in the immediate near term based on business.

It’s based on other concerns.

It’s how the market works.

Now, also the way the market works is that somewhere, someplace down the line some other channel is gonna pick up Duck Dynasty. That is a given, if the Robertsons want to keep doing it. Will the other Robertsons keep doing Duck Dynasty without Phil? Did A&E get rid of the whole show or just Phil? I don’t know. Will Phil’s brood say, “Well, without Phil we’re not doing the show,” and they’re just outta there? It’s open. But that’s the way the market works, and these people at A&E are free to do this, and it’s perfectly understandable. They don’t want any part of this. No way.

At the cocktail parties in the rest of the media, I’m sure they’ve been nervous about their attachment to these people anyway.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The Human Rights Campaign has slammed Phil Robertson by saying, “We know that being gay is not a choice that someone makes and that to suggest otherwise can be incredibly harmful.” But substitute “heterosexual” for gay and see how it sounds. We know that being heterosexual is not a choice someone makes, and that to suggest otherwise could be incredibly harmful. Well, Phil Robertson didn’t make the choice to be a heterosexual, so why attack him for talking like one? If you turn this stuff all around, it’s an interesting perspective.

Now, I had a lot of people e-mail me when they first heard about this, and they were wringing their hands. The said, “Well, Rush, the liberals win again. We had this great show, this great family down there, the Robertson family, got their duck call business, Duck Dynasty, and why do people on our side keep talking to the liberal media? Why would Phil Robertson, who doesn’t care about the way he looks, do an interview in GQ? Why, Rush, why? Can you explain this to me, Rush? ‘Cause the liberals have won again. A&E has shut up Phil for quoting the Bible and offering a rather obvious opinion on why straight men love women.” I mean, he kind of nailed that, if you want to know the truth about it.

No, I’m not gonna get into repeating it here, but he offered a pretty straightforward reason why straight guys like women. It made perfect sense. But then that’s why I started looking into this. I’m not so sure, folks, and it’s too soon to know, but I’m not so sure that this is a loss, in the traditional sense. I’m not so sure this is a loss like it would be with the Republican Party caving doing something stupid and then begging forgiveness or any of that.


I’ll tell you why. As I’ve looked into this, it’s become clear to me — and maybe if there are ardent fans of Duck Dynasty out there, you can correct me on this, but it seems that one of the main reasons that these guys are doing this TV show, is to spread the Word of God. They don’t need the money — and I don’t mean that in the liberal sense, meaning they’ve got more than their share. Their business is just going gangbusters. They don’t need to do a TV show to have the lifestyle that they have. And they don’t seem to me to be the kind of people seeking fame and red carpet kind of parties. They’re not seeking out the E! Entertainment network or TMZ or any of that.

Then you find out that Phil is a man who was near destruction because of the way he was living and who found Christ and has credited Christ with saving him. You put two and two together and you figure out that this TV show has been a way for Phil Robertson to express his beliefs in a subtle way. They don’t stand up there and preach. They don’t point fingers or any of that, but they clearly live that lifestyle, and they do it with pride. They’re not ashamed of it, and they don’t apologize for it. And they’ve been getting more attention than anybody else on cable TV.

So they’ve attracted a lot of attention. They’ve gotten a lot of eyeballs watching what they’re doing and listening to what they’re saying. It has allowed them to model, if you will, and talk about their way of life, which happens to be a Christian way of life, which I think is why Phil did the GQ interview. I don’t think he’s afraid of telling any of these people what he thinks, what he believes. I don’t know him. Just a wild guess here. But I’ll tell you, it could be — and we’re not gonna know for a while. But I’ve always thought at some point a tipping point is going to be reached. At some point the majority of people are gonna get fed up with being lectured to and controlled by such a minority of the population.

I think a lot of people are sick and tired of being pushed around by a very small minority of leftists who use weapons like political correctness and censorship, intimidation, and everything else in order to shut up the people who say things they don’t want to hear or disagree with. Now, the gay population is 2% of the country, and it’s like we were talking about yesterday. Liberals are just scared to death to say anything critical of Muslims. The Democrat Party and the left just won’t go there, no matter what. They will not say anything critical, and I think, by the same token, conservatives are terrified of saying anything about the gay population because the gay population is represented by or they’re fronted by the militant political gay element of the gay population.

It’s not all liberal, and it’s not all militant, and it’s not all Democrat. But the face of it is. And I think people are intimidated by it. At some point Phil Robertson — I don’t know what kind of connection the Robertson family had with their audience. This is a key thing, and as somebody that’s not watched the show, this I don’t know. What I mean by this is do the audience have a personal bond with the Robertsons? Do they love them? Would they go to the mat for them? Would they have a deep appreciation for what they’re doing, and when they get in trouble, not abandon them?

If that kind of relationship exists between Phil Robertson, his family, and the audience of that show, then there could be an effervescing tipping point taking place out there below the surface right now that nobody’s aware of, fed up with this. Phil Robertson never did anything to anybody, and he still hasn’t done anything to anybody. He’s the only one that’s been really discriminated against here. He lost his gig at the Duck Dynasty show.


So I don’t know. It’s long overdue. At some point, there’s going to be… Maybe it’s a generational thing. It may be an issue-related thing, it may be something related to an event, but at some point enough people are gonna say, “Okay enough of this,” and they’re gonna stand up and say, “Just shut up. You know, we’re tired being pushed around here by five/10% or whatever it is of the population — or, if you take the whole liberal universe, 20% of the population.

“We’re tired of being pushed around by you people. We don’t agree with you, and we don’t like what you’re trying to do to the country and so forth.” So maybe Phil Robertson has opened the door. I don’t know. It’s just way too soon to say, and it may not be the case at all. Now, the A&E people, this is a whole different story. The A&E people, they say that they are “strong supporters of the LGBT movement,” lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender movement.

Notice they are not getting anywhere near saying that they are strong supporters of the Christian community.

Now, strict numbers, the Christian community outnumbers the LGBT community by a factor of 20. A&E, given where they are, probably who runs them and is in management there, they are going to side with the 2%, the LGBT — and they are free to do this, folks. This is what I mean by free market. I’ve been in and around big-time broadcasting a long time, and being suspended or fired for saying something that management or ownership doesn’t like is nothing new.

And it also doesn’t mean that management and ownership is right. What it means is, they don’t want to be associated with it. They don’t want the hassle. They know, for example, that if Christians get offended, nothing’s gonna happen. If the LGBT group gets offended, they’re gonna get protested. They’re gonna targeted, made fun of, whatever. They just don’t want it. They just don’t want any part of it. Paula Deen went through it at Food Network, over something she said 30 years ago.

Now, the fact that Food Network fired Paula Deen or cancelled her show doesn’t mean that she should have been. This is a private business that made a decision to part company with her. They decided to take the hit over it, just as A&E has obviously decided to take the hit here — and they’re gonna take a big hit. I mean, it’s the biggest show on cable TV, and they have just thrown it overboard. That does not happen.

Maybe the only circumstance in which that could happen is if the program has to be or happens to be related to the Tea Party or Christianity or pro-lifers or southern hayseed hicks. That’s an easy bunch to throw overboard, if you’re in top management at a major media organization today. As I say, if the Regime had stepped in and forced and pressured or manipulated A&E into doing this, that would be another thing.

A&E, they can do what they want to do. If they want to throw away this money and throw away the ratings and let somebody else have it, they’re free and clear to do it. It’s called “unfettered capitalism.” Ahem, ahem, ahem. Like I say, if I were advising Phil, I woulda said to him yesterday, “Phil, you gotta go out there and attack capitalism, right now. You’ve gotta go out there, you gotta attack capitalism and you’ve got to attack trickle-down.”

He would say to me, “I don’t believe that.”

“Well, do it anyway! See if you can save yourself. Just attack trickle-down economics. That’s all you gotta do, just attack trickle-down. If that doesn’t work, attack me. Those the only two chances you have save yourself.”

Now I think it may be too late even for that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We’ll start West Monroe, Louisiana, with Kelly. Thank you for calling. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Hi. It’s an honor to talk to you. You’re my hero.

RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

CALLER: I’ve been going to church with the Robertsons for years, and you just coulda knocked me over with a ton of bricks when I opened up the newspaper today. It just slapped me in the face on the front page.

RUSH: What knocked you over?

CALLER: Well, I guess really it shouldn’t have. The double standard, the usual. But in a way I was really surprised that they led him almost into this trap, because they had to know what his answer was gonna be when they asked him the question.


RUSH: Well, okay. Who do you think led him into the trap?

CALLER: The interviewer.

RUSH: Well —

CALLER: For the magazine.

RUSH: Like the people at GQ, you think, led him into a trap?

CALLER: Right. Because, I mean, that’s who they are. They are devout Christians.

RUSH: Yeah, shouldn’t Phil know that by now?

CALLER: I mean, Phil does not mince words. He’s gonna tell you what he thinks and take no prisoners.

RUSH: Right. That’s why I don’t think he got tricked. I don’t think he knew that GQ was out to be… I think he went there on purpose.

CALLER: But I’m surprised that he said it knowing that it could possibly harm their careers, but I —

RUSH: Well, see, that’s the thing.

CALLER: I’m hoping that’s not the case.

RUSH: That’s the thing. It’s two things. Either he didn’t know who GQ was and thought they really wanted to talk to him because they love him and are fascinated with him, in which case he’s bought into all this media hype, or he knew exactly who GQ was: Part of the liberal media. I mean, Gentleman’s Quarterly is ostensibly about men’s fashion. “Why in the world do they want to talk to me?” would be my question if I were Phil Robertson. Okay, but he still does the interview with them.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: The only option is he knows who they are, he knows exactly what they’re gonna ask him, and he wants to tell them what he said to them.

CALLER: Well, he is definitely about spreading the word of what he believes.

RUSH: Well, there you go.

CALLER: And I guess maybe he felt like let the chips fall where they may.

RUSH: There you go. You wouldn’t describe him as a coward, would you?

CALLER: Oh, my gosh, no. That would be the last word I would use for him.

RUSH: Okay. So if he goes to GQ, he’s not gonna get scared and wimp out. The fact is that he made the decision to accept the invitation. My guess is that all kinds of leftist publications have been dying to interview these guys to try to pull this off, in effect.

CALLER: Yeah. In some ways, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.

RUSH: Yeah, they want to pull a Todd Akin on him.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: “So, Phil, what do you think about abortion?” or, “Phil, what do you think about…?” Look, the bottom line is, the people at GQ, the people at the gay-lesbian alliance — GLAAD, whatever it is — the people at Human Rights Watch, for some reason they’re really bothered by people like Phil Robertson. Now, that, to me, is interesting. What’s Phil Robertson? Did Phil Robertson do anything to them? Why are they afraid of him?

But ever since that show got big, I guarantee you that there have been conversations, chats, texts, whatever, between various members of the media about the fun it would be to get hold of one of those hayseeds is and ruin ’em. “Let’s get one of those hayseeds in here and let’s start asking them about God! We can take these guys out just like that! Let’s do it for the fun of it, if for nothing else.” But, on the other hand, they are threatened by it, folks.

They are threatened, and this is my question: If there is no God, why worry about people who believe in Him? If there’s no sin, and if there isn’t any morality or any judgment, why worry about people who believe it, if it doesn’t exist? How in the world is a guy’s duck business a threat to you? Why in the world would the Drive-By Media want to take that guy out? The bottom line, the answer to the question is they want to take out everybody who does not conform to their beliefs, because they’re threatened by it.

“Well, why?”

Answer that and you’ll understand.

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