Politics

Tracie McMillan Makes Yet Another TV Appearance To Talk About Limbaugh Swipe

So here’s the thing: Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh was completely out of line to call Georgetown University student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute,” but news outlets everywhere aren’t doing viewers any favors by stumbling over themselves to cover this story to death. The media fixation on Fluke has allowed a comparatively less controversial statement from Limbaugh, who went after “The American Way of Eating” author Tracie McMillan for being “single, white [and over-educated],” to proliferate in the news to the detriment of other women.

In the immediate aftermath of losing advertisers as a result of his comments, Limbaugh criticized McMillan’s status as a single woman and implied that she hadn’t earned the 2006 James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, and while this seemed like an outrageously bold and audacious statement considering the way the previous week had played out for him, the media’s excessive coverage of McMillan and all-things Limbaugh comes across as forced at this point.

McMillan, who was criticized on Limbaugh’s show two days ago for her investigative book about how low-income people buy food, has made several television appearances and public statements since the right-leaning pundit’s out-of-nowhere Tuesday attack on her. She spoke to ABC-7 Detroit about it Tuesday night, discussed the matter on Rachel Maddow’s show last night, and was on “Jansing & Co.” Thursday morning. Had Limbaugh said this about her at any other time — in other words, not following a nationwide war with a college woman — McMillan probably wouldn’t have been asked onto these programs. The anchors spent more time asking McMillan about her thoughts on Limbaugh than her book, so she definitely wasn’t invited to the shows to speak primarily of her work.

There’s hope that the conservative radio host’s broadcast will bring more attention to McMillan’s book, which explores the pervasive problem of eating well on a very tight budget and absolutely deserves exposure, but continuing to push the Limbaugh story down American’s throats is not the way to call him out on his bile.

Watch McMillan on “The Rachel Maddow Show”:

TAGS: Rush Limbaugh | rush limbaugh prostitute | rush limbaugh slut | tracie mcmillan

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