President Obama and the media have lambasted Rush Limbaugh for supposedly insulting a “private citizen” in the Sandra Fluke affair. Obama said, “We want to send a message to all our young people being part of a democracy involves argument and disagreements and debate. We want you to be engaged. And there’s a way to do it that doesn’t involve you being demeaned and insulted. Particularly when you’re a private citizen.”
The leftist media parroted Obama’s remarks. David Brock, the founder of Media Matters, led the way, explaining, “Unlike his attacks on NOW or Fox, Fluke is a private citizen.”
Not really. According to the Supreme Court in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974), public figures include those who “have thrust themselves into the forefront of particular public controversies in order to influence the resolution of the issues involved … they invite attention and comment.”
This, of course, is precisely what Fluke did.
But even if liberals ignore the legal definition of who constitutes a private citizen and maintain that Fluke was, indeed, a private citizen, on what basis are Rush’s remarks condemned while Bill Maher’s vitriolic invective about Sarah Palin is dismissed? Palin was just as much a private citizen as Fluke; she was no longer governor of Alaska.
But, liberals claim, Palin was involved in politics and may want to run for office in the future. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet the new possible candidate for public office, Sandra Fluke:
Numerous American women have actually written to me in the last few weeks saying that I should run for office, and maybe someday I will.
Sandra Fluke. Private citizen. Yeah, right.
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