Rush Limbaugh Thrown For a Loss - Charlie Warner - MediaBizBloggers

Radio hate monger Rush Limbaugh was thrown for a loss by the NFL players union when NFL Players executive director DeMaurice Smith "made a move to solidify the union against a bid by conservative talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh as part of a group that aims to purchase the St. Louis Rams," according to ESPN.com.

ESPN.com reports that:

"In an e-mail to the union's executive committee on Saturday specifically addressing Limbaugh's bid, Smith said, 'I've spoken to the Commissioner [Roger Goodell] and I understand that this ownership consideration is in the early stages. But sport in America is at its best when it unifies, gives all of us reason to cheer, and when it transcends. Our sport does exactly that when it overcomes division and rejects discrimination and hatred.'"

Good for Smith and the players union. And those words are difficult for me to write because I have a deep-seated suspicion and dislike for most unions. Unions have been a major factor in the decline of the American steel and automobile industries and are a major impediment to improving education.

I have created a Web site at www.act-uawlocal7902iswrong.com that details why the United Auto Workers (UAW) is wrong for The New School and NYU, where I am a part-time faculty member, and why the UAW and unions are wrong for higher education.

As an academic, I'm outraged to be represented by a mechanics' union primarily because the union's mission and goals are totally opposite from those of universities. The union's push for seniority and guaranteed work loads stifle innovation and are antithetical to a teaching meritocracy.

On the other hand, the NFL Players union is doing the right thing by speaking out against the hate mongering, racist entertainer Rush Limbaugh being a partial owner of an NFL team on which more than half the players are African-American.

It would be better for the country if more unions and other organizations, such as church groups and social clubs, spoke out against hate mongering and racism by media bloviators like Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Perhaps they could moderate the extremism better than the greedy media conglomerates and broadcasters that have abandoned the responsibility of being a public trust and caved into craven commercialism.

It is ironic that a union has taken on the role of speaking out against extremism when the media that distribute the extremist views of the Limbaughs and Becks are not responsible enough to moderate these exclusionary hate mongers.

Go NFL Players union!

Until he retired in 2002, Charlie Warner was Vice President of AOL's Interactive Marketing division. Before joining AOL, he was the Goldenson Endowed Professor at the Missouri Journalism School where he taught media management and sales, and he created and ran the annual Management Seminar for News Executives. Charlie can be contacted at charleshwarner@gmail.com.

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