Steve Malzberg
Monday, Oct. 20, 2003

If I were to take seriously every e-mail sent my way, I'd be in big trouble. So, when "B.L." sent me the following last week, I read it with more than the usual amount of skepticism and I'm certain you'll see why. Part one says:

"Geez, I e-mailed a small-time columnist yesterday and told him how full of crap about Rush Limbaugh he was (but without saying he was full of crap, and using *gasp* facts) and I got back a note from his editor. I don't get a note from the writer, but his editor is so riled up he had to chime in. I know it's a small paper, but it doesn't matter if it's big or small. These people are all over the place, as you know. ..."

B.L. had read a piece in the Niagara Falls Reporter. It's a weekly, and from what I can tell it's to the left of Ted Kennedy. Authored by Frank Thomas Croisdale and titled "Limbaugh's Ignorance of Football, Drug Use Worse Than Comments," the piece is a mixed bag.

While Croisdale blasts Rush as "A blowhard who was hired to create controversy on the ESPN set," he admits that Rush raised ESPN's ratings by 10 percent and that "He was doing his job." Yet in the next sentence he says he regrets that Rush quit over the stir created by the remarks he made, adding, "Now he can play the role of martyr and won't be challenged publicly to defend his statement, thereby exposing himself as the big, fat football idiot he really is."

What Croisdale would have preferred is that Rush had been fired because of his addiction to painkillers.

So, B.L. e-mails Croisdale, who forwards the letter to his editor, Mike Hudson. Hudson then responds to B.L., who includes the response in the second part of his e-mail to me:

"B.L. ... Croisdale forwarded me your message and as his editor, I found it funny. You see, I had just chastised him for having anything at all to say in defense of that worthless, drug addicted, bigoted, gay-bashing, woman-hating bag of puss Limbaugh.

"Poor Frank. I guess he couldn't win for losing on this one! Anyway, I hope Rush gets over his addiction. Then I hope he dies from cancer of the balls.

Mike Hudson
Editor, Niagara Falls Reporter"

Not fully prepared to accept the authenticity of this without some verification, I gave a call to Mr. Mike Hudson and he confirmed that he had in fact sent this response to B.L. In fact, he seemed quite proud of the fact that he remembered his response quite clearly. I then asked him if he'd be willing to come on my WABC Radio show to talk about his views on Rush, and without any hesitation he said yes.

After admitting to the e-mail response on the air, he attempted to draw some equivalence with past comments allegedly made by Rush. "I'm just showing Rush the same compassion that in the past he's shown to people with drug problems."

When I asked Mr. Hudson when Rush had ever wished death to someone the way he has wished death upon Rush, he didn't answer the question. "On August 11, 1995, when Jerry Garcia died, Rush's comment was ..." I cut him off and again asked him the same question, and he again ranted about alleged remarks made by Rush after the death of a rock star. This time he was talking about Kurt Cobain.

After pointing out that Rush had never wished either of those two men dead, I tried a third time to get him to name someone about whom Rush had made such vile remarks, and silence came from the other end of the phone. It was deafening.

Next, I asked Mr. Hudson to tell me what led him to the conclusion that Rush is a woman hater. Get this: "I understand that at WABC ... Rush had a card on his door that said 'Sexual Harassment at This Work Station Is a Pass-or-Fail Grade.'"

That claim is simply untrue. I have known Rush since he arrived in New York at WABC in 1988. My wife spent six years working for him. I would pass his office every day, and I never saw a sign of any kind on his door. My wife says no such sign existed during her tenure.

So, I asked him if he had anything else that would make Rush a woman hater. "The guy was married three times," said Hudson. I told him that he had to do better than that. Once again the silence coming from the other end of the phone was deafening.

Now it was desperation time for Mr. Hudson. It was time to play that old liberal game of bringing up old quotes that are taken out of context, in an effort to brand someone a racist, sexist, homophobe or any combination of the three.

Hudson tried to get Rush with words he allegedly uttered in 1993 and 1994, but I stopped him in his tracks. I told Hudson that taking a sentence or two from a three-hour show is not a fair representation of what Rush was trying to say. I told him that when you talk on the radio for three hours a day, five days a week for 15 years, there will be plenty of words to take out of context and present as shocking, but I don't play that game.

Mr. Hudson, having failed at every attempt to prove that Rush Limbaugh was all the terrible things he said he was in that e-mail response to B.L., next decided to attack an entire group of people. "You know, I thought it was funny that Rush was doing this OxyContin. The street name for that is hillbilly heroin, and I knew that if Rush was on some drug it had to be hillbilly something."

This time my silence was deafening. I think he was a bit disappointed that I didn't laugh!

Finally I had had enough. I told Mr. Hudson that if he could find anything offensive that Rush Limbaugh has said over the last 15 years, it wouldn't begin to equal the bigotry, vulgarity, lack of respect and hatred that he has displayed toward Rush by wishing that he gets cancer and dies.

All Mr. Hudson could come up with as a closing response was "I know your family owes a great deal to Rush and I respect your position." It was an obvious reference to the fact that my wife had worked for Rush, but she hasn't in the last four years. I owe Rush nothing. Mr. Hudson owes him one huge apology.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling that, once again, Mr. Hudson's silence will be deafening.

Editor's Note: Do you support Rush? Click here to vote

Steve Malzberg's WABC Radio shows can be heard live on the Internet at www.wabcradio.com: Monday-Friday, 1-5 a.m. Eastern time and Sunday mornings from 9-noon Eastern time.

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