Rush Limbaugh selection in children’s book competition causes a stir
(CNN) - Rush Limbaugh - radio host, conservative firebrand and... children's book author of the year?
The Children’s Book Council and its Every Child a Reader program released on Thursday their author-of-the-year finalists for their annual Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards.
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Limbaugh is one of the four finalists, and his nomination has prompted outrage on social media, given the host’s often-incendiary nature.
Limbaugh's book is titled, "Rush Revere and The Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans" – a time-traveling tale of colonial America and the latest of two books in the "Rush Revere Series" published last year by Simon & Schuster.
Limbaugh, an outspoken figure in the political world, often expresses controversial sentiments on his radio program. Recently, Limbaugh blasted Pope Francis' economic views as "pure Marxism," and, in 2012, he called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" and "prostitute" for her support of women's access to birth control.
The Children’s Book Council issued a public letter, posted to its website and Facebook page, defending its finalist selection process following the uproar online and insisting that the author of the year finalists "are determined solely based on titles’ performances on the bestseller lists."
"Some of you have voiced concerns over the selection of finalists from bestseller lists, which you feel are potentially-manipulable indications of the success of a title. We can take this into consideration going forward, but cannot change our procedure for selecting finalists after the fact," the organization said in the letter.
The CBC letter goes on to say the kids, who will start voting next week, ultimately decide which author wins in each of the six categories, including best author. The letter goes on to assure that the organization has a procedure in place to protect against fraud and adult's voting in the contest.
"This program has never been about CBC or ECAR endorsing finalists," the letter says.
Limbaugh touted the apparent success of his book series on his radio program on Thursday.
"We just found out last night that on the New York Times Best-Seller List of March the 30th, ‘Rush Revere and the First Patriots’ will open at number one, and ‘Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims’ moves up to number four," said, according to a transcript of the audio.
Limbaugh’s book landed at the number-5 spot on the New York Times best seller’s list for the week of March 23.
CNN's Dana Davidsen contributed to this report.
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For the record, it was not Sandra Fluke's support of women's "access to birth control", it was her insistence that a Catholic university provide it with $0 co-payment by the insured. Big difference.
Nathan's right... there's nothing in the book controversial. My son, who is almost 11, loves this book and has learned so much. Only the liberal ideologues, who haven't actually read the book, will ban it and the awesome historical content and entertaining method of communicating historical facts to children simply because it was written by Limbaugh – and that would be typical, hypocritical liberalism.
"...often expresses controversial sentiments on his radio program..."
Or what used to be referred to as "factual information" prior to the era of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid Democrats.
Finally our children get a fun, informative book about America's historical figures. Keep them coming Rush! I plan on buying all of them. I already have his first two.for my grandkids to read and myself.
canofsand
Rush didn't call Fluke those things – he JOKED that she was those things because she gave a ridiculous dollar figure to the amount of birth control she needed per year, something well beyond what birth control really costs. ...... ... ...
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That's rich. Rush didn't say it, he joked it? Thanks, for the chuckle. SMH.
Well, how come he forgot to laugh? Couldn't be because he was sounding pretty irate and indignate when he said it, could it?
MV
For the record, it was not Sandra Fluke's support of women's "access to birth control", it was her insistence that a Catholic university provide it with $0 co-payment by the insured. Big difference.
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They had been doing it for decades prior to the passing of the ACA. No difference.
She did not testify re access to, but rather demanded that someone else pay for it.
Also left out is that Limbaugh apologized for the statements and clarified his intent for speaking out, none of which is reported in the article. I thought reporters and editors are supposed to make sure the public is presented with the facts, not opinions of the writer?
'...."I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress," he wrote, but he added: "I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.....(followed by an apology for the personal attack...)."
As usual, the press slants an article to make someone on the right sound as bad a possible. Limbaugh didn't call Sandra Fluke a slut and prostitute for "supporting women's access to birth control." He called her those things because she inferred she had sex so much that she spent quite a bit of money on birth control. He was very clear about that, and you know it. And BTW, thwarting the attempt to make someone else pay for your birth control is not the same thing as denying access. Good try, CNN.
If Mr. Limbaugh's is being honest in his pursuit of non-revisionist history books for children, then he has evidently been successful as I have heard no criticism, other than stylistic, of the content. What I have heard seems to be the usual low form of criticism that goes with politics of both sides. Conservatives attend movies and buy records and literature generated by some very extreme progressives that sometimes say some very incendiary things. Are Conservatives more open-minded and inclusive than their Progressive counterparts? I would bet if Limbaugh wins and get's a chance at an acceptance speech the content will deal with history literature, not the political diatribes that one often hears at an Oscar show.
" ... in 2012, he called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" and "prostitute" for her support of women's access to birth control."
Odd you should say that. News reports of the time indicated it had something to do with Fluke's campaign to force a Catholic University to include birth control coverage in their student insurance offerings.
I guess that is a distinction that is likely to be lost on many Americans; especially those who are either too stupid to grasp that Obama's "individual mandate" (or as the IRS calls it "shared individual responsibility provision") is essentially, and at core, fascistic; or who approve of left-fascism in the first place. In other words, most Democrats.
A quick read of the posts here simply CONFIRMS the narrow mindedness and blind anger liberals have for anyone and anything that doesn't fit their agenda. Guaranty NONE of the these posters claiming 1) Rush can't write, 2) revisionist history, and/or 3) marginalizing his book sales – actually read the book.
Then you have the agenda driven writing by CNN. This story about nominees for Children's Book Awards is written by the CNN Political Unit. And it includes this beauty of a statement, "Limbaugh, an outspoken figure in the political world, often expresses controversial sentiments on his radio program." Was the author of "It Takes a Village", who happens to also be an outspoken figure in the political world, considered to often express controversial sentiments??
@Lizzie
TONE, "My child will not read his book i do not care how good the book is racist have no place in my heart."
But you ran out immediately and bought Pres.Obamas books, which where edited by Bill Ayers and sold as fiction.
Hell yes i bought Obama's book heck i will let my child read heather has two moms, or dads over limbaugh's book like i said racist has no place in my heart i scorn people like limbaugh.
A prostitute is a woman who wants to be paid to have sex.
Sandra Fluke wanted the Catholic Church to pay her for her birth control (as opposed to her buying it herself).
That's getting paid to have sex.
He didn't call Sandra Fluke a slut. What he said was, "What do we call someone that we pay to have sex? We call her a prostitute, right? A slut." It was the natural conclusion of a given set of premises.
And somehow that's worse than Obama and Hillary Clinton lying about Benghazi and the murder of Americans. CNN is treating the American people worse than prostitutes.
If only someone sweet from msnbc like shultzie or bashir or baldwin COULD write and did write a children's book – Oh how the left would LOVE that.
Was this "breaking news" on CNN?
Rush is doing a real service in that he offers books portraying real American history. Kids need to know our past. The college age kids are waking up to that fact now and are turning more libertarian as their hunger for independence and real self worth is increasing. No wonder the hard core Obamaite's heads are exploding. All those years indoctrinating kids may go out the window.
I have purchased both books in the audio CD format which I prefer because I spend the bulk of my life behind the wheel . They are an excellently produced item and the fact that they are read by the author makes them that much more enjoyable . It's too bad that the liberals can't get past the fact that Rush put them together.....They might learn something !
The articles does not mention that he sincerely apologize for his inappropriate remarks about Sandra Fluke. Rush can be a hothead, but–unlike those on the left–he does not need to be threatened with loss of his job (since he can't be) in order to apologize when he says something that is clearly wrong.
Since the teaching of history has been corrupted by the modern intellectual class, is nice to see the lies and inaccuracies corrected. What eats at the PC crowd, is the truth of history. In fact what eats at them is the truth in any sense whatsoever
What'a this world coming to? I suppose that next Rand Paul will get a standing O at Berkeley? Oh wait, that was yesterday.
Why is the "left" so utterly threatened by this patriotic American?
This nomination, coupled with the outrage of the left is proof positive of MLK's words: "Right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant". The pendulum is swinging the other way and it will shatter the nonsensical, illogical secular humanistic progressivism that has been attacking everything with a shred of the traditional values and morality that this country was established to allow and protect as outlined in the constitution... and in Rush's book
these fools should just be happy that their kids put down the video games for a second to read a book.
The author said Rush Limbaugh "called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a 'slut' and 'prostitute' for her support of women's access to birth control." No, he called her those names because she said she (a woman in an upper-tier law school) couldn't afford to pay for birth control herself and wanted taxpayers like you and me to pay for it instead. I think he correctly questioned her motives and correctly identified that it was a disingenuous contrived non-issue intended for a political purpose. I disagree with Rush using such offensive words to describe Ms. Fluke and think he made a mistake and deserved some of the resulting blowback. On the other hand, what Ms. Fluke was trying to do is even more offensive. I also strongly suspect the author of this piece has never actually listened to Rush. Rush is generally an entertainer and does not (as leftwingers like to accuse him) engage in hate speech. Actually listen to him sometime and make up your own mind. The issue was not women's access to birth control as this author sensationalizes, but rather who was going to pay for it.