RUSH: Well, according to social media, you know what the big news is today? The big news is the mistreatment of American skier Bode Miller by an NBC infobabe named Christin Cooper, who herself used to be an American skier. Well, she still skis. I guess she was an Olympian. Anyway, she just bore in there. She just kept boring in and boring in, and Bode Miller broke down and collapsed in tears.
She was asking him about the death of his younger brother, yeah, and she just wouldn’t let it go. He was on the verge of apparently providing some real insight into his victory, and she kept boring in on the death of his brother. He just collapsed, and social media is outraged. It’s the big news. If you go to the New York Post and the New York Daily News websites, that’s the number one story, headlines all across your computer monitor, from left to right. That’s it. That is the big news.
There’s also secondary big news. Did you see where the US Olympic hockey team once again beat the Russians? Now, this was not a bunch of amateur kids this time on our team. These were professionals. It was an exciting game. It was on Saturday morning and it was a real nail-biter. It happened in a shoot-out. It didn’t mean anything. It was a seeding match. There was no medal at stake here. It had nothing to do with medals. Well, it was just a great overtime shoot-out victory. (interruption) No, I don’t know what happened. All I know is the media was just going nuts over this.
In fact, the media might even be hailing it as bigger than the Miracle on Ice in 1980 if they can be sure that there may be some gay players on our team. If they could find some gay players on this hockey team, do you know how much bigger this would end up being than 1980 was? I don’t know that there are, and it doesn’t matter to me. I’m just telling you, if the media found out about it, if there are and the media found out about it, can you imagine? This would be bigger than 1980.
I’ve also been fascinated over something else. On Friday right before the program started, the Ted Wells report came out on what went on in the Miami Dolphins locker room. Richie Incognito, offensive lineman John Jerry, center Mike Pouncey and an offensive line coach were just lambasted left and right for their mistreatment of Jonathan Martin and an assistant trainer. I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen now, folks. You can make book on the fact that there will be seminars that the NFL players, every team will have to conduct sensitivity training, workplace behavior seminars. Obviously with Michael Sam joining the league, there will now be seminars on how to interact with and speak and not to speak and what say, what not to say, to gay players.
They are going to start treating the NFL locker room like they would any other level of business. And it’s fascinating. One thing that I noticed in the case of the Dolphins, even as we sit here today, not one Dolphins player is ripping Richie Incognito. Not one Dolphins player is ripping John Jerry. Not one. Even after the report, after the report has come out, the perps are all being defended, everybody in that locker room, every player is defending every perp. Yeah, I can explain it. They think that Martin’s a snitch. And he didn’t snitch, at the time. He snitched afterwards. But they think he’s a snitch. They think he’s weak.
I’ll tell you what it boils down to. What it boils down to is the players in that locker room think that Jonathan Martin’s weak and there’s no place for weakness in the NFL, pure and simple, if you want to boil it down to its essence. A sportswriter in Miami, Dan Le Batard, has a column, he’s kind of surprised. He says, you know, you and I look at this one way, but it’s a different world in that locker room, and these guys, they don’t care what we think, and as far as they’re concerned, Incognito and these other guys, nothing wrong with what they did. The problem in our locker room was this Martin guy. He was weak and then he ended up snitching.
There are people wringing their hands, “My God, we can’t believe this,” because the media wants everybody now to be dumping on Incognito and these players. But the players, there hasn’t been one player that’s ripped into Incognito. In fact, Vernon Davis, the tight end for the San Francisco Fort’iners, has come out and defended Incognito. He said this is the kind of guy we want on our team.
So you can make book on the fact that there are going to be, in every NFL locker room, sensitivity training sessions. You name it, they’re gonna have ’em. Sensitivity training. There will be sexual orientation seminars because Michael Sam is coming out. There will be respecting your fellow human beings seminars. There will be “don’t pick up the soap” seminars. There will be don’t make jokes at people’s expense seminars. There will be don’t hurt anybody’s feelings seminars. You know this is gonna happen and the league is gonna make a huge big deal about it.
The seminars are gonna be done in private, but the league’s gonna make a big deal out of the fact that they’ve done them and are. Players may privately laugh, but the players are gonna have to get in line here. The players are gonna have to fall in on this. (interruption) Well, I don’t know how common the Dolphins culture is in every locker room. I don’t know that what went on in there to that level goes on in every other locker room, but the league is gonna do its best to rework and redefine the culture of an NFL locker room. It’s a major corporation. They’re gonna think they have to do it for public relations.
Let me tell you something. If the biggest news of the day is a skier being brought to tears in an interview and the public is angry at the interviewer — and, by the way, folks, how many times has the press not let something go in the aftermath of a disaster? You know, somebody’s died in a car wreck and here comes the surviving member of the family and the press bores in, tries to get in the house, ask questions, how many times have you gotten mad at the media for that? I’m just going to tell you where the trend is headed here. It isn’t any big deal. I mean, it’s just what it is.
Let me tell you something. Folks, you’re just gonna have to listen here with an open mind. In the Miami Dolphins locker room the players have a fine book. The players fine themselves for committing transgressions, and being arrested or investigated by the FBI will get you fined less than if you let go a stinky fart. I kid you not. Or maybe it’s the same. I kid you not. (laughing) So the NFL’s gonna be tackling this. I can’t wait to see it, actually. (laughing) I’m not making it up. And the media said that stinky fart fine’s gonna survive. That’s the kind of stuff that’ll survive, and rookies having to sing their alma mater fight song for veterans. That’ll survive, but this harassing of other players, that’s gonna go, it’s gonna go, it can’t survive, it will not be permitted. Stinky fart fines, however, they’re gonna remain. (laughing) Can you imagine in any other workplace, (laughing) Goldman Sachs having an employee fine book with something like that in it? He-he-he-he-he.
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RUSH: Okay, here’s the audio sound bite of the vicious interview. Christin Cooper. This lit up Facebook and Twitter. This is what had the nation outraged. Christin Cooper interviewing the bronze medal winning skier Bode Miller. Here’s how it sounded.
COOPER: Bode, you’re showing so much emotion down here. What’s going through your mind?
MILLER: Um, I mean, a lot, obviously, just a long struggle coming in here and just a tough year. And —
COOPER: I know you wanted to be here with Chilly, really experiencing these games, and how much does it mean to you to come up with a great performance for him and was it for him?
MILLER: Um, I mean — I don’t know if it’s really for him, but I wanted to come here and, I don’t know, I guess make myself proud, but —
COOPER: When you’re looking up in the sky at the start, we see you there, and it just looks like you’re talking to somebody. What’s going on there?
MILLER: (collapses)
COOPER: Aw, sorry, babe.
RUSH: He’s got his head in his hands crying now. The last six seconds of this, he collapses. His head is in his hands crying. He can’t answer. And the infobabe, Christin Cooper, who’s a former skier herself says, “Aw, sorry, babe,” and he keeps crying. And that is what lit up Twitter.
Now, how many of you who did not see that, you only heard my buildup to it, how many of you are now saying, “That was it?” Or do you think that was brutal? He’d already said, “No, I wasn’t doing it for him,” and then she kept hammering him. “Well, no, uh, I mean, I don’t know if it’s really for him, but I wanted to come here, and, I don’t know, I guess make myself proud.” “When you’re looking up at the sky at the start, we see you there, it just looks like you’re talking to somebody. What’s going on there?” Head in his hands, and he cried. And he, Bode Miller, has since tweeted twice to go easy on her. She was just doing her job. Everything’s cool.
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RUSH: So now we move on to cleaning up NFL locker rooms, after the vicious treatment of Bode Miller by Christin Cooper of NBC. “When you’re looking up in the sky, it looked like you were talking to somebody,” and he collapsed. Okay, folks, that’s it. It’s a good thing, ’cause I can’t say anymore about this.
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RUSH: Right there it is in the New York Times: “NBC Pushes Too Far in Bringing Bode Miller to Tears.” After we fix that, we’re gonna move on to the NFL and we’re gonna clean up those locker rooms. I draw a comparison here, ’cause something just struck me. Cookie, it just hit me. I wish this would have hit me during the break so I could have asked Cookie during the break. You know what we need to do?
Cookie, I want you to get the interview that what’s-her-name, Erin Andrews, did with Richard Sherman following the Seahawks victory over the Fort’iners, and I want to play that; do an A-B, side-by-side comparison of Richard Sherman being endorsed by Erin Andrews and Bode Miller being interviewed by Christin Cooper, ’cause I think it’s an interesting comparison.
I’m gonna go ahead and make my point ’cause Cookie will take a while to roll that off. But here you have… Let’s do Richard Sherman. Richard Sherman just essentially made a play that saved a win for the Seahawks against the Fort’iners. He broke up a pass from Colin Kaepernick intended for Michael Crabtree. Right after the game was over, Erin Andrews goes in there and starts asking him about, and Sherman just went off.
As you all remember, he went off on Crabtree, went off on anybody daring to be critical of him and the Seahawks, and it just lit up the country. Sherman, in that case, after that interview, was the athlete who was vilified in social media. Twitter and Facebook lit up, and it was all critical of Richard Sherman. Remember that? In this case, when the athlete cries, it is the interviewer who is vilified. I think it’s a fascinating comparison.
Now, let’s add something to this mix. I mentioned earlier that as I’ve read the report, the Ted Wells report, the 144 pages of what went on in the Dolphins locker room, and made the point that there’s not one player on the Dolphins critical of Richie Incognito or John Jerry or Mike Pounce, the three guys who were engaged in what is called the bullying of Jonathan Martin. The entire Dolphins team — there’s not one exception — supports the bullies. They don’t look at it that way, though.
They don’t look at Incognito and these guys as bullying.
They looked at Martin as weak, and then they looked at him as a snitch.
I’m not saying there’s anything right or wrong. I’m just telling you what happened in the Dolphins locker room. While the country and the league and the media is outraged over what went on in the Dolphins locker room, as far as the Dolphins are concerned, there’s nothing to see here. So there is a huge dividing line. In the locker room, the Dolphins say, “Nothing to see here, man. No big deal.” Outside the locker room, everybody thinks that what went on in there is atrocious, outrageous, mean, extreme, bullying, intolerable.
But the people in the locker room say, “It’s fine and dandy. Nothing to see here. Everything’s cool.” That’s a huge demarcation. Now, here we have an NBC infobabe bringing Bode Miller to tears, and the country is mad at the interviewer. In the Richard Sherman case, it was the athlete who was vilified in social media by the people of the country. It could be argued, now — and I fully expect some of you to have a fit with this.
But it could be argued that the strength and confidence and bravado as exhibited by Richard Sherman was seen as a problem, as not good, as it bad. And Bode Miller being reduced to tears and collapsing in tears is celebrated and defended and then what does that mean? It means that the country might — and I’m just extrapolating here. These are off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts.
It could all mean that the country more easily identifies with victims — or perceived victims — and has sympathy for the victims. Now, I don’t know that Bode Miller is actually a victim. He’s a bronze medal winner in the Olympic gamers, but he’s seen as a victim because of the mean interviewer and her unrelenting tactic of forcing him into tears thinking about his recently deceased brother.
Whereas on the other hand, everybody was worried that Erin Andrews was in a dangerous position that this Sherman guy was out of control and, oh, no, look what could have happen. I just find it a fascinating comparison. I’m studying this stuff, folks. I make note of it. I study it because I do relate this to politics. You know, how do you get people to vote for you? What is it you must do to get them to vote for you, care about you, feel simpatico with you?
That’s why this stuff fascinates me and interests me. I do think it’s the Dolphins locker room. There’s nothing wrong as far as they’re concerned. But outside it, people can’t relate to it. They think it’s horrible, outrageous, mean-spirited. But he players that were in there? “Hey, hey, standard operating procedure, no big deal, nothing to see here.” Bode Miller, reduced to tears? The country hates the interviewer.
Richard Sherman, confident, defiant, “Don’t anybody attack us! You can’t beat us. If you think you can beat us, you’re a fool.” “Richard Sherman is a thug,” and the Twitter and Facebook universe initially lined up against him. Okay, let’s do it. Let’s do the A-B, side-by-side comparison, and let’s do ’em in order. Here’s Richard Sherman, and he’s talking to Erin Andrews. This is January 19th after the Seahawks had beat the San Francisco Fort’iners.
SHERMAN: I’m the best corner in the game! When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree that’s the result you gonna get! Don’t you ever talk about me!
ANDREWS: Who was talking about you?
SHERMAN: Crabtree. Don’t you open your mouth about the best! I’m gonna shut it for you real quick!
RUSH: “Don’t you ever talk about me! Crabtree. Don’t you open your mouth about the best! I’m gonna shut it for you real quick!” Twitter lights up hating the guy. “Wo does he think he is? Now, here’s Christin Cooper talking to Bode Miller.
COOPER: Bode, you’re showing so much emotion down here. What’s going through your mind?
MILLER: Um, I mean, a lot, obviously, just a long struggle coming in here and just a tough year. And —
COOPER: I know you wanted to be here with Chilly, really experiencing these games, and how much does it mean to you to come up with a great performance for him and was it for him?
MILLER: Um, I mean — I don’t know if it’s really for him, but I wanted to come here and, I don’t know, I guess make myself proud, but —
COOPER: When you’re looking up in the sky at the start, we see you there, and it just looks like you’re talking to somebody. What’s going on there?
MILLER: (collapses)
COOPER: Aw, sorry, babe.
RUSH: Now, his head is head in his hands and he’s collapsing while crying. That’s what’s going on. Okay, so there you have it, side by side. The Twitter universe thinks that Christin Cooper is the embodiment of Cruella De Vil, absolutely horrible, rotten to the core, mean-spirited, extremist, insensitive, and all that.
The Richard Sherman interview, they hated Sherman. I guarantee you, you do not see Sherman as a victim. When you listen to Richard Sherman, the last thing you think of is victim. When you listen to Bode Miller, you think, “The poor guy, being victimized. He just won here and this woman is making him cry. It’s horrible. It’s mean.” That’s just interesting to me.
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RUSH: What, me? There is no way. I don’t care what would ever happen, I will never be seen as a victim of anything. Not by the Drive-Bys. Not by the left. Snerdley says, “Hey, if you could make yourself a victim.” Yeah, I couldn’t. If anything bad happens to me, it’s gonna be well deserved, it’s gonna be about time, it’s gonna be long overdue, whatever. There’s no way I could ever be a victim. I wouldn’t want to be a victim. Number one, I’d be embarrassed if I was looked at as a victim. Oh, no. But I couldn’t be anyway. I mean, victimhood is reserved for only certain types. I couldn’t be a victim.
If I cried on national TV, they would laugh and call me weak. They would not call me a victim. They would not be sympathetic. No way. Ain’t gonna happen. I wouldn’t do it anyway. That’s not the point. I’m just making an illustration.