The f-word loses its sting

Michael Smerconish: The f-word loses its sting
2.11.10
By Michael Smerconish - Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News
Daily News Opinion Columnist

SOMEBODY tell George Carlin - I think the list is now down to six. That's my conclusion after reviewing the controversy over the private comment by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

First, the obvious. The word "retard" went out with bell-bottom pants and the Byberry closing. Emanuel should never have used it. But the fact that so much attention has been focused on that word misses a much bigger point - none of the consternation focused on the f-word that preceded it. And that says something about the watered-down impact of Carlin's so-called "seven dirty words."

The Wall Street Journal launched this kerfuffle late last month while reporting on growing friction between some liberal activists and Emanuel. At an August political strategy session, the Journal recounted half a year after the fact, attendees said they planned to air ads critical of Democrats wavering on the president's health care plan, an idea Emanuel dismissed as "f------ retarded."

The fact that the statement only came to light six months later might be attributable to some of Emanuel's political foes' circling the wagons. Even after the Journal report, the comment sat in Internet limbo for a few days.

That is, until ex-Alaska governor Sarah Palin, whose son suffers from Down syndrome, called for Emanuel's firing on her Facebook page.

"Just as we'd be appalled if any public figure of Rahm's stature ever used the 'n-word' or other such inappropriate language," Palin wrote, "Rahm's slur on all God's children with cognitive and developmental disabilities - and the people who love them - is unacceptable, and it's heartbreaking."

From there, Emanuel stuck to the apology playbook. He called Special Olympics CEO Tim Shriver to offer an apology. Then he invited Shriver and others to the White House for a meeting. The two emerged, with Emanuel pledging to "join more than 54,000 people in pledging to end the use of the r-word at www.r-word.org.''

Speaking of playbooks, Rush Limbaugh stuck to his, too. He called the Emanuel-Shriver meeting a "retard summit." You'd think he struck the same heartbreaking "slur" Palin had lamented when he said: "Our politically correct society is acting like some giant insult's taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards."

Indeed, by then, Palin's presence in the debate had dictated the political battle lines. Her political supporters, Limbaugh among them, rallied to her defense. Her opponents, meanwhile, pointed to what seems like hypocrisy in how Alaska's former chief executive treated Emanuel and Limbaugh.

A Palin spokeswoman responded to Limbaugh's tirade with a one-line statement, saying that "crude and demeaning name-calling at the expense of others is disrespectful." Over the weekend, Palin said she agreed with Limbaugh, whom she insisted was using satire to make a point.

"I didn't hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people whom he did not agree with 'f-ing retards,' and we did know that Rahm Emanuel, as has been reported, did say that. There is a big difference there," she said.

She's right. There is a difference. All that consternation over the r-word excuses Emanuel's other offense - dropping the f-bomb as the White House chief of staff. It says something about us that no one has come forward to make an issue of that part of his speech.

Maybe our indifference is a result of Emanuel's well-earned reputation as having a foul mouth. It's true that his "patented" expletives should be decried as below the office he serves. Instead, they've long been dismissed with the political equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders.

Or maybe we're all watching too much TV.

In 2008, an organization called the Parents Television Council analyzed all prime-time non-sports and news programming on the major networks from 1998 to 2007. Almost 11,000 curses found their way into such programming in 2007, the council reported, double the number of 1998.

WORSE, more than 1,100 of those were the f-word - up from a single use in 1998. It was aired on 96 different shows during the 8 p.m. hour alone.

The f-bomb may work for "Jersey Shore." I'm surprised it no longer raises eyebrows on Pennsylvania Avenue. In 1972, it made George Carlin's list of the seven dirty words never to be uttered on TV. But if the White House chief of staff can say it without any outrage in a public setting - public enough to pull 311,000 results by my Monday-night Google count - then clearly the list should be reduced to six.

Which is f-ing ridiculous.

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.smerconish.com.