RUSH: I’m gonna start here with Aaron in Pipestone, Minnesota. What a great sounding town. How are you doing, Aaron?
CALLER: Hey, I’m doing well, Rush. Thanks. It’s a pleasure. Really is. I’m a Rush Baby, been listening for a long time.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. I really do.
CALLER: Yeah. Say, you were talking earlier about, you know, hypocrisy with celebrities and the stuff they get by with. I was just thinking. I heard this morning the NFL had named Justin Timberlake as a performer for the Super Bowl this year. You know, they’re gonna lecture us on social justice and stuff and then they, you know, put a guy to do the Super Bowl that — what, was it like 15 years ago — pulled down Janet Jackson’s shirt, something like that?
RUSH: Well, you’re talking about the famous wardrobe malfunction —
CALLER: Yeah. Yeah.
RUSH: — that revealed, I think it was, the nipple of Janet Jackson. Nipplegate. You know it’s interesting the way people see things. You see this as a little bit hypocrisy.
CALLER: Uh-huh.
RUSH: I think it’s white privilege. I mean, think of all the entertainers that they could get. What about Snoop Dogg? Snoop Dogg’s out there singing the praises of the players. He’s rapping. He’s ripping the NFL to shreds, which is what I think… I mean, if you’re gonna support the players sitting down or kneeling during the anthem, go get a guy that’s celebrating the players; that’d be Snoop Dogg. If you don’t want to go Snoop Dogg, go LL Cool J. If you don’t want to go LL Cool J, go get Eminem. But Timberlake? You couldn’t get more white bread, milquetoast, white privilege than that.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: You see it as wardrobe malfunction. You see it as rewarding a guy who engaged… Do you think that was accidental? You sound like you think that was done purposefully.
CALLER: I don’t know. I just heard it this morning and that was kind of what I thought when you were talking about celebrity hypocrisy. It just kind of came to mind. So I don’t know how much of it was planned or not. I was in, I think, middle school or something like that when it happened. So…
RUSH: Were you excited by it?
CALLER: (laughing) I don’t know. I’ve never really watched the halftime show much to be honest. I heard about it later. It was all over the news.
RUSH: Same with me. I didn’t see it live. I heard it after, people raving about it or talking about it. When I saw it, it’s like everything else: When you don’t see it live and then people are raving about it, you think, “Wow! This must be something,” and then you see it. It wasn’t that big a deal. What was it, a split second? If it weren’t for the still-frame shots in the newspapers and on the networks, nobody would have known it. I mean, you notice it, but it didn’t rise to the level of outrage that I had heard attached to it by the time I saw it. But maybe they’re giving him a second chance. You know, the NFL’s a league of second chances and third chances. Do you know…? Do you know this? Let me ask you if you know this, Aaron. Do you know that — and I don’t know if it’s the case with Timberlake. But up until this year, the NFL halftime performers did it with no compensation?
CALLER: Really? I did not know that.
RUSH: The NFL said, “You’re getting exposed here to a worldwide audience you couldn’t buy and you couldn’t get on your own.” They cover expenses, but there has been no payment. Now, the only reason I know that is because some of the performers went public with it as an insult and turned it down. Largely when people turn down a Super Bowl halftime invitation, it’s because there isn’t any compensation for it. Now I think they just don’t want to be seen as slaves — cotton, you know, football pickers — as denoted by the Reverend Jackson.
(interruption) You look like you don’t think I’m right about this. I know… (interruption) Well… (interruption) Oh, many, many, many have turned it down for a host of reasons. But I think the majority of the ones that have turned it down is because… (interruption) I don’t know if this has changed. This may be two- or three-year-old information, but I do know that many… You can’t say it’s universal, but I do know a bunch of people that have been offered the gig have said, “They wanted me to do this for nothing!
“They told me that they’re giving me the biggest audience I’ve ever had and that I ought to be grateful,” and that’s when I found out they don’t pay these people anything, other than the expenses and so forth. (interruption) Yeah, I know. I know. A billion people worldwide watching your performance. But to some people, it’s a principle. Once you give it away, how do you tell the next people no? And that would be easy. “Well, you’re not giving me an audience of a billion people.” Anyway, Aaron, I appreciate the call.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Atlantic City, New Jersey, this is Lena. Great to have you.
CALLER: Hey! Can you hear me, Rush?
RUSH: Yeah. I hear you great.
CALLER: Oh, my. Hey. So this is Elena Turner!
RUSH: It’s Elena Turner, everybody! (clapping) Welcome, Elena Turner. Right? The Elena Turner?
CALLER: (giggles) Yes, the one and only. (giggles)
RUSH: Right on! Right on!
CALLER: So I wanted to call you and refer back to Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, right? I wanted to explain to you a little bit why some people might be freaking out about it. So when I was little — I was born in ’93, so that should explain some — I was actually watching the Super Bowl in church. (giggles) So they had —
RUSH: Wait, wait. Hold it. In the actual sanctuary?
CALLER: Yeah! So, you know, think a modern-day church.
RUSH: It wasn’t in the fellowship hall. It was actually…? Okay, modern-day.
CALLER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
RUSH: Okay. So then the wardrobe malfunction happened while you’re watching it in church. That could not have been good.
CALLER: Yes. I mean, it was a pretty chill setup. Like, we had tables out, we had food, we had kids. Everybody had their hats on, their jerseys. We’re having a good time. We’re watching, you know, and all of a sudden she’s acting… Her boob comes out. It wasn’t a nipple. I don’t know how that got construed. It was her whole boob, and we’re sitting there in shock. It’s just like nobody knew what to do.
RUSH: So are you opposed to Justin Timberlake being invited back now? Is that the…?
CALLER: No. No, no, no. I just wanted to tell you that, like, why some people were, like, kind of freaking out about it. It’s because of the boob. (giggles)
RUSH: Oh. Oh. All right. I appreciate that. I didn’t mean to be flippant about this, that some people… I can imagine if you’re watching the game in church and that happened. Yeah. It’s frightening!