The President’s call came back-to-back with Rush Limbaugh’s demand that in exchange of the free contraception provided by employers Sandra should release tapes of her having sex. The President’s call came while Fluke was due to appear on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports show.
Sandra later reported in reference to the President’s phone call, “He encouraged me and supported me and thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women … What was really personal for me was that he said to tell my parents that they should be proud. And that meant a lot because Rush Limbaugh questioned whether or not my family would be proud of me. So I just appreciated that very much.”
Later in the day, Press Secretary Jay Carney explained the reasoning behind the President’s call: Carney said Obama felt that, “the kinds of personal attacks that have been directed her way have been inappropriate.”
Carney further added that it was the President’s view, “The fact that our political discourse has been debased in many ways is bad enough … It’s even worse when it is directed at a private citizen who is simply expressing her views about public policy.”
Carney further affirmed that the call had been made by the President from the Oval Office, and was the reason for Friday’s press briefing to be delayed more than an hour.
In reaction to President Obama’s call to Sandra Fluke, Limbaugh reacted by expressing during his program in reference to the phone call and that the President had said Fluke’s parents should be proud of her. Limbaugh expressed, “I’d be embarrassed … I’d disconnect the phone. I’d go into hiding.”
While contraception law is a debate over public policy and each citizen has the right to hold his or her opinion as also to express them, we believe such expressions, when made in the public, and through media channels, should be within bounds of propriety, and should not lead to the kind of verbal and derogatory attacks Sandra Fluke suffered.
And this is without taking sides either for or against the proposed government policy. But just speaking on the incident of what we consider as bullying a private citizen by exercising media power.