Lukas: This is why you need a sense of humor.

Everyone here knows what Gawker is, right? The Manhattan based, absurdly sarcastic news/gossip/blog site that reports on just about anything it can make fun of. They are decidedly liberal. Which is why it's all the more amusing to hear Rush Limbaugh declare his admiration:



Okay, so let's ignore the gay thing, 'cause although there's nothing explicitly gay about Gawker their extensive coverage of anything on Bravo can easily leave that impression. No, what I find amusing here is the way Rush uses their coverage. You don't get much context here, but as someone who grew up listening to Limbaugh until about the age of 15, I can guess: Rush was ranting about how Obama hasn't done anything to the economy, and so he decides to point to a liberal blog that says the economy is bad, ergo Rush is triumphant because he found a liberal blog that says Obama is bad. This is pretty much par for the course.

And you know what? I think it's time that we ignore him. But not just Rush: ignore Glenn Beck, ignore Sean Hannity, ignore Michelle Malkin, ignore just about any conservative talking head that gets you angry. Why? Because these people don't matter. Here's why.

Fox likes to flaunt that they're the #1 cable network for news, with a SKY HIGH primetime viewership of 3 million. This may seem like a lot, but consider this: 122 million people voted in the 2008 presidential election. Put another way, Fox News speaks to a mere 2.5% of the electorate, and this is assuming everyone who watches them votes. Yes, it's more than CNN or MSNBC, but the people watching those networks are news addicts with too much time on their hands or gay men hoping that one day Anderson Cooper is going to take his shirt off during a broadcast (yeah, that may just be me).

It's time we stop making such a big deal when someone at Fox says something wrong. It's a waste of our energy, and it just gives them more attention (haven't you ever felt like Fox was the weird loud kid in class that would do anything for attention?). I grew up in the Midwest in a family who's primary source of news is Fox. The Thoms' consider it the only reliable source of information. Which is to say, anything bad you have to say about Fox is nothing more than rhetorical masturbation, because you're not going to convince anyone to stop watching it. Fox's audience is either one 1) so ideologically hard-nosed that they'll ignore anything you say because you voted for Obama, or 2) too old to know how to use Google, let alone find and comprehend your 200 part blog post on why Bill O'Reilly is a hack.

So do yourself a favor: the next time Glenn Beck starts telling people not to get the flu vaccine, or Lou Dobbs claims that Mexicans are everything that's wrong with America, take a deep breath, think of happier things like unicorns and gay pride parades, and let it go. These crazies don't matter. If you can learn to stop listening and actually do something productive - say, canvassing the neighborhood for your favorite electoral candidate - everyone is going to be better off. Except Rush Limbaugh.