A number of readers have asked where they can write with complaints about Rush Limbaugh’s repeated use of the word “retard” on his national radio broadcast last week. (The full transcript is here.)

Here are some possibilities: You may contact the company that syndicates the program; the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which grants permission for the show to be heard on the nation’s airwaves; or the show itself.

The company that syndicates the program is Premiere Radio Networks, Inc., which is a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel’s corporate headquarters is listed as:

Clear Channel
200 East Basse Road
San Antonio, TX 78209
Phone: 1-210-822-2828
Contact info for president and CEO Mark P. Mays:
MarkPMays@clearchannel.com

The Federal Communications Commission’s chairman is Julius Genachowski. You can email him by clicking here, and file a complaint here.

The Rush Limbaugh Show can be contacted as follows:

Phone: 800-282-2882
E-mail: elrushbo@eibnet.com
Fax: 212-445-3963

Or write to:
The Rush Limbaugh Show
1270 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

(Many thanks to Laurie for the Limbaugh contact info!)

UPDATE. A reader writes with another suggestion: Contact Limbaugh’s advertisers.

Video from NBC’s Saturday Night Live. (Warning: Offensive language is bleeped out, but is still obvious.)

Comic Andy Samberg, playing White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, offered an “even-tempered apology” to Americans for his use of the term “f–ing retarded” to describe liberal Democrats in a strategy session. The apology started out quietly, then quickly turned into an expletive-laden rampage. An excerpt:

As for the progressive Democrats whom I used the term in reference to, I should never have called you that. What I should have called you are [bleeping] babies, stupid [bleeping] babies who can’t keep their mouths shut.

You went to the Wall Street Journal with this, you [bleeping] turncoats?! The Wall Street Journal? I’m trying to get [bleep] done here. And I know we’re not moving as fast as you want on health care, but maybe you’ve noticed the Republicans are trying to paint us as Soviet crack dealers.

Offering “humblest apologies” in response to criticism by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin on Facebook, Samberg said:

Here’s a status update: grow the [bleep] up! Poke me again and I will write [bleep] on your wall so obscene your computer will cry.

Go back to the [bleeping] tundra, you [bleeping] gimmick!

From Politicsdaily.com, Miami Herald:

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Sarah Palin withdrew her earlier mild criticism of Rush Limbaugh’s repeated use of the word ‘retard’ on his nationally syndicated radio show last week. She said she found his remarks “hysterical” and characterized them as “satire.”

In response to earlier questioning about Limbaugh’s broadcast, a Palin spokeswoman had issued a statement criticizing “crude and demeaning name-calling at the expense of others,” but then said her statement was not specifically meant to describe Limbaugh. (On his website, Limbaugh said the spokeswoman called his office “in a sort of a panic” to make clear that Palin was not criticizing Limbaugh.)

Here’s a partial transcript of Palin’s conversation with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, courtesy of politicsdaily.com:

WALLACE: … Rush Limbaugh weighed in this week and he said this, “Our politically correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards ‘retards.’”

PALIN: He was hysterical in that.

WALLACE: Wait, let me finish. “I mean…”

PALIN: OK.

WALLACE: “… these people, these liberal activists, are kooks.” Should Rush Limbaugh apologize?

PALIN: They are kooks, so I agree with Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh was using satire to bring attention to what this politically correct…

WALLACE: But he used the “R” word.

PALIN: Using satire. Name-calling by anyone — I teach this to my children. You teach it to your children and your grandchildren, too. Name-calling by anyone — it’s just unnecessary. It just wastes time. Let’s speak to the issues and, again, let’s move on.

WALLACE: But you know what some people are going to say, Governor, and have said? They say, “Look, when it’s her political adversary, Rahm Emanuel, she’s going to call him out. ‘He’s indecent, apologize.’ But when it’s a political friend like Rush Limbaugh, ‘Oh, it’s satire.’”

PALIN: 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 — it’s been reported — did say that. There’s a big difference there.

But again, name-calling, using language that is insensitive, by anyone — male, female, Republican, Democrat — it’s unnecessary. It’s inappropriate. And let’s all just grow up.

In a letter signed by CEO Peter V. Berns, the Arc of the United States has invited talk show host Rush Limbaugh to meet personally with a group of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their parents and siblings to discuss his repeated use of the word “retard” on a recent radio broadcast.

An excerpt:

Self-advocates, parents, disability rights activists and others are rightly concerned that your comments simply serve to further degrade and denigrate the 7 million individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities who struggle on a daily basis to be included in society.

… I cannot understate the effect of a word many consider an epithet –- it is deeply offensive to people that are living with intellectual disabilities, and the tens of millions of their parents, siblings, family members and friends. It is a harsh reminder of the institutionalization, sterilization, abuse, discrimination, violence and exclusion they have faced, and continue to face, as they merely seek to live typical lives.

A mind so different, by Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal. An excerpt:

The story of Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism at age 4 and in time a symbol of hope for the afflicted, has made its way to the screen with spellbinding results.

… there is Claire Danes in the title role, prime cause of the spell that binds all elements of this saga—everything that’s moving, daunting, heroic, and strange beyond comprehension. And she does this in a performance so remarkable that it seems, itself, to border on the incomprehensible. So completely does she capture her subject’s hard-learned speech, the genderless stride, the flashes of terror and brilliance and, occasionally, radiant joy, that it’s impossible to find a trace of the actor beneath.

By Hank Stuever in the Washington Post:

“Temple Grandin” is at once inventive, emotional, funny and determinedly precise about what it means to say. It moves backward, forward and sideways through Temple’s life story, unafraid to tinker with concepts of chronology and meaning as it creates its own visual language to depict the world through an autistic prism. It raises awareness and respect without insisting that you wear the rubber cause bracelet; it is that very rare made-for-TV movie that can be sappy without overserving the sap.

Jonathan Storm in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

It’s a performance that has “Emmy” written all over it.

Mark A. Perigard in the Boston Herald: Claire Danes shines as Temple Grandin in HBO’s poignant ‘Temple Grandin’

Alex Strachan in the Montreal Gazette: Beautiful film about a beautiful mind

Mark Dawidziak in the Cleveland Plain Dealer TV blog: Claire Danes dazzles in movie about autism advocate

Neal Justin in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Great Danes; Actress’ career gets back in the saddle with an Emmy-worthy performance

From the Charleston, SC, Post and Courier:

Four universities in South Carolina are now offering courses of study for students with intellectual disabilities. The programs allow students to enroll in some mainstream college classes, and will offer some separate independent living and vocational classes.

Proponents of on-campus programs for students with intellectual disabilities say they help disabled students learn to function better in the world and traditional students to learn more about people with disabilities.

… Les Sternberg, dean of USC’s College of Education who has a background in special education, said, “I’m a cheerleader for this kind of stuff.”

“Everything that’s offered to the non-disabled student should be offered to the disabled as well,” Sternberg said. “Not only is it the right thing to do, it helps students become more employable.”

See also:

College of Charleston launches ‘Realizing Educational and Career Hopes (REACH) Program’ — Charleston and the Lowcountry News

Students with Down syndrome get a taste of college life – Community College Week

Here’s the text of Tim Shriver’s letter inviting Rush Limbaugh to join the campaign to end the use of the words “retard” and “retarded” as epithets. The letter from the Special Olympics chairman follows a national radio broadcast in which Limbaugh repeatedly used the word “retard”, and referred to the President’s meeting with disability advocates as a “retard summit.” An excerpt:

People with intellectual disabilities – the largest group of people with disabilities in the world – have suffered generations of discrimination and humiliation. In the 21st century, they, together with their families and friends, are continuing their battle for the simplest form of justice: the justice that comes with a recognition of their full humanity. In their eyes and in the hearts of millions of others who love and care about them, language is important. So together, we have chosen to try to sensitize others to the pervasive but often ignored prejudice they suffer by asking for a change of language and a change of heart.

For you or for anyone else to mock those who strive, often against long odds, for the recognition and respect they deserve, seems gratuitously hurtful and degrading.