Whether you agree or disagree with his position, his word choice should be the only thing he need apologize for. He is entitled to his political views, whether they are right or wrong.
If you publicly call someone a prostitute, apologizing for your choice of words is not enough. You have slandered that person (or libelled - I still don't know the difference) and choosing "nicer" words doesn't change that.
It would be slander, since it was verbal. And, no, I think it likely would not qualify as slander.
But let me clarify: When I say that he should have chosen his words more carefully, but that he is entitled to his political views on the subject, I don't mean to say that he is entitled to publicly take the position that she, individually, is a prostitute but should just say it in nicer terms. That wasn't what I meant at all. I meant that he is entitled to his views on contraception as a whole, and I think it is fine that he singled her our as an example since she chose to hold herself out as a spokesperson, he should have been much more careful to not single her out individually and personally attack her at all. He can still have strong views on the subject without referring to people as prostitutes in the first place.
And Rush didn't even apologize for what he was saying, he just apologized for his word choice.
Whether you agree or disagree with his position, his word choice should be the only thing he need apologize for. He is entitled to his political views, whether they are right or wrong.
So, if he used different words to tell an audience of up to 25 million listeners that a woman should film herself having sex for everyone to watch it then it wouldn't be a big deal? Bosk, really? I agree with what you're articulating here, that he's entitled to his political views, but come on man, it was a lot more than a poor choice of words. What he said was offensive.
Yeah, see above. If that's what you thought I was saying, I did a poor job of stating my position. Hopefully, it's more clear now. Like the "prostitute" comment, this specific part was also way out of line. Again, when I say he is entitled to his views, I am more talking about his broad views on contraception. Hopefully, that is more clear now. You're right--it is about more than just the word choice. I wasn't really looking at it as more than a word-choice issue when I first posted that, but you're right.