Rush Limbaugh (Getty Images)

Conservative radio talker Rush Limbaugh has issued an apology for the incendiary comments he made on his radio show earlier this week regarding Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke. Mr. Limbaugh drew fire for remarks implying Ms. Fluke was a "slut" and for stating that if Ms. Fluke felt taxypayers should fund contraception via President Barack Obama's healthcare measures, "and thus pay for you to have sex," she should "post the videos online so we can all watch."

Mr. Limbaugh's words drew immediate fire from the left. His commentary also led some advertisers to withdraw their spots from his nationally-syndicated radio show.

Today, in a post on his website, Mr. Limbaugh apologized--for "insulting word choices." His full statement:

For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.

I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit?In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone's bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level.

My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.

Reddit alien

After enormous pressure from competing sites as well as the media, Reddit has instituted what administrators of the 800-lb gorilla of link aggregation call "A necessary change in policy" regarding sexual images of children:

As of today, we have banned all subreddits that focus on sexualization of children. Our goal is to be fair and consistent, so if you find a subreddit we may have missed, please message the admins. If you find specific content that meets this definition please message the moderators of the subreddit, and the admins.

The statement goes on to acknowledge that many Redditors might see the new policy as a "slippery slope" which might lead to "banning other types of content," but concludes that "child pornography is a toxic and unique case for Internet communities, and we're protecting reddit's ability to operate by removing this threat."

This comes after comedy website and forum SomethingAwful.com published a popular message thread urging the site's large and devoted user base to inform as many media outlets and civic bodies as possible that "children are using a website that exploits and sexualizes children, requesting that children submit their own nude photos." The SomethingAwful user who began the thread dubbed the effort a "Redditbomb." A 2-year-old article on a science site suggesting that legalizing child pornography might "lower rates of child abuse" was on the front page of Reddit today as well.

Sites that arguably compete with Reddit for eyeballs on the Web are not alone in criticizing the prevalence of "subreddits" that promote links to sexualized images of minors. Gawker has frequently taken note of the problem and in September of last year Anderson Cooper aired an extended segment on the issue. (See video.)

Reddit's new policy--as stated--appears to be the site administrators' most aggressive effort to address the issue so far.

Anderson Cooper Accuses Reddit Of Spreading Child Pornography - YouTube.

[Reddit]

Romenesko got his hands on a memo that NPR president and CEO Vivian Schiller sent out to her staff Thursday morning which said the company is still conducting its planned review of the firing. NPR has commissioned the attorneys at the Weil Firm for its post mortem on Williams' ouster. Schiller said the laywers "had been asked to work quickly," but thoroughly and that it was too early to report on their findings. 

"It would be premature to anticipate what form their report will take or what parts might be made public at this time," Schiller wrote. 

The trouble started when Williams told Fox host Bill O'Reilly that he is fearful of "people who are in Muslim garb."

"I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot," Williams said. "You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

The day after he was fired from NPR, Williams joined Fox News as a full-time contributor.