North Texans outraged over Limbaugh remarks

Radio host said Michael J. Fox was 'acting'


04:19 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 25, 2006

By DEBBIE DENMON / WFAA-TV


PLANO — Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is no stranger to controversy. But his comments about Michael J. Fox have some North Texans fuming.

Fox — who suffers from Parkinson's disease — appeared in a political ad encouraging Missouri voters to support a stem cell research measure. It showed him rocking and twitching.

Limbaugh said Fox was faking.

"This is really shamless folks, this is really shameless of Michael J. Fox," Limbaugh said. "Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting. One of the two."

Gayle Kirby is the treasurer of the Dallas-area Parkinsonism Group.

"Rush Limbaugh doesn't know his oxycontin from a hole in the wall," Kirby said. "What a bunch of crap."

Kirby spent most of Wednesday reading e-mails responding to Limbaugh's comments. She also spent time in a web chatroom to tell Limbaugh his accusations about Fox were wrong.

"Wehat I said before is, it's like saying a person with cancer is faking it because they lost their hair," Kirby said. "There's no logic to it."

For the last six years, Kirby has watched her husband, Kevin, suffer from Parkinson's. His tremors and twitches are not as severe as Fox's.

Kirby emailed everyone she knows to boycott advertisers of the Limbaugh show, and she took it a step further.

"We've been Republicans, dyed in the wool, forever, and we didn't vote Republican at all this time," Kirby said.

Limbaugh has since apologized for his remarks. But the Kirbys say the damage is done.

E-mail ddenmon@wfaa.com.