Rush denies racist statement...sort of

07:23 AM ET 10.13 | Amid a growing chorus of opposition to his interest in buying the St. Louis Rams along with Dave Checketts, the owner of the NHL's St. Louis Blues, radio host Rush Limbaugh addressed the situation during his weekday radio show. Limbaugh focused his Monday remarks on the media, claiming that he's not surprised by the reaction of some journalists and broadcasters. And without specifically mentioning the quote in question, Limbaugh generally denied that he uttered one of the passages that is cited often by those who believe Limbaugh is a racist. Here's the quote, which can be found at multiple web site via a simple Google search, and which Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used in a recent column: "I mean, let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back. I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark." During his Monday show, Limbaugh broadly claimed that 15 hours per week of radio programming covering 21 years had been reviewed. (It's a job that would take more than 16,000 hours, so he apparently has a bunch of employees.) Said Limbaugh, "There is not even an inkling that any words in this quote are accurate." But here's the key -- he never directly denied saying the precise words that Burwell assigned to him.

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