The head of the Republican National Committee and National Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh (and make no mistake, he leads the Republican Party), crossed a line last week when he called Sandra Fluke a slut and prostitute.

Fluke is the Georgetown University third-year law student (not coed, Limbaugh), who went before a committee in Congress to ask that birth control medication be required as a paid-for drug in private insurance plans.

Limbaugh’s segment (here from ABC News), no doubt by now gone viral, went far beyond the bounds of decency and did so in the context of mischaracterizing Fluke’s presentation. The heartening result is a backlash against Limbaugh with the result that, as of Monday noon, eight national advertisers have canceled their sponsorship of his show.

Some, locally those who post on the Amarillo Globe-News comment section, but nationally in many venues, have tried to turn the debate into the substance of the issue: whether private insurers should be forced to provide certain services. Or they have tried to argue against a false issue, claiming that Fluke called for taxpayer support of birth control. The red herring of government-and Fluke-bashing is telling of the people most engaged with the Globe-News. But more telling is that the Amarillo Globe-News, which has had plenty of traffic on its website on this issue, has yet to take a stance against Limbaugh’s vulgar behavior.

The best the Globe-News can do now is Editorial Page Editor John Kanelis’ political analysis that demonstrates that Limbaugh strikes fear in the heart of even presidential candidates and members of Congress. But Kanelis doesn’t call the shots on the editorial pages. His boss, Les Simpson, who is the publisher of the paper and an employee of Morris Communications, sets the tone. And, Morris also owns KGNC-AM, which carries the Limbaugh show in this market.

The controversy has gone on long enough and the out-of-town-owned daily has had plenty of time to pen an editorial condemning Limbaugh. So now one must conclude that the Globe-News’ official editorial stance is that what Limbaugh said doesn’t deserve condemnation. It’s an interesting inconsistency when one looks at posts on the paper’s site to find “slut” among the filtered words on its comment board.

The publisher of The Amarillo Independent has been transparent about political matters and about the Amarillo Globe-News. And the Independent has lost advertising for that. At least we’ve been brave enough to take stands even when we know those ran against the conservative grain of the Texas Panhandle.

But silence on this issue is the Globe-News’ tacit approval that public discourse in the gutter is acceptable.