Yeah, It's the Media that Harms Limbaugh, Not his Constant Falsities and Misrepresentations

Rush Limbaugh never said anything racist? His comments about Donovan McNabb were not at all racist, just good old common sense? Maybe not racist, but they were not very sensible, either. The fact is, plenty of black quarterbacks have been hammered by the media. And the reason McNabb has not been quite as hammered, is probably because he is extremely polite, and has been hammered by the Philly fans, ever since he was first introduced as the Eagles top draft choice. And he's also not on an elite level, but he's a pretty good quarterback, and always has been. (The media must constantly hammer onetime superstar Terrell Owens, nearly beyond belief, because "he's black and they want him to fail"?)

One from the vault -- another -- how do we put this nicely?? um, "genius" (yeah, that'll work), who doesn't seem to know jack squat about football but cites off a bunch of stats that he knows nothing about, to prove that Limbaugh was right that McNabb is just a bad quarterback and the media loves him because he is black!

Mathias Kawinuka is among those NFL players who say they would not play for the Rams if Limbaugh became an owner.

Limbaugh has a right to try and buy a team, and NFL players have the right to voice their opinions. Frankly, given the many extreme, often bigoted and even more often, wildly inaccurate comments that Limbaugh has made -- and not the ones allegedly discredited in this post linked above, and not to mention his miserable and short lived ESPN experience -- this seems like a rather well reasoned position.

What Limbaugh does, and apparently Ed Driscoll and InstaBS miss this, is that he makes something up that is wildly off the mark -- sometimes a hypothetical, sometimes declared as fact, and the bases almost his entire argument off of it.

One usually does not need to listen to Limbaugh for more than few minutes, often only a few seconds, before he does this. But to a far right audience, led by belief, this slips right on by. But then, this blog has documented other examples where things that might mess up a rigidly partisan, and often far right, orientation, slip right on by InstaBS.

Here is a clip of Limbaugh's rather ridiculous statement that "In Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up, with the black kids cheering." (The particular statement that Mathias Kiwanuka, noted above, wasn't all that down with).

But that's not the really problematic statement; at least it's kind of funny, if in poor taste and likely racist. The real problem statement, the one that routinely gets missed, and the types of statements that Limbaugh utters constantly in order to pull the BS that he pulls and have it go right by so many otherwise well meaning folk, is about 17 seconds in:

Everyone is saying, oh, the white kid deserved it, he was born a racist, he is
white.

No, everyone is not saying this. And in fact, most people are not. And anybody who is, is pretty out there. But then Limbaugh, in his very next statement, utters another falsity, in "support" of his prior inanity:

Newsweek magazine told us this.

In fact, if one listens carefully to what Limbaugh then says next, with respect to what Newsweek magazine said (exaggerating even that part as well), Newsweek magazine did not say anything of the sort.

But then, those that listen to Limbaugh, don't seem to listen too carefully.

All of this is in the first 25 seconds. And it is routine for Limbaugh: If the Olympics were for BS, rather than, say, sports, all Americans could once again be proud of Rush, as he would assuredly shatter Michael Phelps record of eight golds in one year.

Pull out any tape of any show, and this is what Limbaugh does, constantly. It is a disgrace to logic, and fact. But his audience does not want to be shown this; it's easier to just point fingers at those who "criticize" Limbaugh. But the fact is, Limbaugh is not really being "criticized;" it is simply being pointed out that Limbaugh is one of the most misleading, and manipulative, voices in America. And it would take an opposition with about one fourth his rhetorical skill about two days to make the case so effectively that Limbaugh's audience would essentially shrivel up to a few far right zealots. But Limbaugh's staunchest opposition, doesn't know how to make the case to outside of its own choir.

Meanwhile, inane pundits like David Brooks engage in logic that is almost as bad, in order to try and downplay Limbaugh's vast influence.

It's a wonder we have intelligent conversation in this country for our national discourse, and debate.

Oh, yeah. That's right. We don't anymore.

The Wall Street Journal's John Fund is to Political and Media Objectivity, what Sarah Palin is to Serving out Full Terms as Governor

The chasm between prematurely ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's rhetoric, and reality, is so large given her status as one of the GOP frontrunners, that it is frightening.

Below is an example of precisely the type of media that Palin does not viciously condemn; does not blatantly mislead about; does not frighteningly misunderstand the entire purpose of and premise behind; and which, irony of ironies, is precisely what Palin likely envisions when she nevertheless speaks of something entirely disparate, about that very same media itself.

That is, media not doing its job, and not serving as an independent, objective, fourth estate check upon power and the powerful, upon government, upon groupthink run amuck, and upon misrepresentation and untruth, but rather a media that says what Palin wants to hear, in the way that she wants to hear it. In other words, exactly what defines a state run media in non democratic regimes.

The scary thing is Palin, and her followers -- like the Wall Street Journal's Fund -- do not seem to see the extraordinarily ignorant hypocrisy in Palin's statements, including this one - a statement that here Fund promotes as if it were quite reasonable, coming from Palin:

Ms. Palin appeared liberated by leaving office and used blunt words to take her media critics down a peg. “You represent what could and should be a respected, honest profession that could and should be a cornerstone of our democracy,” she said. “Democracy depends on you, and that is why -- that’s why our troops are willing to die for you. So how about in honor of the American soldier, you quit makin’ things up.”

She didn’t stop there. “One other thing for the media, our new governor has a very nice family, too, so leave his kids alone,” she told the enthusiastic crowd gathered at a picnic grounds in Fairbanks. Ms. Palin will no doubt have a future as a stump speaker and political commentator in the lower 48, and her media critique certainly will find receptive audiences.

For just the tip of the iceberg -- but enough to objectively (something that Fund routinely appears on the road to being incapable of doing) establish a bit of the case above, see this piece with respect to Palin's statement to the media to "quit making things up."

Perhaps Fund should read it. Along with a bit more in regard to the actual facts, the actual media coverage of Palin, and the rhetoric that Palin has repeatedly used. (It is almost like while the rest of us are composed of flesh and blood -- most of us anyway -- or, alternatively, a few key atoms in various combinations, Palin is composed of something entirely different: Pure, unadulterated rhetoric. It is like in the science fiction movies where "it" is not a being, but a pure energy field -- except Palin is instead a pure rhetoric field. )

It works, of course, because in that same media itself -- including those, like Fund, who might be about as politically (and journalistically) objective as as Fox guarding a hen house is on reporting about a missing hen -- are those who buy it.

Yet It is rhetoric like Palin's, and the sheep like mentality that does not look behind it at the facts, that has changed the nature (and, ultimately and quite ironically given Palin's constant yammering to the contrary, the freedom) of every once great nation or society the world has ever seen.

Fund, as an allegedly independent journalist, is a bit of a cheerleader for it, without even knowing it. Fund's bs meter is not only broken; so long as it meets his political orientations, he's got a bs feeder, which apparently sniffs it out and promotes it.

And then, of course, there are some others, such as conservative columnist Katherine Parker, who seems to want to like Palin, but nevertheless, aptly penned perhaps the most applicable line about Palin yet put to print.

Yet Parker is either not very objective; or, perhaps more likely, not excessively knowledgeable with respect to all the facts. And was "relieved" at Palin's vice presidential debate performance, and praised it -- as apparently, truthfulness, or again, knowledge, was not relevant to Parker's assessment (or again, more likely, unknown to her.) Yet contrast the absurd standard that Parker starts with; "What did they do with the other Sarah Palin? I mean the one who bases foreign policy experience on the proximity of Russia to Alaska" with this from the link just cited:

Most media outlets [etc.] repeated the [idea] that ...Palin “exceeded” expectations...and that there were no real gaffes. ...[And] there were no gaffes:...by the standard which expected Sarah Palin to be incapable of uttering a coherent sentence. But let’s apply a different standard, one which some might have the temerity to suggest is more applicable to the actual situation: That is, what might be expected and required of .... someone who's the right arm to, and a heartbeat away from, the most important job in the world.

Contrast that idea,with Parker's positive assessment of Palin's debate performance, because Palin did not (once again) say that she had relevant foreign policy experience because "Alaska is close to Russia." ("Close to" hundreds of hundreds of miles of some of the most barren, desolate, largely uninhabited tundra on earth, and further away from Moscow than Washington, D.C, is from London.)

And then Parker had this to say about Palin:

Does that mean she's ready to lead the free world should circumstances warrant? that question remains. Right next to same question about Barack Obama.

Granted, Parker is a conservative, so she is not supposed to be hawking Obama. Though -- unreported by the general media, and largely ignored by active Democrats, who somehow neglected to see the relevance in terms of building credibility with those whom the Democrats need to reach -- Obama was supported by an unusually high number of knowledgeable, leading Republicans. (Some of whom are now questioning that support, as are some Democrats, at least. But we forget that Obama inherited a lot of problems, that are quickly transitioning over to being "his." Particularly with Democrats once again losing the battle of framing -- or perhaps, not even fully knowing how to wage it, or recognizing its prominent existence in the first place.)

And Parker certainly was entitled to her legitimate doubts. But to place Palin, given the ex-Alaska Governor's incredibly poor grasp of facts, constant reliance upon almost zealous belief, continual habit of misrepresentations, lack of relevant experience and almost complete and utter lack of any world knowledge, equally alongside Obama in terms of being ready to lead the "free world," is a bit much.

Yet here is what a few days prior, Parker had, much more insightfully, penned about Palin, which pretty much sums it all up:

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

John Fund, who writes for the Wall Street Journal, and about Wall Street, apparently bought it; hook, line, and sinker.