Limbaugh Smear Letter: Why Talk Radio is Needed

[andyfox]

"When 41 democrat senators use senate time and their positions as powerful senators to intimidate a PRIVATE CITIZEN because his speech is not to their liking.....this is a classic stalinist tactic..."

There you go again.

[Exsubmariner]

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The Democrats in congress are a national disgrace, deserving of their 11% approval rating. Their letter urging Limbaugh's employer to get him to apologize is simply politics and an embarrassment to them: they're basically saying that Limbaugh has more cache in the public eye than they do, which, of course, is correct. I'm addressing the issues brought up in OP's post where I believe he's wrong in his analysis.

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Well, Andy, it sure did sound to me like you were giving credence to the charges of the national disgrace team. Anyone who listens to Limbaugh knows that they can't even be remotely credible. To pick apart and dissect two words utterd by a talk show host is effectively entertaining the notion that the charges are valid. They're not. They are ludicrous and merely a reflection of the appeplexy of a party in control of a major branch of government that still can't accomplish any of its stated objectives.

[blufish]

I believe I read in one of your posts that you are in college at T A&M, I may be incorrect. Anyway, it is good to see that there are right minded college kids speaking their mind.

All I ever hear about in the "news", are events regarding the academic folks on the Left.

[The Truth]

[ QUOTE ]
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CALLER: No, it's not. And what's really funny is they never talk to real soldiers. They pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and spout to the media.

RUSH: The phony soldiers.

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Rush doesn't mention Jesse Macbeth until well after he says this. But I can accept the fact that Rush was planning to talk about this, or maybe thought he already had, and just made a comment that sounded worse than he intended.

Rush went over the line, though, when he compared a veteran who responded to his comments to a suicide bomber.

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I don't understand what you mean "over the line."

Rush can tell all the soldiers to go [censored] themselves because he thinks you have to be a satanist to join the militiary. He'll probably lose viewership, but it has nothing to do with congress.

[andyfox]

Let me try to be clear:

-My reading of the complete transcript of Limbaugh's comments is that his epithet "phony soldiers" was meant for those soldiers who have enlisted with motives other than fighting Islamofascism and are critical of our government or military or the war effort in Iraq. That Limbaugh edited the broadcast when he rebroadcasted it to try to show a relationship between his "phony soldiers" remark and his "fake soldier" story is telling. Ultra-patriot that he is (or portrays himself), with his often cutting characterizations of those whose viewpoints with which he doesn't agree, it would certainly not be out of character for him to call those whose motives are not "pure" "phony soldiers."

-Harry Reid and other Democrats know that Limbaugh has the largest sustained audience of anyone in the media (I believe he has 15,000,000 daily listeners; this compared to 6,000,000 for the top network nightly news show.) So when they see a chance to jump on him for something he said--similar to the way the other side jumped on Kerry for his "you end up in Iraq" comment-- they're gong to try to make that jump. It's a mark of their shortsightedness, incompetence, and poor governance that this is what they're spending their time on. But in saying that Limbaugh criticized some of our servicemen as "phony," I believe they're correct. By "correct" I mean accurate, not that what they're doing about it is wise.

[andyfox]

Do you think labeling Harry Reid "stalinist" is right minded?

[andyfox]

I think he means beyond elementary standards of decency.

[JackWhite]

One thing we can all agree on (I think), whether is be MoveOn or Rush Limbaugh: it is a terrible waste of time and money for Congress to start condemning speech by private individuals or organizations.

Not to hijack, but since this thread does deal with talk radio, I wanted to mention an interesting story that a few might have missed. A few days ago Air America's Randi Rhodes was injured while walking down the street late at night.

Apparently there were rumors that she was attacked, prompting fellow Air America host Jon Elliot to say this: "This does not appear to be the standard grab the money and run robbery. Is this an attempt by the right-wing hate machine to silence one of our own." To be kind, this man must be an ungodly idiot.

The story is still evolving, but this "attack" was then reported to be an injury while walking her dog. However, her attorney wouldn't answer direct questions on what exactly happened. Now there is speculation that she was drunk and fell down. No matter what, I hope she has a speedy recovery. It would also be nice if Jon Elliot would DIAGF.

[andyfox]

One would hope that Mr. Elliot would reveal what evidence he had to cause him to speculate that the "right wing hate machine" was involved in the incident. If he had none, it is indeed a reprehensible accusation.

[andyfox]

Elliot has since apologized:

"I shouldn't have speculated based on hearsay that Randi Rhodes had been mugged and that it may have been an attack from a right-wing hate machine," the statement said. "I apologize for jumping to conclusions."

It still makes gives one pause to think that this was Elliot's first reaction.