***Media Research Center Special***
4:05pm EDT, Thursday October 15, 2009
Special Report. "A Rush to Ruin: The Left's Character Assassination
Campaign Against Rush Limbaugh"
In the wake of leftist activists, including those disguised as
journalists and sports columnists, using fabricated quotes to smear
Rush Limbaugh as a racist in order to successfully torpedo his effort
to be part of a group making a bid to buy the NFL's St. Louis Rams,
the MRC updated a previously un-released special report documenting
the long-record of scurrilous media attacks against Limbaugh.
Below is the executive summary of the report compiled by the
MRC's Tim Graham. We are working to get the HTML version, with
videos, online; but we do have up a PDF of the 20-page collection of
evidence. The MRC's Melanie Selmer created the cover.
For the PDF:
http://www.mrc.org/static/uploads/RushtoRuin.pdf
Now, the Executive Summary:
Legendary talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh recently joined a group
seeking to purchase the National Football League's St. Louis Rams,
which spurred the latest attempt by the American left-wing media to
destroy Limbaugh, or at the very least marginalize him as an
extremist -- and, they hope, marginalize the millions of American
conservatives who agree with him and enjoy his radio show. Some have
even wished on national television that he would die or be killed --
including Chris Matthews on MSNBC on October 13. Last year, HBO's
Bill Maher publicly wished he had "croaked" from a drug overdose.
Almost from the beginning of his nationally syndicated radio show in
1988, Limbaugh has exposed the worst in journalists who are supposed
to honor fairness and accuracy. Even today, with Obama and the
Democrats numerically dominating Washington, the leftist media
portray Limbaugh not as a commentator, but as a clear and present
danger who must be curtailed.
Increasingly, the Left is acting on the principle that the ends
justify the means. Anything goes in an attempt to demonize Limbaugh --
even the basics of Journalism 101. Obvious distortion and even
outright fabrications are being used in this campaign to ruin
Limbaugh. The Media Research Center has repeatedly exposed how the
media's loathing of Limbaugh has led to vicious incivility and utter
recklessness with basic facts. The leftwing
media's character assassination campaign against Limbaugh falls into
three categories:
# Vicious Personal Attacks: While journalists fiercely chronicle and
protest the most obscure mockeries of Barack Obama, these supposed
guardians of civility have insulted Rush Limbaugh as a "troll under
the bridge," a "human vat of vitriol," and a "car-wreck-quality
spectacle." Limbaugh's admission of an addiction of Oxycontin in 2003
wasn't an occasion for media compassion, as most addicts receive, but
a chance for anchormen to declare they were wearing a "permanent
smirk." Journalists even assigned Limbaugh's "anti-government"
rhetoric as a cause behind the bombing of an Oklahoma City federal
building in 1995.
# Distortions of Limbaugh's Quotes: "News" reporters have often
deliberately twisted Limbaugh's words in TV interviews and radio
routines beyond recognition. Limbaugh's declaration that he wanted
President Obama's liberal policies to fail was presented as Limbaugh
wanting the nation to fail. They mangled Limbaugh's politically
incorrect parodies, like the song "Barack the Magic Negro," in which
an Al Sharpton impersonator sings about how Barack Obama isn't an
authentic black. It didn't matter than the parody was based on a
black film critic's Los Angeles Times article titled "Obama the Magic
Negro." Some journalists even compared Limbaugh to Sister Souljah, a
rapper who suggested after the Los Angeles riots in 1992 that the
country needed "a week to kill white people."
# Outright Falsehoods and Fabrications: When leftist authors and
bloggers circulated fabricated Limbaugh quotes, "news" networks and
columnists picked them up without giving the slightest appearance of
checking for an air date or an audio clip. Opponents of Limbaugh's
Rams bid are currently claiming Limbaugh said the slavery of blacks
"had its merits," and even claiming that Limbaugh praised James Earl
Ray, the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King. Supposedly
professional cable networks used empty, undated citations like "Rush
Limbaugh On The Radio" (CNN) and even sourced a linebacker: "Cited by
James Farrior, Pittsburgh Steelers" (MSNBC). In 2007, the liberal
media and Democrats in Congress rose up as one and claimed Limbaugh
said that soldiers speaking in the media against America's wars were
"phony soldiers," when Limbaugh was referring to men who made false
claims of serving abroad.
Liberal media figures suggest it is a national injustice that
Limbaugh has the popularity and influence that he has when his words
are so vicious. But while they suggest he needs to be marginalized by
the media and the Republican establishment, their coverage and
analysis and mockery of Limbaugh has crossed every line of civility
and now shows contempt for the elementary rules of evidence.
END of Executive Summary
Again, for a PDF of the full report:
http://www.mrc.org/static/uploads/RushtoRuin.pdf
- Brent Baker |
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