Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Listening to Limbaugh
In his op-ed "Take the Limbaugh Challenge," (L.A. Times, 3/29/09), conservative writer Andrew Klavan states as a "certainty" that L.A. Times readers don't listen to Rush Limbaugh's show:
If you are reading this newspaper, the likelihood is that you agree with the Obama administration's recent attacks on conservative radio talker Rush Limbaugh. That's the likelihood; here's the certainty: You've never listened to Rush Limbaugh.
What's more, Klavan claims to listen to Limbaugh frequently, and says he has never heard him "utter a single racist, hateful or stupid word."
To someone like me who has been talking about racist, hateful and stupid Limbaugh remarks since the mid-'90s, and who co-authored FAIR's book The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error, Klavan's charge that Limbaugh critics don't listen to his show is a familiar one. In dozens of appearances on conservative radio shows to talk about our book, it was rare that I was not confronted with this now-hackneyed charge, even though I have been listening to Limbaugh for 25 years, starting with his local show on Sacramento's KFBK.
As for Klavan's claim that Limbaugh doesn't say racist, stupid or hateful things, FAIR's book documents scores of Limbaugh statements fitting those categories, including such stupidly false claims as "the poorest people in America are better off than the mainstream families of Europe"; that "there are more acres of forest land in America today than when Columbus discovered America in 1492"; and that "not one indictment" resulted from the Iran/Contra scandal investigation.
As one of the Bush administration's most credulous media stooges, Limbaugh enthusiastically repeated raw government propaganda. For instance, after the invasion, Limbaugh trumpeted Iraq's nonexistent WMDs (4/7/03): "We're discovering WMDs all over Iraq.... You know it killed NPR to report that the 101st Airborne found a stockpile of up to 20 rockets tipped with sarin and mustard gas.... Our troops have found dozens of barrels of chemicals in an agricultural facility 30 miles northwest of Baghdad."
Limbaugh's gullibility also leaves him vulnerable to wacky far-right conspiracy theories. Shortly after Obama's election, Limbaugh attempted to work up his listeners with the ridiculous rumor that the new administration was planning to take over their retirement accounts: "They're going to take your 401(k), put it in the Social Security trust fund."
Limbaugh's falsehood was so egregious that it prompted L.A. Times reporter James Rainey to write:
To broadcast such a report--so drained of context as to constitute a lie--would be a shameless act at any time. But Limbaugh needlessly stirred the fears of the millions he holds in his thrall--making the 401(k) thievery sound like nearly a done deal. Shameless.
And why isn't Klavan familiar with years of hateful broadcasts where Limbaugh heaped abuse on homeless people and those with HIV, using his "Homeless Updates" to propose a "Homeless Olympics" with events including "the Dumpster dig and the hop, skip and trip"; and "AIDS Updates" where he talked about "Rock Hudson's disease" and introduced segments with the Dionne Warwick song "I Know I'll Never Love This Way Again"?
And what is it if not hateful to hope to see an American political convention erupt in violence? That's what Limbaugh said was the aim of his "Operation Chaos," which urged his listeners to support Hillary Clinton in order to divide the Democratic Party:
The dream end of this is that this keeps up to the convention, and that we have a recreation of Chicago 1968 with burning cars, protests, fire and literal riots and all of that. That is the objective here.
And speaking of racism, what about this gem where Limbaugh favorably compared victims of flooding in Illinois and Iowa, to Katrina victims in New Orleans, repeating discredited claims about rampant rape and murder in New Orleans in the process?
I want to know. I look at Iowa, I look at Illinois--I want to see the murders. I want to see the looting. I want to see all the stuff that happened in New Orleans. I see devastation in Iowa and Illinois that dwarfs what happened in New Orleans. I see people working together. I see people trying to save their property.... I don't see a bunch of people running around waving guns at helicopters, I don't see a bunch of people running shooting cops. I don't see a bunch of people raping people on the street. I don't see a bunch of people doing everything they can...whining and moaning---where's FEMA, where's Bush. I see the heartland of America. When I look at Iowa and when I look at Illinois, I see the backbone of America.
And has Klavan heard Limbaugh's commentary on Barack Obama? In his response to criticism of his expressed hope that Obama fails, Limbaugh notoriously declared:
We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles, bend over forward, backward, whichever, because his father was black, because this is the first black president.
For more examples of Limbaugh racism, Klavan might have read this L.A. Times op-ed, written by FAIR founder Jeff Cohen and myself. We document many instances of outright racism, including his admission that he once told a black caller to "take that bone out of your nose," asserted that "all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson," and said of a group with a 90-year commitment to nonviolence: "The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."
At this late date, no one who's listened to Limbaugh can honestly say that he doesn't say racist, hateful or stupid things. Which raises the possibility that Klavan doesn't actually listen to Limbaugh, at least with any real care. But what's the L.A. Times' excuse for publishing nonsense which has been debunked in its own pages for at least two decades?
- Posted in
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
52 Comments so far
Show Allevery radio has a control that will switch the station. Or do you want opposing viewpoints taken off of the air?
Apparently, you want viewpoints opposing those of Rush Limbaugh kept off of the web.
Nowhere does the author call for Limbaugh to be silenced.
I want Rush to keep spewing his Reaganist nonsense. His rare combination of stupidity and arrogance is becoming one of the best weapons that Progressives have at the moment.
q
quickstepper April 3rd, 2009 8:52 am, a month or two ago, Limbaugh went off on a rant about people collecting unemployment benefits and small businesse owners wanting nothing more than to compete in a free market capitalist economy, without bailouts or 'socialist' medicine. He apparently doesn't realize who some of his audience is -- people collecting unemployment benefits in Bush's depression and small business owners who have been hit hard in the aftermath of the collapse of his 'free market' capitalist economy who would very much like to have both a bailout and a cheap health care system. Indeed, he should keep talking his nonsense -- increasingly, it has nothing to do with the grim reality lived by most of America.
Far from Rush's own inflated estimate that he has 20 million listeners weekly, it's likely he has around 1.4 million, less than Thom Hartmann, The Daily Show or Keith Olbermann, and he isn't, like the rest of the fading right-wing media, reaching a younger audience.
Does there seem to be a 'crazy' competition between Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly and Glenn Beck going on as to who can emit the wackiest nutcase comment of the day? (Beck's winning, so far, IMO.)
I get a huge kick out of seeing the viseral hatred and rage that emits from certain people with the mere mention of the name Rush. What power does Rush have? None! Now is anyone outraged over the AIG, no....the Fannie and Freddie Bonuses? Or the troops being sent to Afghanistan? Where are the marches? Where are the calls for Impeachment? Anyone outraged that Obama saved Wall Street? I have read some outrage on here, but nothing in the old gray lady? or on MSNBC, or ABC, or CNN for that matter. If you do protest or dissent these days you are told "we won, get over it." We got who we wanted in Nov. Hip Hip Hoorah!
I agree with you! where is the outrage about Wall St., the bail-out etc etc....
Obama's back paddling and talking the talk but NOT walking the walk has been, is being and will be addressed in other articles.
But we are talking about Limbaugh here and many dislike him and what he represents intensely. Do you?
chinesedemocracy April 3rd, 2009 7:20 pm: "I get a huge kick out of seeing the viseral hatred and rage that emits from certain people with the mere mention of the name Rush. What power does Rush have? None!"
It's not true that Limbaugh has no power -- he has the power to influence a quickly dwindling portion of the populace. This is proven by Poppy Bush letting Limbaugh sleep in the Lincoln bedroom to insure his support in Bush 41's presidential campaigns, and that the GOP-dominated Congress named him an honorary Republican Congressman for his help in the 1994 elections. It's also proven by all of the Republican lawmakers who have apologized for offending Rush lately.
I don't hate Limbaugh -- it's ridiculous to hate someone you don't know -- but I hate that he abuses freedom of speech to lie to his audience for the benefit of his career and the detriment of his country. What does this self-serving multi-millionaire mostly gripe about? People in his upper-10 percent tax bracket paying higher taxes. He makes $20 million a year, and he's complaining bitterly about paying an extra few thousand to help his country out of the mess caused by the Republican 'principles' he's ardently supported of deregulating markets, banks, investment firms, real estate, and unfettered corporate expansion. Instead of taking responsibility, Rush blames it on Obama. What a man.
Personally, I get a kick out of the suckers who continue to allow themselves to be gulled by Limbaugh. Read what Elliot Sanders, a St. Louis business owner who claims to have had a 3-month-long gay affair with Limbaugh in 1971, said about Rush:
"Rush said that he thought most people are incredibly gullible, and he felt that the key to radio programming was to reach that crowd, and that it would be really, really easy. He thought he could get anyone to believe anything he said, and the more outrageous is was, the more they would believe it." […] "I think most of them [Rush's listeners] are psychotic. I don't think these people realize he's just pandering to them for ratings, but if they find out, I wouldn't want to be there."
http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=419
As P.T. Barnum is alleged to have said, "There's a sucker born every minute"; if he were alive today, he might have added, "and they all listen to Limbaugh."
To paraphrase a certain media critic, Rendall listens to "this stuff so we don't have to." It's (almost) a thankless job. Or are you just setting up a straw man?
Your posts become almost parody. Is that what you hoped to achieve?
You don't need to look at his racism. What's it called when you mock a Parkinson's victim in a falsetto voice and imitating their lack of motor control?
NAZI !!!!!!!!!
Limbaugh gives a whole new meaning to the word oxy-moron.
HA !!
As Steve Rendall points out, Andrew Klavan is merely putting another tired right wing noise machine talking point about their blowhard-in-chief, Rush Limbaugh. This is done to blunt accurate criticism of Scumbaugh's many flaws, which prevent the thing he most desires, growing audience share. Druggie Limbaugh's audience has plateaued & has nowhere to go but down as both demographics (his primary audience, white males, is graying) and history are now firmly against him. This puts him in an unenviable position of being stuck in the maw of the law of diminishing return (a $400 million deal notwithstanding). Thus acolytes like Klavan are dispatched to make the media rounds (you have to give them credit for trying).
If Limbaugh is to be the public face of the GOP, then it has just consigned itself to a painful (for them) and long lasting electoral ghetto of its' own making.
"Know thy enemy, know thy self." Sun-Tzu
Limbaugh's words -- I want to see the murders. I want to see the looting.
This man is a cancer upon the American soul. Since I typed the letters of his name I feel the need to wash my fingertips and disinfect my keypad.
Who's Rush Limbaugh?
The reincarnation of Herman Goring. Obese, ugly, drug addicted and familiar with the expression "When I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun."
When have you heard a progressive voice on AM radio?
I NEVER have!
Every day here in upstate NY: WNYY 1470 AM
Rainborowe
Sometimes on the "Coast to Coast AM" program from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. eastern time.
On the west coast. We have the Pacifica network. It was the *only* way to listen to GOP and Dem convention coverage without sacrificing one's sanity.
KPOJ in Portland features progressive voices, from several networks ( and a couple of independents). Like Thom Hartmann, and Mike Malloy. On the FM frequencies, there is KBOO.
Mr. Oxycotin is the best thing that could happen to progressives and I hope he stays on the air with his miasma of insane rants; obviously, the guy belongs in an insane asylum for delusional, drug addicts. The more he spits out his calumny of hate, the more he is hurting the rabid right wing nut jobs. What a great advertisement for progressives!
Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin are the two certifiable psychotics of the National Socialist media and Snakepit Radio. Bush Limpdick is thoroughly sane. The far right truly does not represent any kind of political philosophy. It is an attitude toward fellow humans whom they see as dumb, pathetic, pliable, inferior creatures, little children whose lemonade stand you can stick up without using a gun. But if you like guns, and you most certainly do, let's go put the blast on the little beggars; let's shoot them in the face repeatedly with a .44 Magnum with hollow point bullets that turns the kids' faces into goo and spreads blood and guts all over the place. Wow! Fuckin' cool, maaaaaaan!
"Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin are the two certifiable psychotics of the National Socialist media and Snakepit Radio."
Let's not forget Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham and Bill O'Reilly.
I think Rush's jaw must be wired to his butthole, considering what he spews out.
I don't listen to talk radio, PERIOD. Even the supposedly progressive stations and shows don't give much meaning since like Limbaugh, Hannity, O'LIEly, etc ... it's all about party loyalty and playing KISSYFACE with the rightwing ideology just to score political points. Give me a talk show that's truly moderate and/or independent and then I'll listen.
When I took "Mass Communications" and Broadcasting as an elective in my senior year in High School, I was taught that "Talk Radio" Listeners are people on the "Lower Social Economic Level". So consider the source of Talk Radio. I listen for maybe 10 to 20 mins and I cannot take the wave of propaganda going out.
Interesting, that explains why I always come across blue collared workers listening to that creep or similar while I would rarely come across an upper class worker listening to such even if he or she votes Republican.
Democracy Now on Pacifica Radio...for one.
Flush Limpdick is a big fat idiot- by SENATOR AL FRANKEN.
More than that, he's also a cowardly chickenhawk draft-dodger. Copping a deferment for an anal cyst. I gotta tell you, as a navy corpsman who served during the Vietnam war, I've seen GIs with that same ailment. THEY SERVED.
I would love nothing more than that fat phuck call me a "phoney soldier' to my face, then I would be justified to stuff a grenade in his big mouth.
Uncle Ho April 3rd, 2009 1:32 pm, the one thing you'll never catch Limbaugh doing is testing his popularity with the public by running for office. Mr. Anal Cyst knows he'd lose in a landslide.
how do you feel about Barack Obama sending our guys off to war? Staying in Iraq for at least 2 more years and more going to Afghanistan. Obama never served.
chinesedemocracy April 3rd, 2009 7:22 pm> "how do you feel about Barack Obama sending our guys off to war? Staying in Iraq for at least 2 more years and more going to Afghanistan. Obama never served."
I don't know where you got the idea Obama was going to extend the Iraq War by two years -- he's said we'll have most of our troops out in one and he wants to turn the country over to Iraqi rule. He's sending reinforcements to Afghanistan to clean up the mess made by the incompetent Bushies over there, which resulted in the resurrection of the Taliban and the proliferation of al-Qaeda in northern Pakistan. BTW, Bush never served in combat, and Cheney, like Limbaugh, never served in the military at all -- the difference is, Obama was against the Iraq War in 2002 while these Republican 'chickenhawks' were planning it, and Rush, Dick and Dubya all supported the Vietnam War, but just not enough to volunteer to actually serve in it.
Rush is an entertainer who knows how to grab an audience. And his audience is shrinking so he’s getting desperate. He’s more interested in his money than he is in being a good American. Just like all the Republicans, and Democrats in D.C.
Hoa binh
I don't listen to Rush.....
I've tried to, really. But the slog is too hard, deep, and uphill. Like wading through mud.
Lintball used to be isolated over on the fringes of the "loony right." A certifiable nut case.
But in today's world, where terms such as "fascism" and "socialism" are interchangeable on the talk airwaves, old Rush has certainly grown in stature. He actually represents a certain voice for a segment of the American people. One large enough to be taken seriously even by those of us who used to guffaw at old Rush.
The right daily sharpens and refines an arsenal of powerful pejoratives. They accuse us of what they do themselves. That's called projection: and it comes easily and quickly to them. The Republicans used to simply be the party of big business. Factoring in their concern for taxing the rich, and desire to relieve them, they also draw every jingoist, nativist, homophobe, Islamophobe, religious fanatic, and 2nd Ammendment type who believes five year olds should attend kindergarten packing.
Let them fight with each other over Rush's voice, if he represents the party or not. At this point does it truly matter? Since each contender is perhaps only marginally worse or better than the other?
I'd say listening to him is like wading through something similar to mud, but stinks a whole lot worse.
Great article, kudos to Mr. Rendall.
I am heartened lately to learn that the opinion of Mr. Limbaugh that I share with Mr. Rendall is a mainstream one. Sixteen Years of rightwing media domination have obscured that fact, surely intentionally. I owe some gratitude to people like Steve Rendall, Al Franken and Jon Stewart for being honest and brave enough to highlight Rush Limbaugh's mendacity and bigotry.
However, when the year is done, Rush still earns $38 million, surely exceeding the income of all of his critics in the media... combined. The injustice of the rewards to be earned by engaging in such asshattery is quite demoralizing.
Klavan demands that we give Rush a fair hearing; but this is not a courtesy that he or any of Rush's listeners would afford to any of the targets of Rush's rants. Does Klavan, or any of the dittoheads, give any serious consideration to what liberals might have to say? certainly not!
The shooting massacre in Binghampton is a direct result of Limbaugh's racism. I bet he trumpets it loudly.
Rush Limbaugh is a pimp...Literally. A key part of Rush's PR job with the Kansas City Royals was to arrange dates for visiting players.
Listen up children:
The worse person you are, the more money you make.
I'm surprised, in discussing Rush's racism, Rendall didn't mention Limbaugh's habit of playing the theme from 'The Jefferson's' ('Movin' on up...') when he's talking about a successful black politician. He also didn't refer to Rushbo's brief career as a pro football analyst for ESPN (supposedly his 'dream job'), cut short by his racist comments regarding Philadelpha Eagles QB Donovan McNabb.
Limbaugh said on TV in 2003: "I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well ... There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."
http://espn.go.com/gen/news/2003/1001/1628537.html
He could have just said he thought McNabb was overrated and the defense was responsible for the team's success, but Rush had to go to skin color -- it's who he is and the racist way he thinks.
"But what's the L.A. Times' excuse for publishing nonsense which has been debunked in its own pages for at least two decades?"
Greedy Zell is so desperate for readers, he's going for the Rushbo-moron-extra-far-right demographic - a group so stupid and ignorant, even the now dumbed-down LAT is still over their heads.
Limbaugh? Is that the small time DJ from Denver whose career suddenly 'shot'
to the top when his competition was assassinated - with an Uzi submachine gun?
Limbaugh, whose mother said "he flunked everything", even a modern ballroom dancing class?
Why would anyone listen to an empty barrel?
What do these hosts say, feel and think in their most private moments when no one else is present. That would be most revealing case study of derailed brain development.
'What's more, Klavan claims to listen to Limbaugh frequently, and says he has never heard him "utter a single racist, hateful or stupid word."'
Of course Klavan has never heard Limbaugh utter a single racist, hateful or stupid word - when someone speaks your language, you don't.
Watching hairy chested What's His Name at a recent convention hopping around and waving his arms made me wonder if the drugs are for something other than back pain.
Rush Limbaugh is a God-Send.
What if the right had an articulate intellectual with captivating ideas attacking the left and progress as a whole? Not Good.
Instead, the Right's Voice is Confused, incoherent, directionless & consumed by hate. This Bloated, Drug-Riddled Emblem of the Right's Soul actually Injures & Defiles conservatives, SMEARS them w/ S*** by association.
Thanks Rush, I mean, Thank-You.
US Blues.
"what's the L.A. Times' excuse?"
Liberalism.
Without liberalism, where would Limbaugh be now?
It does provide him the philosophical cover he needs.
Anyone dumb enough to listen to Ann Coulter, Limbaugh, Hannity and their crowd deserves what they are going to get. That bunch has done their best to wreck this country and it is pitiful that so many people waste their time with them.