Media Matters Tries Smear, Limbaugh Laughs it Off

News Feature 2004 05 26 Rush Limbaugh Story

Rush Limbaugh completely disassembles the tools at Media Morons for America. In the interest of trying to paint Limbaugh as a chicken-hawk (oh yay, we’re back to that shit again), the idiots at MMA took recent comments Limbaugh made about fake soldier Jesse MacBeth and painted them as if he was saying them about all soldiers against the continued occupation of Iraq.

Here’s how they worded it…

During the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq “phony soldiers.” He made the comment while discussing with a caller a conversation he had with a previous caller, “Mike from Chicago,” who said he “used to be military,” and “believe[s] that we should pull out of Iraq.” Limbaugh told the second caller, whom he identified as “Mike, this one from Olympia, Washington,” that “[t]here’s a lot” that people who favor U.S. withdrawal “don’t understand” and that when asked why the United States should pull out, their only answer is, ” ‘Well, we just gotta bring the troops home.’ … ‘Save the — keeps the troops safe’ or whatever,” adding, “[I]t’s not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.” “Mike” from Olympia replied, “No, it’s not, and what’s really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.” Limbaugh interjected, “The phony soldiers.” The caller, who had earlier said, “I am a serving American military, in the Army,” agreed, replying, “The phony soldiers.”

On and on they go and they’ve done one hell of a job getting the talking points to John Kerry and Jim Webb who both made impassioned speeches on the Senate floor. Kerry, who if you can believe it, actually served in Vietnam (bet you didn’t know that, did you?), and is a bit miffed that someone would dare disrespect soldiers. After all, it’s not telling the truth like having actors tell about war crimes they committed in ‘nam…

The Massachusetts senator issued a public statement calling Limbaugh’s comments “disgusting” and “an insult to American troops.” Kerry continued, saying that Limbaugh succeeded in questioning the patriotism of those who have risked their lives and died for the radio host’s right to sit safely in a studio “peddling hate.”

Kerry went on to note an op-ed by seven members of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division critical to President Bush’s Iraq policy published by the New York Times August 19th. The senator made sure Limbaugh knew that two of the soldiers featured in the piece died earlier this month in Baghdad and dared the talk show host to call them ‘phony soldiers’.

The problem?

It isn’t true.

Here’s Limbaugh talking about the incident and playing the clip that started this mocktroversy:

But wait, this whole thing gets better. Rush claimed to have played the full clip with Mike from Ohio. He didn’t. Media Matters got him, right? They apparently think so, but read their post. He didn’t cut out anything related to the “phony soldiers” comment whatsoever. Not a single word.

Limbaugh correctly notes this is Michael J. Fox all over again. Surely you know who Michael J. Fox is. He’s the world’s foremost authority on stem cell research who is above all criticism because he has Parkinson’s Disease. In this case, they’re trying to paint Limbaugh as critical of all soldiers because he dared call out on the carpet a proven liar. A proven fraud. A proven fake. A proven shill for the anti-war movement.

You can make all the arguments against the war and for withdrawal and not be a fake soldier or phony soldier. However, if your name is Jesse MacBeth and you’ve admitted publicly in federal court to lying about your service record and the atrocities you saw committed in Iraq, you are a piece of shit and people have an obligation to call you one.

Limbaugh didn’t criticize John Q. Soldier. No proof of such criticisms exist even in the “unedited” version of the transcript that Media Morons posted.

The proof isn’t there because the issue doesn’t exist.

End of story.

[tags]rush limbaugh, jesse macbeth, chicken hawks, fraud, media matters for america[/tags]

This entry was posted in Amusing. Bookmark the permalink.
  • Bob Baird

    It’s just another attempt to silence Rush. If John “Fonda” Kerry responds to something, just take the opposite side of the issue and you will be right. John ‘the antithesis of a military hero’ Kerry, challenging Rush’s love of the USA and the military men and women who have fought and died for the freedoms we enjoy is absurd. If the truth were known, he had probably just met with Jane “I never met a communist I didn’t like” Fonda whose hatred for our military is legendary. The media and shills like Kerry constantly look for reasons to attack Rush. Look at the issue they made of his parody about Obama “the magic negro”. If that wasn’t proof that they never listen to him or understand him, nothing is….I call it the “Dan Rather syndrome”…….if there’s no issue; make one!!

  • Bob Baird

    It’s just another attempt to silence Rush. If John “Fonda” Kerry responds to something, just take the opposite side of the issue and you will be right. John ‘the antithesis of a military hero’ Kerry, challenging Rush’s love of the USA and the military men and women who have fought and died for the freedoms we enjoy is absurd. If the truth were known, he had probably just met with Jane “I never met a communist I didn’t like” Fonda whose hatred for our military is legendary. The media and shills like Kerry constantly look for reasons to attack Rush. Look at the issue they made of his parody about Obama “the magic negro”. If that wasn’t proof that they never listen to him or understand him, nothing is….I call it the “Dan Rather syndrome”…….if there’s no issue; make one!!

  • Joe

    Thank you so much for blogging this story. When I heard this on Rush’s Friday program I went to Media Matters and saw the crap about his “selective editing”. There was about two minutes of WMD discussion in the middle of the transcript. Do these people really expect people will sit through all that extraneous stuff just to get to Rush’s quotes about Macbeth? At least they posted the full transcript, but I’m still not convinced the rest of the media does more than just read the headlines on that site.

  • Joe

    Thank you so much for blogging this story. When I heard this on Rush’s Friday program I went to Media Matters and saw the crap about his “selective editing”. There was about two minutes of WMD discussion in the middle of the transcript. Do these people really expect people will sit through all that extraneous stuff just to get to Rush’s quotes about Macbeth? At least they posted the full transcript, but I’m still not convinced the rest of the media does more than just read the headlines on that site.

  • http://www.telescreen.org/ Vidiot

    1. So if he was talking about Jesse MacBeth, why did he say “phony soldiers”, plural? MacBeth is just one person. The caller mentioned “soldiers” who are anti-war and who speak out. Limbaugh also said “soldiers.” The caller then confirmed it, saying “soldiers.” That’s three uses of the plural in a very short time.

    2. And if he was talking about Jesse MacBeth, why did Rush say “the phony soldiers” in response to the caller’s talking about anti-war soldiers that talk to the media?

    3. If Rush wants to make a big deal about Media Matters supposedly taking clips out of context and selective editing, then he himself really shouldn’t have trumpeted that he was playing the full clip while playing one that had been edited down. You can’t bitch about someone’s lack of disclosure and taking things out of context and then present an edited version of what you said was “the entire transcript, in context.” That’s not how full disclosure works, Rush.

    (3a. It’s neither here nor there, but that’s a piss-poor audio edit that Rush’s lackeys did. I could do better with a razor blade.)

    4. There was approx. 1:50 of space between the “phony soldiers” comment and when Rush brings up MacBeth. Yes, they’re talking about WMDs and such…but what Joe, above, is missing is that by presenting those quotes next to each other and excising what came between, Rush is creating a new context. He’s making the MacBeth story appear to have been coming right after his “phony soldiers” comment to support that comment. If you put two pieces of media next to each other, they’re going to be perceived as related. Especially when you present it as the “complete transcript” and don’t tell anyone that you’ve edited it. Joe’s very point about there being two minutes of “extraneous stuff” underscores that the “phony soldiers” comment was separated from the MacBeth story, and not a logical outgrowth.

    5. MacBeth was not mentioned on the show until that point: not prior to Mike’s calling in, not prior to Rush’s “phony soldiers” comment, not for another 1:50 afterwards. (That’s a long time in radio.) And we’re supposed to believe that “phony soldiers” referred solely to MacBeth? Frankly, Rush is a better communicator than that.

    6. Media Matters notes that Rush expanded the “phony soldiers” characterization to refer to Jack Murtha as well. Murtha’s service is documented, as is his anti-war stance.

  • http://www.telescreen.org Vidiot

    1. So if he was talking about Jesse MacBeth, why did he say “phony soldiers”, plural? MacBeth is just one person. The caller mentioned “soldiers” who are anti-war and who speak out. Limbaugh also said “soldiers.” The caller then confirmed it, saying “soldiers.” That’s three uses of the plural in a very short time.

    2. And if he was talking about Jesse MacBeth, why did Rush say “the phony soldiers” in response to the caller’s talking about anti-war soldiers that talk to the media?

    3. If Rush wants to make a big deal about Media Matters supposedly taking clips out of context and selective editing, then he himself really shouldn’t have trumpeted that he was playing the full clip while playing one that had been edited down. You can’t bitch about someone’s lack of disclosure and taking things out of context and then present an edited version of what you said was “the entire transcript, in context.” That’s not how full disclosure works, Rush.

    (3a. It’s neither here nor there, but that’s a piss-poor audio edit that Rush’s lackeys did. I could do better with a razor blade.)

    4. There was approx. 1:50 of space between the “phony soldiers” comment and when Rush brings up MacBeth. Yes, they’re talking about WMDs and such…but what Joe, above, is missing is that by presenting those quotes next to each other and excising what came between, Rush is creating a new context. He’s making the MacBeth story appear to have been coming right after his “phony soldiers” comment to support that comment. If you put two pieces of media next to each other, they’re going to be perceived as related. Especially when you present it as the “complete transcript” and don’t tell anyone that you’ve edited it. Joe’s very point about there being two minutes of “extraneous stuff” underscores that the “phony soldiers” comment was separated from the MacBeth story, and not a logical outgrowth.

    5. MacBeth was not mentioned on the show until that point: not prior to Mike’s calling in, not prior to Rush’s “phony soldiers” comment, not for another 1:50 afterwards. (That’s a long time in radio.) And we’re supposed to believe that “phony soldiers” referred solely to MacBeth? Frankly, Rush is a better communicator than that.

    6. Media Matters notes that Rush expanded the “phony soldiers” characterization to refer to Jack Murtha as well. Murtha’s service is documented, as is his anti-war stance.