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Joe Rosberg of Denver writes:

The Rocky Mountain News’ October 20th reprint of a New York Times story by Stephanie Strom, Limbaugh puts money where mouth is, began by saying, “After Rush Limbaugh referred to some Iraq war veterans critical of the war as ‘phony soldiers’, he received a letter of complaint signed by 41 Democratic senators.”
There are two falsehoods in that very first sentence. First of all, Limbaugh’s “phony soldier” comment was specifically aimed at a person who never served in Iraq, washed out of basic training, and lied about alleged atrocities he and his fellow soldiers committed (which, of course, never happened). Stephanie Strom made her comment as though it was a matter of fact. The second falsehood is that these Democratic senators did not send the letter to Limbaugh, but rather to Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays, in an obvious attempt to discredit, and perhaps even silence, Rush Limbaugh.
The real news in this story was how 41 Democratic senators lied, at worst, or misrepresented, at best, Limbaugh’s comments In the first place, not only in that letter, but on the floor of the U.S. Senate! Isn’t it the self-assigned roll of the media to ensure truth from our elected leaders and to hold them to account when they lie? And then you people in the media, and especially at the New York Times, wonder why you’re always faced with charges of bias. If this isn’t blatant bias, then it’s incredible incompetence and journalistic malpractice. To which would you care to admit?

This letter has not been edited.

READER COMMENTS

Your letter is right on target, Mr. Rosberg. Democrats will stop at nothing to undermine the truth, even in time of war.

BS,
A war that Mr. limbaugh helped get us into with HIS lies, distortions and self-serving "phonyness".
YOU PEOPLE (to quote your prophet rush)owe an apology to all REAL Americans and especially those families who have had loved ones die for YOUR stupidity and cowardice.

We're waiting.

Shortly after the Clintons took the White House in 1993, Limbaugh still had his television show. At one point during a broadcast, a picture was shown of the Clintons’ cat. Limbaugh mentioned the cat and proceeded to say (paraphrasing here) “and here is the White House dog,” before showing an unflattering picture of Chelsea Clinton. Turns out he apparently went too far even for many of his fans. However, when he realized he stepped in it he claimed that the picture of Chelsea Clinton was shown by accident. Even though it was very transparently a false excuse, his fans (whom refer to themselves as “dittoheads”) appeared to accept his explanation. A few of them might have known it was B.S., but perhaps they secretly agreed with the joke and resented-yet-understood that Rush was forced to apologize out of P.C.-pressure.

What was telling about the whole episode was how quickly Limbaugh-supporters were willing to accept an explanation that was so obviously bullshit. His adoring audience is very easily led, and for them, if he said it was a mistake, that makes it so – end of story. (To me, Rush Limbaugh making fun of someone else’s physical appearance – a 13-year-old girl, no less! – is ironic. But, neo-cons have never much understood that rocks-in-glass-houses principle).
Sooo, I see a lot of parallels between the Chelsea Clinton comment and the “phony soldiers” comment. I think both times Rush stepped in it and, when he caught heat, gave unbelievably lame defenses. In both cases, though, his fans believed him.

The truth is that there’s no smoking gun in this case (although evidence that Limbaugh edited transcripts of the infamous broadcast is pretty close, in my book). Some people completely accept Limbaugh’s explanation; others are more skeptical and believe he fell in his own hole and is now trying to dig himself out.

Given how in the past Limbaugh has attacked soldiers who disagree with Republicans on their motivation for serving and their service itself, I can very easily believe that Rush’s “phony soldiers” comment was much closer to how this letter described it, rather than Limbaugh’s half-assed explanation.

It's amazing how a fat, draft-dodging piece of pondscum like Rush Limbaugh gets a deferment because of a sore on his butt, but then has the audacity to later criticize anyone else's patriotism or dedication to their country. I hope those who have recently been criticized by Limbaugh and his ilk can see him for what he is...a loud-mouthed gasbag who can only smear those who disagree with him because he knows the majority of the country disagrees with him and he has no ground to stand on. Contrary to what he says, Limbaugh's nothing more than a water-boy who is still carrying water for the morally bankrupt GOP.

Pond scum or not, the point of the letter is the deliberate lies perpetrated by the "watchdog" press. While many in this country cannot believe anything from this current administration, certainly you can understand why many of us cannot believe anything the mainstream press puts out. Cannot you not also acknowledge the blatent lies and purelunt anti-american propaganda persistantly churned out by former great entities like the NYT?

Jeff, the Chelsea dog stunt was foolish and stupid. I stopped watching afterwards. Also, the term NeoCons was not yet invented then.

Pond scum or not, the point of the letter is the deliberate lies perpetrated by the "watchdog" press. While many in this country cannot believe anything from this current administration, certainly you can understand why many of us cannot believe anything the mainstream press puts out. Can you not also acknowledge the blatent lies and purelunt anti-american propaganda persistantly churned out by former great entities like the NYT?

Jeff, the Chelsea dog stunt was foolish and stupid. I stopped watching afterwards. Also, the term NeoCons was not yet invented then.

With talent on loan from God and one hand tied behind his back to make it fair, Rush is America's doctor of democracy as well as America's anchor man.

Rush is right 98.9% of the time! But I also think he gets too much credit for making monkeys out of liberals like Reid, Pelosi, Gore, Kennedy and Kerry (collectively enjoying 11% job approval)--they come with such a head start. The only thing that they are missing is the banana, and Rush provides one every day....and the Reid smear letter was Harry's banana.

WEH! WEH! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Letter writer Mr. Rosberg says the media lies when it comes to Rush.He is 100% right .Here is what the the VP of the NRA Wayne LaPierre has to say about talk radio."Rush Limbaugh,Sean Hannity,Glenn Beck,Michael Reagan,Laura Ingraham,Mike Gallagher,G Gordon Liddy and Ollie North,among other top broadcasters,daily reach a combined radio audience of 50 million Americans.And when the Second Amendment is threatened,these leaders of talk radio are there for us,out front,spreading a near-instant message of freedom to millions of Second Amendment supporters who are beyond the ranks of the NRA's membership."As we all know the Democrat party and the mainstream media have been pushing to take our gun rights away for years.The reason the media will lie about Rush is to destroy him because he and other talk show hosts can counter the lies the media tell about the gun issue.

Is Rush Limbaugh by any chance the radio talk show host who said that all drug addicts should be behind bars?

The Senators lied; Bush lied; Powell lied; Condi lied; however, the next lie comes in the form of the first lie: WMD, to wit:

Why march over Iran? Because George Bush is talking about World War 3, and he's insane (insane) (insane) (insane) enough to start it. Because the IAEA says Iran is not building nuclear weapons, and the CIA says it would take at least 5 years even if they started now. Because the people who want war with Iran are the same bloodthirsty neocons who got us into Iraq. Because any strike against Iran, no matter how precise, would be met with counterattacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, on the people of Israel, and on oil shipments that would double the price of oil. And because Iran has not threatened to attack the U.S. in any way.

RG:whatever; So the Congress and Senate that voted for us to go into Iraq is almost 80% Neo-Cons?

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