Homepage of RushLimbaugh.com. Will it also house his journalism school?
This is an open letter, asking that my favorite radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, untie the ‘other half of his brain’ and let it loose upon America and the world.
Limbaugh, at once the most loved and reviled radio personality in the world, is also unquestionably the most listened to commentator – be it on radio, television or in print. Since last January when he openly expressed his wish that President Barack Hussein Obama fail in his effort to remake America as a socialist-leaning government, Limbaugh’s already huge audience has overrun its banks with fresh listeners.
For three hours each weekday, unless he is off golfing, the self-proclaimed founder of the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, brings reason, logic and a wicked sense of humor to some of the most heated political topics of our day.
Rush is a master at tweaking the political elite – especially liberals, and doubly especially Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank and President Obama. Rush revels at goading Democratic Party members into hate-filled rants against him and his beliefs. Often, in fact, I cringe, at how literally his critics take his comments, when they should be wise enough to understand he is just baiting them.
But bash Rush they do and with each taunt, like the old children’s ditty, it bounces off of Rush and sticks to them.
One constant tune uttered by Rush over the years has been about the poor state of journalism in our nation. Rush coined the phrase “Drive-By Media,” to describe agenda-driven journalists who, like drive-by shooters, only visit and investigate a story long enough to do prodigious damage.
Of late, Rush has come to describe the national news media, especially CNN, The New York Times, The Associated Press and Reuters, as the ‘State Run’ media, because rather than bring objectivity to their news dispatches, the preponderance of national news organizations are behaving like extensions of the Obama administration’s public relations/propaganda ministries.
As a life-long journalist and journalism junkie, I was not predisposed to accept Rush’s vitriol against my profession and my colleagues. I went into journalism idealistically, hoping in the post-Watergate era that I might expose government and corporate malfeasance in the style of The Washington Post’s Woodward and Bernstein.
But as much as I fought Rush’s branding most journalism in our country as defective, I’ve come begrudgingly to acknowledge that he is fundamentally correct. Our nation’s news media, when it comes to reporting on many of the most important topics of our times, are derelict in their duties.
Rather than serving as the Fourth Estate, as our founding founders envisioned, a preponderance of news outlets have left the dog house – where they are supposed to remain vigilant and unwelcome critics of entrenched power – and have moved into the cozy confines of the White House. Oh, but to have President Obama bestow upon you the favor of asking a question at a Presidential news conference or giving you a pat on the back for your coverage!
For anyone who doesn’t listen to Rush (even if you hide in the closet while doing so), he always remarks that he ties half his brain behind his back just to keep fair his battles with those political leftists who aren’t as intellectually gifted. His talent, after all, is “on loan from God.”
I write this today hoping that Rush will at last let loose his brain’s other half. Specifically, I want him – as the true patriot that he is – to see that without an independent, potent, news media our nation and freedom cannot flourish. His three hours a day, paired with powerful allies in the likes of Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, Monica Crowley, Mike Gallagher, and in Denver, Mike Rosen, aren’t enough to offset the hundreds of weekly broadcast hours and giga-tons of newsprint dedicated to espousing the shallow, march-along reporting of the liberal drive-by, state-run media.
So I plead with Rush, who is anything but an ‘organization’ man by nature, to help me and other like-minded conservatives fund, build and operate The Rush Limbaugh School of Journalism, an actual, online-based journalism school where a fresh generation of American patriots can train to engage the liberal media with all its biases.
This is not a joke. I really would like to build such a school and I have the credentials to make it so. Our nation's well being demands this.
By offering courses online, the Limbaugh School would not be geographically constrained. Indeed, non-Americans who love liberty, self-reliance, capitalism and truth would be welcome to enroll as well. With no bricks-and-mortar campus to maintain, tuition would be quite reasonable, a necessity due to the Obama Recession.
Like any good capitalistic enterprise, the Limbaugh School will be for-profit and for the public good simultaneously. It will draw upon conservative thought leaders and the tiny minority of clear-thinking reporters and opinon writers at news organizations such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times and Fox News to serve as adjunct faculty. We will offer accredited graduate degrees in journalism and most students should be able to complete their studies in under two years.
This is an idea whose time is here. I am willing to be the catalyst to move this from a concept to reality. But I’ll need lots of help and Rush is just the man to lend his voice and his connections to this project.
So Maha Rushie, I’m appealing to you publicly to help give birth to a new kind of news media, i.e. the old kind of news media.
In addition to your own prodigious radio legacy, the Limbaugh School of Journalism will be a fitting testament to your life’s higher beliefs and best efforts. Please call!
Comments
Dittos! Thanks for posting something positive about Rush! It seems he is getting bashed every day now by every left wing blog and media orifice out there and even recently by the White House itself: dittosrush.blogspot.com/2009/08/white-house-threatens-rush-limbaugh.html Media Matters for America even has a daily Limbaugh Wire where some poor chap spends all day responding to each hour of Rush's show: mediamatters.org/limbaughwire
Anyway, I linked to your article at "Dittos Rush" as an encouragement to my readers. Thanks again!
Mediaspin (James)
@mediaspin (James)
Thanks James. I am very serious in wanting to educate a fresh crop of bright, objective, journalists to do the kinds of reporting that the MSM are overlooking. If you or any of your readers can help, please contact me! dean@wallstreetjournalist.com. Spread the word!
This author is a moron! Rush fills three hours a day with lies, half-truths and insults. He is a bigotted blowhard who drags political discourse into the mire. I listen often and have rarely (althought not never) heard him offer constructive ideas. If you look back over the years on the positions and politicians he's supported, you will see that he is almost uniformly wrong, i.e. Bill and Hillary had Vince Foster killed and stuff like that. It's a shame this country is becoming so dumb that a person like him is looked up to by so many.
Rush is a great comfort to a lot of angry people. In the end though his rants and running themes like Operation Chaos usually backfire. Glenn Beck is the new voice of the Republican party.
@geo writes "Rush fills three hours a day with lies, half-truths and insults. He is a bigotted blowhard who drags political discourse into the mire. I listen often..."
Enough said.
@ Sick Twisted Freak #345,987 writes, "Glenn Beck is the new voice of the Republican party."
I'm in favor of a conservative chorus, rather than one or more soloists. So, to all Glenn Beck fans I say, hurrah! (We can name a department in the Limbaugh School of Journalism" for Beck, Hannity, Levin, Hewitt, etc.
Wow, great post man! It's nice to hear the truth of what really goes on during Rush's program.
Cleverly writteen, too, I might add. It was an easy and enjoyable piece to read.
Long live the day when he does untie the other half of his brain :) lol
Dean, times are a changin. Rush is old news. Glenn make crazy conservatism look good!!!
Dittos again! If Oxycontin is part of the curriculum, I am so there.
Rush used to be informative and fun but sometime in the last 4 years he forgot to turn off the lisping gay caracature voice and now he sounds like that all the time and I can't listen to him anymore. Glenn is the new voice of conservatism. Get used to it. Oh and better get used to lederhosen and an occasional good cry.
I hope Obama fails too... thanks Rush. I think we need conservative schools to offset the liberal colleges around this nation.
NOBAMA!
You dare use the words Limbaugh and journalism in the same sentence? I miss the days when intellectuals ran the conservative movement. Rush, Beck, O'reily--they're entertainers, not journalists. They get paid to make you angry. They get away with the garbage they spew, because they know the rednecks who listen, won't crack a book or research the loose history they use to scare their listeners. Calling Obama a Marxist, suggesting that Obama wants to engage in Nazi style eugenics, claiming
Obama hates America--they'll say anything because they know you birther/teabagger/ rednecks will believe anything. Good luck in 2010 and 2012--don't expect to pickup any seats.
This is the same Rush that told a listener that you could not object to the President's policies and be patriotic at the same time. She called during the run up to the Iraq war. Rush struggled to find word to express the fact the you just couldn't be America when you object to the policies of our President. He is a liar and a cheat. He has not credibility. Rush relies on the ignorance and short memories of his followers.
Monica Lewinski, that's you looking for another sweetie isn't it?
Rush Limbaugh spews 3 hours of opinion each day. I often wonder who not only has time to spend 3 hours listening but who would want to. He keeps these people in a constant circle of hatred, regurgitating the same falsehoods over and over. And sadly, for many, he is the end all, be all of what they think is the 'news.' It's disgusting and depressing.
well im doing a report on mr.limbaugh for school and this school idea seems great! with allive found about him this seems to be the most intereating thing.
After reading some of the commetary, lib-tards are upset just from the mention of Rush's name. Its silly. However, the ones who label those of us as racist blowhards for listening to Rush, only call names becuase they lack the intellectual abilities to engage his listeners in real debate. Hence the current situation with our media today. I think the school is a excellent idea which will have a detremental effect on other liberal institutions offering simular degrees. So, sign me up! I would love to wear a Rush University School of Journalism shirt to my PTA group! It would upset soo many people, just thinking about it puts a smile on my face.
Great article, from a fellow ditto head.
Limbaugh is no patriot or he would have enlisted instead of getting deferred for a silly thing like a pilonidal cyst that can be handled simply and quickly. Ihad it done and got in 14 years of service. He loves wars for others to fight, the same as another phoney named Cheney and the College Republicans for the War who laughed when asked if they'd enlist to fight it. He's a coward.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!