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courtesy: whitenoiseinsanity.com
The day after the majority of the country's voters celebrated the election of a new, Democratic president, talk hosts Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly took the high road.
Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage went back to the sewers and, like monkeys in a cage, started throwing the dung.
It's sad that this is the state of "talk" radio, which really is less about discussion than shallow thought and the kind of name calling you would hear in a grade school playground.
In Hannity's first show he said he would wait to see what Obama does and instead of continuing his pre-election bashing, he started questioning what the Republican party should do to improve its standing with voters. (No one can make the case that these shows are anything but partisan.)
O"Reilly also stepped back, saying he would analyze anything Obama did with an open mind. On his TV show that night, he broke a story I didn't know about Sarah Palin: McCain advisors said she didn't know that Africa was a continent. She thought it was a country and that South Africa was the southern part of that country.
And this was the woman John McCain thought was capable of the presidency?
Also, O'Reilly's staff reported, Palin was talking to the person she thought was the president of France but was really a radio prankster, without clearance from McCain.
And lastly, that not only did she spend more than the $150,000 she claimed for clothes at Nieman Marcus, but that she shopped for her husband and family at the expensive haberdashers. "Wasilla hillbillies" indeed.
(This is the first time I have ever used O'Reilly as a source for breaking news, the first time I saw he was fair and balanced.)
No such luck with Rush and the little Weiner who calls himself Savage.
On day one Rush was still calling Obama a socialist and painting him as a subversive out to take over the country. He was worried about how liberals would direct their anger now that they had their president. Typical tool, the same propaganda used by demagogues throughout history: blame it all on some evil group, Jews, blacks and now liberals.
A careful analysis of Limbaugh's technique would show that what he accuses liberals of doing is what he or the Republicans have already done.
For example, when the Clintons left the White House, Limbaugh and his illk celebrated what turned out to be false reports that the former first family stole government property as souvenirs. They were later cleared of the accusations by a Goverment Accounting Office report, but that was hardly reported, after three weeks of Limbaugh gloriously bashing them.
If you remember, that was how Bush classlessly entered his new job, and he continued a propaganda and smear campaign that hoodwinked Americans for the next eight years, echoed by Limbaugh.
If a Democrat did what he does daily, he would call them divisive and unpatriotic. Need I say more?
Savage followed suit, drumming up Bill Ayers and fearing that Obama would create a dictatorship that would take away guns and talk radio. If Limbaugh is the National Enquirer, occasionally reporting something correctly, Savage is the Weekly World News with "Aliens Find Jesus Floating in Space" as the lead story: insanity that fools love and the rest of us can't resist gawking at.
Is it any wonder that some Democratic senators began (ill-advisedly, I would add) talking about reinstituting the Fairness Doctrine? Radio has become little more than a 24-hour one party line.
But the Fairness Doctrine is a big stick that is impossible to administer.
I understand, though, how people would want to use something to bring back the kind of news shows that Fox claims to have, ones that are truly fair and balanced.
Comments
Perhaps not the fairness doctrine as we knew it, but certainly there needs to be some guarantee that the public's airwaves will not be dominated by one political persuasion.
Broadcasters lease the frequency, they do not purchase it; it still belongs to all of us.
And if they are deemed to not be serving the "public good," they can lose those licenses.
It's my opinion that the rabid right/Christian fundamentalist coalition that is forming against a return of the fairness doctrine is, at its core, afraid to engage in public debate. The najority of these gasbags know in their heart of hearts that they are spreading lies and will look like the fools they are if another program were to air the truth.
That's why Savage, I am convinced, never appears on a public panel, and will not appear on any program where his opinions and "facts" can be disputed and disproved.
"less about discussion than shallow thought and the kind of name calling you would hear in a grade school playground."
You yourself did a little bit of the same... go read your article again.
The Liberal Agenda dominates television, and print media accross the country. What I see is that you want to take over the radio for your propaganda too. Why can't you be satisfied, and not such a "donkey" hat???
Rush Limp Viagra loves u!
There's nothing "fair & balanced" in this article either.
I say, let them continue their hate and anger. Why fight it? It's their right to free speech their exercising. Simultaneously alienating themselves from the rest of us and guaranteeing their eventual extinction. The rest of us can talk about ideas and ways to make a better world. They can continue to point fingers and get angry that nothing seems to be going their way.
Rush is simply telling people the truth about Obama.
Obama has been given a lot of rope by a lot of fools who drank his kool-aid; it's going to be fun to see them hang themselves.
I have been listening live off and on to conservative commentators these last few days and many were gracious in defeat and recognized the historical moment. But I do not think Rush evinced the slightest positive emotion at seeing a black man in this country finally stand at the pinnacle of accomplishment with the good wishes of his countrymen. It was the good old McCain we saw in his concession speech, not the one held captive by the GOP "base." But with Rush it was like it was still election eve, not the day after. Once a hater always a hater.
Rush Limbaugh is a graceless spokesman for the bankrupt right. Corse vulger impolite utterly without class a man his own mother would be ashamed of lacks the decency to call Barack Obama the President Elect thereby showing how much he really despises the United States of America and our democratic traditions. Mr.Limbaugh you act as if we did not have a free and fair election, but we did and for your information it will truely be a cold day in Hell before anyone you support is elected to the highest office in the land. Thug ..it takes one to know one.
You should read the Wrecking Crew How Conservatives Rule by Thomas Frank.
I'm a social moderate/conservative, strict constructionist, foreign policy Realist, and free market conservative. Neither Rush, Savage, nor the failed Bush Administration are my spokesmen. I very much wanted McCain - but hope Obama sticks to governing from the center. We had eight years of a big government administration that completely ignored treaties and sections of the Constitution. We don't need any appeasement of Obama's anti-market base to continue the fiscal and big government binge.
I'm a social moderate/conservative, strict constructionist, foreign policy Realist, and free market conservative. Neither Rush, Savage, nor the failed Bush Administration are my spokesmen. I very much wanted McCain - but hope Obama sticks to governing from the center. We had eight years of a big government administration that completely ignored treaties and sections of the Constitution. We don't need any appeasement of Obama's anti-market base to continue the fiscal and big government binge.
Rush will soon be dead by his own fat pill popping hand. And isn't it great?!!
He is getting fat again, which means a heart attack will soon follow. I don't believe in god, so....thank the SUN that fat bloated gasbag will drop dead and I will be alive to see it!
rush dead?
i hae a beeting line on who dies first
nobama or rush any takers?
It is going to take 6-8 years to dig us out of this economic mess, and more of the same wasn't going to help; that Rush, Hannity, Savage, and others continue to pimp McCain and Palin shouldn't surprise anyone. On the Right, it's about the Grand Old Party--not Country--first.
As for Sarah Palin, she ran one of the sleaziest political campaigns in memory, anchoring her stump speeches in half-truths and conspiracy theories. The Secret Service believes she incited hatred and may have inspired some to contempate assassinating Barack Obama.
There's a lot that Palin doesn't understand--the Constitution, the role of the Vice-President, the concept of Socialism to name a few. As such, I wouldn't be surprised if she also didn't really know about NAFTA, Africa, and so on.
Sarah, however, appears to understand that old saying about payback being a ....
If she has any sense, she'd block out any thoughts of running for national office in 2012. If she was really smart, she would have considered abandoning the Republican Party, just as they seemed to have abandoned her.
This pump and dump of Sarah Palin by the GOP operatives was shameful and should give pause to any voter that still believes this is the party of morals and values.
All you wacko libs were 100% behind bush is 2000 right?
Oh yeah, and Adam DC.. Why don't you try and think up your own talking points because the ones on Media Matters and Daily Koz are getting old..
You hate Rush and Sarah Palin because they are threats!
If any of you actually listened to Rush, instead of getting soundbytes from "countdown" you may understand what he is saying. You're all examples of why liberalism must be defeated for the sake of our country and the world.
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