The Republican Media- No. 8

On CNN's "Reliable Sources" on October 7, 2007, Howie Kurtz discussed the Rush Limbaugh "phony soldiers" comment with three panelists- New York Times columnist Frank Rich, Callie Crossley of WGBH's "Beat the Press," and conservative radio talk show host Michael Medved. Kurtz began by saying "all right, let's play what Rush Limbaugh said on the air and then cut to his explanation after it became a controversy a day or two later." Then the video in its entirety:


UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's really funny is they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue.

RUSH LIMBAUGH, EIB RADIO: The phony soldiers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they're proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice and they're willing to sacrifice for the country.

LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. Morning update on Wednesday of this program dealt with a soldier, a fake, phony soldier, by the name of Jesse MacBeth who never served in Iraq, was never an army ranger. They love phony soldiers and they prop them up.





Except that as MediaMatters.org explains here, this was not the original conversation or the original transcript but rather the amended transcript issued once the controversy arose. Note that after stating "they joined to be in Iraq,. They joined-" Limbaugh was interrupted by the caller, continued the conversation, and did not refer to Jesse MacBeth until one minute, fifty seconds after first mentioning "phony sodiers."


CALLER 2: 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: The phony soldiers.

CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.

LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --

CALLER 2: A lot of them -- the new kids, yeah.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you're going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you're going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.

CALLER 2: Exactly, sir.


So Kurtz/CNN played the amended transcript as if it were a true rendition of the discussion on the 0/26/07 broadcast. This enabled all three guests to criticize the Democratic response, as in:

Rich: "I don't know what the big fuss is."

Medved: "...when you have the U.S. Senate actually talking about a resolution condemning Rush Limbaugh for this expression of opinion, we've really gone too far."

Crossley: "Once the General "Betray Us" ad got as much attention as it got, then people were looking on the other side for something to jump on."


Of course, they were criticizing the Democratic response to remarks which here were ignored by CNN. And, typically, in the interests of moral equivalence and inaccurate "balance," we have Rich claiming "it's a game we play where someone on the left and someone on the right makes some outrageous statement..." and Crossley imagining "tit for tat." Of course, the General "Betray Us" ad was carefully sourced, its accuracy never questioned. Rush Limbaugh then asserted that anti-war soldiers are "phony." Now, without a vote posted by the party in control of Congress to condemn a comment made by a commonly bombastic talk show host, the National Republican Congressional Committee, with a link to their donations page, is using the Limbaugh controversy to raise money. That's right- Congressional Republicans are not condemning Limbaugh, they're embracing him. Greg Sargent of talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth here explains, and reprints, the e-mail sent by Deputy Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia:


NRCC Raising Money Off Rush's "Phony Soldiers" Remark
October 4, 2007 -- 6:01 PM EST // //
Here's an amusing postscript to the whole Rush Limbaugh flap: Far from conceding that there's anything wrong with Rush's remark that troops who don't agree with Bush are "phony soldiers," Republicans in D.C. are now raising money off of Rush's sliming of antiwar troops.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has just sent out a blast email to supporters asking them to sign a petition protesting the Dem persecution of Rush. At the top of the email is a link back to the NRCC's donations page where you can contribute money. The petition -- sent our way by a D.C. pal -- was written by GOP Rep. Eric Cantor, a leading Rush defender. It says, in part:

It is at moments like these when we need to band together as conservatives and fight back.

This issue is bigger than you or me, it is bigger than Rush Limbaugh. With the recent liberal effort to resurrect the "fairness doctrine," we have to recognize that free speech -- conservative free speech is under direct attack. These are issues that speak directly to the core of the modern conservative movement – are we going to allow ourselves to be pushed around by liberal extremists, or are we going to fight back?

I want to send Washington Democrats a message that their attempts to distract aren't working – I stand with Rush Limbaugh against liberal attacks.



This is not both parties sinking to a new level. Only one party.