(Conveniently) Missing The Point

For a paragraph and a half, 13 to 15 sentences, Rush Limbaugh was getting it right. He was right to be annoyed because Chelsea Clinton was hired as a full-time special correspondent for NBC News. Limbaugh commented

Okay, Brian Williams: "I can't wait to hear Chelsea's voice and her viewpoint." Viewpoint? I -- I -- I didn't think as a "down the middle" expert journalist, she was supposed to have a viewpoint. Do you realize, folks... Howard Cosell talked about this in the realm of sports: "The jockocracy." He spoke about all the struggling, hardworking sportscasters, wannabes working in the small markets trying to work their way up to the top of the ladder, only to find that jocks -- when they retired -- with no broadcast experience whatsoever, were put in those positions; and here we have Brian Williams. Do you know how many journalists are out there? They've followed all the rules. They've been working hard to try to destroy somebody in the market they live.

That's number one: You do a profile on somebody destroy 'em or put 'em out of business or what have you, write a profile that just ruins 'em. People are working hard to get hired, and then they go hire somebody that's never done it before, at the highest level! The NBC Nightly News. Somebody who has never granted an interview! They don't know what she sounds like. They're never heard her voice. That's why Brian Williams said, "I can't wait to hear her voice." Nobody's ever heard it. She's never granted an interview.

Limbaugh even favorably alluded to the late liberal Democrat Howard Cosell (a liberal, clearly; whether registered as a Democrat, unknown here, but highly likely), thus suggesting that hiring the unqualified is a problem of long-standing in the world of sports. Limbaugh even avoided the temptation of identifying the decision to hire Al Sharpton as a host at MSNBC as a prime example of individuals with little or no broadcast experience given a prime appointment.

But then Rush went stupid- or, more likely dishonest, given that he's far less concerned with upholding the principle of meritocracy than he is with exuding gross partisanship. Continuing, he claimed

I told you yesterday what this is all about. This is simply the communications arm of the Democrat Party (which is NBC and the media) preparing Chelsea to get her some television experience. You need television to get anywhere in politics. You have to be good on television to get anywhere, and this is simply the preparatory period for her Chelsea Clinton to eventually run for the Senate in New York at some point or whatever state that they think she

can move to and win that will allow that, like New York does.

That's clearly what's happening here.

Oh, dear. Rush Limbaugh was so close to making sense and then it slipped out of his hands.

Glenn Greenwald pulls us back to reality, noting that NBC in August, 2009 hired Jenna Hager, daughter of George W. Bush, as a reporter for the Today show. And just this month, MSNBC announced that Meghan McCain, daughter of John S., has signed on as an MSNBC contributor.

We are awaiting word from Rush as to why these two individuals have decided to join the communications arm of the Democratic Party.

Certainly, Mrs. Hager, Ms. Clinton, and Miss McCain were hired in part because of they would entice the curious to watch NBC or MSNBC. Yet, Greenwald, noting the network's nod to monarchy, sarcastically explains

We all owe our gratitude to NBC News for single-handedly correcting the shameful, long-standing exclusion from our media discourse of the views of young, journalistically accomplished heirs and heiresses to political power and great fortune; it is long overdue that former NYT Executive Editor Bill Keller, son of the CEO and Chairman of Chevron, finally be joined by the next generation.

Someone explain to Rush Limbaugh: that Fox News exists to advance the cause of a political party does not mean that legitimate news networks do so, also.

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