Rush Limbaugh: Final Days of Elite Media Empire

RUSH: If these documents are forgeries, if CBS has been duped, I don't care by who, they were willing -- I don't know if they're willing accomplices, but they wanted the story to be true. They're not victims here. They have been in the tank for Kerry, CBS has been the network, all those 60 Minutes shows, all those books in conjunction with their parent company, all of the lack of attention of the swift boat vets, CBS hasn't given one shred of notice to these people, or very little, and now this. It's going to be hard for them to come out and throw up their hands, "We've tried to do our job!" Now, you wanted this story to be true, CBS did. I want to take you back to CNN's NewsNight with the face of CNN, Aaron Brown. Jeff Greenfield, this was on Wednesday night. Here's what Greenfield said.

GREENFIELD: I mean that we seem to be in a position where more and more people refuse to believe something if it comes from a source that doesn't agree with them anyway.

RUSH: Stop the tape. What this is about is this story. The latest National Guard story and what you're hearing here, these documents, 60 Minutes II. This aired after 60 Minutes II that same night. And Greenfield is lamenting the fact that nobody is going to believe this -- or that some are going to believe it and some aren't gonna believe it and what does "oh woe is us" this mean?

GREENFIELD: The same people who thought the swift boaties are all politically motivated are probably going to think this story is the revealed truth, and vice-versa. The people who believe that Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, some people on Fox News, are the only sources of "objective" information, if they don't jump on this story, and some of them I doubt will, they're gonna say this is all politics. And I think that's how we debate. I'm trying to figure out these days, is there any group that both sides would say, "Okay, that's a fair-minded observer, and if that source tells me something I'm inclined to believe it?"

RUSH: Jeff, here's the answer to the question, one thing we know now is we can't trust CBS as this fair-minded source. These documents are forged. We just answered your question. The answer to your question, actually your point is obliterated. Lamenting the passing of the old media. Where can people go to believe the information they receive is true and objective? That's what he's wondering there. What will it take to get these narrow ideologues who listen to me and Hannity and Fox to believe rock solid evidence like, say CBS and these National Guard documents, he's asking (Doing Greenfield impression), "What's it going to take? How are we going to get our power back?"

Well, it looks to me more and more like CBS is not the place to go, and neither are the newspapers that parrot it on their front pages what looks to be like CBS's false claims. And I mean the New York Times and the Washington Post, and perhaps your local paper went to town with this, they just couldn't wait. So we have been asking ourselves this question for years, Jeff, what's happened to you? Why can't we trust you? Why can't we -- not you personally -- why can't we trust the elite media in this country? This has been the focus, this has been one of the reasons that conservatism has triumphed is because of the disrespect and the lack of attention, the laughing, the impugning, the making fun of, the attempt to discredit all of us that has gone on all these years in the mainstream press. And to now lament the fact that nobody believed the 60 Minutes story or not enough people did, who's validated here? Who's vindicated here in not believing it? It was a fraud, apparently. The whole thing is a trumped-up, fraudulent story, and sources close to the deceased Colonel Killian are all saying forged documents. All the analysis, even Kerry document experts, I mean people supporting Kerry who are also document experts say these have to be forgeries, these couldn't have been prepared in the 1970s. They come off on a Microsoft Word processing program that did not exist even on IBM Selectric typewriters in the 1970s, which the Army didn't use anyway, they weren't into electric typewriters back then.

So what have we had here in recent years? We've had the CNN/TIME debacle with Peter Arnett, when they went over there and this trumpeted up story about nerve gas and agent orange that U.S. troops used, and I have no doubt that the impetus for that story was fed in part by John Kerry's testimony in 1971 about what a bunch of rotten war criminals American soldiers were and how criminal our actions in Vietnam were. Kerry set the stage in 1971 for every liberal in this country to begin hating the U.S. military and believing that's not standard operating procedure, kill civilians, torch villages, chop off ears, chop off arms, chop off legs, throw people in the water and drown them, that's the kind of thing Kerry said his buddies did in '71, and that's why they're fit to be tied today. So CNN and TIME goes over and does a story about that, narrated by Peter Arnett, claiming we used nerve gas during the Vietnam War. Then we had the New Republic Stephen Glass debacle, the Jayson Blair New York Times debacle, the Jack Kelly USA Today debacle, and perhaps coming to a theater near you, the CBS National Guard debacle. I have forgotten the Janet Cooke debacle at the Washington Post.

This goes on and on. And now guess what's coming up on Monday? Kitty Kelley at The Today Show. Is that going to survive? Is NBC going to rethink putting Kitty Kelley on for three days? Remember, Kitty Kelley, in an ancient book, claimed that Frank Sinatra got a Lewinsky from Nancy Reagan up there in the residence quarters of the White House while Reagan was in the Oval Office. Max Frankel of the New York Times, the editor of the times, ran with that story and had to retract it because it turned out not to be true. Newsweek has backed out of running any excerpts from Kitty Kelley's book because they don't trust her reporting, ditto the Washington Times. Now Kitty Kelley's publisher is threatening to sue for damages because it's going to cost them money if Newsweek and the Washington Post don't run ahead with this. What's NBC going to do in this face of this?

You know, the deeper point I suppose, if this is indeed a document hoax, the deeper point is this. It is yet more evidence, I think the most powerful evidence to date, of the length to which the Bush-haters will go in order to bring down President Bush. This has become emblematic of the kind of corrupt people that we're dealing with on the left and how skeptical everybody has to be about all these slanderous allegations that are being made against the president in the last days of the campaign. Keep in mind, if this turns out to be a forgery, if this turns out to be a bunch of forged documents and a hoax, what are the Democrats going to do then? They have destroyed any bit of credibility for whatever dirt they want to sling in the remaining days of the campaign. Because any dirt they sling is going to be measured against this story, forged documents. Nobody is going to believe anything Terry McAuliffe -- I don't know why anybody believes anything he says anyway, nobody is going to believe what Carville says, nobody is going to believe what Begala says, nobody ought to believe what Kerry says because not even Kerry believes what he says based on the fact he changes what he says every day, every minute, or whatever.

I mean, it is stunning here. And this is what you get when you are obsessed with rage and hatred, you lose rationality. How many of you have been in blind rages in your life? I don't care at who or at what and I don't care how long they lasted, ask yourself, revisit that time in your life, and ask, "Did you do anything smart?" You probably lost your temper, you probably lost your composure, you probably did things you regret, that's where our friends the liberal Democrats are today. I'll tell you where they are. Nothing is working. They've thrown the kitchen sink at Bush. They've thrown every bit of scandal they think they have at Bush and all they are is 9 to 12 points down in the polls as a result. And so I guess desperation set in, somebody somewhere comes up with these documents. The fact that they might have been forged or false or fraudulent, overlooked because they're so eager. They can't come out and tell us what they're for, they can't come out and be positive, they can't come out and be optimistic, why? Because they've set themselves up just the opposite, good news for America is bad news for them. If they all of a sudden start singing the praises of America they're going to be doing a flip-flop on their whole strategery since 2002. So all they can do is stay negative, all they can do is go negative, and when none of the negative works you've got to go even more negative.

And now they've gotten Nixonian. Look what they've become. They have become what they hated. They have become what they despised. They have become what they accuse us of being. I think we are on the cusp of a monumental moment for not just the left, but the media as well. As I have said over and over again, we are in a historical time. And because we are in a historical time, the impact is not so much felt on a day-to-day basis, but you take a look at how long in this country the left ran the show, including the media, and you look at where we are today with that monopoly busted up and stories like this continuing to happen. Their influence on the wane, their impact on the wane, their audience size on the wane, the alternative media, the new media, whatever you want to call it, on the ascension. This 50 or 75 years from now will be looked at by nonpartisan, noninvolved, people not even born yet historians, who will write about this is something seminal, as something monumental and momentous in the changing political makeup of this country. This is a time that's going to be looked back on, when a press revolution was completed, when the old media giants fell, when a monopoly was emphatically shattered, and when the new media solidified its right place as one of the great and good forces in American society which I firmly believe that we are, ladies and gentlemen.

The new media -- and I know, because I was there. I was present at the Creation with a capital C -- has been a boon for those who care about debate within the arena of ideas. The new media has been a boon for alternative points of view. The new media has been a boon for the truth, ladies and gentlemen.

Now, if you look at this, and I mentioned this mere moments ago, in this sterling broadcast hour. If you look at this, there was a three-point attack against Bush's Guard record in the last 48 hours. We had Ben Barnes and special treatment getting into the Guard. Then we had these memos, these apparently forged memos which essentially say that Bush was a slacker and Bush failing to comply with orders and then exerting pressure on Killian, who's now dead, to falsify the record. And then we had the Boston Globe. Bush -- who is in the tank for Kerry, I don't care what Nina Easton says when she calls us. They've got Kranish back on the case now, you know, trying to bail Kerry out of it here. There's a story in the Boston Globe today defending John Kerry's service in the Naval Reserve! The story makes it out like the Republicans are ripping into Kerry's Naval Reserve. It's absurd. Bush has done nothing but praise Kerry's service. You talk about a preemptive, this is a preemptive defensive strike. I don't know what the charge is. I didn't know until today that Kerry was even in the Naval Reserve, but he went to the Naval Reserve when he opted out of Vietnam after the three Purple Hearts. And so I think they're putting the story out there, get ready for any assault on his -- it's just mind-boggling.

So anyway, the third of the three-point attack was the Boston Globe. Bush didn't finish his Guard service even though, as Byron York pointed out -- we shared the details with you yesterday -- George W. Bush had more hours than necessary when all the years of his service, six of them, were added up. It's a bogus story, and the Globe had to run a defensive posture anyway. Why did they do the story now, why didn't they do it months ago or whenever? John Edwards yesterday demanded that Bush explain the memos, which we now know were forgeries. And Tom Harkin is out there making an absolute fool of himself. That's coming up later. Not to mention McAuliffe. You ought to see his statement of Wednesday when it was learned what these forged documents said, this is even better. So we we have Ben Barnes who was interviewed by Rather on Wednesday night. Major Kerry friend, major Kerry fund-raiser, and we know that in 1999 Ben Barnes said under oath that he had not helped Bush.

Then the Boston Globe decided to review again documents that he's had since February just in time to release its new analysis after the convention and Bush's bounce in the polls. Meanwhile, while all this is going on, old Kerry won't release all of his records, and eyewitnesses who question his service, all the vets who have gone on the record are all but ignored and even trashed by the liberal media. The silver lining, the silver lining to all of this, has anybody stopped to consider what the silver lining of all this is? The silver lining to all of this is that it doesn't provide a voter with a single reason to vote for John Kerry. They can do all of these forged document stories they want. The Boston Globe can run interference and try to save Kerry's bacon before he gets in the fat, they can do all these things, they can go out and get Ben Barnes to reverse his story again, but none of it -- calm down here -- none of it, ladies and gentlemen, provides one voter with one reason to vote for John Kerry. This is the greatest illustration of the total ineptitude of the Democratic Party today that I can give you.

They come up with scandal after scandal. This National Guard scandal was first tried by Ma Richards when Bush ran against her for governor of Texas. It has been a bummer and failure of an issue since the early nineties, ladies and gentlemen, and yet they still go back to it. It didn't work for Ma Richards, it didn't work for Gore. It hasn't worked for Kerry. And now they're so frustrated it hasn't worked they've made documents up, apparently, to try to make it work on the fraudulent basis and even that has backfired on them. Even though they've done all this, they haven't given any voter one reason to vote for John Kerry. And here's, as I say, NBC sitting there probably biting their fingernails asking themselves what they do with Kitty Kelley, who they've set aside three days for next week on the Today Show.

I'll tell you something else. As long as you people at CBS conducting this internal investigation, let me be a participant here from afar and give you my thoughts. I don't think Dan Rather should ever have been the reporter handling this story, this Barnett story. Barnett's been on the Travis County Democrat Party finance committee. Dan Rather's daughter Robin has been an activist with that county party. Rather himself in 2001 did a fund-raiser for the Travis County, Texas, Democrats. Rather had to know who Barnes is. He had to have known about Barnes' reputation. He knew Barnes was a top Kerry supporter. Rather had too many personal connections to this. It equaled conflict of interest, and this is why CBS failed to do the kind of due diligence that one would expect from a professional news organization. Dan Rather should have been nowhere near this story. How many news anchors go do fund-raisers for parties? And everybody is talking about Begala and Carville working for Kerry and working for CNN. Hell, that's old news. Dan Rather is doing fund-raisers for Texas Democrats at the request of his wife and then goes and gets that director of that county party as a guest this week on his show, 60 Minutes, and gets the guy to change his story, and then introduces potentially forged documents as well. What is there to investigate, CBS? What do you have to know? What do you not know?

You know, the same media that constantly demands that Bush admit mistakes or apologize isn't demanding the same of CBS, and they won't. In fact, CBS continues to stand by its story. Rather is out there on the streets of New York asking anybody who will listen to believe him that the story was true, despite the fact that everybody knows that this thing is bogus. So you look at what's happened to the liberal media in the last few months and years, Jayson Blair, the New York Times, lying about circulation at Newsday and all these other newspapers, CBS running with bogus documents. The list is expanding. The old media is losing credibility and audience by refusing to acknowledge that and clean up its act. They have all become what they hated, and it's precisely because they are consumed with seething rage and hatred that they have become what they hated.

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"I'm trying to figure out these days, is there any group that both sides would say, "Okay, that's a fair-minded observer, and if that source tells me something I'm inclined to believe it?""

He means, "even if it tells us up is down, black is white, and freedom is slavery". Answer, no, of course not. It is not who says it, it is what is said. That need not be tested in a partisan manner but it is always tested. If you try to tell me things I can see with my own eyes aren't so, then you are a liar and I have no reason to pay any attention. What the Dems have wrong with them is they react that way to mere reports of factual information, if they don't agree not with the world or reality, but with their own past spin, prejudice, etc. They left reality quite a while ago. Republicans haven't. This writer is again pretending there is a moral and intellectual equivalence where there is none.

Republicans don't believe things Democrats say when those things are demonstratively false. Dems don't even listen, they cover their ears, when Republicans tell them things that are demonstrably true. No amount of "love of equality spin" can make those equivalent.

Ditto for me, but my wife couldn't care less about politics and can't understand my distrust of MSM and my boycott of Hollyweird.

Get her registered and have her vote for Bush or divorce her.

This is no game here. Our nation's national security depends on it. Don't sleep with the enemy.

BULL... CBS will be supported by all those that voted for Al Gump.... Evil is as evil does...

True, after all "The National Enquirer" survives.

I tend to agree with Rush however for the gig is up thanks to alternate sources for news, not having to sit and listen/watch the political preaching to get the news one desires anymore, and (drum roll) because of this it has proved to be very effective in showing the bias that is so inherent in the MSM.

---Republicans don't believe things Democrats say when those things are demonstratively false. Dems don't even listen, they cover their ears, when Republicans tell them things that are demonstrably true. ---

That's true! I worked with a person that would literally cover her ears when she heard things that didn't fit with her political view. I saw her do this over a period of two years!

The MSM has propped up the Democrats for so long, they have become one and the same.

Everything the DNC or Kerry does is immediately trumpeted, supported and becomes part of the media's push.

This has got to change. It may be just a house of cards, waiting to collapse.

[ because of this it has proved to be very effective in showing the bias that is so inherent in the MSM. ]

One gets the bias he wants these days... There are many choirs out there RAPPING/singing many tunes. Even here there are several choirs.. Humans are not really very smart... Thats why God made us so that we needed toilet paper unlike all the other creatures.. so that we were forced to observe a little of our daily production.. hopefully at least once a day.... because really what does a human produce except............
(well you know)...

[ Speak for yourself my friend, I'll accept the role of being at the top of the food chain and make the best of the God given ability to reason. ]

SO... I take it, you're mama told you, you were "smart"... and maybe even good lookin...
[(eyebrows moveing up and down) with wry grin]..

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