Rich Tucker: Media Out on a Limbaugh

Townhall ^ | March 6, 2009 | Rich Tucker

[2ndDivisionVet]

So who’s more important, President Barack Obama or radio personality Rush Limbaugh? The answer may surprise you. By at least one mainstream media measure, it’s Rush.

For those who aren’t familiar with the dying newspaper business, it’s critical to remember that editors tend to put the stories they consider most important on page A-1. Thus, the front page of an August 1945 Indianapolis Times carried the headline: “Japs Surrender.” That was the big story at the time, although a framed copy of the newspaper was recently removed from the halls of an Indiana VA hospital in the interest of political correctness.

In any event, on March 4 The Washington Post featured a front-page (“below the fold” as they say, but still) headline: “GOP Seeks Balance With Conservative Icon Limbaugh.” The story went on to examine the tempest Rush stirred up when he announced -- on Feb. 28 -- that he wants “Barack Obama to fail.” Limbaugh made the front of the Post’s Style section March 4 too, by the way, and was back on the front page on March 6, 2009.

To review: Wednesday’s story was a front-pager looking into a story about an event that happened four days earlier. Compare that to, say Obama’s address to Congress (don’t call it a State of the Union, please) the preceding week. Obama spoke on Tuesday, newspapers fawned over his audacious plans on Wednesday, and that was that. By Saturday -- four days later -- you’d search in vain for a front-page story on Obama’s supposedly ground-shifting speech.

In other words, Limbaugh’s four words seem to have had a greater effect than Obama’s thousands of words did. Interesting, that.

The Post managed to dig up the usual suspects to make the usual ad hominem attacks. “Rush is the bloated face and drug-addled voice of the Republican Party,” former Clinton flack Paul Begala told the paper. “Along with lots of others, I intend to continue to turn up the heat until every alleged Republican either endorses or renounces Rush’s statement that he hopes our president fails.”

Some of the “others” Begala plans to work with include politicians on the public payroll. The Politico newspaper reports that Begala and his fellow attack dog James Carville have daily phone conversations with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual.

It should come as little surprise, then, that they’ve coordinated their words. “Emanuel elevated the strategy by bringing up the conservative talker, unprompted, on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ and calling him the ‘the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party’,” Politico reported.

Well, someone had to be.

Anyway, it’s odd that all Americans are apparently supposed to suddenly fall into line behind the president. Sure, we all want the country to succeed -- but many of us (Limbaugh included) think Obama’s policies would take the country in the wrong direction. It’s unclear why anyone would support, for example, the socialization of health care. It hasn’t worked in the U.K. or Canada, so why import it?

It’s also worth remembering that, during the Bush years, liberals not only wanted the president to fail, they actively worked to bring about his failure. That’s called “politics.” In fact, they even declared he’d failed when he hadn’t.

Remember Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s announcement in April 2007 that, “this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday”? That came as Americans were fighting and dying in Iraq, so the stakes were slightly higher than they are today when we wonder whether the president will succeed in his attempts to federalize the health care system.

If we’d followed Reid’s advice, or that of his then-fellow Sen. Barack Obama, the U.S. would have lost the war in Iraq. Instead, it’s generally accepted that, because of the surge, we’ve won.

One thing is clear: the White House listens to Limbaugh. It was only after Rush criticized Obama for failing to talk up the markets that Obama suddenly decided to remind people that this might be a good time to buy stocks. Coincidence?

But it’s also a pleasant and necessary change from a few weeks back, when the president stumped for his supposed “stimulus” bill by proclaiming that our economy was in free-fall and might never recover unless his massive spending bill became law.

So who’s more important?

Any president can command the front page any time he wants. “The Constitution gives me relevance,” as Bill Clinton explained (irrelevantly) in 1995. An entertainer such as Limbaugh can achieve relevance only if his ideas deserve it. The Washington Post, for one, seems to think they do -- more so, maybe, than the president’s own ideas.

[wardaddy]

I say Japs.

I say oriental too...that means Mongoliod race

Asian means...well...hell I’m not sure

screw em they don’t like it

everyone is so pissy

[2ndDivisionVet]

Carville and Begala make me think that David Icke is on to something with his “reptilian overlords” talk... LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx0jQAh0aaw

[CurlyDave]

That came as Americans were fighting and dying in Iraq, so the stakes were slightly higher than they are today when we wonder whether the president will succeed in his attempts to federalize the health care system.

This is just plain not true.

A federalized health system will kill more Americans in a week than the worst year of the Iraq war. Now they will be older, more infirm and possibly handicapped, but there will be lots and lots of people going to premature death under the leadership of the One.

[ken21]

>It’s unclear why anyone would support, for example, the socialization of health care. It hasn’t worked in the U.K. or Canada, so why import it?

because it will destroy our economy.

[Birch T. Barlow]

You know what is weird - AM Radio was dying and heading towards dinosaur status until Rush breathed life into AM radio.

Radio is in a very interesting state right now. Companies on the verge of collapse. There will be changes, and AM may still die. Not because of their failure, but because the successful AM programming of News/Talk/Sports will all shift into FM to take the place of music stations that are no longer viable as young people stop listening to the radio for music.

[Redbob]

"No republican president will have the guts to gut the federal government."

Then we need someone from outside the GOP, someone with the guts to risk being a one-term President, if it means righting the ship of state and putting us back on the right heading.

[bdfromlv]

Rush makes 30 million a year and is his own man doing what he likes. Why have to give that up for 4 years for 1% of the pay when he can lead conservatives and not ruin his life.

[RayChuang88]

There will be changes, and AM may still die. Not because of their failure, but because the successful AM programming of News/Talk/Sports will all shift into FM to take the place of music stations that are no longer viable as young people stop listening to the radio for music.

I have to disagree here!

Remember, with news, talk radio and sports, you don't need the high quality sound so necessary for music. As such, with can get with the limited audio quality of AM because unlike FM, AM signals travel well beyond line of sight, which means you can hear the signal well over 100 miles from the transmitter site in daytime and often thousands of miles from the transmitter at night. (Indeed, for many years one reason why the St. Louis Cardinals had so many fans was the fact KMOX's radio signal literally blanketed the entire Midwest with its 50,000 watt signal.)

In short, FM is literally dying, while AM will continue to flourish because of its long range transmitting capability.

[wardaddy]

duty...a lost concept I realize

maybe destiny sounds better