Posted on 10/26/2009 12:37:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
And still no apology.
Even when conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh runs with a fabricated story, he doesn't apologize for the error.
Limbaugh, who seizes on every opportunity to blast Obama, ended up with egg on his face when he read an Internet satire piece that claimed President Obama dissed the Constitution in his college thesis at Columbia University.
A transcript of his Friday broadcast remains Sunday at the top of Limbaugh's web page under the headline, "Obama's Disdain for Constitution: We Know He Thinks It, Don't We? When we discover a hoax, we correct it immediately."
But apologize? You betcha there's none.
Limbaugh sounded off Friday on a supposed report that Time magazine reporter Joe Klein had unearthed Obama's college thesis, titled "Aristocracy Reborn," in which he sounded off on the nation's Founding Fathers and the Constitution and the distribution of wealth.
The only problem - the report was pure fiction.
The original post with the fabricated details about Obama's college thesis was written as a satire on a humor blog. An obscure blogger, Michael Leeden, mistakenly picked it BYup, reporting the satirical post as fact, and then Limbaugh ran with it on his national radio show Friday.
Leeden has since apologized.
Limbaugh? Not so much.
In fact, he says, why the President never said what the hoax claimed, "we know he thinks it."
"So here is who we have as our president of the United States: an anti-constitutionalist man who finds it an obstacle and is finding ways around it on purpose, unconstitutionally," Limbaugh said on his show.
"Much of what he's doing is unconstitutional, and I'm waiting for the lawsuits to be filed by some of these people at some point," Limbaugh added. "How is that hope and change working out for ya, folks?"
Later in the same program, when Limbaugh learned the report was a hoax, he corrected the record, alerting listeners that the quotes from the thesis had been fabricated. But he insisted the fabricated thesis was still in line with what the president thinks.
"So I shout from the mountaintops: 'It was satire!'" Limbaugh said on the program. "But we know he (Obama) thinks it. Good comedy, to be comedy, must contain an element of truth, and we know how he feels about distribution of wealth."
Limbaugh said he has license to go with the fabrication because other members of the media have done this to him. "So, I can say, "I don't care if these quotes are made up," he said. "I know Obama thinks it.
"You know why I know Obama thinks it? Because I've heard him say it."
The fabricated thesis pokes fun at the president's position on economic freedom.
"The so-called Founders did not allow for economic freedom," the satire on Obama's thesis says.
"While political freedom is supposedly a cornerstone of the document, the distribution of wealth is not even mentioned. While many believed that the new Constitution gave them liberty, it instead fitted them with the shackles of hypocrisy."
In a post Friday, Time's Joe Klein says the report is false.
"A report is circulating among the wingnuts that I had a peek at Barack Obama's senior thesis. It is completely false," he wrote. "I've never seen Obama's thesis. I have no idea where this report comes from--but I can assure you that it's complete nonsense."
I figured as much.
And notice no one on the left asks where’s the thesis?
Just as they don’t ask where’s the $12.50 longform birth certificate?
But we have some person of no substance calling others “wingnuts”.
Lots of name-calling and no search for the facts is what characterizes the leftist media.
What about that thesis from Mrs 0 that was making the rounds of the web? I sure hope that was a fake because it sounded like it was written by a grade school student!
One must listen to Rush very carefully. The MSM does not! To those who do pay attention, the MSM looks very foolish and hypocritical. Rush's playing with the MSM gets him a lot of notoriety, but it seems like it take years to set the record straight about what actually happened when he does stuff like this. The issue of the phoney soldier remark was resolved rather quickly, but the McNabb thing still has some legs.
The idiotic Left is falling yet again for Rush’s giant setup. Rush knew all along the story was false, yet he went along pretending it was true. Only to “discover” later that it wasn’t but still maintaining his original point because we know Obama thinks those thoughts in his head anyway. Actual facts do not matter. What matters is what we KNOW to be true.
Illustrating absurdity by being absurd. Fantastically done, Rush ! :)
I don’t exactly see what the problem is... He REPORTED it as un-verified...and when it was found out to be a hoax he reported that immediately...
it SOUNDS so much like Obama it could be true...
Screw your ‘apology’
I have a feeling if he DOES offer an ‘apology’ it will be scathing and worse than any perceived injury they already see...
Michael Saul, New York Daily News is so gay/metrosexual
Rush played a clip of Obama saying those things about the constitution and redsitributing wealth.
He also said there was not a source for the “news” article so he couldn’t say it was real but we all know that Obama wants to do those things
The story was fake but accurate.
As has already been posted, Rush had first said he wasn't sure about it and then, on the same show announced that it wasn't true.
However, the best way to prove it's false is to produce Obama's real thesis at Columbia University.
Still waiting...
It’s the old Dan Rather “we know it’s true even though there is no proof” bit. Sucks to be on the other side of that, doesn’t it Barry?
I suggest that Michael Saul and the rest of the OLD MEDIA compare their accuracy rate to Rush Limbaugh's! They should sweep around their own door before trying to clean up around someone elses!
Perhaps the leftist-extremist should appologize to Sarah Palin first and maybe even GWB first.
The reporter just copied and pasted from Media Matters again, what crap.
Ledeen, BTW, is no “blogger” but a respected foreign policy analyst.
Rush was playing the media. The mainstream media, paragons of fact-checking, ran with false quotes which they used to libel and smear Rush; most of them never apologized, and instead said things like that the quotes are what Rush was thinking.
Rush took this satire opportunity to demonstrate their hypocrisy. Every word he said about this piece is right out of the words the mainstream media used talking about Rush and racism. But they don’t recognize that, because they are too stupid.
BTW< this also pokes fun at the MSM because they all have to admit that they never saw Obama’s thesis, and that they don’t care that they never saw it.
Let me get this straight, There saying that “The NY Daily News is playing fast and loose with the facts on this.” in their claim that Rush “is playing fast and loose with the facts” on something else because other reportors have have “played fast and loose with the facts” on other reports about him?
What is Rush accuracy rate? 98.7 last I remember.
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