Limbaugh Falls for Obama Thesis Hoax - But Is In No Rush to Apologize

New York Daily News ^ | Sunday, October 25th 2009 | Michael Saul

[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."

[mnehring]

I don’t think that Jumping in Pools had a satire tag. They don’t bill themselves as satire, they are just BS artists. IMHO, that is a troll site to dump bad stories on the right and see what they pick up. They already had a long reputation here for not being trustworthy.

[Cicero]

Apart from the fact that Rush withdrew the story, how does this idiot reporter know that the thesis is NOT anti-American? Since Obama has managed to send it down the memory hole.

I say it was almost certainly an attack on his country, like the article in the Columbia newspaper on the same subject that he wrote about that time. Can this jerk prove otherwise?

[RobRoy]

I wondered about that. It didn’t fit Rush’s MO. What you said does...

[kittykat77]

I don’t think that Jumping in Pools had a satire tag.

Oops. See, that's what I get for not going back to the original source. Thanks for pointing this out.

[A message]

by the way, I believe Rush already SAID it was satire on his show

You are correct!

[Doohickey]

And of course, we all know what Obama’s real thesis says.

We do, don’t we?

What? We don’t?

[steve-b]

In fact, he says, why the President never said what the hoax claimed, "we know he thinks it."

Separated At Birth -- as proven by FAKE BUT ACCURATE natal records....