Posted on 08/28/2009 5:05:57 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter: Rush Limbaugh Is the ‘Great Blowhard of Our Time’ By Scott Whitlock Created 2009-08-28 18:10
Newsweek columnist and editor Jonathan Alter [1] appeared on Friday’s Hardball and slammed Rush Limbaugh as the "great blowhard of our time." Host Chris Matthews prompted the quote when he discussed how Limbaugh had criticized him on his radio show for calling Barack Obama the "last brother" of the Kennedy clan. Referring to Ted Kennedy's death, Matthews snarled, "What is the matter with these people? Can't they take a week off, Jonathan? Just take a week off. It's a funeral."
Responding to the Hardball anchor’s complaint, Alter attacked, "If Ted Kennedy is one of the great senators of our time, Rush Limbaugh takes the crown as the great blowhard of our time." The Newsweek editor derided, "There's nobody who would have criticized Rush Limbaugh if he had talked about a brother because there's so many other things to criticize him for, other outrageous things that he says almost every day on the radio."
On August 26, the MRC’s Tim Graham [1] blogged about the original Matthews quote, which occurred on Wednesday’s Today show:
MSNBC host Chris Matthews appeared three times on Wednesday’s Today show to lionize Sen. Ted Kennedy, and twice he promoted Barack Obama as the "last brother" of the Kennedy political tradition. He tried to clarify a little in his appearance in the 10 am hour: "I don’t mean that in an ethnic sense or a black sense. I mean a brother of the Kennedy tradition. And I think he’s the new brother, not that last brother."
Rush Limbaugh joked on Wednesday that he wouldn’t be allowed by the media to use the word "brother" to describe Obama. Matthews suggested Kennedy "took a while to grow up," but portrayed him as the great brother who ran for president not out of power lust, but to bring back the Jack-and-Bobby aura.
A transcript of the Hardball exchange, which aired at 5:35pm EDT on August 28, follows:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: The other day, Rush Limbaugh, in his inimitable fashion, said that I had done something he would have got in trouble for. Please explain. I need a Biblical exegesis for this. I said that last year Ted Kennedy passed the torch of the Kennedy brotherhood to Barack Obama, making him the next Kennedy, and it was so clear to everybody that's what was going on, in fact, we put it in the documentary. He said if he has said something like that he would have been accused of making an ethnic slur, because I used the word brother. Even though, in terms of brotherhood, I point out, I’m not using this- I said it at the time, not in an ethnic sense, not in any racial sense, brother in the sense of sibling brother, actual brother. And he jumped up and made himself into a victim again. What is the matter with these people? Can't they take a week off, Jonathan? Just take a week off. It's a funeral. Take a week off from politics.
JONATHAN ALTER: He’s one of the- If Ted Kennedy is one of the great senators of our time, Rush Limbaugh takes the crown as the great blowhard of our time. There's nobody who would have criticized Rush Limbaugh if he had talked about a brother because there's so many other things to criticize him for, other outrageous things that he says almost every day on the radio. So he's just blowing smoke.
MATTHEWS: I think it's an attempt at victimhood.
In the REICH mode of "short People ain't got no etc etc"??
Jonathan who?
And no, Ted Kennedy was a bigger one and he’s now dead.
Pulled out an old Dead Kennedys tape and played a song in honor of Ted’s death.
Didn’t Rush say he was on vacation next week? These silly boys love to shoot off their fiery darts hoping they might receive some ‘real’ national media attention via Rush. And on the radio at that. I have my doubts this ‘ad’ is going to be at the top of Rush’s stack when he returns.
We'll take a week off when the last liberal is dead!!
Sorry, but that title belongs to Al Gore
I see Jonathon is still pulling his hair out.
So what did those guys think of the Michael Kelly piece that Rush read on air yesterday about the “waitress sandwich”?
How about the guy on NPR who commented that Kennedy relished hearing Mary Jo Kopeckne jokes?
How about Michael Medved, who worked for Ted, and was a cool aid drinking lib at the time; and recounted how Kennedy was a debauched falldown drunk ~ all the time that he worked with him??
What does Alter think of that?? Probably not much, since he’s a liberal, crackpot propogandist!
Jealous because Rush isn’t about to go out of business like Newsweek
Ahhhh hahahahahahahaha.. A hole knows that Rush is truly the 'great Blowtorch' of our time. Alter by comparison is a flickering match flame in a gale wind. Rush is golden but Alter is molden---I suspect deep down inside he knows it too.
Snippets: Earlier this week, rumors began circulating about a major drop in circulation for Newsweek. Some were suggesting a drop from a rate base of 2.6 million to 1 million. A rate base, by the way, is the circulation you guarantee to advertisers.
Well, it’s not a rumor anymore. The Wall Street Journal has the details — and it doesn’t look so good for the Washington Post Co. news weekly:
Newsweek magazine is planning staff cuts as part of a major makeover that is likely to result in a slimmer publication with fewer subscribers and more photos and opinion inside its pages, according to people close to the magazine.
Recently, Newsweek has emphasized commentary on hot-button issues, such as gay marriage, by big-name journalists like editor Jon Meacham and international editor Fareed Zakaria, as well as contributions from political operatives and academics like Michael Beschloss and Sean Wilentz.
And how are these provocative pieces on hot-button issues working out for Newsweek? Well, they’re more or less the laughingstock of the journalism world right now and they’ve had to disable commenting functions. The Journal reports that Newsweek Chief Executive Tom Ascheim’s email account was unable to handle the volume this week.
Rush: Up Arrow. Chrissy and Little Johnie Alter: Down Arrows.
“Yippi-ki-ay, mother...!”
I used to see this crap weasel occasionally on Don Imus who has always maintained a rather strange collection of liberal wackos for his radio program. Alter always impressed me as pretty much useless, a liberal simp able to reel off the left wing talking points dujour but not capable of much beyond that. I also found him entirely unlikable, much like the rest of the pack.
“Matthews snarled, “What is the matter with these people? Can’t they take a week off, Jonathan? Just take a week off. It’s a funeral.”
We are a Juggernaut Crissy, and before it all shakes out in the end your career is going look like Teddy’s waterlogged Olds 88.
Jonathan..Is this bugging you ? Is this bugging you? I’m not touching you.Haw.
Rush creates more brilliance in one 15 minute monologue than Alter has created in his career. And Rush’s brilliance spills continually out of one half of his brain.<
He is all excited about the Kennedy Death Festival.
What is Newsweek’s circ numbers? 2 mil? And Rush has, what, 20 million listeners? (I am just guessing here, I invite corrections).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.