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Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter: Rush Limbaugh Is the ‘Great Blowhard of Our Time’
Newsbusters ^

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: talkradio
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To: Sub-Driver

The Oracle of “CantStandYa” speaks.


41 posted on 08/28/2009 6:01:03 PM PDT by DGHoodini (Iran Azadi!)
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To: Sub-Driver

Well, at least no one heard these comments, given that Chrissy’s audience can fit in to a phone booth.


42 posted on 08/28/2009 6:02:55 PM PDT by Hammer Tym (Skateboarding is a crime)
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To: omega4179

A little short balding fat man, who leg humps the freak show hosts of PMSDNC, late from his job as a Steinbrenner aide.
Usually referred to as “CantStandYa’.”


43 posted on 08/28/2009 6:04:44 PM PDT by DGHoodini (Iran Azadi!)
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To: DGHoodini

44 posted on 08/28/2009 6:06:15 PM PDT by Shady Ray
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To: personalaccts
Compare the love expressed during Ronald Reagan's funeral and the political opportunism just oozing from the left...

you could hardly believe anybody actually liked the man, just his pedigree.

45 posted on 08/28/2009 6:07:10 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: omega4179
Who is John Alter?

Obama's Blowhard Czar.

46 posted on 08/28/2009 6:09:28 PM PDT by NewLand (What does 0bama know and when did he know it?)
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To: incredulous joe

Transparent lightweights like Alter cannot refute what Rush says so they are left with nothing but ad hominem attacks.


47 posted on 08/28/2009 6:09:53 PM PDT by Zman516 (socialists & muslims -- satan's useful idiots.)
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To: DGHoodini
Hey does this Jonathan guy have a Gulfstream? Image and video hosting by TinyPic
48 posted on 08/28/2009 6:12:47 PM PDT by omega4179 ( -14)
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To: Sub-Driver

Greatest Blowhards?

I would nominate Kerry or Biden.


49 posted on 08/28/2009 6:13:18 PM PDT by IDFbunny
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To: Sub-Driver

Well, Jonathan Alter is a blowhard, but he isn’t great at anything.


50 posted on 08/28/2009 6:13:48 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: Shady Ray

You had better luck than I did! :o)

The best one I found was an Amazon ad pick for a ‘Cantstandya T-Shirt.


51 posted on 08/28/2009 6:15:33 PM PDT by DGHoodini (Iran Azadi!)
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To: Sub-Driver

Limbaugh would never have mistaken an Imus parody for breaking news.
Alter made a bigger laughingstock of himself than usual on the Imus show a few years ago.
This was during the time a stewardess was accusing Gary Condit of asking her to sign a false statement giving him some type of alibi during the Chandra Levy disappearance.
Imus pretended to interview the stewardess about Condit
and it was so over the top and so hilarious- only a moron would not have realized that it was a parody.
Alter was coming on next and apparently believed the interview was legit.

When Imus asked Alter what he thought of the interview , he replied
“A lot of what she said could very well be true...”

Alter believed “ the stewardess’s “ claims that she thought Michael Jackson and Condit were having a fling.
Because she found white sequined gloves around the apartment.
And Jacko’s hair in the shower.
And Condit liked to sing Billy Jean during sex.
Alter believed that Condit made her wear a Barney Frank mask in the shower while she bent over for the soap.
Alter believed that Mattel made an S&M Barbie doll and that Condit kept one under his bed.

Scroll down to #6 here for the full transcript that Alter believed was real.
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20010713.asp


52 posted on 08/28/2009 6:22:17 PM PDT by Wild Irish Rogue
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To: GeronL

“Newsweek, how’s that circulation going?”

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/04/16/the_decline_and_fall_of_newsweek_96017.html


53 posted on 08/28/2009 6:23:36 PM PDT by Signalman
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To: Sub-Driver

I sure their audience of 50 moonbats just loved it.


54 posted on 08/28/2009 6:26:02 PM PDT by eyedigress
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To: Sub-Driver

Blowhard. Now there’s an original one.

He’s much smarter than Alter.


55 posted on 08/28/2009 6:29:35 PM PDT by Right Wing Assault
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To: Bobkk47

52% drop since 1990. Sounds like a fail to me.


56 posted on 08/28/2009 6:32:22 PM PDT by GeronL (Liberalism: The gift that keeps on taking)
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To: wardaddy

Very very good.....LMAO !

Hope you an yer family are well WD !!

Stay Safe.....


57 posted on 08/28/2009 6:37:43 PM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: GeronL
"If Ted Kennedy is one of the great senators of our time, Rush Limbaugh takes the crown as the great blowhard of our time."

Well, then if Ted Kennedy is not one of the great senators of our time, Rush Limbaugh does not take the crown as the great blowhard of our time.

Fair enough.

58 posted on 08/28/2009 6:40:29 PM PDT by Wally_Kalbacken
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To: Sub-Driver
"If Ted Kennedy is one of the great senators of our time ...

Alter starts with a false premise.

But, then, that's what he does for a living...

59 posted on 08/28/2009 6:42:19 PM PDT by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance on Parade)
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To: Sub-Driver

Rush Limbaugh is the greatest radio personality of our time. There...I fixed it didn’t I? jonathin alder?????? Yipes.


60 posted on 08/28/2009 7:41:21 PM PDT by cubreporter
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