Kansas City Star Defends Sportswriter’s Use of Phony Limbaugh Quotes

adastrum.kansascity.com ^ | 10/15/2009 | Derek Donovan

[GVnana]

About that Whitlock/Limbaugh spat
Welcome, BigGovernment.com readers. A couple of points:

1. Please read what I actually wrote below, not what the inaccurate headline on Breitbart's BigGovernment.com says I wrote. I am emphatically not The Kansas City Star. I am its readers' representative. Approximately 75 - 80 percent of what I air here and in my column comes from conservatives' critiques of the paper and KansasCity.com. My record is clear throughout my years in this post.

2. I do not "defend" Whitlock's column for FoxSports here. In fact, if you will read the post below, you will see I say that I believe using questionable or false quotes weakens anyone's argument substantially.

[GVnana]

And then Derek Donovan goes on to defend Whitlock. (FR headline from BigGovernment.com.)

[jarofants]

I'm from KC and nobody reads The Star and Whitlock is a joke!!!

[Always Right]

Here is the email I wrote Whitlock the day he wrote the column. Never got any response...

If Rush is such a bigot, why are the only quotes used to prove it complete lies? The book you attributed the quotes from Rush sources its material to a Media Matters report (Meet the New Rush, Same as the Old Rush, which is available online). However neither of these quotes came from that report. This book put out those quotes and provides no source for these two disturbing quotes. They were made up by a blogger. Shame on you for lynching Rush with false quotes.

[Jemian]

How do you defend the indefensible?

[SunkenCiv]

My record is clear throughout my years in this post.

And if it hadn't been before, it sure is now.

[rae4palin]

These slanderers are starting to get scared by the thought of lawsuits. Imagine how many lawyers Rush can hire.

[lmc12]

when is he going to sue these dorks, that’ll get their attention.

[bustinchops]

I just want Tawana Sharpton and Hymietown Jackson, among others, sued for a billion dollars apiece.

[bustinchops]

Hopefully as soon as Rush’s lawyers find the best venue in which to sue, analyze all the facts, prepare the complaint and file.

I think it’s CNN that is already back-pedaling.

[RU88]

They don’t call it the Kansas City “Red Star” for nothing!

[tobyhill]

***This column was not written for or edited by The Star or KansasCity.com, so its content is up to Whitlock and his FoxSports editors.***

He is correct only to the extent that The Star or KansasCity.com didn't write it but they too failed to fact-check what was written.

[pnh102]

Didn’t Dan Rather try this sort of defense?

[nhwingut]

I recall Whitlock being on the right side during past racial controversies. Oh, well.

[nhwingut]

Bingo. This seems to be their defense, i.e. Rather.

Well.. He might not have said it. But he's still divisive so he must be racist. So we couldn't give him the benefit of doubt. But sorry sort of, our bad.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

“Didn’t Dan Rather try this sort of defense?”

“Courage.”

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Rush has a free page open about this [general issue]:

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_101409/content/01125112.guest.html

[It won’t be open free forever. He needs a strong war chest.]

Here are the background links Rush provides on that page:
• New York Observer: Rick Sanchez Is CNN’s Teflon Man! - 10.09.2007
http://www.observer.com/2007/rick-sanchez-cnn-s-teflon-man?page=1

• Miami New Times: The Forgotten Man. Eight Months After He Got Hit by Channel 7 Anchorman Rick Sanchez’s Volvo, Jeffrey Smuzinick is Doing Poorly. His Family is Just Plain Doing Poor - 08.07.1991
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1991-08-07/news/the-forgotten-man

• Sweetness and Light: Sharpton?s Million Dollar Shakedown Racket
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/al-sharptons-big-bucks-extortion-racket

• RedState: Rick Sanchez of CNN Ran Over a Man Then Fled the Scene.
Two Hours Later, Sanchez Was Still Drunk
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/10/13/rick-sanchez-of-cnn-ran-over-a-man-then-fled-the-scene-two-hours-later-sanchez-was-still-drunk/

• New York Times: Wondering About Opportunity as Vick’s Wait Goes On - 08.08.2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/sports/football/08rhoden.html

• New York Post: Rev. Al Sharpton Soaks Up Boycott Bucks - 06.15.2008
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_101409/content/

• New York Times: Jesse Jackson Aims for the Mainstream - 11.29.1987
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/29/magazine/jesse-jackson-aims-for-the-mainstream.html?pagewanted=all

• ABCNews: Jesse Jackson Admits Affair, Illegitimate Child Civil
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=122032&page=1&page=1

Rights Leader Acknowledges Fathering a Child Out of Wedlock - 01.18.2000
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=122032&page=1&page=1

• Salon: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell - Jake Tapper. 08.17.2000
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/08/16/jackson/index.html

• NewsBusters: Democrat Congresswoman Bashes Rush Limbaugh on House Floor
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/10/14/democrat-congresswoman-bashes-rush-limbaugh-house-floor

[Grimmy]

He better not stop at simply driving them out of the business, he better go scorched earth on em and take everything they own and turn em out into the street, penniless.

Too much as gone too far for too long. They want a fight. It’s time someone stood up and taught em what a fight means.

[RoadTest]

Kansas City? I thought it was a St. Louis team Rush was going to buy?

[Texas resident]

I would love to see Mark Levin tear into cnn and all the rest of them. Rush ought to really sue the crap out of these people and keep dragging them into court over and over. Judo. Use their strentgh against them.

[kempster]

Landmark Legal Foundation would be a great source for attorneys. I would love it.