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May 13, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:05
May 13, 2013, Monday, Hour #3
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The views expressed by the host on this program still documented to be almost always right 99.7% of the time.
And the reason we're right almost always is because this is a program that's devoted to the pursuit of truth relentlessly and undeniably.
And we find it.
It's great to have you with us, my friends.
Telephone number if you want to be on the program 800-282-2882 and the email address lrushbo at eibnet.com.
Look, there are other things happening out there in addition to the IRS and Benghazi.
And we're all over both.
And I want to get into some of these other things because I've always had a practice of never being sidelined or deterred.
You've heard the, I mean, there's a theory out there now that the only reason the IRS stuff was acknowledged and admitted to was to cover up Benghazi, was to get the press attention off of Benghazi, because that's what's really damaging.
And I've had people, everybody tries to tell me how to do this job every day, even now, during the break.
Rush!
Rush, you're being buffaloed.
You're being used.
You're talking about this IRS thing.
Everybody understands that.
Stay focused on Benghazi.
You're falling for the trick.
I'm not falling for any tricks.
We cover everything top to bottom, inside and out, sideways to sideways here.
And that's why there are other things happening out there that I want to touch on.
For example, Scott Pelley of CBS News, in the midst of receiving an award recently, admitted they don't get anything right.
Scott Pelley, we are getting big stories wrong over and over again.
Our buddies at Newsbusters had this story.
Scott Pelley deserves grudging credit for recognizing something obvious at a Friday luncheon in New York.
Readers tempted to go beyond that point would be advised to visit the archive of Pelley-related posts at Newsbusters on his brand of so-called journalism.
At this luncheon on Friday, Scott Pelley got the 20th annual Fred Friendly First Amendment Award from the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University.
In his acceptance speech, Scott Pelley, who is the anchor for the CBS Evening News, by the way, for you low-information listeners, Scott Pelley spoke of journalistic failures during the past few months.
And when you hear what he had to say and what it implies, it becomes clear that he's concerned with the falling reputation that the mainstream media is engaged in now.
And he says, we're getting big stories wrong over and over again.
Now, the story here, this, I have it from the Weekly Standard, and their coverage of the Scott Pelley.
I just find it fascinating.
He's in the midst of getting the Fred Friendly Award, and he admits how wrong he was on something and how wrong his industry is.
Now, admittedly, he's worried about it.
We'll grant him that.
But still, he's getting an award, folks, which is what the left does for itself and its ranking members.
When things are going very wrong, when one of them's in deep doo-doo, they give him an award for what they do.
Now, to me, what's newsworthy about the Weekly Standard story is how disingenuous it is.
Yes, the networks keep getting stories wrong over and over again.
But in my mind, the biggest problem is not how they get details of breaking stories wrong because of their desire to be first with the news.
That was his point.
You know, we need to be more restrained.
And he cited all the errors he made in the original reporting of the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
He wasn't the only one.
Everybody was wrong.
I mean, everything that happened the first three hours of that story was wrong, no matter who you heard it from.
And he claims that it's because, well, everybody wants to be first, and so we're not properly restrained when checking sources and so forth.
I have the far greater problem in the news.
I mean, if you can single out one thing, and it's tough to do, but the far greater problem is their practice of selecting news stories and then shaping them just to advance their agenda, the narrative every day.
Newtown is a textbook example of this.
And their coverage of the Boston bombings, a textbook example of them trying, but ultimately failing to shape the story to fit their agenda.
They have a narrative.
When a gun is in a story, there's a narrative.
And the narrative is it could have been prevented with stricter gun control laws and everything they think about gun control.
And so they report the story from that perspective.
Gabby Giffords had to be the Tea Party that did it.
It had to be law-abiding Americans who went nuts with guns.
And if they didn't have guns, it wouldn't have happened.
It turns out they're always wrong in their first assertions about any story that they do.
And the stories they do are tailored for their agenda.
Same thing with the Boston bombing story.
You remember they had to be dragged kicking and screaming into that.
The Boston, remember the first story?
Let's hope that the bomber is white.
Because if he's not, it's going to harm liberalism.
That was a salon.com writer.
But that pretty much is the narrative and the agenda for all of these guys.
Now, Scott Pelley piously talks about how America is strong because its journalism is strong.
And that's how democracies work.
They're only as good as the quality of the information the public possesses.
And that's where we come in.
Well, let's examine that.
The American public is woefully ignorant of things going on in America today.
The American public is woefully uneducated.
The American public is embarrassingly untold, embarrassingly uninformed.
And that's because of the terrible state of journalism.
It's doing terrible damage to our country.
Our country relies on an informed citizenry to survive.
Our country can only survive if more and more citizens understand the founding of this country.
The founding of this country is what makes it special.
Our entire history, from the pilgrims arriving at Plymouth Rock all through the colonies, the Revolutionary War, if that isn't taught, if the Declaration and its meaning and its context are not taught, if the Constitution isn't taught, if none of these things are taken into account when reporting on America, if the American people are not properly educated, they're not properly informed, this country is not going to exist as it was founded.
It's just that simple.
But because of the woeful state of journalism, because of the agenda orientation and the practice they have of shaping every story to fit their narrative, which is a narrative of liberalism, It is my contention that the American, that's why we have low information voters.
It's why they're called that.
Low information, because of who?
Because of what?
Because the places they go for their quote-unquote journalism aren't telling them things that are worthwhile.
And so we have an increasing number of ignorant.
It's not that they're getting things wrong, per se.
You can fix something that you misreport.
But if your foundation is flawed, and it is my contention that modern journalism's foundation is fatally flawed, and you're going to end up with a country that cannot hold on to what it was given, you're going to have a country that can't hold on to the precious uniqueness of its own founding.
That's what scares me the most is the rising ignorance of how this country came to be, of what is special and unique about this country, the whole concept of American exceptionalism and what it is.
Modern journalism doesn't even accept that premise.
Modern journalism, modern liberalism, American exceptionalism, that's bragging.
That's not something worth reporting.
That's something to be ashamed of, to even be thinking that way.
And it's not.
It's just the opposite of that.
And I think that this rising tide of low information ignorance, and I'm not talking about IQ or intelligence, you only know what you're taught.
You only know what you learn.
Many people are only told what they see, only learn what they see.
The people of this country are being dumbed down intentionally in order to make it all easier for the Democrats in the media and their allies to advance their agenda.
It is clear, folks, the more informed the public, the tougher time the Democrats are going to have with their agenda.
And the more informed the public, the tougher time journalism is going to have.
You know, there's more than just sharing a liberal agenda with the Democrats at work here.
The Obama administration has been careful to hire people who are related to people high up in the news business.
For example, I mentioned this earlier in the program.
CBS News president David Rhodes has a brother named Ben.
Now, stop and think of this for a second.
CBS News president David Rhodes, brother named Ben, who was Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication, especially concerning the Middle East.
Ben Rhodes wrote Obama's infamous Cairo speech.
His brother is the CBS News president.
It speaks for itself.
Now we know that Ben Rhodes was a key player in revising the Benghazi talking points last September.
So does it make perfect sense that his brother would carry the agenda of his brother?
The brother at CBS News would, I mean, no brother wants to harm another brother.
If your brother's writing Obama's speeches, if your brother is moderating or monitoring and altering the talking points, and you're at CBS News, what are you going to do?
You're going to expose the talking points as fraudulent?
No way.
Journalism has many more problems than getting it wrong.
Because as I say, honest mistakes can be corrected like that.
I mean, instantly.
You can fix it instantly.
That's not the problem.
Try this.
The president of ABC News' sister also works for Obama.
Ben Sherwood, ABC News president's sister Elizabeth Sherwood Randall, special assistant to Barack Obama.
She's also a specialist on the Middle East.
CNN's Deputy Bureau Chief, Virginia Mosley, is married to Hillary Clinton's former deputy Tom Nides.
Tom Nides was Hillary's Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources.
So it's no wonder that Benghazi, along with every other Obama scandal, has been softpeddled by CBS, ABC, and CNN.
And of course, Obama's close relationship with NBC goes without saying.
You think, let's look at it this way, if my brother were not a columnist and agent, but instead wrote Mitt Romney speeches, do you think there would be attention paid to that by the drive-by media?
They think nothing of it.
Dana Bash, CNN, her ex-husband, worked for Jane Harmon.
You would be stunned to learn of all of the spouses of news people who work for the administration or members of Congress of the Senate.
You would be blown away.
David Gregory, meet the press.
His wife is one of the chief lawyers or was over at Fannie Mae.
You think they're going to get honest reporting on NBC about the subprime mortgage scandal?
Nothing that's going to hurt his wife is going to be reported there, guarantee you.
I mean, that's just human nature.
That town is incestuous.
That's what I've always meant when I've talked about liberals run that town, both professionally and socially.
Jay Carney wife is Claire Shipman, formerly of CNN, now of ABC.
Jay Carney used to work at Time Magazine.
Before that, well, actually, he worked for Biden.
He left Time Magazine to work for Biden, I guess, got bored there or did so well there, he got promoted to the White House when Gibbs left.
But you would be amazed to learn of all of these things.
Now, let me give you a few newsbusters posts from the past year just on Scott Pelly.
Remember, Pelly is out there getting the Fred Friendly Award, talking about how the news business is getting big stories wrong over and over again.
December 20th, 2012, CBS Scott Pelley labels Bork arch conservative, provides innocuous definition of to Bork on November 1st, 2012.
As the big three networks even news shows ignore Benghazi, their audience decline continues.
September 21st, 2012, ABC, CBS, NBC, Hype Romney, hidden camera tape, Barry Obama's redistribution clip.
These are all stories involving Scott Pelley, things he did not report on or things he did that fit their narrative.
While he's giving a speech on how wrong they get things.
September 6th, 2012, Pelley and Williams zinged Mrs. Romney from the left but avoid contentious politics with Mrs. Obama.
August 27th, 2012, CBS's Pelley presses Mitt Romney.
I wonder how you would explain this Republican Party to your father.
Pelly was interviewing Romney, and the premise was, boy, this Republican Party is nothing but a Tea Party wacko extremists.
Your dad was a great moderate.
Your dad was a great middle-of-the-road Republican.
Your dad wouldn't understand the party.
Isn't that right, Mitt?
So I just find it fascinating.
These guys, they think that they are the glue holding the Constitution together.
That's why they think they're above all kinds of normal day-to-day concerns.
You got to take a timeout.
Sit tight.
We'll be back much more straight ahead.
Do not go away.
A verdict has been announced.
A verdict has been reached.
We don't know what it is yet in the Gosnell case.
And it's going to be very interesting to see if the drive-bys will cover the verdict given how studiously they have Gosnell the actual case.
Do you know what to Gosnell is?
What is Tugosnell?
What does that mean?
No, no.
Gosnelled is the new media term meaning ignored or aborted with prejudice.
To Gosnell is to ignore or abort with prejudice.
So let's see if the media Gosnells the verdict here.
I doubt that they will.
They're hoping.
You know what they're hoping for in this verdict, don't you?
Damn right.
They're excited.
A couple jurors said earlier today were hung on a couple of counts.
They would love nothing more than there would be an acquittal.
I guarantee you.
You don't.
You think they'll be disappointed if there's a conviction?
We'll just have to wait and see.
Time will tell.
They've got a Planned Parenthood would love an acquittal.
What do you mean, how could anybody want an acquittal on this?
You don't know the abortion industry if you don't know how they're looking at.
They're scared to death of this.
Back to the phones we go.
Scott in Freehold, New Jersey.
Welcome to EIP Network.
Great to have you.
Hi.
Thank you, Rush.
Thank you for taking my call.
It's a pleasure.
You're more than welcome, sir.
What I would really like to comment on is the fact that I believe all of you are correct when you said they are trying to hide this Benghazi scandal for political terms.
But what I think you're really neglecting is the fact that now four Americans are killed, but mostly because they denied all of those claims for more security.
I think that should be, there should be a lot more emphasis on the fact that that is the reason now we have Americans dead.
And not only that, but I believe that they didn't want this security and extra security, and they denied all these claims for it because of Islamophobia.
The administration just could only see how it looked bad on them to add more security.
And now we have Americans dead because of that.
And I think there should be a lot more emphasis on this point.
Well, you know, look, I'm not trying to behave here as a child, but if you listened for maybe an hour a week, you'd have heard all of that.
Just last Friday and last Thursday and last Wednesday and last Tuesday and last Monday, Monday.
We've spoken about the reasons they didn't move any security in there in advance.
We've spoken about why they didn't do anything at the time.
We've talked about why rescuers were told to stand down.
We have mentioned why there was no air support to go in and help the people on the ground who defied orders to go in there.
And you're right, Islamophobia is one reason.
Another reason is Obama had told everybody that there was no more al-Qaeda.
Al-Qaeda was on the run.
We'd killed bin Laden.
Osama was dead.
The entire, you know, the world only hated us because of Bush.
But now Obama was there.
The world loved us again.
So this kind of thing against America was not possible.
And to go defend it would confirm that it was happening.
Obama had to make this the cause of a video, some rogue filmmaker, because he had told everybody in America and around the world that he had vanquished al-Qaeda.
Not just by virtue of killing Osama, but because he became president.
The world loved us again.
There wasn't any more terrorism.
And yet here was some.
Well, we can't have that.
So we've got to make it look like it's a rogue protest, ad hoc protest, building off what happened in Cairo.
I don't mean to chide you, but we haven't neglected any aspect of this in any way, shape, man.
What we're dealing with today is what has happened today, which is what we do each and every day.
That's why we're on the cutting edge.
And we're dealing today with what Obama said about it and how he's trying to shut it down.
And he's basically denying everything that's happened.
He's saying there wasn't any revision in talking points.
He's called this basically a circus, a bump in the road, a waste of time.
Nothing to see here.
He's trying to shut this all down.
And it, to me, is going to be very interesting to see if he succeeds with his answer to the question.
Anyway, Scott, thanks for the call.
I appreciate it.
Folks, I got a couple of stories here today about polling that are really fascinating.
And at the same time, I question whether or not they're true.
For example, here's the Associated Press story from two days ago.
This thing was published on Saturday.
The headline, here's what 90% of Americans agree on.
You ready?
90%.
Did you see this?
You don't buy it?
90% of Americans believe in God.
90% of Americans are very patriotic.
90% of Americans consider preventing terrorism a very important foreign policy goal.
90% of Americans admire those who get rich by working hard.
9 out of 10 Americans think society should ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to succeed.
90% of Americans think it's important to get more than a hasskrule education.
90% of Americans favor teaching sex education at public schools.
90% find birth control morally acceptable.
90% believe cloning humans would be morally wrong.
90% believe it's wrong for married people to have affairs.
90% are interested in keeping up with national affairs.
90% believe it's their duty to always vote.
Now, Snerdley is sneering at this through the glass wall separating the broadcast complex from the engineering complex.
Well, that's the thing.
If this were true, there wouldn't be a Democrat Party.
At least, if this were true, a Democrat Party wouldn't be winning elections.
But on the other hand, if it is true or even remotely true, does it not illustrate how we are being governed by a genuine minority and being lied to by the drive-bys each and every day?
Now, there's another story that I found that goes along with this.
It's a Gallup poll.
58% of Americans oppose all or most abortions.
57% of women oppose abortion in all or most cases.
57% of young people 18 to 34 oppose abortion in all or most cases.
59% of Independents oppose abortion in all or most cases, as do 43% of Democrats.
74% of the public is paying little or no attention to the trial of Kermit Gosnell.
Now, you have to believe that because the media hasn't been paying any attention to the trial of Kermit Gosnell.
Wouldn't it be great if 90% did believe in God?
Wouldn't it be great if 90% were patriotic?
Wouldn't it be great if 90% did consider preventing terrorism a very important goal?
Wouldn't it be great if 90% did admire those who get rich by working hard?
I said, that one, that I just, with all the class, that can't be.
Obama wouldn't get the first base if that were true.
If 90% of the people in this country appreciated and understood and admired hard work, Obama would be toast.
Obama's out impugning hard work.
He's targeting it.
He's punishing it, or at least those who have become successful by virtue of it by saying they've benefited unfairly.
They're the winners of life's lottery.
I don't know if I find it.
Why would the AP put that out?
What is the point?
Are they just trying to frustrate us?
I mean, it's a poll, and that will count against their accuracy.
Nobody's going to remember it, I guess.
But I mean, it flies in the face of reality every day.
90% for all of those things.
Here's Justin Lexington, Kentucky.
Welcome to the EIB Network.
Hi.
Brilliant ditto is from student to mentor, sir.
I have a comment that I really need to hear your thoughts on.
Okay, great.
Thank you very much.
I need to know why you love this country today.
Wait a minute.
I'm having trouble understanding what you're saying.
You need to know why I love the country today.
Yes.
How can you love the country without bringing up an example of something good or great within our history 20, 30, 50, 100 years ago?
Why do you love this country today?
You said that we're no longer governed.
That's not a government of by and forth to people.
I've said that for years.
Why do you love the country today?
Do you not love the country today?
It depends on my mood when I wake up.
If I think mostly about the sacrifices that George Washington and our founders made, I love my country.
I love everything it symbolized.
I love what it could be.
I love that we have been the greatest force for good in the world.
There you go.
Why give up on that?
I'm not prepared to give up on that.
Our country just moved away from Great Britain to become what it was.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, then, what can we do today to make our country great again?
You keep fighting.
You can keep the secession movement, but I'm not one of these crazies.
I want to fix America.
I don't want to separate from anything.
I want to take what we have, move it back to what it was founded on.
You keep fighting for it.
You have to keep fighting and defeating the forces that are trying to destroy it.
It's hard to do with so many of us that are ill-informed.
Well, everything worthwhile is hard to do.
Do you want to give up?
Do you want to just say it's over?
No, I want to be put on the right track.
I want to play a part in making my country great again.
I have my own ideas, but there's not enough time to talk with you about them on the air.
I'm moving forward with my own plans.
I have no way of knowing if they're going to be successful or not.
Really, what I'm interested in is why you love this country today, because I look around and I don't see much to love today.
I do.
I see corruption all the way through our government.
I see corruption from.
You know, this poll that I just talked about, this 90% of Americans agree on all this stuff.
Let me tell you something, Justin.
I approach attitudinally this program every day with that belief.
I come in here every day knowing that the people in this audience are the people in that poll, although it may be flawed.
I know that the people in this audience love and cherish this country.
They believe in God.
Everything I went through in that list, they believe.
They want it.
They want it to triumph.
Everybody I know understands this country is in deep trouble.
Nobody I know wants to give up on it.
Even people I know who could, who could split the scene, who could fly the coop, don't want to.
It's worth saving.
You love it because it's yours.
You love it because you have the opportunity to influence and change it.
There's nothing wrong with the country.
There's nothing wrong with the way it was founded.
There's nothing wrong with its history.
There's nothing wrong with what it was that made this country great.
What's wrong is not enough people have any understanding of that anymore.
And that's an objective that needs to change.
That's an objective that needs to take place.
That was my whole point in talking about Scott Pelley in the opening monologue in this segment.
He's out there getting an award talking about the news media and how often they get things wrong.
That's not their big problem.
Their big problem is how they're misinforming people because of a flawed agenda that they've got.
I love this country because of what it has enabled me to do and my family because of what it has allowed me to.
Nowhere else in the world could I have achieved the pinnacle of my success using just my natural abilities and freedom.
Only place in the world where this would have been allowed to happen.
Even though it's under assault every day, even though it's under attack every day, it still happened.
And it is still happening for lots of people.
It needs to change in ways that make it possible for anybody who wants to succeed to be able to do it.
The problem is Americans are being told today that's not possible by their leaders.
We just need to change the leadership of the country.
It's harder than it sounds, obviously, but no way do I want to give up on it.
What do I love about what's going on?
There's a lot of stuff I'm frightened by.
A lot of stuff scares me.
A lot of stuff has me angry, but not to the point of quitting.
I love the potential.
I love what it was.
I love what it can be.
And in certain cases, I love what it is.
Still.
Back in a second.
This country is much more than its government.
This country is much more and better than the government.
And it always has been.
And I'll tell you, why do I love this country every day?
I love it every day because I have a chance.
I've got a golden opportunity here to tell people what I care about each and every one.
This is such a golden opportunity.
I've always believed, I still do, and it's the focus of what I do here.
I've always believed that this country is only as good as the level of informed status that people live here in here have, live in this country have.
I'm focused every day on creating the largest block of informed people possible, doing what little I can do in that regard, because I think that's where it all turns.
And I have a belief, intrinsic belief in the decency and goodness of people that this country makes possible.
But right now, we're in an entitlement society.
Right now, we have an entitlement state, it seems, a welfare state, where more and more people have been conditioned to believe they can't do anything without some assistance from somebody, particularly government.
That's not how this country came to exist.
It's not how this country became a superpower.
And it sure as heck isn't how this country is going to remain one.
And it sure as heck is worth remaining one.
Powerful forces are doing what they can to diminish this country.
And it's worth opposing that each and every day in whatever way is possible.
My way is attempting to inform as many people as possible each and every day of the truth, which is itself subjective, unfortunately.
But still, I know it when I see it.
And that's what I tell people.
And I must now take another brief time out, our obscene profit timeout, which is what enables me to continue to tell the truth.
You know what the big news right now is about Benghazi?
The big news right now is, did the media make him cry?
When he was answering the question, Reuters has a photo of what they say is a tear streaming down Obama's eye as he's answering questions about Benghazi.
I thought he was angry, but they're trying to make it sound like he was so upset he's moved to tears.
We'll see.
Great to be with you, folks.
As always, thanks for being with us, and we'll be back.
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