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May 21, 2014 - Rush Limbaugh Program
30:06
May 21, 2014, Wednesday, Hour #3
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Time Text
Grab somebody 30.
Let's see here.
See this.
Um.
Well, yes, but grab somebody 29 in front of it.
Right on, right on, right on.
Okay, greetings and welcome back.
I can't believe how quickly this program is going today.
I mean, just zipping by here.
And you know what that means.
It means as far as I'm concerned, it's really good.
I mean, if it's going by faster than I can imagine how fast it's going by for you.
Uh see, when I think it's good, it's probably great.
I'm the toughest critic of myself that there is.
And if I if I think a program is really good one day, then it's maybe one for the ages.
Because I think most of them are average.
But I'm always trying.
I mean, not average, above average, but I mean, really, really good.
800 282-2882.
If you want to be on the program, the email address, El Rushbow at EIB net.com.
Okay.
Press Secretary Jay Carney, daily press briefing after Obama had his I'm really ticked off, I'm really mad, and I'm really gonna get to the bottom of it press conference this morning, which came after he met with Shinsecky.
Okay.
So at the White House press briefing, the CNN correspondent Jim Acosta.
What about uh criticism of his management style, Jay?
Is uh is Obama too detached from some of the nuts and bolts of running guns.
See?
This is how it works.
Obama goes, uh I I I didn't know I am livid, I'm not tolerating this, I'm not putting up with this, this is unacceptable.
And the press swallows it.
They just swallow it hook line and sinker.
And then the question uh you know, Jay, if if if you uh if you look at how the president, you know, too detached from some of the nuts and bolts of running the government, is that possible?
Maybe running the administration?
Some of these issues catch him off guard.
Uh the healthcare website caught him off guard, and and and now this uh is it maybe legitimate to criticize his management style?
That's I So here's this guy, yeah.
He didn't know about the debacle of the website, perfectly understandable.
He didn't know about the VA VA business perfectly is maybe it's okay to criticize his management style, uh, Jay.
If you look at how the president handles a challenge like the website and handles this challenge, he uh responds by demanding action, uh demanding that uh Americans who are counting on benefits and services, whether it's a functioning website or benefits to the VA that they are taking care of.
He expects results, and he holds people accountable.
This is absolutely unreal.
This is Twilight Zone stuff.
*laughter*
It's hilarious.
What a bunch of boobs.
Totally worthless boobs.
Boobs on a boar hog we're talking about here.
Useless.
Oh, carn wait, Carney can do a straight face.
You you can't believe he can do it with a straight face.
I can.
Carney thinks he's being brilliant here.
They all do.
They all think this is brilliant stuff.
Also, basically, let me recast this.
The CNN guy stands up and he's a little worried.
So Obama didn't know about the website, the healthcare website.
He accepts that Obama didn't know.
Three years.
He didn't know the website wasn't working.
And perfectly understandable he wouldn't know.
But then today, Obama didn't know about the VA.
So maybe it's time to ask the press secretary if it's legitimate to Criticize Obama's management style.
Not criticize Obama's competence.
Not to ask, does he know what he's doing?
Oh no, no.
It's his style.
Even Ron Fournier has a piece to the National Journal.
The White House thinks we are stupid.
Meaning the press corps.
And Jim Acosta is proving it.
So this guy's Jim McCoy, so Jay, is it time maybe?
It's like if Limbaugh, he didn't say this.
If if if talk radio criticized Obama's management's tell, maybe we have to understand that because Jay, he didn't understand the website, he didn't know it wasn't working, didn't know the BA problem.
And this Carney answer is just classic.
Well, Jim, uh, if you look at how uh the president uh handles a challenge like uh the website uh not working, uh and uh this challenge, uh the VA not working, uh Jim look at what he does.
He demands action.
He demands that Americans who are counting on benefits and services, whether it's from a healthcare website or the VA that they're taken care of.
He demands it.
He expects results, he holds people accountable.
All right.
Okay, and problem solved.
What I meant, folks, by the way, I got email.
What do you mean, Rush, if you tried to survive on image?
You couldn't.
They've destroyed your meant.
Wouldn't it be great to have the media and everybody tell you that this was the most listened to radio show when it isn't?
That's what I mean by buzz and PR.
Not real.
I couldn't survive.
My conscience wouldn't let me.
If I had the Lib Media fawning all over me when my program wasn't the most listened to, but they treat me that way, I'd I'd have to give up the ghost.
But these people are totally at home and comfortable living the lie.
Living the image, living the buzz.
The reality is something they don't want to get anywhere near.
So that was that.
Then the next one is uh Jonathan Carl, the uh ABC White House correspondent, and Jonathan Carl is concerned uh that since Obama was obviously so passionate about this VA thing today, why didn't he speak out sooner?
The story's been a big story.
It's been, you know, front burner for at least a couple of weeks now, and the president hasn't come out.
Obviously, he feels very passionately about it.
We heard that today.
Why didn't we hear that from him before today?
John, all I can say is that you heard from him today, you heard from him on his foreign trip, and he has taken actions in the interim, and he eagerly awaits the results, both of the review that Secretary Shinseki has initiated and of the investigation of the independent IG.
John, what are you talking about?
You have heard from him.
You heard from it a foreign trip, you heard from him today.
Uh he's taken actions in the interim, uh, eagerly awaits the results of both the review that Shinsecki's initiated and the independent IG Inspector General.
But what a question.
The question was, why haven't we heard from him before today on this?
Well, Jim, uh John, you did.
You did.
Uh and you've heard from him today.
And you heard from any interim.
And he's waiting on Shinseckey to get back to him.
What more do you want?
Oh, it's all we got, and it's done.
He's he cares, he's on it, uh, waiting for results.
What more do you want for crying out loud?
You know what this question would have been if it was George W. Bush?
Here's the question if it were George W. Bush would be.
This is Jonathan Carlos.
This is uh just the press secretary's name is uh, well, let's go with this guy.
Uh Jay Carney.
Jay.
Does the president not care that the people he sent into war are dying?
Does he not care that they are wounded and may never walk again?
Does he not care that some have been blinded and may never see again?
Does the president simply not care about the injuries that his wars have caused?
That would be, or worse.
The scope of the why does the VA secretary by name, what is a VS of a job?
I mean, why, why, why has nobody been fired?
In this case, why, why, why didn't the president speak out sooner?
He was really passionate today.
Why didn't he speak out sooner, he did?
He spoke out today, he spoke out in the other room, he spoke out in a foreign trip, and he's waiting on Shinsecki.
Shut up.
They move on to the next question.
Jeff Zucker runs CNN.
He used to run the Today Show, exec producer.
He's infallible, untouchable, uh, wins awards for networks and shows that nobody ever sees or watches, and is untouchable.
He's one of these people that no matter how well or poorly does his job, he's always gonna have his job.
And Breitbart News today says that Jeff Zucker has conceded that his audience is not interested in his network's global warming agenda, but Zucker indicated he's gonna try to find more creative ways to make them care.
Now he is admitting here.
I mean, they're not even pretending to be anything but participants in moving the Democrat agenda forward.
That's what Zucker's admitted here.
Yeah, we haven't found a way to make them care about global warming, but we're not gonna give up.
I wish they cared about it.
So far they don't, but we're gonna try to find more creative ways to make people care about it.
Isn't that a tacit admission that CNN is part of the left wing agenda, which includes finding more creative and persuasive ways to spread and grow that agenda?
And isn't it also a tacit admission that they don't do news at CNN?
They've got this issue that nobody cares about global warming.
And yet they're not going to give it up until they can make people care about it.
But where is it in the news?
What is happening in global warming that you and I don't know about that we need to be told about because we don't know about, which is what journalism is.
It's uh it's kind of like when Obama's, you know, the only reason why people don't like Obama cares we haven't messaged it right.
We haven't, we haven't portrayed it correctly.
We haven't packaged it right.
We need to go talk to George Lackoff, rhymes with in order to find out how to say this.
Then while admitting that his audience doesn't care a whit about global warming and that they're gonna keep working at it, they're gonna try to find creative ways in the news to make their audience care about global warming.
Last week, Jake Tapper of CNN refused to guess how CNN would cover the House Select Committee on Benghazi's hearings.
He said it was above his pay grade.
Capitol New York reports, CNN President Jeff Zucker snottily sounded off to New York Times TV reporter Bill Carter at an awards dinner against any complaining conservatives.
Jeff Zucker said his network would not be shamed into covering Benghazi by others and their temper tantrums demanding coverage.
We're not gonna be shamed into it by others who have political beliefs that want to try to have temper tantrums to shame other news organizations into covering something.
It's a if it's of real news value, we'll cover it.
But Zucker said there isn't any news value in this selective committee, select committee on Benghazi, and we're not going to be shamed into covering it.
He was incredibly comfortable, quote unquote, with having no shame over covering the Malaysian jet mystery, something that caused disgust all over the spectrum of news consumers.
CNN beat that dead horse into a smelly mist.
So while there's an acknowledged tremendous lack of interest in our climate change stories, and we're going to work really hard to make it interesting so that people do like it and are moved by it.
We're not going to be shamed into covering that nothing story of Benghazi.
It's a bunch of right-wingers having temper tantrums.
We're not going to get sucked in by that.
So CNN can get shamed into covering a plane that basically all is known that it took a left turn.
They can cover that story for months.
They'll be shamed into covering the global warming lies that no one's believing anymore.
That they're not going to be shamed into covering a cover-up at the highest levels of government about the death of four Americans and the selling of guns to our enemies.
Is that about right?
And they're not going to be shamed by their low ratings.
Oh no, they're down now to maximum 250,000 viewers.
That's that's folks, that's not even the equivalent of a thimble filled with people when the nation is your database.
Remember the Watergate hearings, Snerdley?
Every network.
At the time there were only three.
Every network, every minute, every hearing live.
Every word was covered.
Watergate.
But Benghazi.
And Hillary was there.
In fact, she got thrown off the uh committee of lawyers by one of the investors, one of one of the lawyers leading it, because she was too zealous.
Not going to be shamed into covering Benghazi.
But they're going to keep plugging till you care and understand how you are destroying the planet.
Man-made global warming.
And we'll come back right after.
Head back to the phones.
Baton Rosa, Louisiana.
This is Larry, and you're next.
Thanks for calling.
Great to have you on the program, sir.
Hi, Rush.
As a veteran myself, it's an honor to speak to you.
Thank you very much.
Glad to have you out there.
Listen, I have a theory that I'd like to ask you about.
It's about the this VA scandal and how the administration will handle it.
I'd like to hear your comment.
I think instead of obfuscation and sidestepping that the administration is actually going to jump in with both feet.
And for the long term for three reasons.
First of all, what's happening right now is not an exclusive Obama problem.
At least that's what they'll say.
That these problems go back to the Bush and Clinton administrations, and Obama is going to try to continue to leak today's problems that go all the way back.
And they can control the message.
A second reason is the media is going to absolutely want to cover this as a real issue.
Because they can portray Obama as the reformer.
And the administration, of course, will feed them that message, and they want to uh report on anything that does not have the words Benghazi, IRS, or Obamacare in it.
And of course, by doing this, they delegitimize all these other scandals that we believe are important to cover.
And so I'm interested to know what you think about that.
Well, I think it's got some credence, too.
If I heard you right, what you think they're going to do is dig deep into creating the impression that they're actually tackling this and are going to try and fix it.
And they're going to, and they're going to, because it's a problem that predates Obama, so it can't be tied to him, but he's the guy, you say the reformer, he's the guy that gets it fixed.
The media desperately wants to report this because they love Obama and they want to, they love the idea that a Democrat president can be positively linked to the media and to the military.
That's right.
And so then they announce this drastic action, these massive reforms to fix it.
The media applause, oh, what a great guy Obama is.
What you mean about Benghazi is the reaction people have at the White House because, and then they they maybe tie up some uh new allegiance, the military to Obama, the Democrat Party.
Do you think they might actually do something substantively to fix this?
Yes, and make it last for a long time so people forget these other issues.
Well, the here's the only problem.
Can they?
Can they fix it?
I actually think our last caller had a great point, and it would be something this regime would possibly uh would possibly consider if uh if they think they could pull it off in time for positive election results,
and making it all the more plausible to me is they don't have anything really to run on in the midterms, other than trying to get the black population mad at Republicans again over racism and getting single women, single mothers mad over the war on women, and the usual cultural depravity that uh that they cite.
Uh this could be something right in the pipe.
I mean, it could be made to order.
Problem of the VA.
Uh it's already been established in a couple places that the problem predates Obama.
The fact he hasn't done anything on it in five years is easily overcome by being the guy who finally addresses it.
And remember, with a media as desirous as this one is to report successes where Obama is concerned, it won't really take much for them to report overwhelming success.
Remember, Obama gets credit simply for caring.
He does a real good job of caring about this, and a real good job making it look like he's really gonna get to the bottom of it.
And if they arrange for some people who have been on a waiting list for a long time to actually get moved to the front and get treated, the media will be right there on that story.
Look at the dramatic changes overnight Obama has brought about.
That's all it would take.
Just a couple of those.
Couple of veterans.
First, you do the story on how long the poor guy's been waiting.
Competence here, incompetence there, fake waiting list there, Obama found out about it, livid, ordered immediate changes, rolled up his sleeves, go back to the veteran as he's being wheeled into surgery.
Yes, President Obama heard about my my situation in my case, and and look at me now, and made it happen.
That's all you need.
Well, just two of those.
Around September, October.
There's another story out there, folks, that that I've been waiting for for a long, long time, and it's finally hit, and I am somewhat shocked at how the mainstream media and the mainstream sports media is trying to ignore it.
You remember when the class action suit was brought against the NFL by players, hundreds and hundreds of them, who had suffered concussions.
And you remember within seconds, that story was everywhere.
The sports media, the news media, the entertainment media, the pop culture media, it was Everywhere.
Do you remember?
It was, it was how rotten the NFL was, how dangerous the NFL was, how you shouldn't let your kids play it, how deadly it is.
There were stories from uh players who committed suicide because of concussions and all that.
So yesterday, another group of players filed another class action suit, this time alleging that the league turned them into junkies by passing out narcotic painkillers using non-narcotic painkillers, sleeping pills.
One former player, J. D. Hill, who played for the Lions and I think the Buffalo Bulls, said, Yeah, I I was I had never done a drug in my life.
I the NFL, and I come out of there homeless and a junkie.
Never done drugs in my life.
The NFL turned me into homeless junkie.
Jeffrey Newberry or Jeremy Newberry, Center for the Fortners back in the 90s, claimed that half the team on game day shot up a tordol on their way out to the field.
Half the team.
Jim McMahon, they're all, I mean, these players, it's it's the same thing, same number of players, same big names.
Except the story is that the NFL and unlicensed trainers without prescriptions were just passing out these painkillers left and right, turning these guys into addicts just to make them play so the NFL could earn big bucks.
Nobody wants to cover the story.
It's not there.
I even went to a couple of football blogs, and they mention it.
They say, but we're waiting to read the lawsuit.
We're waiting to get the They don't want to cover it.
And I had a media expert ahead of me, I was talking about because I've been waiting for this.
I have been waiting for this to hit, and it finally hit, and I had a media expert tell me, Rush, they're not gonna.
No, no, no.
You don't understand.
Even as smart as you are, you don't understand.
I said, what do you mean you don't understand?
The networks and the media rely too much on drug company advertising revenue.
They're not gonna touch this.
They'll treat it with a little superficiality, and that's it.
And I thought, nah.
You know, the the leftist do-gooders that want to rip the league to shreds at every corner.
Well, jump on, but they're not.
I mean, the same, the same the same media can't wait for Michael Sam to kiss his boyfriend on National TV.
The same media can't wait for Michael Sam to own the NFL, the same media that can't wait for the league to be sued practically out of existence for causing concussions, doesn't want any part of the league made me a junkie story.
Fascinating stuff to me, folks.
It is.
I have to, the media expertise was exactly right.
They don't want to cover it.
I just went to a couple sites.
They don't want, they are waiting, they're studying ways they can nuke this lawsuit out of existence.
The same media that couldn't wait to indict the NFL for killing people via concussions and suicide.
There has to be a reason that they don't want to do this.
Has to be fascinated.
Two people have sent me emails saying, Rush.
I know it sounded good, but that caller's wrong.
They can't fix the VA.
Obama can't fix it.
They can't even find any positive stories to tell about Obamacare.
How can they go out and find a positive story about the VA?
Another guy said, Rush, they can't fix single payer.
To do that would require vouchers and reopening health care to the private sector.
Single payer doesn't work.
No, no, no, no, no.
With great respect to both complainants.
You're missing the point.
They don't have to fix anything.
It doesn't have to work.
All they need is one story.
All they need, Here's the deal.
Obama announces Shinseki investigation.
By the way, do you know the Seattle Seahawks are at the Super or at the uh White House today?
What Obama just found out today, they won the Super Bowl.
The Seahawks showed up and said, What are they doing here?
Mr. President, the Super Bowl winners will always go.
Oh, oh, they won.
Well, okay.
He wasn't mad about it.
He was mad he hadn't been told.
He wasn't mad the Seahawks won the Super Bowl.
Um they the what?
Uh what?
Oh, you mean they bring our girls home, hashtag wouldn't.
I don't think the girls are back home yet, no.
But you see, who cares?
It doesn't matter.
The hashtag worked.
They care, we don't.
Look at folks, they don't have to fix the VA.
Here's all that has to happen.
This is the caller's point.
Well, maybe it wasn't his point.
My point is bouncing off what he said.
Shinseki's investigating, right?
IG is investigating.
That comes back, say next week, Obama.
I'm living.
I have found out how bad this I'm announcing today this reform, that reform, blah, blah, blah.
And then uh in three weeks, a soldier who had disappeared in a waiting list is found, gets treated, the cameras are there, he gets his treatment.
All I need is one example.
Remember, the illusion is all that needs to happen in order to give the media the story that Obama has finally reformed the VA or is really making more progress than anybody else has ever made in fixing the problems.
And you get the veteran involved to start singing the praises of the administration, how they really found out what was going on.
When they found out what had happened to him, they put people into motion and they got this thing fixed.
And look at me now.
They're not, I agree they can't fix the VA because their policies are what broke it.
I understand all that, but they can create the illusion that they're making progress.
The caller, his point was they could really reform it.
They could go in there and really make hay and cause political problems, but I don't think they even have to fix it.
They just made it look like they're really working hard, trying to, got a couple of good, good examples here to show progress.
Fast response time.
Obama finds out about it on a Tuesday, and by the end of the month, look at what happened.
Don't discount it out of hand.
It's entirely possible.
Folks, that's it for us today, but we'll be back tomorrow.
Fear not to continue on with another excursion into broadcast excellence.
Thanks so much.
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