Conservative Politics Today

First the media lies and misleads in reference to the Jena 6. Now,
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am about to show a perfect example of how the
media lies and distorts and manipulates or flat out ignores the truth,
in their efforts to createa news story that does not exist or in their efforts
to further their agenda.

Read this headline from yesterdays news on at mediamatters.com:

Thu, Sep 27, 2007 1:24pm ET
Limbaugh: Service members who support U.S. withdrawal are “phony soldiers”

How horrid! How can Rush say such a thing! That evil bastard! I thought he was
devoted to our U.S. military.

It gets even worse for Rush.

“During the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show,
Rush Limbaugh called service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from
Iraq “phony soldiers.” He made the comment while discussing with a caller a
conversation he had with a previous caller, “Mike from Chicago,” who said he
“used to be military,” and “believe[s] that we should pull out of Iraq.” Limbaugh
told the second caller, whom he identified as “Mike, this one from Olympia,
Washington,” that “[t]here’s a lot” that people who favor U.S. withdrawal “don’t
understand” and that when asked why the United States should pull out, their
only answer is, ” ‘Well, we just gotta bring the troops home.’ … ‘Save the — keeps
the troops safe’ or whatever,” adding, “[I]t’s not possible, intellectually, to follow
these people.” “Mike” from Olympia replied, “No, it’s not, and what’s really funny
is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up
out of the blue and talk to the media.” Limbaugh interjected, “The phony soldiers.
” The caller, who had earlier said, “I am a serving American military, in the Army,”
agreed, replying, “The phony soldiers.”

They then go on to verify his comments by providing the transcript from the
phone call!

“From the September 26 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh
Show:

LIMBAUGH: Mike in Chicago, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER 1: Hi Rush, how you doing today?

LIMBAUGH: I’m fine sir, thank you.

CALLER 1: Good. Why is it that you always just accuse the Democrats of being against
the war and suggest that there are absolutely no Republicans that could possibly be
against the war?

LIMBAUGH: Well, who are these Republicans? I can think of Chuck Hagel, and I can think
of Gordon Smith, two Republican senators, but they don’t want to lose the war like the
Democrats do. I can’t think of — who are the Republicans in the anti-war movement?

CALLER 1: I’m just — I’m not talking about the senators. I’m talking about the general
public — like you accuse the public of all the Democrats of being, you know, wanting to
lose, but –

LIMBAUGH: Oh, come on! Here we go again. I uttered a truth, and you can’t handle it, so
you gotta call here and change the subject. How come I’m not also hitting Republicans?
I don’t know a single Republican or conservative, Mike, who wants to pull out of Iraq in
defeat. The Democrats have made the last four years about that specifically.

CALLER 1: Well, I am a Republican, and I’ve listened to you for a long time, and you’re right
on a lot of things, but I do believe that we should pull out of Iraq. I don’t think it’s winnable.
And I’m not a Democrat, but I just — sometimes you’ve got to cut the losses.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you — you –

CALLER 1: I mean, sometimes you really gotta know when you’re wrong.

LIMBAUGH: Well, yeah, you do. I’m not wrong on this. The worst thing that can happen is
losing this, flying out of there, waving the white flag. Do you have –

CALLER 1: Oh, I’m not saying that. I’m not saying anything like that, but, you know –

LIMBAUGH: Well, of course you are.

CALLER 1: No, I’m not.

LIMBAUGH: Bill, the truth is — the truth is the truth, Mike.

CALLER 1: We did what we were supposed to do, OK. We got rid of Saddam Hussein. We got
rid of a lot of the terrorists. Let them run their country –

LIMBAUGH: Oh, good lord! Good lord.

[…]

CALLER 1: How long is it gonna — how long do you think we’re going to have to be there
for them to take care of that?

LIMBAUGH: Mike –

CALLER 1: How long — you know — what is it?

LIMBAUGH: Mike –

CALLER 1: What is it?

LIMBAUGH: Mike, you can’t possibly be a Republican.

CALLER 1: I am.

LIMBAUGH: You are — you are –

CALLER 1: I am definitely a Republican.

LIMBAUGH: You can’t be a Republican. You are –

CALLER 1: Oh, I am definitely a Republican.

LIMBAUGH: You are tarnishing the reputation, ’cause you sound just like a Democrat.

CALLER 1: No, but –

LIMBAUGH: The answer to your question –

CALLER 1: — seriously, how long do we have to stay there –

LIMBAUGH: As long as it takes!

CALLER 1: — to win it? How long?

LIMBAUGH: As long as it takes! It is very serious.

CALLER 1: And that is what?

LIMBAUGH: This is the United States of America at war with Islamofascists. We stay as
long — just like your job. You do everything you have to do, whatever it takes to get it
done, if you take it seriously.

CALLER 1: So then you say we need to stay there forever –

LIMBAUGH: I — it won’t –

CALLER 1: — because that’s what it’ll take.

LIMBAUGH: No, Bill, or Mike — I’m sorry. I’m confusing you with the guy from Texas.

CALLER 1: See, I — I’ve used to be military, OK? And I am a Republican.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah. Yeah.

CALLER 1: And I do live [inaudible] but –

LIMBAUGH: Right. Right. Right, I know.

CALLER 1: — you know, really — I want you to be saying how long it’s gonna take.

LIMBAUGH: And I, by the way, used to walk on the moon!

CALLER 1: How long do we have to stay there?

LIMBAUGH: You’re not listening to what I say. You can’t possibly be a Republican. I’m
answering every question. That’s not what you want to hear, so it’s not even penetrating
your little wall of armor you’ve got built up.

[…]

LIMBAUGH: Another Mike, this one in Olympia, Washington. Welcome to the EIB Network.
Hello.

CALLER 2: Hi Rush, thanks for taking my call.

LIMBAUGH: You bet.

CALLER 2: I have a retort to Mike in Chicago, because I am a serving American military,

in the Army. I’ve been serving for 14 years, very proudly.

LIMBAUGH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER 2: And, you know, I’m one of the few that joined the Army to serve my country,
I’m proud to say, not for the money or anything like that. What I would like to retort to
is that, if we pull — what these people don’t understand is if we pull out of Iraq right
now, which is about impossible because of all the stuff that’s over there, it’d take us at
least a year to pull everything back out of Iraq, then Iraq itself would collapse, and we’d
have to go right back over there within a year or so. And –

LIMBAUGH: There’s a lot more than that that they don’t understand. They can’t even –
if — the next guy that calls here, I’m gonna ask him: Why should we pull — what is
the imperative for pulling out? What’s in it for the United States to pull out? They can’t
– I don’t think they have an answer for that other than, “Well, we just gotta bring the
troops home.”

CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what –

LIMBAUGH: “Save the — keep the troops safe” or whatever. I — it’s not possible, i
ntellectually, to follow these people.

CALLER 2: No, it’s not, and what’s really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like
to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve.
They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they’re willing to
sacrifice for their country.

LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined –

CALLER 2: A lot of them — the new kids, yeah.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you’re going these days, the last four years, if you
signed up. The odds are you’re going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.

CALLER 2: Exactly, sir.”

http://mediamatters.org/items/200709270010?f=h_top

Wow, that’s pretty damning is it not? One would think so. And what does Mr. Limbaugh say about all of this?

The Anatomy of a Smear: “Phony Soldiers” Is a Phony Story
September 28, 2007

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: What? Am I going to apologize? It is I who am owed an apology. Greetings,
my friends, and welcome. The Rush Limbaugh program. It’s Friday.

JOHNNY DONOVAN: Live from the Southern Command in sunny south Florida via New York City,
it’s Open Line Friday!

RUSH: Oh, goody goody gumdrops, yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yahoo. Ladies and gentlemen,
one of the favorite days of the week here, not because it’s the end of the week but rather
because it’s always such an exciting excursion into broadcast excellence, because on
Friday, I, El Rushbo, take a great career risk, one of the greatest risks taken in Big Media.
And that risk is turning over the content portion of this program, when we go to the phones,
to you, lovable people, great people, love you, but you are rank amateurs, you are not highly
trained broadcast professionals and specialists as am I. So the rules Monday through Thursday,
off the table, whatever you want to talk about, question, comment, whine, moan, feel free.

Here’s the phone number: 800-282-2882. And the e-mail address, Rush@eibnet.com.

I want to illustrate something for you today, folks. I’ve done it before. I want to do it again.
I call this the anatomy of a smear, and what this is is a great illustration of the liberals and
the Democrat Party playbook for ‘08, which is underway now. The morning update on Wednesday
dealt with a soldier, a fake, phony soldier by the name of Jesse MacBeth who never served in Iraq;
he was never an Army Ranger. He was drummed out of the military in 44 days. He had his day
in court; he never got the Purple Heart as he claimed, and he described all these war atrocities.
He became a hero to the anti-war left. They love phony soldiers, and they prop ‘em up. When
it is demonstrated that they have been lying about things, then they just forget about it. There’s
no retraction; there’s no apology; there’s no, “Uh-oh, sorry.” After doing that morning update
on Wednesday, I got a phone call yesterday from somebody, we were talking about the troops,
and this gentleman said something which you’ll hear here in just a second, prompting me to
reply “yeah, the phony soldiers.”

That comment, “phony soldiers” was posted yesterday afternoon on the famous Media Matters
website, which is where all leftists go to find out what I say. I have a website, and I have a radio

program that reaches far more people than Media Matters could ever hope to, but the critics of
this program never listen to this program. They never go to my website. All they do is read
Media Matters and they get the lies and the out-of-context reports. They assume it’s all true
because they want it to be true, and then they start their campaigns. This has led to me being
denounced on the floor of the House. Howard Dean has released a statement demanding I
apologize; Jim Webb; John Kerry issued a statement, three Congress people went out on the floor
of the House last night and said some things, and it’s starting to blossom now in the Drive-By Media.
So this is the anatomy of a smear, and this is how it starts. The same group is trying to get
Bill O’Reilly into problems because of some innocent comments that he made about going to dinner
at a restaurant in Harlem. So the illustration begins with just a sample report from MSNBC whose
content is produced almost exclusively by Media Matters for America and MoveOn.org. This is
this morning with the anchorette Contessa Brewer reporting on the phony soldier controversy,
spawned by me.

BREWER: Some leading Democrats are attacking radio talk show personality Rush Limbaugh because
he called soldiers who opposed the Iraq war “phony.” Limbaugh was criticizing the anti-war movement
generally and made the comment to a caller.

RUSH ARCHIVE: It’s not possible intellectually to follow these people.

CALLER: No, it’s not. And what’s really funny is they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull
these soldiers that come up out of the blue and spout to the media.

RUSH: The phony soldiers.

BREWER: Democratic Senator John Kerry is demanding an apology from Limbaugh, whose comments
he calls “disgusting and an embarrassment.”

RUSH: That’s really rich. John Kerry, whose own soldiers, his own personnel, fellow soldiers in those
swift boats, at least many of them who said he was lying about his supposed heroics, this is the same
John Kerry who went out and insulted the intelligence of the troops, thereby torpedoing his own 2008
presidential candidacy. His statement includes these words: This disgusting attack from Rush Limbaugh,
cheerleader for the chicken hawk wing of the far right is an insult to American troops. I was not
talking as Contessa Brewer said here about the anti-war movement generally. I was talking about
one soldier with that phony soldier comment, Jesse MacBeth. They had exactly what I’m going to play
for you. It’s Michael J. Fox all over again. Media Matters had the transcript. But they selectively
choose what they want to make their point. It runs about three minutes and 13 seconds, the entire

transcript, in context, that led to this so-called controversy.

RUSH ARCHIVE: It’s not possible intellectually to follow these people.

CALLER: No, it’s not. And what’s really funny is they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull
these soldiers that come up out of the blue and spout to the media.

RUSH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER: The phony soldiers. If you talk to any real soldier and they’re proud to serve, they want
to be over in Iraq, they understand their sacrifice and they’re willing to sacrifice for the country.

RUSH: They joined to be in Iraq.

RUSH: It’s frustrating and maddening, and why they must be kept in the minority. I want to thank you,
Mike, for calling. I appreciate it very much.

Here is a Morning Update that we did recently, talking about fake soldiers. This is a story of who the
left props up as heroes. They have their celebrities and one of them was Army Ranger Jesse MacBeth.
Now, he was a “corporal.” I say in quotes. Twenty-three years old. What made Jesse MacBeth a hero
to the anti-war crowd wasn’t his Purple Heart; it wasn’t his being affiliated with post-traumatic stress
disorder from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. No. What made Jesse MacBeth, Army Ranger, a hero to

the left was his courage, in their view, off the battlefield, without regard to consequences. He told
the world the abuses he had witnessed in Iraq, American soldiers killing unarmed civilians, hundreds of
men, women, even children. In one gruesome account, translated into Arabic and spread widely across
the Internet, Army Ranger Jesse MacBeth describes the horrors this way: “We would burn their bodies.
We would hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque.”

Now, recently, Jesse MacBeth, poster boy for the anti-war left, had his day in court. And you know what?
He was sentenced to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans
Affairs claim and his Army discharge record. He was in the Army. Jesse MacBeth was in the Army, folks,
briefly. Forty-four days before he washed out of boot camp. Jesse MacBeth isn’t an Army Ranger, never
was. He isn’t a corporal, never was. He never won the Purple Heart, and he was never in combat to
witness the horrors he claimed to have seen. You probably haven’t even heard about this. And, if you
have, you haven’t heard much about it. This doesn’t fit the narrative and the template in the Drive-By Media
and the Democrat Party as to who is a genuine war hero. Don’t look for any retractions, by the way.
Not from the anti-war left, the anti-military Drive-By Media, or the Arabic websites that spread Jesse
MacBeth’s lies about our troops, because the truth for the left is fiction that serves their purpose.

They have to lie about such atrocities because they can’t find any that fit the template of the way they
see the US military. In other words, for the American anti-war left, the greatest inconvenience they face is the truth.

RUSH: That was the transcript from yesterday’s program, talking about one phony soldier. The truth
for the left is fiction that serves their purpose, which is exactly the way the website, Media Matters,
generated this story, fiction, out of context, did so knowingly. What is amazing is that after all of
the examples of how this organization is simply a Democrat Party Hillary Clinton front group; how
they constantly do this; how they take things out of context and embarrass themselves and get things
wrong; they still have credible so-called journalists and others, members of Congress, Democrat Party,
who treat what they say as gospel. Not one member of the media, not one congressman, nobody has
called our office to ask, “Did you really say this? And what did you mean by it?” The reason this does
not work, ladies and gentlemen, is that I have a 19-and-a-half-year record on this program of being
one of the most devoted supporters of US military personnel in uniform that there is.

The effort here is simply to discredit people that they consider effective and powerful on the right ginning
up, leading up into the ‘08 elections. They cannot beat us in the arena of ideas. They cannot challenge
what we say and refute it and come out on top, so this is the anatomy of a smear. I’ll show you how it
works when we come after the break. We have a bunch of sound bites here from Jim Webb, Jan Schakowsky,
Frank Pallone, Democrats and senators, plus the Kerry statement that I read to you, all that coming up
right after this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So we have John Kerry insulting soldiers all over the place. His own troops who served with him
said that he lied about things that he accomplished. He insulted the intelligence of the troops. We all
know what they did with the MoveOn.org ad to General Petraeus, we know what members of Congress
said to General Petraeus, calling him a liar before he even opened his mouth and before they had even
read the report that they demanded be issued about the surge back on the 15th of September. What’s
going on here is their attempt to deflect attention away from themselves and the same issue, because
they have eaten it big time on the Petraeus ad in the New York Times. None of it worked out the way
they intended. They have blow-black that they didn’t figure out. So now it’s time for them to try to
point out that somebody like me is insulting the troops — as any of you who listen to this program
regularly know has not happened and never would happen. Here’s congressional reaction, Senate
reaction. Last night on some MSNBC show, Jim Webb was run into out in the hallway. Question:

“Yesterday in his radio program Rush Limbaugh called service members who advocate US withdrawal
from Iraq ‘phony soldiers.’ You want to respond to that?”

WEBB: I really regret Mr. Limbaugh saying things like that. You know, we have, uh, political diversity
inside the military just like we do in the country. If you look at the — I believe it was the six [sic–seven]
soldiers, uh, who wrote with honor the piece for the New York Times not long ago, I think three [sic–two]
of them, uh, now died. [truck accident] Uh, I think, uh, Mr. Limbaugh have to, uh, take a look at –
at that sort of reality. I really react strongly when people politicize the service of our military people.

RUSH: What an absolute lunatic joke to make, after the way General Petraeus was just treated!
Politicize the military? Mr. Webb stepped in it. You put a bag of manure in front of a liberal Democrat
and they are sure to step in it. He just assumed that what he was told was true, that I called anti-war troops
“phony soldiers,” when everybody involved in this knows full well I was talking about one genuine
convicted, lying, fake soldier, who was undermining this mission, who was doing his best to demoralize
the troops. I stand up for the troops! The Democrat Party has been trying to demoralize them. The
Democrat Party has been trying to lose the Iraq war, the war on terror. They own defeat. They are
invested in it. They have failed to hang defeat around the neck of this president, and the presidency
that they’ve been trying to destroy. They have now really upset their fringe base by all of the top -tier
candidates in Wednesday’s debate saying, “There’s no way I’m going to pull troops out of there before
2013.” They are beside themselves now, and so they choose to come after me in an unprovoked
and totally out-of-context fashion. It is I who am owed an apology here. Let’s go to the floor
of the House. A portion of remarks made by Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky.

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, Rush Limbaugh is at it again. Unable to defend an indefensible war in Iraq,
he’s once again resorted to sliming the messenger. In this case, unbelievably, the messenger he’s
going after are the brace men and women who have served their country in Iraq, Afghanistan, and
other wars. Men and women who serve in Iraq differ from Rush Limbaugh in two critical ways.
First, unlike Mr. Limbaugh, they actually served in the military. Second, unlike Mr. Limbaugh, they
understand that the war in Iraq is making our country less safe and destroying the military.

RUSH: Do these people understand what fools they sound like to anybody who knows the truth
about all of this? They haven’t the slightest idea how foolish they sound; they don’t care. Folks,
I do not need, nor do you, lectures from liberals, Democrats, Drive-By Media people on whether

or not they served in the military about supporting our troops. It is they who are undermining
the troops, smearing the troops, endangering them every damn day — and they know it, and
they have done it purposefully! They are undermining the war effort. They want to be called
patriots for doing it. Same on selecting Jim Webb! Shame on John Kerry! Shame on them! They
should be speaking out for our soldiers, not throwing in with the anti-war MoveOn.org crowd.
They cannot have it both ways, not on this program. There are 170,000 soldiers in Iraq.
The least we can do here at home is support them, and on this program they have universal,
total support. Here’s more from Ms. Schakowsky from the floor of the House.

SCHAKOWSKY: How dare Rush Limbaugh label anyone who has served in the military as a quote
“phony soldier,” unquote? Could Rush Limbaugh actually face soldiers who have risked their lives
and tell them that their beliefs don’t matter? Let’s pay attention to the 72% of American troops
serving in Iraq who also think the US should exit the country within the next year, and more than
one in four who say the troops should leave immediately, according to the Zogby poll. I guess they’re
all a bunch of phonies, according to Rush Limbaugh. Apparently, however, Mr. Limbaugh thinks they
deserve to be smeared and belittled unless they happen to agree with him. I understand why
Rush Limbaugh cannot debate this war on the merits, but bashing soldiers and veterans who
disagree with him is unpatriotic and un-American.

RUSH: Of course, none of what she said is true. She’s just ignorant, and I don’t need to be lectured
to by these people. But, you see, they have taken the occasion of this comment… They don’t care
whether it’s true or not; they just launch on their soapbox. Do you know how much I got under their
skin, folks, for them to take to the floor of the houses? Tom Harkin has done this. Let’s go back in
time, shall we? Let’s go back to April 22nd, 1971, John Kerry testifying before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee about Vietnam.

VIETNAM VETERAN JOHN KERRY 1971: They told the stories of times that they had personally raped,
cut off the ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned
off the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in a fashion
reminiscent of Jen-jiss Khan. Not isolated incidents, but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with
a full awareness of offers at all levels of command.

RUSH: Lies! Senator Kerry was insulting and smearing members of the armed forces back in 1971,
people he didn’t even serve with and things that he didn’t even see. Does the name Jesse Macbeth
rise up again here in this discussion of phony soldiers? Here is John Kerry from December 4th, 2005.

KERRY 2005: [T]here is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes
of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, uh, uh, uh, you know, women, breaking
sort of the customs of the — of — of — of — uh, historical customs, religious customs, whether you
like it or not. Iraqis should be doing that.

RUSH: Oh, really? Who is insulting the troops here, folks? And who has a history of insulting of troops?
Certainly not I. It is Senator Kerry who in that bite from December 4th, 2005, essential called US troops
terrorists, and said if any terrorism ought to be going on over there, the Iraqis ought to be doing it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I’m in the midst here of illustrating the Democrat Party’s ‘08 playbook, the anatomy of a smear,
taking two words that I uttered yesterday totally out of context and misrepresenting the meaning entirely
— on purpose, knowing full well they were doing it. Now the whole Democrat Party, the Drive-By Media
— typically, without verifying, without asking, without checking — just assumes that what they read on
this lying, politically oriented website, has to be true. Even if it isn’t true, it serves their purpose to go
out and try to nick, harm, impugn, destroy people they fear who are too effective in opposing them. What
we’re doing here after having illustrated all that, is to show you who the real anti-military people are in this
country: who they are and how often they have opposed victory; the unkind, vicious things they have said
about uniformed personnel. The idea that they have accused me of this and demand an apology from me
is outrageous. It is I who is owed the apology. It won’t be forthcoming, but nor will one from me. Let’s
go back to June 10th, 2005, the Senate floor, Dick Durbin.

DURBIN: If I read this to you and didn’t tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had
done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have happened by Nazis,
Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime, Pol Pot or others, that had no concern for human beings.
Sadly, that’s not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of our — their own prisoners.

RUSH: And of course it was Senator Durbin who issued, then, a lame apology after the firestorm that his
comments caused. Let’s go back shortly, not long ago, September the 10th, when General Petraeus
appeared before the House committee. Before he had said a word, before he uttered one word –
and this is the day, of course, the MoveOn.org ad came out, calling him “General Betray Us — here’s
Congressman Tom Lantos lecturing a four-star general in dress uniform sitting before him.

LANTOS: The fact remains, gentlemen, that the administration has sent you hear today to convince the
members of these two committees and the Congress that victory is at hand. With all due respect to
you, I must say, “I don’t buy it.”

RUSH: So he’s calling him a liar. So this is typical. This is what’s commonplace every day in the halls
of Congress inhabited by Democrats. It is the generals; it’s the soldiers: they are the liars. They are
the reprobates. They are the ones that need to be demoralized. They are the ones that need to lose
so the Democrat Party can reap political power once again — and they have failed. They have failed
at every effort to end this war in the defeat that they have sought. They have failed to hang defeat
around the neck of George W. Bush, whose presidency they have sought to destroy. These people,
ladies and gentlemen, are beyond the pale. US national security is irrelevant to them at this point in
time. Their acquisition of power is all that matters. I’ve been waiting for this to blossom, and it
finally did. At the White House briefing today, this afternoon, with the spokesman Dana Pereno,
a CNN reporterette asked this question.

CNN REPORTERETTE: Apparently this week Rush Limbaugh used the phrase “phony soldiers” to
describe American troops who opposed the Iraq war. Given that the president has commented,
uh, last week, uh, on the MoveOn ad, uh, on General Petraeus, and called it “disgusting,” is this
something that the president would, you know, feel compelled to comment on?

PERENO: It’s the first I’ve heard of that comment. Taking that it is accurate — I have not heard
it myself — the president believes that if you are serving in the military, that you have the rights
that every American has, which is that you’re free to express yourself in any way that you want
to, and there are some that oppose the war and that’s okay.

CNN REPORTERETTE: The phrase “phony soldiers” to describe these –

PERENO: It’s not a phrase the president would have used.

RUSH: “Not a phrase the president would have used.” She wasn’t aware. She had to assume
that the reporter was relaying the story accurately to her, but this is how this stuff starts.
This is an illustration. This is the way the Democrat playbook in ‘08 — and actually it’s been
underway for a while. The illustration here, folks, is just how partisan supposed “objective”
media people are. You know, I’ve got a website, and I’ve got a radio show, and I’ve got a
phone, and I have people who answer the phone, and if they read something like this…
I’ve been on the air 19 years, a little bit over 19. Just the blanket acceptance of this —
knowing full well that Media Matters takes things out of context all the time, the blanket
acceptance of this — and then running with it full speed, is an illustration of what I have
been drumming into people’s heads for years. The Drive-By Media is as partisan as any
organization out there. They hide under this notion that they are objective, but they’ve
got an agenda. They have their narratives. They have their templates. When anything fits
the narrative, whether it’s true or not — i.e., the Duke rape case — you go with it. You
run with it! You make the mess! This is why they’re called the “Drive-By” Media. You
make the mess. They drive in. They shoot things up, create all kinds of mess, get in the
convertible, head back down the road, and it’s left to people like me to clean up the mess
that they make — and they make messes every day, over and over and over again.
So the reason for spending this time on this is to illustrate that that is how this happens.
This organization is a front group for Mrs. Clinton, as are so many other organizations
out there that engage in these kinds of smears. One more sound bite here from the floor
of the House. This is Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New Jersey. Here’s a portion of what he said.

PALLONE: Yesterday House Republicans offered a motion to recommit, condemning
MoveOn.org for its advertisement stating that General Petraeus had betrayed us. I’m
wondering if they’ll show similar outrage over statements made yesterday by conservative
radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. Yesterday Limbaugh called service members
who support a withdrawal from Iraq “phony soldiers.” Is Limbaugh serious? I wonder
if Republicans who showed so much outrage towards MoveOn yesterday will hold Rush Limbaugh
to the same standard — and I wouldn’t hold your breath.

RUSH: You shouldn’t hold your breath because there’s no standard to hold me to, in the
sense that you’re talking about. I never said what you think I said, Congressman Pallone,
congresswoman Schakowsky, Senator Kerry, or any of the rest of you in the Drive-By Media.
I was talking about a genuine phony soldier — and, by the way, Jesse Macbeth is not the
only one. How about this guy Scott Thomas who was writing fraudulent, phony things in
the New Republic about atrocities he saw that never happened? How about Jack Murtha
blanketly accepting the notion that Marines in Haditha engaged in wanton murder of innocent
children and civilians? If anybody owes anybody an apology, the entire Democrat Party,
from Hillary Clinton on down, owes the US military an apology. They owe me an apology,
and they owe the American people an apology — and are they owed massive defeat in 2008!

They are irresponsible, they are dishonest, they are incompetent, and they pose a great
threat to this country — as evidenced by this small little episode. Now, I can go back
and I could get all kinds of resolutions here remind you of them, and I will. There were
resolutions praising the patriotism of General Petraeus, condemning the MoveOn ad.
Kerry voted no, Schakowsky voted no. They didn’t want to praise the “patriotism” because
“patriotism” to them is opposing victory. Patriotism to them is opposing the US military.
Patriotism to them is lying and taking out of context the words of people who are among
the biggest supporters of the US military in this country. When I mentioned the term
“phony soldier” — and they all know this — I was referring to a genuine phony soldier
about whom I had informed this audience the previous day and did so again the following
day. That was Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want to thank Media Matters for America for making it so easy, ladies and gentlemen,
to show how the real conspiracy works. Not the phony baloney, hilarious right-wing conspiracy
which is totally made up, but how the left flashes the media, who flash the left in Congress,
and voila, you have a totally wrong, false, filled with lies, out of context story that ends up
in the mainstream. If you’re going to thank Media Matters, you have to thank one man, and
that would be George Soros, and you have to thank one woman, and that would be
Hillary Rodham Clinton. What the media want is to create a story that fits into their template,
their reality.

Then they’ll go to their favorite Democrats for a comment, they’ll get some stupid comments
from them and run and rerun the lies so that two years from now the truth and their lies become
one and the same in the minds of people. This is their attempt here. This is because they don’t
want to debate the issues, because they can’t win. They don’t want to admit their own failures
and failings. They don’t want to inform the public. They want to manipulate the news and events
to advance their agenda. So a comment that’s taken out of context is compared to a paid, printed ad
intended to smear General Petraeus, then they ask the White House press secretary about it.
This is how it works. I want you to know it and never forget it. Thank you.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_092807/content/01125106.guest.html

I strongly urge ALL to compare and contrast. Let this serve as a prime example of why the media does not matter when they serve no purpose other than their own; when truth does not matter - and make no mistake about it, truth no longer matters.
Do not trust the media. Go to the source. Do the work. Discover the facts firsthand. Rely on no one to do your bidding, otherwise, like the politicians exposed yet again, you will be uninformed and made to look ever the fool.

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