With the new CBS (Couric Bull Shoot™) evening news premiering this week we were all introduced to what Katie called, "Free Speech" ("Speech" being the operative word), in which "...newsmakers, opinion makers, and just plain folks tell us what's on their minds." And when you offer free million dollar network time to a voice, who better to donate it to than someone who has only three hours a day, five days a week to do it already.
Mr. and Mrs. News Consumer, meet Rush Limbaugh.
Under the qualification set by KC, that their free speecher be a newsmaker, opinion maker, or a plain folk, Rush Limbaugh fits none. Newsmakers? Not unless he was to speak to how hypocrites get away with breaking drug laws. Opinion maker? If this were "opinion spreader," sure. But when you repeat a political party's propaganda without the trouble of cross-pollinating them with facts, then you're just a repeater of someone else's opinions.
"Patriotism is supporting our troops in the battlefield, not undermining the mission and morale," is not an opinion. It's a Karl Rove talking point.
And do I even need to speak to a "plain folk" who makes a $zillion a year spreading his free speech?
On this past Thursday evening's segment, Rush freely read what was on his mind and guess what? It was a condemnation of "some" who are "pretending these terrorist incidents are mere episodic events," and believe the threat of terrorism is "going away because we choose to ignore it."
He never identified who the "some" were who believed this. I'm guessing they aren't in control of the House, Senate or White House.
Rush assured us that "When good negotiates with evil, evil will always win. Well, yeah. When the evil has full control of the microphone or can hang up when good tries to make a legitimate counter point to evil.
Rush invited us to tell him "...how do we negotiate with people whose starting point is our death? Ask them to wait for 10 years before they kill us?" And I would tell him, if I could ever figure out what the hell that even means. For crissakes, he prepared the script in advance. Wouldn't you think he might have attempted to make it coherent?
Watching Rush make his absolutely Free Speech was made all the more difficult to comprehend due to the barrage of red herrings obscuring his read.
Did you know that it's not patriotic, when we "...want to grant those who want to kill us U.S. constitutional rights."
Um. Anyone remember Tim McVeigh?
It's not patriotic, "When the critics are more interested in punishing this country over a few incidents of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay than they are in defeating those who want to kill us..."
Raise your hands, folks. Punishing America over defeating killers. Anyone? Anyone?
A talk show host, author, columnist,award-winning television writer and filmmaker, his inspiring book, "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" (Tallfellow Press) has been published internationally and has become required reading in the Wharton School of Business Masters Program. His "All The News That's Fit To Spoof " column appears every Sunday on the L.A. Daily News Oped Page.
Steve has appeared all over national TV and radio with his unique brand of satirical punditry and social observations appearing in national periodicals from the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, to his own weekly Internet column "The Lords Of Loud," at AlbionMonitor.net and The Huffington Post.
Well I have watched this sham of a news broadcast and Dear Katie you are being setup. It is already an empty 30 minutes. Very little real news. The powers at CBS want you to fail and if you want to succeed you will have to sit in the anchor chair, behind your desk, and present news, not fluff pieces for the corporate establishment. If they take you off the air at least you can go down with your integrity intact. I think you are a better journalist than this . If you go along to get along only you will suffer. Have a heart to heart with your news director and demand some news to report on. They are trying to make a fool out of you and hope they will not be blamed. Take control!!! You are a strong woman.
by
cluelessfl (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 184 comments)
on Friday, September 8, 2006 at 7:58:15 PM
Unfortunately there are those who think that anyone who does not agree with them should not have the right to voice their opinion, never once thinking they might actually be wrong themselves. Just as long as they shout the loudest, call everyone else who doesn't agree with them stupid, boy, son, or pal. You either support free speech or you don't.
Rush, like anyone else, deserves his time at the podium.
It's only our man, our woman, who should be heard? The
sad part is that when only the left wing or the right wings views are permitted we actually weaken this country.
I hope that both views are represented equally throughout this program and its future. But I do not believe that CBS's Free Speech is A Rush To Judgement, but if done tastefully and with respect to each others views, quite positive.
Some of my views are on the left, some are on the right, and I reserve the right to change my opinion, but when you resort to name calling, I stop listening, end of discussion.
Just a voice of reason, neither left, nor right, but with the right to voice my opinion in a free society which should have free speech.
by
LordyLordy (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments)
on Friday, September 8, 2006 at 10:30:27 PM
Rush and O'Reilly should be given wider forums in which to speak. With the slight proviso that their speeches be followed by someone knowledgeable enough to expose their distortions, truth bending and outright lying.
I am far from an Al Franken fan but I do absolutely love the segments wherein he plays an absurdity from Limbaugh or Billy and then shreds it with the actual fact and context.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Saturday, September 9, 2006 at 6:05:14 PM
Katie, sorry I did not and do not intend to watch your news.
However I fail to see rush limbaugh in this spot. There are many many who could fill this segment and not with propaganda. If I want to see or hear rush, I'll check into his radio show. No thanks. Shame on you, but thanks for showing where you really stand on free speech.
Oh yeah, lower case letters are intentional.
by
Pat Herrick (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 154 comments)
on Saturday, September 9, 2006 at 2:23:00 PM
Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'reilly should not even appear in the same sentence with "Free Speech". They bring the same nobility to political discourse that Morton Downey Jr. Brought to the talk show. When somebody starts to get the better of either of them they turn off his microphone and shout him down.
by
Matthew Peters (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 79 comments)
on Sunday, September 24, 2006 at 9:28:50 AM
6 comments
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