Left Wing Attacks on Right Wing Punditry
Keith_Indy on Oct 05 2007 at 12:15 pm | Filed under: Culture, Domestic Politics, Keith's Page, regulation
So, how low can they go?
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1007/Elizabeth_Takes_on_Limbaugh.html
An Air America producer just sent over some transcript from an interview their Richard Greene (not our Richard Greene) conducted with Elizabeth Edwards, in which she questioned Rush Limbaugh’s Vietnam exemption:
” My classmates went to Vietnam, he did not. He was 4F. He had a medical disability, the same medical disability that probably should have stopped him from spending a lifetime in a radio announcer’s chair; but it is true, isn’t it? If he has an inoperable position that allows him not to serve, presumably it should not allow him to sit for long periods of time the way he does. I think this is a serious enough offense for the people who fund him, who buy ads and allow him to be on the air, need to be asked if this is what they really stand for, do they think it is all right for someone who has never served to denigrate the men and women who have simply because they are expressing an opinion. Frankly, I thought that is what we are fighting for.”
I bet they can go lower. And it’s not just Rush either.
I do know one thing, the more they attack Rush, the more the right is going to gel together and fight the left. Which is a good thing, well, unless you’re a dyed in the wool leftist/liberal/democrat/progressive.
Meanwhile, Mike Pence (IN) is calling for action on a bill that would “prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from setting rules and policies reinstating the so-called Fairness Doctrine.”
“If anyone ever doubted that there is enmity between Democrats and American talk radio, they need look no further than the personal attacks leveled on Rush Limbaugh on the floor of the Senate,” said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the sponsor of legislation shielding broadcasters from government interference. “I thought it astonishing that members of the U.S. Senate would engage in repeated and distorted personal attacks on a private citizen. It gives evidence of a level of frustration with conservative talk radio that is very troubling to anyone who cherishes the medium.”
Pence, a former professional talk radio host, and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), a radio station owner, on Monday sent letters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) demanding a vote on the Broadcaster Freedom Act.
In their letters, Pence and Walden cited broad support for their bill as well as a vote on an appropriations amendment earlier this year showing that many Democrats are wary of angering politically influential radio personalities such as Limbaugh. The Republican lawmakers gave Democratic leaders a deadline of the end of next week.
Update:
Yep, they can go lower… via Hot Air
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I’m not so sure about the “suicide bomber” thing. It seems pretty clear that’s the comparison that Rush was making — i.e that McGough is being misled into thinking that he has been insulted by Rush, and has been sent out to attack Rush and any defenders. It’s not an entirely apt comparison, but I got what Rush was suggesting. He didn’t outright call McGough a suicide bomber, but that was definitely the image I got.
If you think about it, McGough is actually more like Cindy Sheehan in that he is cloaked with moral authority, and that any attacks on his message will be deflected with a “why do you hate the troops?” Rush seemed to be suggesting that he felt sorry for McGough being misled into being used like this (much like how many felt sorry for Sheehan), when he made the horribly loaded comparison to a suicide bomber.
They are taking rhetorical words and allegorical statements, and trying to translate them literally, and acting like its a clever argument.
For instance, is anyone seriously suggesting that ABC news is calling Ann Coulter a bomb thrower in this piece…
Sadly it doesn’t matter. Oliver Wills has one good point he uses to justify this. The right did the same thing to Gore many a time (though on not nearly as vicious in subject matter.) That of course justifies in Olivers mind anything he does. For those who don’t deal with Oliver, he has said exactly that many a time in places such as QandO. He never says that the specific lie or distortion he is spreading is in fact a lie or distortion, but he always says that for not to do it would be ceding the low ground to the right. Rush isn’t exactly innocent in that regard, but if two wrongs don’t make a right, doubling down certainly doesn’t.