Conservative talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh spent the bulk of his eponymous Tuesday program responding to the troubling e-mail trail of the Donald Trump Jr.-Russian lawyer meeting by slamming the hyperventilating news media while giving a hat-tip to “our buddy Brent Bozell and his gang at NewsBusters.”
“Man, oh, man. I watch this corrupting obsession that the anti-Trump forces all over this country, highlighted, of course, by the Drive-By Media, have. And it’s everything I can do to avoid laughing and feeling snarky and so forth,” Limbaugh began.
Not to discount what’s been uncovered, the media’s salivation at this story has been something to behold. Seeing what the NewsBusters newsroom did, Limbaugh unloaded on the media smugness:
I actually think I’m watching people lose their minds. This is what it looks like. If you have had the occasion, sad occasion in your life to witness a friend or family member lose their mind, this is what it is. This is a collective. This is a joint effort to lose a collective mind. And it is, I don’t know, breathtaking and stunning to watch. No, none of it frightens me. None of this scares me, especially this.
Limbaugh pointed out how, “for a period of a month there was a bombshell every afternoon at five o’clock” (remember Infrastructure Week) just in time be “guaranteed” a spot on “the nightly news” with “carryover that night into cable programming and to set the stage for panel discussions the next morning on cable TV.”
“Every one of those stories was treated as the gotcha, this is it, we’ve got the goods on Trump. Every one of those stories, if you read down far enough, had to include a sentence or maybe a short paragraph acknowledging no evidence for the allegations has yet been found, but suspicions remain high, or some such thing. Think about all of these bombshells, all of these reports, all of the time spent,” Limbaugh added.
Next came the very gracious shout-out to the MRC (with the 353 minutes that were actually devoted to Russia and the 45 minutes on other topics):
Media Research Center, our buddy Brent Bozell and his gang at NewsBusters actually chronicle the usage, and they found in the — I forget what the universe was, nightly news or cable news, whatever, 353 minutes was devoted to anti-Trump stuff like this and 45 minutes was devoted to stuff that was not critical of Trump. I mean, the balance here has been so out of whack and out of proportion.
Again, these e-mails take this controversy to another level. However, right on cue, the media were there to overreach and Limbaugh hit the nail on the head concerning that almost religious devotion to bringing down President Trump:
They are now defining themselves on the basis of the pursuit of this story. They can’t stop it. They cannot help themselves. They will never get to the point, even if there is ever incontrovertible evidence that it didn’t happen, they are not going to be able to accept it; they are too invested.
And it’s not professional investment; this has gone now into the psychological. It has gone to the personal. And it is an erosion of principles; it is an erosion of objective; it is journalism consuming itself. It’s journalism eating itself. And you know what happens after you eat enough; you have to go to the bathroom. And that’s where all of this stuff is headed. And it is breathtaking to watch this.
“And I look at all the people who have been corrupted, every guest, other than the assigned Trump supporters on every cable channel, every expert guest, I don’t care who, have also bought hook, line, and sinker into the story. Some people say they’re doing it because it’s good ratings. Some people think they’re doing it because it’s a way to differentiate themselves. It may have been that at some point, but now it’s gone beyond business. It’s gone beyond pursuing ratings or any of that,” he continued.
For anyone who reads NewsBusters at least somewhat regularly, the anti-Trump hot takes have only grown more scorching by the day. Limbaugh noticed how, for reporters and pundits, “[t]here is literal self-worth tied up into this, as far as the people that are engaging in it and they’re in a competition” to out-duke each other in who can be seen as “smartest guy in the room, the most perceptive guy in the room.”
He continued:
And as I say, I’m watching this, and I’m looking at these people literally lose their minds. And I like it. Don’t misunderstand. I think it’s fun to see. This is a self-immolation that is happening here, and they’re not even aware of it because they fool themselves into thinking that they represent the majority of thinking in America. They believe if they believe something, everybody else does. Call that hubris or arrogance or what have you.
Here’s the relevant transcript from July 11's The Rush Limbaugh Show:
The Rush Limbaugh Show
July 11, 2017RUSH LIMBAUGH: Man, oh, man. I watch this corrupting obsession that the anti-Trump forces all over this country, highlighted, of course, by the Drive-By Media, have. And it’s everything I can do to avoid laughing and feeling snarky and so forth. I feel like I’m watching people — and I do watch this in the daytime. I don’t watch cable news at night, as you know, but I watch this and
I actually think I’m watching people lose their minds. This is what it looks like.
If you have had the occasion, sad occasion in your life to witness a friend or family member lose their mind, this is what it is. This is a collective. This is a joint effort to lose a collective mind. And it is, I don’t know, breathtaking and stunning to watch. No, none of it frightens me. None of this scares me, especially this.Stop and think, folks. Let me put this in perspective in one regard. How long has this story been out there? We can say it’s been out there a year. I mean, this is July. The latest story, Donald Trump Jr. and his email from that Russian honey trap was in June of last year, so we call this a year. And think of all of the bombshells there have been in this past year. Think of all of the stories based on all of the leaks from unnamed sources in the intelligence community, former government officials, high-level U.S. officials, however they have been characterized.
The Washington Post in one story in the past year actually referred to the fact that they had as many as 15 of these kinds of sources informing them on one story. All told, I think the Washington Post has actually cited 30 different unnamed sources. I can’t recall them off the top of my head, but just remember, if you will, generic sense, all of the bombshells — and it seemed like for the last six months there has been one every day.
And for a period of a month there was a bombshell every afternoon at five o’clock. It was guaranteed to make the nightly news. There was carryover that night into cable programming and to set the stage for panel discussions the next morning on cable TV. Think about all of those bombshells. You don’t even have to remember the specific bombshell. All you have to remember is that each one was treated as the smoking gun, the answer.
Every one of those stories was treated as the gotcha, this is it, we’ve got the goods on Trump. Every one of those stories, if you read down far enough, had to include a sentence or maybe a short paragraph acknowledging no evidence for the allegations has yet been found, but suspicions remain high, or some such thing. Think about all of these bombshells, all of these reports, all of the time spent. Media Research Center, our buddy Brent Bozell and his gang at NewsBusters actually chronicle the usage, and they found in the — I forget what the universe was, nightly news or cable news, whatever, 353 minutes was devoted to anti-Trump stuff like this and 45 minutes was devoted to stuff that was not critical of Trump. I mean, the balance here has been so out of whack and out of proportion.
(....)LIMBAUGH: They are now defining themselves on the basis of the pursuit of this story. They can’t stop it. They cannot help themselves. They will never get to the point, even if there is ever incontrovertible evidence that it didn’t happen, they are not going to be able to accept it; they are too invested. And it’s not professional investment; this has gone now into the psychological. It has gone to the personal. And it is an erosion of principles; it is an erosion of objective; it is journalism consuming itself. It’s journalism eating itself. And you know what happens after you eat enough; you have to go to the bathroom. And that’s where all of this stuff is headed. And it is breathtaking to watch this.
And I look at all the people who have been corrupted, every guest, other than the assigned Trump supporters on every cable channel, every expert guest, I don’t care who, have also bought hook, line, and sinker into the story. Some people say they’re doing it because it’s good ratings. Some people think they’re doing it because it’s a way to differentiate themselves. It may have been that at some point, but now it’s gone beyond business. It’s gone beyond pursuing ratings or any of that.
There is literal self-worth tied up into this, as far as the people that are engaging in it. And they’re in a competition. All the analysts are competing with all the other analysts to come up with the unique take on every story that will focus everybody’s attention on that particular analyst. Everybody’s trying to be the smartest guy in the room, the most perceptive guy in the room.
There is no legitimate trail of news here. There’s no legitimate pursuit of facts or evidence. There is a theory. There is a result. There is a narrative. And the outcome has already been implanted in all of their heads, and now they’re pursuing whatever they can do to make that true, the exact opposite of what journalism’s supposed to be.
And as I say, I’m watching this, and I’m looking at these people literally lose their minds. And I like it. Don’t misunderstand. I think it’s fun to see. This is a self-immolation that is happening here, and they’re not even aware of it because they fool themselves into thinking that they represent the majority of thinking in America. They believe if they believe something, everybody else does. Call that hubris or arrogance or what have you.
(....)
LIMBAUGH: Now, this is kind of funny. Donald Trump Jr. at 11 o’clock this morning released the entire email chain regarding the Russian meeting. Little Brian Stelter over at CNN was very upset about that. Little Brian tweeted, “Confirmed from an NYT source: ‘We were preparing to publish’ story [containing the email chain] — Don Jr. camp ‘asked for more time’ to comment ‘and then pre-empted us.'” So the Trump campaign figured out the New York Times was gonna publish the email timeline and they wanted a comment from Trump Jr. They said, “Give me some more time to comment,” and then Trump Jr. preempted them and released the timeline himself. The Fox News story on this says that there is “nothing contained in the emails to suggest that Trump Jr. was informed of the larger alleged Russian effort to meddle in the U.S. presidential election,” and I have the email chain here. I’m not gonna read this whole thing to you. It’s got names that we haven’t discussed yet and all of this. But the bottom line here is that Catherine Herridge is reporting that there is nothing in the emails.
