{"id":34858,"date":"2011-05-19T01:15:31","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T01:15:31","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T01:15:31","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T01:15:31","slug":"sound_bites_the_train_wreck_that_passes_for_tv_news_in_2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/05\/19\/sound_bites_the_train_wreck_that_passes_for_tv_news_in_2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Sound Bites: The Train Wreck That Passes for TV “News” in 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Larry King Live has become a total train wreck. People sometimes go to train tracks to watch a train wreck, they go to auto races to watch a crash, and here we got Larry King every night with one. He had Eric Massa on last night and they had this exchange about Rahm Emanuel.<\/p>\n

KING: You\u2019re both in a gym, right, no women are there, you were nude, too, right? He\u2019s walking around nude, the fact that he\u2019s nude is immaterial, he\u2019s angry at you because you\u2019re going to vote against this president\u2019s bill. That sounds like a tough chief of staff getting angry at one of the members of his own party who\u2019s going against him. The fact that he didn\u2019t have clothes on and you were coming out of a shower is immaterial.<\/p>\n

MASSA: No, it\u2019s just terribly awkward, it\u2019s terribly awkward.<\/p>\n

KING: Yeah.<\/p>\n

MASSA: When was the last time you had a political argument with a naked man? It just doesn\u2019t — <\/p>\n

KING: Never.<\/p>\n

MASSA: — work well. Well, and that\u2019s my point.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, they\u2019re heading on down the tracks.<\/p>\n

MASSA: By the way, I owe Rahm an apology. I went over the top. I don\u2019t think he\u2019d strap his children to the front of a locomotive. He\u2019d strap my children to the front of a locomotive.<\/p>\n

RUSH: So King says, ‘Well, you said, quote, ‘Not only did I grope him, I tickled him until he couldn\u2019t breathe and then four guys jumped on top of me.\u2019 So you did grope somebody, right?\u2019 This is Larry King Alive last night. ‘So you did grope somebody, right?\u2019<\/p>\n

MASSA: Larry, when you grab someone and you\u2019re wrestling, I don\u2019t know how to describe that word. So if that\u2019s the word that — that you want to have an entire debate about, then I can\u2019t stop you.<\/p>\n

KING: No, I\u2019m just asking the — you said you groped —<\/p>\n

MASSA: Yeah, I —<\/p>\n

KING: A lot of people associate groping with sexual.<\/p>\n

MASSA: Well, it wasn\u2019t sexual, period.<\/p>\n

KING: Okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: What Massa shoulda said is, ‘Well, to each his own, Larry.\u2019 Now, the next bite, see if you agree with me that the train comes off the tracks here.<\/p>\n

KING: We have to ask, are you gay?<\/p>\n

MASSA: Here\u2019s that answer. I\u2019m not going to answer that. In year 2010, why don\u2019t you ask my wife, ask my friends, ask the 10,000 sailors I served with the in the Navy.<\/p>\n

KING: No, all right.<\/p>\n

MASSA: I\u2019m not going to answer that. It\u2019s an insulting —<\/p>\n

KING: I didn\u2019t mean it to insult you.<\/p>\n

MASSA: Not me. It insults every gay American. That somehow classifies people — why would anybody even ask that question —<\/p>\n

KING: Because —<\/p>\n

MASSA: — in this age?<\/p>\n

KING: — you said you groped someone, who was a male.<\/p>\n

MASSA: And, Larry, and I explained what that was three times.<\/p>\n

KING: Okay.<\/p>\n

MASSA: Come on, now.<\/p>\n

KING: We\u2019re just asking you to set the record straight. I\u2019m not offending — at least I\u2019m not trying to offend, certainly would not offend the gay community, or meaning to. <\/p>\n

RUSH: Of course not. What\u2019s wrong with being gay? So — (laughing) And tomorrow night Mikhail Gorbachev here on Larry King Live. (laughing) Everybody rushed in to have this kook on. It was funny. So let\u2019s just keep going. Last night Anderson Cooper 360 had David ‘Rodham\u2019 Gergen on there. Cooper said, ‘What do you make of the whole tickle fight?\u2019 This is CNN, with about 25,000 viewers.<\/p>\n

GERGEN: I don\u2019t know whether this fellow needs media help or mental help, probably both. I think he\u2019s sort of a mess. In some ways he\u2019s become a political corpse. The best thing we can do is put a sheet over him and move on. He does not have the goods in making this wild charge about the Democrats forcing him out.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Is it political corpse or political corps? It depends on who\u2019s pronouncing the word, I guess. So they had Pelosi last night on Charlie Rose, and Charlie said, ‘He\u2019s now become the darling of the conservative talk radio people, Rush Limbaugh –‘ no, Charlie, this is another thing that took on a life of its own. But anyway, that\u2019s why they had him on because they thought that I was supporting this guy. Anyway, here\u2019s what Pelosi said.<\/p>\n

PELOSI: So what? I mean the point is this is a very sick person. He has been diagnosed with cancer, perhaps his judgment is impaired because of his — the ethical issues that have arisen and he is no longer in the Congress. Poor baby. Poor baby. Sometimes we really exaggerate our own importance in a lot of these things.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Poor baby. Poor baby. Speaker of the House. Larry King: (imitating King) ‘Are you gay? Well, because you said you groped a guy. I\u2019m not saying you\u2019re gay, you did.\u2019 (laughing) ‘Really? Rahm was naked? What did that look like?\u2019 (laughing) <\/p>\n

So we got Dan Rather out there saying back in the good old days when we were reporting on civil rights and I was able to make stuff up and nobody was able to prove that I was making it up, everybody knew I wasn\u2019t a racist but now Obama is so bad that he couldn\u2019t sell watermelons on the side of a road if a state trooper was stopping traffic for him. Now, Rather worked where? He worked at CBS. This morning on the CBS Early Show today Harry Smith had a colonoscopy live on camera. They did this after the story on Massa claiming that Emanuel walked into the gym shower with no clothes on. So they went from the nude conversation about the health bill here to colonoscopy on camera. And during the procedure, we have a portion of this, Katie Couric is in there offering encouragement, and Dr. Mark Pochapin, the doctor performing the procedure — now, this is the network of Murrow and Cronkite now airing colonoscopies, and they wonder why nobody is watching.<\/p>\n

COURIC: You have apparently a very long colon. By the way, I just want to point out I\u2019m wearing my splash shield because I was told I was going to be in the splash zone, and I could have gone all day without knowing that.<\/p>\n

POCHAPIN: Sorry about that, Katie.<\/p>\n

COURIC: Thank you. Anyway —<\/p>\n

RUSH: So that is the CBS Evening News anchor, Katie Couric, describing being in the splash zone of a colonoscopy at breakfast time on the CBS morning news after a story on Eric Massa and Rahm Emanuel nude in the House gym. We also learn Harry Smith\u2019s colon is very long and that Katie could have gone all day long without knowing she was in the splash zone. (interruption) Is Harry gay? I don\u2019t know if Harry Smith\u2019s gay. What does it matter? Oh, Larry King wants to know. Well, no. I don\u2019t think so. But I wouldn\u2019t know. I wouldn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s go to last night\u2019s Joy Behar show. Have you figured out the joke yet you guys? Have you figured out the Joy Behar joke? Well, that\u2019s the point, if you find a way to make that connection you\u2019ll find yourself on the floor laughing yourself silly. Okay, last night Joy Behar had sex columnist Dan Savage and political correspondent Nia-Malika Henderson about Dan Rather and the watermelon comment.<\/p>\n

BEHAR: Of all the fruits to choose, why would he choose watermelon? There\u2019s an orange, there\u2019s a cantaloupe, any other fruit. Why that?<\/p>\n

SAVAGE: If you drive through Texas in the summer, it is watermelon that is sold by the side of the road. Dan Rather is almost 80 years old, and you can hear Chris Matthews and the other guests on that show jumping in to interrupt him like you would interrupt great grandpa at Thanksgiving. I don\u2019t think Dan Rather is a closet racist.<\/p>\n

BEHAR: So it\u2019s a Ratherism?<\/p>\n

HENDERSON: Yeah, that\u2019s what it seems like. I\u2019m from South Carolina. And, yeah, people do sell watermelons on the side of the road.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, but there aren\u2019t news anchors who talk about Obama being unable to even if a state trooper was stopping traffic for him. But, nevertheless, this is what passes now for what goes on in prime-time in what is called the mainstream media: colonoscopies, splash zones, why couldn\u2019t he have chosen another fruit? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Larry King Live has become a total train wreck. People sometimes go to train tracks to watch a train wreck, they go to auto races to watch a crash, and here we got Larry King every night with one. He had Eric Massa on last night and they had this exchange about Rahm Emanuel. 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