RUSH: I want to go to the audio sound bites. This is pretty classic. This morning on Laura Ingraham’s radio show, she talked to former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw. Brokaw’s got a new book, and she says to him, ‘You mentioned Rush Limbaugh in the book, but you kind of throw away a line about Limbaugh, and it’s in the drug section. And without a doubt, Rush Limbaugh’s the most influential Boomer I think in the media today. There’s no person who has had more of a profound impact on the way people think about politics than Limbaugh, and he gets a line, you know, the drug thing, which I just don’t think that’s right, Tom.
BROKAW: My problem with the whole spectrum is that there is not — you know, you know what Rush is — what his whole drill is, he doesn’t want to hear another point of view, except his.
INGRAHAM: Oh, I disagree. He talks to all sorts of people. Well, he doesn’t interview people like I do. I mean, I have guests on–
BROKAW: He doesn’t — he doesn’t interview people, and he mocks people–
INGRAHAM: But he’s not an objective — he’s not an objective person, he doesn’t say he is, and that’s the difference between him and anchors on some of our networks who have political agenda but then pretend that they’re objective.
BROKAW: Well, Laura, we’re never going to resolve this. You know, you have your point of view, and I have mine.
RUSH: What’s funny about that is that Brokaw’s lamenting that we can’t all come together. That the civil discourse has vanished and it’s all talk radio’s fault. ‘Well, Laura, you have your view, and I have mine, and we’re never going to come together on this.’ Well, Tom, compromise! Compromise. Why don’t you compromise, Tom? Why don’t you change what you think, if you want civility? So then Ingraham says, ‘But that’s a point — that’s a thing. I’m trying to — you know I like you, but I’m trying to get — I’m trying to get to this point. Sixties is all about, you know, free speech, everyone has their opinions, but then when you have this really successful movement called talk radio, people get their opinions out, and then you saying, oh, it’s getting kind of nasty.’
BROKAW: My problem with talk radio is that they only want to hear one note. They mock anybody else’s point of view, and they do it often in a mindless fashion. And you know that as well as I do. Because it’s a hot button for the choir that listens to them and it works commercially. There are very few programs like you — like yours in which you’ll interview people across a political spectrum. It’s mostly people who go out there and hit the hot button all day long.
RUSH: Now, what’s Tom Brokaw really upset about — ladies and gentlemen? What is he really upset about? It’s what I’ve always told you. He’s upset they have lost their monopoly. Tom Brokaw no longer gets to set the agenda for the news the American people are treated to each and every day. Be it in print or in broadcast. He is just jealous, demanding all this: ‘The more opinions the better. We want diversity.’ But when talk radio comes along, somehow we in talk radio mock people, as though people in the Drive-By Media have not mocked George W. Bush. But the thing is, this is an old saw that talk radio mocks and makes fun of people. We do tell jokes about liberals here. We do mock what they believe. It is totally mockable. They are just not used to this. When they had their monopoly, ladies and gentlemen, they got to set the agenda, and they were never challenged. They were never made fun of. They could tell jokes and still do, about NASCAR people, about evangelicals, any number of people. Brokaw can tell jokes about my drug addiction. That’s not mocking. No, no, no, no. He’s justified in his mind because he thinks that’s all I do, which means he doesn’t listen and probably never has taken the time.
There’s a studied little technique, I don’t know if you noticed it in this answer: ‘My problem with talk radio is, they only want to hear one note, they mock anybody else’s point of view, they do it often in a mindless fashion, and you know that as well as I do,’ he said that to Laura Ingraham. ‘You know that as well as I do.’ That is a way to shut people up and to make them think, look, you’re just as bright as I am, but the bottom line is this, Tom. I do three hours a day. I do that five days a week. We don’t do 40-second sound bites. We don’t do one-and-a-half minute little stories, we go in-depth here. I spend more time in depth in one hour of this program than in three days of the Nightly News. And, by the way, Tom, you say that I don’t get the liberal point of view out, you say it’s not heard in this program. Tom, you know what you’re missing about talk radio: We teach people; we inform people.
Practically every time I explain conservatism or the conservative slant on an issue, I explain the liberal side. I do a better and more honest job, Tom, of explaining liberalism than you people do who are liberal, because you’re in the business of hiding it. You’re in the business of hiding behind the pretense of objectivity when, in fact, you are as liberal as anybody who is liberal is. But you never explain that, you never admit it, and you will never explain what liberalism is really all about. I do. Just like I’m explaining who you are now, Tom. I don’t need you on the program to tell people who you are and what you think and react to what you said about me. I don’t need you here. I can do a better job of explaining you to people than you can do explaining yourself to people, because you won’t be honest with them.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I actually think Tom Brokaw blew it when he titled his new book on the sixties and Baby Boomers. He should have called it: The Lamest Generation. There’s something else about Brokaw and all these other guys in the Drive-Bys, folks. They’re just jealous as they can be of me and a lot of other people. I, ladies and gentlemen, could buy Montana. Brokaw can only afford one ranch there.