CALLER: Hi! Mega dittos from St. Louis, Missouri. I was actually… We have media in classes in school. I’m a international relations major at one of the most liberal universities in the state, I think. But when we are told to look at the media and how to pull sources from the media, we’re told to look at ‘unbiased, very credible sources.’ We’re told to — encouraged to — stay away from like Fox News and stick to CNN, MSNBC, and, actually, al-Jazeera is one of the big sources that we pull from, for our international news.RUSH: Wait just a second. Wait, wait just a second. I’m experiencing some tinnitus today in my ear, which is a low-level hum, and every call sound muffled like that. You say that you’re a college student at present, right?
CALLER: Yes. I’m my senior year, last semester.
RUSH: Senior year.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And you’ve been assigned to watch only credible, nonbiased, objective media?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And on that list is al-Jazeera?
CALLER: Yes. Several of my classes, al-Jazeera. So…
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: (laughing) I do the same thing. I laugh, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, okay.’
RUSH: I’ve got to ask some questions about this, but I don’t have time to do it now. Can you hang on through the break?
CALLER: Sure!
RUSH: We’ll be back. I know what university, too. When you say ‘one of the most liberal,’ I know which one it is. I know St. Louis. I know Missouri. I’m from there.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Back to Kim in St. Louis, a senior International Relations major at a major American liberal university, which could be 99% of American universities. You know, the university today — we were talking about this yesterday, Kim — is one of the most closed societies, institutions, of any in the country today. It lives under this myth that it’s for curiosity and investigation, inspection, the open-and -free discussion of ideas, exploration, reaching for the stars intellectually, blah, blah, blah. Instead, it’s nothing but an indoctrination center anymore, as the instruction you got from your professor to only watch certain media, because that media was objective, fair, balanced, and unbiased — and al-Jazeera is on the list!
CALLER: Al-Jazeera is on the list for the international. How does the world view America? Because you can’t trust like BBC or anything else like that. So al-Jazeera is pretty key in most of my classes. We use a lot of it.
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait. I didn’t catch that. They said you can’t trust ABC?
CALLER: BBC.
RUSH: BBC.
CALLER: The British news, for international stuff.
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Hang on. I apologize. It’s my hearing. Your professor told you that you cannot trust BBC for international news on a view of America?
CALLER: No, because it’s pretty biased.
RUSH: This is absurd! The BBC is one of the biggest hate-America news organizations out there! I can’t believe they would not be put on the list with al-Jazeera. Anyway, you said you laughed. What about the rest of the students in your class?
CALLER: Well, I’m one of five self-proclaimed conservatives on campus, so they all eat this up and go about their way and sit around and talk about it at Starbucks, and I don’t even pay attention. So…
RUSH: Well, I —
CALLER: But I was saying, I was making a comparison or just writing up this paper. When I was looking at media sources, I was using, you know, when I look up your name on Internet sources, it comes up, ‘conservative radio talk show host and political commentary,’ okay? And then if I go to like The View and look up what they do, it’s classified as ‘the show is like a bunch of girlfriends sitting around chatting. The show opens each day with Hot Topics, in which the co-hosts provide commentary on the day’s top headlines and politics,’ and my point I was trying to make in class is that, you, sir, can say something about Nancy Pelosi, and you could be hung in the media for it. However, The View can invite Nancy Pelosi on their show and her husband and make lewd comments about her and ‘doing’ her husband, and it’s considered entertainment — and I was trying to show, I guess, in class, how is that any different from you making a comment to Whoopi Goldberg making a comment or Rosie O’Donnell, or whoever’s on there, Barbara Walters.
RUSH: Are you asking the professor this?
CALLER: Yeah, at one point I’m going to bring it up. I wrote it in a paper and I turned it in. So it will be interesting to see what I get.
RUSH: Oh, oh, oh. She put it in a paper.
CALLER: Yeah. (giggles)
RUSH: Very brave, Kim. Very courageous. Don’t change. This is a great learning opportunity for you, and I’m so proud of you because you are not going for the grade. You’re actually challenging the premise of some of the stuff the professor is saying, and it’s a great way for you to hone your skills in expressing your point of view and being able to persuade people with it. So I applaud you. It says you wanted to ask one other question.
CALLER: Oh, I do, I have one other question. Media Matters said it was founded by Hillary Clinton. Is that right?
RUSH: She helped start it, by her own admission, yes.
CALLER: Well, I didn’t know if that was true or it was kind of like an Algore, ‘I invented the Internet’ thing.
RUSH: No, it’s true.
CALLER: Okay. Well, that’s good. I’ll use that in class.
RUSH: Starting Media Matters is a little bit less complicated than starting the Internet, than inventing the Internet.
CALLER: (giggles)
RUSH: No, that’s not a myth. It’s not a wives tale. She was instrumental in its founding along with money that circuitously routed to it from George Soros. Kim, thanks much.