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Rush Limbaugh

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RUSH: Every Monday Cookie goes through the — well, whatever she uses to find — she can’t watch all this stuff. I guess she still does watch this stuff. Anyway, over the weekend I’m always mentioned on various programs, and on Monday the vast majority of the sound bites are about me. Actually, it’s not the case today but there are two here, two or three — just grab number two and three. This is the kind of thing I don’t know how many times I have explained.

Twenty-five years I’ve been doing this program. You who listen to it know exactly what the purpose of the program is, why I do it, who I do it for, what goes into it. That’s why you listen. That’s why you’re here. Twenty-five years and still people on the left or in the media, which is maybe the same thing, either refuse to get it, have never understood it or are purposely misstating it, and I think probably it is the former. I think they’re just plain ignorant and associating this program and me with various prejudiced stereotypes that they’ve got.


Saturday morning, PBS One-on-One. The host is — oh, well, this guy. I mean, he wouldn’t get it right if his life depended on it. The host, I’m not gonna mention this clown’s name. He’s been around. But he’s talking to Brian Lehrer, who’s been on New York City public radio and all that for a long time. And the host asked this guy, “How would you describe the differences between what you do in talk radio and what most other commercial talk radio — What is the big difference, Brian, between what you do?” Of course he’s highbrow, PBS, no ratings, smart, soft-spoken, reasonable, inoffensive, thoughtful. Boring! And so he’s asking, what’s the difference in what you do and what these clowns on commercial radio do?

LEHRER: I’ll tell you it this way. Rush Limbaugh has a line that he uses sometimes. He has this line that he uses sometimes: “This show is not about what you think. It’s about what I think.”

ADUBATO: It’s true.

LEHRER: And it’s sort of a laugh line, but then again it is absolutely true.

ADUBATO: He doesn’t care what you think.

LEHRER: My show really is about what everybody thinks ‘cause we are really an open forum.

RUSH: And the misunderstanding continues. When this all started early on in the program’s history, the left, one of the initial criticisms of this program was of you, the audience, that you were a bunch of mind-numbed robots, that you didn’t know diddly-squat about anything until I told you. You were brainless. You were brain-dead, and you didn’t know or do anything until I commanded you. And after not too long a time of the left doing that, I started tweaking them, as you know well that we do here. I love tweaking these people in the media and these highbrows and these effete elites who think they’re better than everybody else.

So on a Friday, for example, I will say, “And for those of you who don’t want to worry about what happens over the weekend, don’t worry about it. You don’t have to worry about a thing. I’ll do it for you, and as an added bonus I will tell you what to think,” just to tweak them. And they fall for it. After 25 years they continue to fall for it. They haven’t the slightest idea. And I’ll tell you, this is crucial. They haven’t the slightest idea why this program is successful. They have not the slightest idea and therefore can in no way replicate the process for themselves.


They have no idea about actually connecting and bonding with the audience or an audience, no idea. They have this condescending, everybody talks down to people. They think they’re open-minded and they listen to all points of view and so forth and so on. They have no clue what they’re doing. It also is one of the reasons why they have no audience.

So on CNN on Saturday morning, another discussion similar to this, Michael Smerconish is speaking with this Brian Stelter. This is a different Brian, not Brian Lehrer. This is a different Brian. This is a guy that used to be at the New York Times. Now he’s at CNN doing media analysis. And Brian, they swapped seats and the media guy started interviewing Smerconish about him and his new book called Talk. And during the discussion they had this little exchange.

STELTER: I have heard you say in the past, people like Rush Limbaugh, you wonder if they believe everything theyÂ’re saying on the radio.

SMERCONISH: How could you?

STELTER: YouÂ’re skeptical.

SMERCONISH: Yeah, how could you? Come on, a broken clock is right twice a day, isnÂ’t that the old adage? How can everything that Barack Obama does be wrong? How can he be the anti-Christ in every single situation?

RUSH: Who ever said he’s the anti-Christ? But he is wrong. What’s he been right about? He’s a liberal. But the point is they don’t believe that I actually believe what I say. (imitating Stelter and Smerconish) “Limbaugh is just saying this for his audience. He doesn’t really believe half the stuff he says.” They don’t get it. They don’t get that I believe everything I say, other than, of course, when we’re doing the sarcasm or the parodies or what have you. So those are the two sound bites featuring me.

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