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“Reality” Changes When Cameras Roll

by Rush Limbaugh - May 15,2014

RUSH: Miami Dolphins player Don Jones, who tweeted “horrible” after the kiss on TV between Michael Sam and his boyfriend Vito, has been sent to sensitivity training. The Dolphins… Let’s see, did they fine him? Yeah. Don Jones. He tweeted, “Oh, my God,” OMG, and thought the whole thing was horrible. Yeah, he was fined and suspended from all team activities until he completes educational training.

He’s going to reeducation camp, sensitivity training. This is creepy. This is just creepy stuff. That’s creepier than… I mean, some people found the kiss creepy. I wouldn’t… (interruption) He’s too old to go to reeducation. You can’t send Sterling away. They gotta keep Sterling on TV as often as they can. They’re not gonna send Sterling to reeducation camp. I mean, he’s 81. It’s too late to re-sensitize him. He’s useful as one of these buffoons on TV every day.

But the Dolphins player has been sent to reeducation camp.

That’s creepy. That is creepy stuff to me.

By the way, we found out, ladies and gentlemen… Get this. Oprah, her network is called OWN. She’s made a reality TV deal with Michael Sam and his boyfriend, and the cameras were already rolling on the reality show, and it’s gonna be of Michael Sam and his boyfriend. So the cameras were rolling. That means… You know my theory on cameras. I’ll give you my theory on cameras — you probably remember — when we get back.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, my theory of cameras is that they change what otherwise would normally happen if they weren’t there. Go to any street corner, go to any person’s house, go anywhere. You put out a camera, a single camera, and you forever change what otherwise would happen. If everybody knows the camera’s there, they immediately start playing to it. They immediately get self-conscious.


They immediately start thinking about how they’re gonna look, how do they look, how do they sound, what should they not say. Don’t doubt me on this. It takes a long time to forget that a camera is someplace. That’s why, you know, reality shows are not real. The only difference… I’ve been on ’em, folks. The only difference in a reality show and any other TV show is that the writers for reality shows are not union.

I’ve been on a reality show where there were five and six takes of an event.

I said, “Wait a minute. I thought this was reality.”

“Well, it is.”

“Well, then why did what just happened not work?”

“Well, it could be done better.”

“I thought this was a reality show?”

“Well, it is.”


“Well, no, it’s not, if we’re having to redo it,” and they get all flustered.

So my point is that we were told that everything that happened when Michael Sam’s draft pick was announced was spontaneous. It couldn’t have been, because there were cameras there. Oprah’s reality show cameras were rolling, and so they had already thought — people, not just Sam and his boyfriend. Everybody there had thought about what they were gonna do. Whether they wanted to or not, you can’t help it, is my point.

I’m not charging anything conspiratorial here.

And it’s why, if I may be so bold, there’s really no such thing as a reality show. There’s no such thing as reality TV. The only way… The closest you ever got to real reality TV was Candid Camera, where nobody knows the camera is there. You’ve seen this. I’m sure you’ve seen it even when it’s not professional. When somebody starts videoing a family gathering, say, there’s acting involved.

Everybody starts behaving in ways they wouldn’t otherwise behave. So Oprah’s cameras being there, my only point is that it was not totally spontaneous. I don’t care what it was. That’s at any time the point. But it’s just they were not being up front. (interruption) Now, Snerdley asked me, “What goes on at reeducation camp, sensitivity training?” How do I know? I’ve never been sent.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I got a note during the break. “Dear Rush. So the Dolphins have fined and suspended a player for tweeting a negative comment about a staged event in a reality show. Is that at what happened here, Rush?” The guy who sent me the note said, “Wait a minute. Oprah’s cameras were in there when the kiss happened? Oprah’s… There’s a reality show being filmed or taped at that supposed spontaneous moment?

“So this Dolphins player who tweeted whatever he tweeted — ‘OMG,’ and ‘horrible’ — has been sent away to reeducation training, sensitivity training, because he reacted to a staged event?” That’s what I mean by, “When you find out cameras are someplace,” and that the reality show is being taped. But the NFL is not going to tolerate any negativity, disagreement, or anything contrary from within its own ranks about the Michael Sam story.

They’re just are not.

I tell you, sending people away to sensitivity training and reeducation camp? That just creeps me out. (interruption) Well, I don’t know what goes on at retraining camp, sensitivity training, reeducation camp. I don’t know if you have to watch videos of what you find horrible. I have no clue. I haven’t been sent yet. (interruption) Yet. But the… (interruption) I’m sure you do. I’m sure you take tests.

You’ve gotta prove to ’em that you got your mind right. How? I mean, you’ve gotta get out of there somehow. They don’t just put you in there. I don’t even know how long it is. Is it a week? Is it six weeks? It’s the rest of your life? How long is retraining, reeducation, sensitivity training go on? Now, TMZ says that Michael Sam had already been taping the Oprah show for weeks before he was even drafted.

This was not announced until yesterday. Nobody knew about this outside the people involved until yesterday. So, folks, there’s some deceit here. I don’t know if it matters to you or not, but there’s some deceit. Some people wanted you to believe that all this is spontaneous, and we now find out that it’s all part of a reality show — an Oprah reality show, which might make it okay. It explains the crying.

That’s the one thing it does. Oprah’s cameras there explains the crying. I mean, that’s practically automatic. So I don’t know. There’s a whole story here: “Michael Sam’s Reality Show Deal with Oprah.” This is TMZ. “Michael Sam is getting the Lindsay Lohan treatment … as in, the openly gay football player is getting his own reality show on Oprah’s TV network … reps at OWN confirm.

“The show — produced by the same people who did Lindsay’s show — will chronicle Sam’s journey into the NFL … and we’re told Sam has already been taping the show for weeks. In fact, we’re told Oprah’s crew was in the room when Sam learned he had been drafted by the St. Louis Rams … and clearly knew [that all that was happening there] would make for great reality television.”

All fine and dandy. Folks, the more the better of this. Fine. But I remember everybody involved here saying, “This is not about anything but Michael Sam the football player. That’s all that we’re focused on here,” and it’s not all that Oprah focused on. It’s far more than just Sam the football player.


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