RUSH: This is Columbus, Ohio. Hi, Brian.

CALLER: Hi. Thanks for taking my call, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: You know we have freedom of the press because the media’s supposed to hold politicians accountable. You know, they like to call themselves the fourth estate, as if they’re one of the branches of government. But that’s assuming that they’re impartial. You know, we know they’re not. They’ve chosen sides.

RUSH: No, it’s not — wait, wait, wait. It’s never been impartial. The founders assumed that the media was going to hold powerful people accountable, and the media has done that. The media lives on a premise, or it used to, that the powerful are corrupt. That was taught in journalism school. The powerful have done something illegal to become powerful, and you are there to find out what it is. What’s happened now, there’s never been impartiality. What’s happened now is — and you’re right, the media has thrown in with one side and has now become part of the corruption of power. And so they are no longer — what’s the phrase that John Kerry uses? “Speaking truth to power.” That’s gone. They’ve chosen sides and they’ve made it abundantly clear, so there is no fourth estate. There is no —

CALLER: Rush, if I may, an easy way of putting it for me anyway is they don’t decide which stories to cover. They decide which stories to cover-up. That’s about the quickest way I can get around it, and —

RUSH: That’s exactly right. And in the process, they are covering up for the people in power. When the Republicans are in power, the media reassumes its traditional position, and that is assuming that powerful people are corrupt. And then it does everything it can to undermine ’em, when they’re Republicans. When they’re Democrats they cover it up, like today. This poll, a media poll, the NBC News poll shows Obama at an all-time low, and they’re not reporting that. In fact, not only not reporting it, they’re reporting it as people angry at Republicans, angry at Washington, angry at Republicans for impeachment, angry at Washington in general. Grab sound bite three. Eamon Javers on CNBC Squawk Box this morning.

JAVERS: President Barack Obama, he hits a new all-time low in the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that just came out last night. Take a look at some of the highlights or the lowlights here if you’re the Obama administration. The Obama approval hits the new low of 40%. Congress’ approval much worse, however, 14%. Obama’s approval on the economy just 42%, and his approval on foreign policy, a meager 36%.

RUSH: Now, there’s a second bite from this guy I don’t have time to get to. I will after the break. But that’s the only time they reported those numbers. Every CNBC report thereafter focused, as this one also did, that Congress’ approval is much, much lower. Congress is in much worse shape. And in the next bite, as you’ll hear when we get back, the guy wonders, why do the American people still think we’re in a recession? Don’t they know we’re in a recovery? You’ll hear it when we come be back. It’s just an example of that which we are discussing at present.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll? None of the other Drive-Bys are talking about that. When Bush was in office, say the CNN poll came out. They all talked about the CNN poll, every other network. When the ABC poll came out it and was bad for Bush, they all mentioned it. Here you’ve got the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll out, a record low for Obama, and they aren’t even talking about it (as well as no other network talking about it), and furthermore they’re making it up! They’re claiming that the disapproval for Obama really reflects anger at Washington and the Republicans.

I mean, it is the Limbaugh Theorem in full force, in bright lights, on full display.

Now, here is the second half of the Eamon Javers report on CNBC, in which he talks about people’s disgust and unhappiness with the economy and so forth, but kind of doesn’t understand it since the stock market’s doing so well.

JAVERS: Take a look at some of the bad economic numbers here that talk about American economic pain. Uh, someone in their household has lost a job in the past five years: 40% say that. Five thousand dollars in student loan debt for themselves or their children: 27% say that. Twenty percent have more than $2,000 in credit card debt they’re unable to pay off month to month, and 17% say they have a parent or a child over 21 living with them for financial or health reasons, and that all may be part of the reason why 49% of the people surveyed here said they think that the United States is still in a recession. Even though the recession technically ended a number of years ago, guys, Americans are still feeling all that economic pain.

RUSH: Yeah, even though the recession ended, these guys are stunned. They cannot believe that people are still thinking this way ’cause recession ended and look at the stock market. So, look, we can go blind here, folks, talking about the role of the media in all this. Everybody knows that they abandoned their watchdog status. Everybody knows the media is a prime culprit in all of this; it goes without saying. Just because I don’t mention it, don’t think I haven’t thought of it. It’s not that at all.

We have even more news. This is basically CNBC’s written version: “Americans Cranky, Unhappy About Government,” is the way they headline the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. They go on here to recount it, but they’re clearly in a state of disbelief. That’s what’s amazing. In this story, they don’t understand why people are this pessimistic and negative about things. There really is a disconnect, especially among media people living and working in Washington and New York, the Northeastern Corridor.

There’s a new Rasmussen Reports survey that shows (now get this), “Only 27% of likely voters now think Obama’s doing a good job or excellent job when it comes to immigration.” Now, on this one I’m drawn back to yesterday. I raised the question actually two days ago. Why didn’t Obama do amnesty when he owned the Congress, when the Democrats had the House and the Senate and Obama was in the White House his first two years? Why didn’t he do amnesty then?

In those two years, he was running around, and Hispanics were asking, “Why don’t you do immigration? You promised you were gonna do immigration reform!” (Obama impression) “I can’t do it alone. I’m just the president. You know, I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I need Congress to help me along here. We have a nation of laws, and I can’t do it.” You know, all that tripe. Now, when the Democrats don’t control the Congress, when it is perceived that the Republicans do even though all they have is the House, now all of a sudden Obama’s hell-bent.

He’s gonna just raise the number of people granted amnesty with a stroke of a pen. Five or six million, he’s threatening to do. Why didn’t he do this when he had no opposition to it? Why is he doing it now? The answer is very simple. Nobody is ever gonna get any credit for doing this. The American people do not want this. That’s why he didn’t do it. He couldn’t blame it on the Republicans his first two years because the Republicans didn’t show up. They didn’t have the votes to stop anything.

But since the Republicans now have the House, Obama can blame all this on the Republicans — and it’s all about blame. The Limbaugh Theorem explains all of this. It’s all about making sure Obama is not perceived as having anything to do with any of this. Be it the economy, be it immigration, be it the storming of the border, be it foreign policy, it’s all somebody else’s fault.

“Powerful forces outside the White House — Congress, you name it — Obama’s a victim of all this, and he’s working as hard as he can to fix it, knowing that you want it fixed!” That’s the Limbaugh Theorem. If only 27% of the American people think he’s doing a good job on immigration, that means only 27% support immigration reform/amnesty. There’s no way he’s gonna do that unless he can guarantee the Republicans are gonna take the hit for it, and look how close they’ve come.

I mean, if you listen to Republicans (chuckling), they think the only way they’re gonna win again is to pass amnesty! (laughing) It’s just stunning. They think the only way they’re gonna win again is to do amnesty. Obama didn’t do it when he had the Congress. If it was such a great thing, if it guaranteed winning the White House forever, why didn’t Obama do it when he could? And if it’s the only thing the Republicans now can do to win the White House, then why didn’t Obama do it when he could and eliminate the Republicans forever?

If that’s it, if the only way the Republicans can ever win is to make the Hispanics love ’em, and the only way to do that is granting amnesty, then doesn’t it follow that Obama could wipe the Republicans off the map by granting amnesty and leaving the Republicans out of it? Yet he doesn’t do that, does he? He’s not gonna do this unless the Republicans help him along. So when the people of this country get outraged over it, the Republicans take the hit.

It is stunning to me how eagerly the Republicans are walking straight into a pit of quicksand.

They see it; they’re walking towards it.

They’re running, in fact, to get to this pit of quicksand, thinking it’s the Promised Land! (sigh) Some things… Anyway, we’re back to the original premise, and that is: What happens now? As all of this is going on, what is the recourse that people have? When the media is gone — when they’re not fulfilling their role, when the media has chosen sides — and you have people in power who openly express their either disgust or disagreement with the Constitution and the country and think that it needs to be transformed…

Oh, well, you know the drill. There’s just a tremendous and growing amount of frustration, and then amidst all this I’m reminded that two weeks ago Obama said, “You know, I decided to make the economy my legacy.” So he’s running around talking about this great economic recovery, and he’s got his buddies at CNBC talking about it. They can’t believe people don’t see it. “Why do they still think that we’re living in a recession?”

You know, Jimmy Carter’s legacy was the economy, too. He thought the exact same thing.