Rush To Judgement

EXAMINER PUBLICATIONS – OCTOBER 21, 2009

By Rich Trzupek

It’s really hard to keep one’s priorities in order. The mullahs in Iran are happily developing atomic weaponry, Congress is happily working on socializing medicine and we’re running up the national debt faster than you can say “it’s still Bush’s fault.” And sure, we hear about these things in the news, but – last week – these events paled in importance compared to the really, REALLY big news: the name of the guy who wants to be a minority owner of the St. Louis Rams.

Your humble correspondent is not a Limbaugh listener. Nothing against the man, and we obviously would agree on a great many subjects, but talk radio is not my cup of tea.

Still, the predictable and entirely hysterical response of the mainstream media and other race-baiters when Limbaugh was revealed to part of a prospective ownership group was, well, kind of sad. Limbaugh is said to be contemplating suing for libel and it would appear that he has a case.

The worst of the coverage attributed the following quote to Limbaugh: “You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray. We miss you, James. Godspeed.”

The source for this quote, for most in the media, was a book written by left-wing author Jack Huberman, entitled “101 Persons Who Are Really Screwing Up America”, published in 2006.

Prior to publication in Huberman’s fine contribution to literature, a search of Google Usenet archives reveals that the quote traces back to at least 2005. A wonderful fellow who uses the handle “Cobra” and who posts at various blogs is especially fond of posting bogus Limbaugh quotes. Posting at the site BlackPundit.com in 2005, Cobra repeated the James Earl Ray slander, and attributed this one to Limbaugh as well:

“Was there any excrement, any shamelessness in any form, above all in cultural life, in which at least one African-American would not have been involved? As soon as one even carefully cut into such an abscess, one found, like maggots in a decaying body, often blinded by the sudden light, an African-American. [2/21/03]”

Now let’s think about that for a moment. The left despises Limbaugh. There are legions of lefties who listen to Limbaugh and get paid to do so, hoping to hear something – anything – bad enough to ignite a firestorm that would get him booted off the air a la Don Imus. Is there any possibility that the man could utter a statement that reprehensible and the mainstream media would not have been screaming about it from every electronic pulpit?

But let’s get back to the James Earl Ray “quote”. Wikipedia, that oh-so-reliable source of information picked up the quote and attributed it to Huberman’s tome. Once the crap started to hit the fan last week, Huberman then cited Wikipedia as his source!   One would think that any writer would be embarrassed to cite Wikipedia as a source of anything, but doing so when the citation circles back to you is truly remarkable.

And the mainstream media? Well, apparently it’s very important to “fact check” SNL jokes involving President Obama, as CNN recently did, but that vital bit of reporting leaves them no time at all to “fact check” supposed hateful quotes that send everybody into a frenzy. Outlet after outlet gleefully reproduced the Limbaugh libel, when ten minutes worth of tracing it down on the internet would have revealed the lie.

They so wanted it to be true. Keep the damned conservatives out of the NFL! Wouldn’t want the right wing contaminating the league that employs drug-addicts, dog-fighters and so many other fine upstanding citizens. Can’t have that. Besides, it would be inappropriate to have a politically-polarizing figure involved with the NFL, right? Well, unless it’s Keith Olbermann. Then it’s OK. One can polarize only from the right, apparently.

And so we got to witness the spectacle of Al Sharpton, who never polarized anyone in his life, and Jesse Jackson, the very embodiment of non-polarization, droning on and on about what an injustice it would be to let a racist like Limbaugh invest in the NFL. My God, if that happened you might as well repeal the 13^th Amendment!

If I were Rush, I’d tell the NFL to shove it and get my lawyers suing everybody who published the lies. Would he win? I dunno. But it should would be fun to watch the simbitches twist on the vine a little.