According to Joe Williams [1],
the senior White House reporter for Politico, Rush Limbaugh is like the
"serial murderer" who was caught with "three bodies in the trunk." The
veteran journalist made the outrageous comparison on Tuesday's Martin Bashir show, a program that included other liberal smears against the conservative radio host.
Before making his offensive connection, Williams highlighted his
background covering the police. Regarding Limbaugh's comments about
Sandra Fluke, the journalist linked: "... [Law enforcement]
always would catch the serial murderer because he was driving around with a
busted taillight, not because he had, like, three bodies in the trunk."
He added, "I mean they would always have some incident to really capture him on and this was Rush Limbaugh's." [MP3 audio here [2].]
MSNBC anchor Bashir could barely contain his contempt for the
"offensive," "inflammatory Limbaugh. He teased the segment, trashing,
"Rush Limbaugh as offensive as ever as still more advertisers flee." He
later added, "Next, Rush Limbaugh is on the ropes. Stay with us."
Bashir, who makes no pretense of objectivity, began the segment this
way: "Rabid radio host Rush Limbaugh is facing new uproar over his
inflammatory remarks against Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke."
In addition to Williams, Bashir's other guests were the liberal David Corn and Democratic strategist Krystal Ball.
Asked about sponsors who were pulling out of Limbaugh's show, Corn
piously insisted, "A bout of classiness has struck advertisers."
A transcript of the March 13 segment can be found below:
2:48 pm EDT tease
BASHIR: Plus, Rush Limbaugh as offensive as ever as still more advertisers flee.
3:11pm tease
MARTIN BASHIR: Next, Rush Limbaugh is on the ropes. Stay with us.
3:14
BASHIR: Rabid radio host Rush Limbaugh is facing new uproar over his inflammatory remarks against Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke. Limbaugh's
distributor, Premiere Radio Networks alerted its affiliates to pull
national ads from Limbaugh's broadcasts, even as this afternoon as
Limbaugh returned to the air waves to champion women's concerns.
RUSH LIMBAUGH: The women of America want jobs and an expanding
economy. They're not obsessed with birth control pills being passed out
on campus or whatever anybody wants them. The regime calculated that
they could create this mythical Republican war on women and look where
they are.
MARTIN BASHIR: Our panel is back with us by popular demand. David
Corn, Joe Williams and Krystal Ball. Krystal what do you make of
Limbaugh's latest remarks? He's apparently now become the voice of
defense for women. He’s defending them.
KRYSTAL BALL: Mitt Romney saying y'all and eating grits and Rush
Limbaugh is the defender of women. Something has gone seriously wrong
today. I mean, the idea that it's Democrats that are pushing this
narrative on women is ridiculous. Let me just tell you that in 2011,
across the country in 50 states across the country, there were 1100
women's health bills pushed by Republican legislators across the
country. 1100. Okay, these were all legislators who were elected
because they said jobs and economy and deficit and jobs. And when they
got in there-
BASHIR: They focused on the uterus. Absolutely.
BALL: The agenda was totally, totally different. And that's why women are so upset.
BASHIR: Yeah. David, Rush suggests that the war on women is a myth,
as Krystal says, perpetrated by Democrats. If that's the case, why are
his advertisers fleeing and running away from his broadcast?
DAVID CORN: A bout of classiness has struck advertisers. And it's not
just his show. You know, there was this memo that came out saying that
about 100 advertisers, very big brand name chain stores and restaurants
have told Premiere radio which puts out his show but also Glenn Beck and
Hannity and Michael Savage, saying they don't want to be associated
anymore with controversial and mean-spirited- I think that's the keyword
here- mean-spirited radio talk show hosts. So this could be, you know,
Rush Limbaugh could be bringing down a big part of the right wing, which
is talk show radio hosts across the board. I think, ultimately, this
will level out and he's going to keep his show and they will keep their
shows. But it's been, I think, a tremendous blow. And it was
really-.after all the terrible things he's said over the years, I'm
still surprised this is the straw that broke the camel's back. But that
camel was getting pretty knobbly at the knees and finally it seems to be
collapsing this very week.
BASHIR: Sure. Very quickly, Krystal, you’ve got some new figures on
the actual number, because we have 140 advertisers having requested that
their ads be pulled. You say it's more than that.
BALL: The number that we have is 156 at StopRush, that have said we
don't- they either pulled their ads or said we don't want to be on
during this program. You know, it's hard actually to keep track because
so many have issued statements. And then you have another number who
have quietly pulled their ads without putting out any sort of statement
and calling attention to themselves. But, of course, the big news we got
last night too is that premier, which syndicates Limbaugh’s show has
decided to pull all national ads for the next two weeks. That is how
they get their revenue. So they’re saying for two weeks we're basically
not taking in revenue because we need a cooling off period. We don't
have enough in the inventory to continue placing national ads at local
affiliates.
BASHIR: Wow. Now Joe, why would they ask for this two-week period?
Does this mean do you think, that people are now seriously considering
their long-term commitment to Rush Limbaugh?
JOE WILLIAMS: Well they have to. They don't really have a choice. We
had, here, a campaign that went viral almost immediately. And to
me, I mean to speak to David’s point. It reminds me of how, when I
used to cover police, they always would catch the serial murderer because
he was driving around with a busted taillight, not because he had, like,
three bodies in the trunk. I mean they would always have some incident
to really capture him on and this was Rush Limbaugh's. Basically,
he went over the line and advertisers don't like that kind of negative
publicity particularly when it goes viral on the internet and when there
are boycotting campaigns that start. It's not always about what he
says. It's about whether or not there's enough outrage to hit those kind
of broadcasters and their advertisers right where it hurts which is in
the wallet.
BASHIR: Right. I have to give credit to you for championing
this. And we’re now hearing from other activists are calling on the FCC
to actually take him off the air. Do you think that's possible?
BALL: I don't know if it's possible. I don't know the ins and outs of
that. What I would say is that what we've been doing by just calling on
the sponsors of the programming, has been so successful that I think we
should really try to use the free market approach, which is what we're
doing and see if we can get a success that way, first.
-- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here [3] to follow him on Twitter. [4]