AP falsely spins Limbaugh’s ‘phony soldiers’ line.
AP falsely spins Limbaugh’s ‘phony soldiers’ line.
In the Associated Press’ write up of Rush Limbaugh’s controversial “phony soldiers” comment, the wire service misrepresents the context of the Limbaugh’s gaffe in such a way that it falsifies the meaning of his comments. Greg Sargent explains:
In the AP’s telling, Limbaugh first mentioned the specific phony soldier, and then “followed” with a reference to “phony soldiers.” This description, of course, makes Limbaugh’s pushback sound completely reasonable: Limbaugh established the specific context — a discussion of MacBeth — before using the controversial phrase.
But this is not what Limbaugh’s transcript says at all, of course. Indeed, not even Limbaugh himself is arguing this. Rather, Limbaugh’s transcript shows that the mention of MacBeth came long after his initial reference to phony soldiers. He hadn’t established this context first at all. This is just a pathetic error.
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Doubt if it’s an error.
September 29th, 2007 at 8:50 pmNo need for the apology from Rush to our brave soldiers who wrote the op ad. Two would never get the message and one is here in a California hospital with a head injury that most likely is going to kill him. He’s out of it now with brain problems so the GOP can rest now. The GOP can start talking about MoveOn.org again. Americans really didn’t look at these soldiers as individuals in the combat zone just telling the truth for all to know. It’s easier to believe the lies because really if Americans knew the real truth Bush/Cheney would be in jail.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:02 pmWhat are we really to expect from this rightie corporate owned MSM? They are all in bed together.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:08 pmI agree, Jackie.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:12 pmAnd I don’t believe that the AP made an innocent mistake here either. RoS.
There has to be organization behind tactics like these. Question is, has the government been kept out of it ? I’ll bet not : and therin would lie an opportunity for some righteous ass-kicking.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:13 pmWhat would you expect from that “liberal media”?
September 29th, 2007 at 9:29 pmLarry
You can’t spell “crap” without AP.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:34 pmRoS.
Comment by Marie — September 29, 2007 @ 9:12 pm
Yeah… I don’t believe for one second it was a mistake or error. that’s why it is news worthy. If ya don’t call ‘em on it, they’re jes’ gonna keep spinnin’ everything their way.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:35 pmbut has no idea what was said earlier in the week and then attempts to say the no context was given.
Comment by Tracy1 — September 29, 2007 @ 9:29 pm
Yer full a crap. What about the “Sen Betrayus” comment?
September 29th, 2007 at 9:36 pmOlberman thinks O´Reilly is crazy
Comment by ccokz — September 29, 2007 @ 9:43 pm
Olbermann is right. Dild is crazy.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:44 pmThis is exactly what happened. Greg Sargent is a blatant LIAR. The morning update where Rush SPECIFICALLY talked about MacBeth was on Monday 9/24/07. The controversial statement about the “phony†soldiers was made on Wednesday 9/26/07.
Comment by Tracy1 — September 29, 2007 @ 9:29 pm
I actually listened to the entire second hour of the 9/26 show and he was not referring to MacBeth when he made those comments. The comments were made when him and a caller were responding to a former military guy who wanted to withdraw from Iraq.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:44 pmIt is appalling that the AP is in bed with these guys.
It is astounding that the radical right are so threatened by the situation that they must go to these lengths to spin it.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:49 pmIt is astounding that the radical right are so threatened by the situation that they must go to these lengths to spin it.
Comment by Peter C — September 29, 2007 @ 9:49 pm
Yeah, and they are, aren’t they?
September 29th, 2007 at 9:51 pmI find it peculiar that just as Li’l Footie disappears, this Tracy twit shows up, parroting the same talking points.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:52 pmIt’s that liberal media. What can we do about them. They distort and twist the conservative point of view.
Now, substitute liberal with conservative and you have the truth.
I find this very disturbing. As far as I can tell, up until now, the AP hasn’t been a Bush water carrier. What has changed here?
September 29th, 2007 at 10:20 pmI find it peculiar that just as Li’l Footie disappears, this Tracy twit shows up, parroting the same talking points.
Comment by The Republic of Stupidity
It’s easy. All you need is more than one e-mail address. With all the free e-mail services out there, this is a slam dunk. I have a domain name. I can have up to 99 e-mail addresses. That means I can have 99 monikers on Think Progress. Unless they base their registration system on the IP address of the registrant, they really are not going to solve the problem. Bigfoot can be Tracy easy as pie.
September 29th, 2007 at 10:25 pmEveryone knows what he meant.
Even those apologizers trying to cover for him, know what he really meant.
They all mean it.
You gotta love them though. They expect you to believe that the conversation Rush had with a supposed “active duty soldier”, right after someone had expressed an anti war sentiment, was relative to a conversation Rush had on the air two days earlier, even though there was no mention of that prior conversation before he made his “phony soldiers” comment.
Give me a break. How stupid do they think we are?
September 29th, 2007 at 10:30 pmGive me a break. How stupid do they think we are?
Comment by bilbobaggins — September 29, 2007 @ 10:30 pm
Pretty stupid, bilbo….
September 29th, 2007 at 10:36 pmJon Soltz of Vote Vets challenged Rush Limbaugh to have him on his show — any day, any time — to tell Soltz to his face that he is a phony soldier.
Funny, we haven’t heard about Rush jumping at this offer. No wonder Rush’s supporters made up a pile of bs about the interview, and said their boy Rush was talking about a specific soldier. Not true. Good thing we have transcripts which prove Rush referred to anti-war soldiers as “phony.”
The AP story proves that the media will fall for anything that White House lackeys hand out. Oh, and when will Soltz be on Rush’s show?
September 29th, 2007 at 11:05 pmTRACY,
If you want to use previous shows to defend Fats, don’t forget those in which he attacked Paul Hackett, Wesley Clark and Sen. McCain.
September 29th, 2007 at 11:11 pmThe AP is about as reliable as O’Reilly. And Rush makes his money by destroying this country. He is a traitor if ever there was one.
September 29th, 2007 at 11:17 pmWhat I want to know is how low does your character have to be to actually defend a lying coward like Rush?
September 29th, 2007 at 11:22 pmGod, give it up!! You’re showing what useless idiots you are!
Comment by John Kerry — September 29, 2007 @ 11:53 pm
Mr P! Yer back… at least fer a few seconds!
September 29th, 2007 at 11:57 pmThis spin that Limbaugh was referencing a show from two days earlier is laughable.
Should Limbaugh make another gaffe like this one, the apologists will take something, anything Limbaugh said at some point in his life and argue that Limbaugh was making a reference to that one show. This argument is nothing short of ridiculous.
Oh, and Tracy, you have the gall to talk about liars, when you lie about simple, easily verifiable facts. Don’t make me dig up your post from just a day ago, you know, the one where you claimed Bartlebee asked you where you worked, when he didn’t.
September 30th, 2007 at 12:15 amwhatsa matter, trollies?
no orphans around to beat up on?
not out stealing medicine from grandmas tonight?
no one was up for bashing holocaust survivors with you?
oh well, there’s always tomorrow.
nitey nite, little trollies – enjoy your feverish dreams of domination
September 30th, 2007 at 12:21 amwho gives a crap. stop givin in. We’re better then them. we don’t need to mention Rush we need to stay focused on what matters. ending the imperialist take over of the middle east!!!!!!!!!!!
stop with this immature nonsense and get back to the real issues. the moveon.org is lame anyways. They shill for Hillary Clinton who is a TERRIBLE representative of the democratic party
gravel08.us
GET REAL!!!!!
September 30th, 2007 at 1:08 amJeez, the trolls must really be incestuous. On the Boehner/Boner thread, many of Michael’s posts get “recommends,” and here Tracy1’s and nary-John Kerry also get them. Poor little trolls must protect their own, I guess.
September 30th, 2007 at 1:42 amIt’s easy. All you need is more than one e-mail address. With all the free e-mail services out there, this is a slam dunk. I have a domain name. I can have up to 99 e-mail addresses. That means I can have 99 monikers on Think Progress. Unless they base their registration system on the IP address of the registrant, they really are not going to solve the problem. Bigfoot can be Tracy easy as pie.
Comment by bilbobaggins — September 29, 2007 @ 10:25 pm
An IP-based address system isn’t foolproof, either–particularly, if a poster has access to more than one computer. I myself have access to four, but I obviously don’t use them to troll. Also, IP numbers sometimes change.
September 30th, 2007 at 1:47 amDoes AP expect us to be stupid enough to think that Rush Limbaugh is intelligent or educated enough to reference Shakespeare?
LOL what a joke!
September 30th, 2007 at 1:54 amDoes AP expect us to be stupid enough to think that Rush Limbaugh is intelligent or educated enough to reference Shakespeare?
Comment by ShamRockNRoll
Good point, Sham RNR
September 30th, 2007 at 1:58 amJeez, the trolls must really be incestuous. On the Boehner/Boner thread, many of Michael’s posts get “recommends,†and here Tracy1’s and nary-John Kerry also get them. Poor little trolls must protect their own, I guess.
Comment by Lora — September 30, 2007 @ 1:42 am
They will abuse any system you give them, whether it’s a blog, an election process, the economy or congress. Republicans believe that stealing, or taking anything they want is justified because the ‘want’ to be moral – who cares if they actually are moral!
September 30th, 2007 at 4:07 amError?
You have got to be kidding me. Cold, calculated fascist police state controlled media, I think is what you meant to say. Disinformation for the masses. The big lie. Corporate control of the message.
I am honestly surprised I have to explain this to you anymore.
September 30th, 2007 at 7:00 amThe bottom line is this: no one on the Right, from members of Congress to the Bush ass-kissers who lurk here on TP, want to debate the issues raised in the MoveOn ad. What do they do instead? Follow the Rightwing talking point that the ad smears Patraeus and accuses him of treason. They would have you believe that there is only one, true, definition of “betray” and that is not correct. On several threads I have posted the other definitions of “betray” and I have asked multiple times for the Righties to discuss the issues raised in the ad and debate why they are wrong, and why we are wrong to question them.
Result?
No takers. They aren’t interested in debating the issues raised in the ad, because they can’t.
Success for the surge involved two conditions being met: reduce the violence, especially in Baghdad, which would allow progress in political reconciliation. The latter has not happened, thus the surge has not worked. Violence was reduced in the al Anbar province, but as has been pointed out, violence was on a downward trend before the surge began. Yet as with the government conveniently deciding to not count certain causes of death in order to make the death toll look lower, the administration recently decided to no longer focus on political reconciliation, both to make the surge appear successful.
September 30th, 2007 at 9:39 amYou consider any debate to your point of view, “abuseâ€.
As if calling the left “fascists” can be considered “debate.”
September 30th, 2007 at 9:42 amWe need liberal blogs like this, it gives us mainstream conservative thinkers someplace to play.
And that’s all you want to do….”play.” What was it I was saying about your desire to debate? Oh yeah…
September 30th, 2007 at 9:43 amComment by O. Bigfoot — September 30, 2007 @ 9:33 am
For two days, on multiple threads, I asked you and all your Right-wing ass kissing buddies to debate the issues raised in the MoveOn ad and why they were incorrect to question those issues.
For two days I posted the other definitions of the word “betray” which had nothing to do with treason and everything to do with the reasoning behind MoveOn’s ad. Again…no response.
The debate should be why the issues are right or wrong. But it is a hell of a lot easier, and involves a hell of a lot less thought, to simply label the ad as a smear job.
September 30th, 2007 at 9:48 amI’m about to be sent on my second 15 month tour. Limbaugh can join me if he finally wants to man up to the obligation he denied the country over 30 years ago.
September 30th, 2007 at 11:02 amI think it’s been said before here, but I think Greg Sargent got it wrong. Limbaugh’s original “phone soldiers” comment came on Wednesday, which the AP quoted in the story. After the Democratic criticisms, the AP quoted the transcript from Limbaugh the following day, Thursday, in which he attempted to provide an excuse. I don’t think the AP was favoring one side or the other. It seemed like a fair story to me.
September 30th, 2007 at 11:11 amComment by O. Bigfoot — September 30, 2007 @ 9:33 am
Reported as both spam and a personal attack.
Bigfoot, you are testing the boundaries, I see. I’m publicly denouncing your spammed post (posted on 3 threads, that’s the definition of newsgroup/bbs spam) with the personal attacks spread throughout it. If you can’t contribute to the conversation constructively, then it’s my opinion that your voice should be removed. And before you shout out ‘freedom of speech’, let me remind you of two things.
1) This board is not run by city, state or federal government, so it’s not subjected to ‘free speech’.
2) At least you can post if you drop the ‘liberal kooks’ bull. Be thankful we’re not Redstate or Free Republic in our mindset — you’d have been banned within a second of saying, “Is what Rush did so bad? Aren’t you hypocrits for opposing MoveOn’s condemnation and supporting Rush’s?”
To everyone. If you haven’t flagged Bigfoot’s spammed post, then you should. Enough voices raised against this tactic will force him to either abandon it or lose his voice. Thanks.
September 30th, 2007 at 11:24 amUnless Limbaugh calls our soldiers “Nappy headed ho’s”, don’t expect to hear any outrage from the MSM.
September 30th, 2007 at 12:14 pmComment by CaptainMantastic — September 30, 2007 @ 11:31 am
And once again you refuse to respond to the issues raised in the MoveOn ad and show how they correspond to treasonous acts by the good general.
I doubt you’ve even seen the MoveOn ad since you apparently cannot comprehend a damn thing.
October 1st, 2007 at 10:15 amThe issue with the MoveOn add is not its criticism, but who and how, the criticism is raised WITH ABSOLUTELY NOE PROOF of the actual claim.
I would say it is perfectly logical to use such a label to describe whichever member of Congress you think is betrying the Country, but when it is a person that puts himself, voluntarily, in harms way. Je deserves more respect. Plus you can dissagree with his assesment without saying that he is betraying the Country.
October 1st, 2007 at 7:19 pmActually that wasn’t a good point I made, it was a bad joke, lol… MacBeth was a person related to this issue… not the actual play, haha.
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:15 pm