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.