Expounding on a formulation he's propounded this week on his radio show in pivoting off Senator Jim DeMint's prediction health care could become President Obama's “Waterloo,” in an interview with FNC's Greta Van Susteren aired Thursday night Rush Limbaugh asserted: “The press has met their Waterloo and it's Obama.” Limbaugh contended “they have sacrificed whatever integrity, character, professionalism, ethics that they've had” so now “their total reason – most of them – for existence” is “propping this guy up.” The nation's most popular talk radio host ridiculed MSNBC's “countdown clock” during the day Wednesday: “Countdown clock: 8 hours, 25 minutes, 13 seconds until Obama's press conference!”

Journalists are “sitting around with the tingles up their legs all day” as “they marvel at how Obama is so smooth and elegant,” yet, Limbaugh observed in the interview conducted in Florida, over 50 percent of the people “oppose this health care plan,” prompting him to ask and answer: “Who's telling the people what's in it? Alternative media, your network, talk radio, the conservative blog network. The mainstream media has cashed in its chips, they have become nothing more than stenographers for Rahm Emanuel.”

Audio: MP3 clip (1:30)

Limbaugh's slam at the drive-by media, as shown on the July 23 On the Record with Greta Van Susteren:

And the press, this is the sorriest time, I think, in my lifetime. Jim DeMint said that health care is Obama's waterloo. The press has met their Waterloo and it's Obama. They have sacrificed whatever integrity, character, professionalism, ethics that they've had. It's all gone. Their total reason – most of them – for existence: propping this guy up. They're not reporting the details of his plans, they're not reporting his policies. They're looking at it as a horse race: Will Obama win? Will Obama lose? And there are countdown clocks on some of the networks for the press conference last night. Countdown clock: 8 hours, 25 minutes, 13 seconds until Obama's press conference!

These people sitting around with the tingles up their legs all day, they marvel at how Obama is so smooth and elegant. They are not informing anybody about the details of his policies and yet 53 percent, over 50 percent in most polls now, oppose this health care plan. So who's telling the people? Who's telling the people what's in it? Alternative media, your network, talk radio, the conservative blog network. The mainstream media has cashed in its chips, they have become nothing more than stenographers for Rahm Emanuel, in large part, and it's breathtaking to see willingly sacrifice every characteristic that makes quality journalism.

—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center