MRC/NB's Graham: Media Aimed at Smearing Limbaugh As 'Vituperative' Racist

Yesterday evening, Fox News Channel's Molly Henneberg filed a story on how some media outlets fell for unsubstantiated quotes attributed to radio talk show legend Rush Limbaugh.

NewsBusters's own Tim Graham was featured briefly in Henneberg's "Special Report" story.

We've included a transcribed portion below:

MOLLY HENNEBERG, Fox News reporter: [Jack] Huberman's book ["101 People Who Are Really Screwing America"] also claims, and Limbaugh denies, that he said James Earl Ray, Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassin, quote, "deserves a posthumous medal of honor." The book cites Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog group, as the source. But Media Matter tells Fox today, quote, "We are unsure where that came from as well. We have never posted them" on their Web site.

HENNEBERG: But the fact that media groups ran with it, conservative media watchers say, was an effort to quote, "ruin Limbaugh," as he pursued ownership of an NFL team.

TIM GRAHAM, Media Research Center director of media analysis:  I think they wanted to create an atmosphere where Limbaugh was accused not simply of racism but of really serious, vituperative racism.

RUSH LIMBAUGH,  video excerpt from his radio program:  Those people who enabled this event, for their own racial reasons, for their own ratings, their own fundraising, their own face time, their own business reasons, they're going to be just as unhappy as they were before this happened.

HENNEBERG: Limbaugh says this situation reflects on the NFL and its leadership and shows that quote, "if you are publicly conservative, you are not wanted in the NFL." In Washington, Molly Henneberg, Fox News.