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.
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Have you contacted the NFL about this?
October 16, 2009 - 11:52 ET by cajuncocoaI just did; they have a contact form on their site (http://www.nfl.com/c...) ... LET THEM KNOW HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS and get others in your email groups/social networks to do the same.
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Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.
--Ronald Reagan
Yes
October 16, 2009 - 12:53 ET by RHawkinsI wrote the NFL, also. When I got pissed at MLB I was able to give them up for several years. I can do the same for NFL. My life does not revolve around them, nor will I support them when they behave this way. Olberman is at least equally divisive, so I suggest they break ties with him.
yes i have
October 16, 2009 - 14:31 ET by mwill555i just sent mine in.
thanks for the link
I just
October 16, 2009 - 12:06 ET by chiefpaynecontacted the NFL and let them know how I feel about this travesty. Frankly, I am now hoping the Rams fall off the grid and into obscurity.
And their players who said they wouldnt' work for Rush? I hope they can't find work and have to get a real job.
No responses
October 16, 2009 - 12:07 ET by cvgbuckeyeLet me help out this article a little bit, even slightly off subject, since no one else has responded:
I am a rabid high school and especially college football fan, MOST ESPECIALLY THE Ohio State Buckeyes. I will watch ANY college football game and think that the excitement and enthusiasm is wonderful with 105,000 fans in the stadiums.
Now, having said all that, I would not watch a pro football game, especially a so-called "Super Bowl" if they were playing it in my back yard;;;;;;;for a lot of reasons:
#1- Professional football has turned a lot of college football into a cheap, free farm system for the pros and having accomplished drafting non-degreed young men from college, they have accomplished populating themselves with a bunch of players that can't even string together an intelligible sentence, let alone a conversation AND YES they have made it resemble, in some quarters the Bloods and Crips. The truth really hurts!
#2- You can turn into any game for the last 2 minutes and get the gist of the entire game.
#3- The pro game is over-hyped and artificial, thanks to the media.
#4- There really is no semblance at all of any localized loyalty as still has some presence in the college game since the majority of the players have a tendency to attend colleges fairly near home.
#5- A large percentage of pro fans are women who have no idea what the game is about but have chosen a favorite team based upon their liking the color and styles of the uniforms and they don't know jack squat about anything else. This is especially true during the so-called "Super Bowl"......its even a dumb name..."SUPA BOWL"!
#6- Another large percentage of pro fans are a bunch of dumb men who never played the game (and usually lie about it, claiming to have been a big high school star) and are horribly obnoxious about it.
#7- A lot of so-called fans just watch the pro game for the gambling aspect of the game.
I could go on and on with more good reasons but the bottom line is the enthusiasm, excitement and (still but diminishing) purity of the college game makes the pros pale in comparison.
If I were King, Freshmen would go back to being ineligible for Varsity participation, in the college game. Red-shirting would be eliminated. If you signed a letter of intent with a college, it would be 4 full years before you could go to the pros; even if yoy dropped out of college. I would also restore the minimum grade point average to 2.25 accum. for eligibility to play in college.
All these things and a few more might restore the college game to what was intended-------------STUDENT ATHLETE!!!!!!!
What bothered me about the report
October 16, 2009 - 13:00 ET by KC MulvilleSure enough, to debunk the false quotes, Henneberg repeated them. Why can't they just report that there are quotes that have been debunked? It doesn't require the quotes to actually be presented again.
Re Henneberg
October 16, 2009 - 13:59 ET by slickwillie2001Re Fox News; I noticed that too. The quotes were on the screen not identified as fake, for the entire time it took Henneberg to read them, which will make for a great screenshot for the moonbat sites -'as reported by Fox News'. There should have been a 'FAKE' overlay. Sloppy work.
Casual listeners
October 16, 2009 - 14:25 ET by Jerry MackThere are many, many people that are not regular news watchers or listeners. These are the ones that the liberal media depends on for spreading their propaganda. I believe that it is a good thing that she repeated the lies that were debunked by Tim. Many of them probably would not have known what she or Tim was talking about.
Reading Mung
October 16, 2009 - 14:36 ET by JDWI found more than 30 articles today (including WP Eugene Robinson) defining the political factors pertaining to this mess. The idea of a Fox columnist simply listing news media whining is quite perturbing.
Anyone questioned how long Rush will remain a judge on the MS America committee?
JDW
DAILY WAVE
I didn't know ACORN was getting a lot of money
it supports their blief system
October 16, 2009 - 14:52 ET by wizardjrIt's religious for them. I guarantee you 90% have never listened to Rush. Doing so might accidentally cause them severe mental lock-up when they find out that he is a gentleman and an entertainer, not the Earthly representative of Beelzabub.
It's just another 'fake but accurate'. It supports the story line so it "must" be true.
As we've all said for some time now, there are no reporters anymore, just pimps for leftism mooing away on the MSM outlets.
How is this any different
October 16, 2009 - 16:20 ET by RR GOPHow is this any different than Dan Rather's phony Bush documents?
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 86% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.