Deep down, Ed Schultz is shallow, to paraphrase Dorothy Parker.
Case in point: Schultz's trite, cliched comparison of conservative talker Rush Limbaugh's remarks before a boisterous CPAC audience with Hitler addressing a Nazi rally.
Schultz, the top-rated liberal radio host in the nation, watched Limbaugh's speech on TV last weekend -- with the sound turned down -- and was convinced he saw "striking" parallels to the German dictator.
Here's what Schultz said on Monday's show, preceding his criticism of Limbaugh with praise for the late radio giant Paul Harvey (click here for audio) --
He was looked up to as a guy that would always, OK, give you the rest of the story, but also give it to you straight. But he was a staunch conservative, you couldn't get around it. But he told a great story about people and I think in some respects that's missing in our media coverage today, that we don't get the story about the guy down the street who had an amazing thing happen to him. It was sensationalism news, I guess you could say, but the truth, and interesting. And that's really what a broadcaster's supposed to do, bring it to you in an interesting manner.
It's kind of like the way Rush brought it to CPAC over the weekend, about how, you know, how interesting he was (plays audio of speech by Hitler over Limbaugh's remarks) Look, how many times do you watch the TV monitors with the sound down? I don't know how you watch television, but oftentimes we have the sound down in our home until we visually see something that we want to hear ...
So we have our monitors with the sound down. Now if you watch Limbaugh with the sound down, the drugster, he looks like Adolf Hitler! His animation is amazing! It's, the parallel is so striking. And then, of course, Rush is now the angry American. The angry American.
Criticizing Limbaugh is easier for liberals if they doesn't actually listen to him (as a former left winger, I speak from experience).
Limbaugh isn't nearly as volcanic as another radio host who comes to mind -- you guessed it, Schultz. Don't take my word for it, here are two examples, one from September after McCain's selection of Palin left Schultz unhinged for weeks (click here for audio), the second from Schultz's show today when he blamed conservatives for his rising health insurance bill (audio here).
Along with Hitler's animated rhetoric, there was his pathological intolerance of dissent -- much like Schultz's vitriol toward a caller in October who dared disagree with him (audio) --
Let's not forget Hitler's veneration of the Aryan as supreme being, combined with his loathing for the weak and infirm. Schultz appears similarly inclined, based on this exchange with a caller about former Vice President Cheney in a wheelchair on inauguration day (audio).
In a fleeting moment of candor, Schultz admitted the basis for his resentment toward the far more successful Limbaugh -- envy. Here's what Schultz said on his show Tuesday (audio here) --
He's getting written about, he's getting talked about, he's getting hourly updates on all of the networks. Am I jealous? Every talk show host is sitting here saying we'd love to have that. C'mon! We're radio, we're in radio, we have egos.
You know, just like the Nazis.
