Limbaugh: 'NBC News Is An Annex of the Democrat National Committee' for Selectively Editing Romney

As NewsBusters reported Monday, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, on the MSNBC program bearing her name, aired a video of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney selectively edited in a fashion designed to make him look like an out of touch imbecile.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh excoriated those involved with the airing of this video Tuesday going so far as calling NBC News “an annex of the Democrat National Committee” (videos follow courtesy Right Scoop with rough transcripts via RushLimbaugh.com and commentary):

RUSH LIMBAUGH: MSNBC is back at it. We have to temporarily set aside our ban today. MSNBC, NBC, Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, they've doctored another tape. And this time everybody caught 'em. Everybody in the Drive-Bys pointed it out. We'll go back and play the audio for you. They doctored the George Zimmerman Trayvon Martin 911 phone call tape to make it appear that Zimmerman was a raging racist, when he wasn't. Now, what they've done, they took a Romney address where he was talking about... well, remember when George H. W. Bush was in the grocery store, saw a supermarket scanner and the press said, "This guy doesn't know what a supermarket scanner is. This guy's so out of touch, doesn't know what a supermarket scanner is 'cause he never goes there." We found out that they totally misrepresented what had happened.

As NewsBusters reported in March, NBC’s Today show broadcast a selectively edited tape of Zimmerman’s 911 call shortly before he shot Martin that dishonestly cast him as racist. The network was later forced to apologize for its actions.

Limbaugh continued:

LIMBAUGH: Well, in this case involving Romney, the video of Romney enthusiastically describing a sandwich-ordering machine at the Pennsylvania convenience store Wawa, and they edited out the point that he was making about it and made it look like he'd never seen one before and didn't know what it was. It was blatant, and they got caught. The worst thing that can happen to you, folks, is ridicule. And everybody is now ridiculing MSNBC. I mean, Politico tried at first to go along with the MSNBC version and then they quickly sized up what had happened and wanted no part of it. The Atlantic, Politico, everybody else in the Drive-By Media just distanced themselves from MSNBC. We have the tape coming up to show you what happened.

(For the record, Politico called out Mitchell and MSNBC for this stunt Monday evening as did New York magazine. The Atlantic did so Tuesday morning as did CNN’s Howard Kurtz.)

After calling MSNBC "the laughingstock of the news business - not just cable news, they are the laughingstock everywhere," Limbaugh shared with listeners some of Politico’s piece on this matter:

Discussing how the public sector suffers from a lack of competition, Romney told the audience about an optometrist who wanted to change his address and subsequently received 33 pages of paperwork from the federal government, which begat a months-long bureaucratic nightmare during which the optometrist in question wasn't receiving his checks. "That's how government works," Romney said.

Then, to illustrate the advantages of competition in the private sector, Romney shared an anecdote from his visit to the local WaWa chain store. "I was at WaWas, I went in to order a sandwich. You press a little touchtone keypad -- you touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier -- there’s your sandwich. It’s amazing. People in the private sector have learned how to compete. It's time to bring some competition to the federal government."

But in the MSNBC clip, which aired on Andrea Mitchell Reports, Romney's remarks begin with the WaWa anecdote and end at "It's amazing."

Limbaugh commented, “But somebody was there with a telephone, a cell phone, and they were video recording the whole thing. And so the Drive-Bys can't get away with these edits. This really is nothing new. Them getting caught at it is what's new. Because everybody's a journalist. And they can't stand it.”

After playing audio of Mitchell’s report Monday and what Romney actually said, Limbaugh continued with his commentary:

LIMBAUGH: MSNBC got caught. They got caught. And in the process, by the way, everybody's repeating the lie about George H. W. Bush's scanner incident. In reality, Bush was at a grocers’ convention. He was being shown a new type of scanner that could weigh groceries and read mangled and torn bar codes. It was new and amazing for the times, and it was not yet widespread commercially. But in this case, while they continue to spread the lie about George H. W. Bush, this is exactly what NBC fired three people for doing in the Trayvon Martin case.

Now, somebody needs to ask some serious questions.

You at NBC are becoming a laughingstock, and don't think this is just confined to MSNBC. This is NBC corporate. It was NBC corporate and local in Miami that monkeyed around with the Zimmerman 911 tape, and now this. And what people are learning is that it really isn't new. It's standard operating procedure when you attempt, in the mainstream media, to criticize and impugn Republicans. This is blatant. And because somebody was there and able to record the whole thing with their cell phone, MSNBC and NBC are totally exposed.

Again.

After a commercial break, Limbaugh continued:

LIMBAUGH: This is corruption, folks. First, the George Zimmerman 911 tape, and now this. All Mitt Romney was doing was talking about ordering sandwiches in a private sector store is easier than telling the government where to send your paychecks. He was talking about an optometrist who was not getting paid. The federal government was not submitting his checks, a total of 33 of them. The guy could not get paid because of the bureaucratic nightmare of dealing with the federal government. Romney was telling everybody about how simple it is to go order a sandwich at Wawa's. […]

This is institutional corruption, and NBC, this is the second time this has happened. By the way, you heard the laughter on that clip when Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, was trying to make fun of Romney. That was our buddy Chris Cillizza yukking it up there. Now, Chris Cillizza shoulda known. Everybody involved in this knew what really happened, and if they didn't, they don't qualify as journalists. They had no business being hired and doing their jobs.

I'll tell you something else about this. Shouldn't there be more outrage at this than at Neil Munro at the Daily Caller who tried to time a question for Obama for when he thought Obama was finished speaking on this immigration thing. What is more outrageous, a reporter trying to ask our king, uh, president a question, or NBC editing tape and lying about a politician's statement? A major American news operation edits tape in an effort to lie about a Republican, in this case Mitt Romney, presidential candidate, where is the outrage? There's a little embarrassment and there's some people in the news business ticked off at MSNBC because they're making everybody look bad here because this is institutional corruption. And NBC had assured us, this is not the way they do business. Back during Trayvon Martin, the George Zimmerman tape was doctored. It was a one-time thing, and they got rid of the people that did this. Apparently everybody that works at NBC is capable of this. […]

Now, I'll tell you, folks, you let me try something like this and see what happens. You let somebody at Fox try something like this and see what happens. The thing is, it doesn't happen at Fox. And it doesn't happen here. It does happen at MSNBC. It does happen at NBC. And the truth of the matter is, it's been standard operating procedure. This stuff is pretty common. It's only with the advent of citizen journalism, everybody running around with their cell phones videotaping these events in toto for posterity, whatever, that the news media is exposed for what it's always been: biased, selective.

Again, it's another template. Rich Republican Wall Street guy out of touch. Doesn't matter if it's true or not, that's the image. Republican, rich, out of touch, Wall Street guy. Let's prove it. Let's illustrate it, and here's how they do it. Doctor the tape. Essentially what's happening, NBC News is an annex of the Democrat National Committee, and it is posing as a news network. It's a branch. It's a satellite office. I look at everybody upset over Neil Munro. Everybody in a tizzy. The media wants this guy censored. Reporters chasing him down to the Washington Monument all upset, how dare he do that to our president. What did he do? Asked a question. No, I do not think I'm making too big a deal out of this at all.

In the end, Limbaugh's comments concerning this disgraceful episode echoed those of NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell.

"This is another outrageous example of how NBC will do anything to help Obama in 2012, no matter how unethical, irresponsible, and dishonest it is."

Indeed.

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— Noel Sheppard (@NoelSheppard) June 9, 2012