PBS omnipresence Bill Moyers unleashed his anger at Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk radio hosts on Friday night’s Bill Moyers Journal, suggesting they "scream like martyrs being stretched on the rack" about the alleged Fairness Doctrine and they "earn millions inciting riots in the public mind." Limbaugh played a clip and responded that it was laughable that Moyers would pose as a "paragon of virtue on fairness."
MOYERS: Ronald Reagan abolished the [Fairness] doctrine in 1987, but mention it today and the Rush Limbaughs of the world still scream like martyrs being stretched on the rack. These people earn millions inciting riots in the public mind. If they were required to be fair, they would soon be penniless, out on the street, cup in hand. So when we first telecast our report on the killings in Knoxville last year, some of them threw a tantrum, as if our criticism of their malicious rhetoric was a call for government censorship.
Limbaugh replied on Monday:
That is just insane. Inciting riots in the public mind? Riots in the public mind. "If they," meaning if I, "were required to be fair, I would be penniless"? As though he sits there as a paragon of virtue on fairness? (laughing) We're watching a literal crackup! We're watching a literal crackup. You know, I don't know how long it's going to go and I don't know if it's going to be completed but when these people get their unbridled power and things still don't go right...
I mean Mr. Moyers, there's nothing I can do to stop anybody from doing anything. I can't raise their taxes. I can't send anybody off to war. I can't tell them who their doctor is going to be. I can't tell them what kind of car they have to drive. I have no power. I have zilch, zero, nada. Riots in the public mind?
Moyers insisted that while some Democrats lobby for a new "fairness doctrine," he is not one of them, and noted the two new commissioners and the new chairman of the FCC expressed opposition to it.
Conservatives nonetheless wave the fallacious threat of its return as a bloody flag, lofted above the straw men they evoke to roil the faithful and keep the cash registers ringing.
So let me say it again: the first amendment protection of a free press extends to The Savage Nation as surely as it does to The Nation magazine. Anyway, you can't coerce taste; fairness is not a doctrine to be enforced, but a choice to be made, a responsibility to be honored.
Before his concluding commentary, Moyers reran a September 2008 segment by freelancer reporter Rick Karr, a former NPR reporter. Karr’s story played up a murder inside a Unitarian church in Knoxville, Virginia and suggested that right-wing talk was too hot. But then Karr led the minister of that Knoxville temple of liberalism to compare American talk radio to the kind of radio that urged Tutsis to mass-murder the Hutus in Rwanda:
RICK KARR: Muslims are some of Boortz's favorite targets.
NEAL BOORTZ: It's Ramadan and Muslims in your workplace might be offended if they see you eating at your desk. Why? I guess it's because Muslims don't eat during the day during Ramadan. They fast during the day and eat at night. Sort of like cockroaches.
RICK KARR: Reverend Chris Buice says he's heard that kind of language before.
REV. CHRIS BUICE: If you look at the history of like-- situations like in Rwanda in 1994, the talk radio was a big part of leading to the conditions that created a genocide. The Hutu radio disc jockeys would call the Tutsi cockroaches. There's the sense that these aren't human beings. You know, they're not human beings with children or grandchildren. These are cockroaches. And when you hear in talk radio that liberals are evil, that they are traitors, that they are godless, that they are on the side of the terrorist-- that's hate language. You don't negotiate with evil people. You don't live in community with people you consider to be traitors.
Moyers played up that he wasn't really saying that the words of a Savage or a Limbaugh were leading to violence. But then he played his rerun of Karr, underlining how conservative hosts are like the precursors to the tribal mass murders in Rwanda. Conservatives are surely not the only ones to flood the airwaves with outrage.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.
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Comments Policy
I heard Rush's response
July 27, 2009 - 22:57 ET by bigtimerI heard Rush's response today regarding all of this.
He said it all, simple as that.
What makes me the sickest is we are forced to feed the places Moyers is employed by, who sits on his elite leftist arse pontificating his propagandist tripe.
It's madness...
When are people going to wake up?!
Slowly but surely the Fairness Doctrine is being applied already...has been for years really, it started with Political Correctness... when will it be stopped?
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
dog and pony show
July 27, 2009 - 23:05 ET by LindamaeI urge readers to get The Shadow Party to learn how Moyers and Soros
work hand in hand to bring our country closer to the socialist utopia
they admire.
Many of Moyers' guests decline to give the
truth about who pays sthem to say what they say. Moyers's dog and pony
shows are scripted and filled with half truths. He brought on some one
supporting Obama health care yet neglected to tell us the doctor
represented only about 4,000 doctors. It sounded like every Md was in
his organization. He did the same thing with the McCain Feingold
election reform act because Soros wanted to make changes in how pacs
delivered political ads. The man is corrupt. I watch him and just get
so angry that he thinks he can lie so well that everyone will believe
him. He needs to have a disclaimer that he is an infomercial for
Soros, the American Socialist party and Obama. Then, he will regain
some integrity. No honesty but some integrity.
lindamae... Here is a
July 27, 2009 - 23:19 ET by bigtimerlindamae...
Here is a link that is a wealth of knowledge, it has tons of links inside links, if you or anyone is serious about reading all of this rich info, scroll down towards the very end, and click on Part 1 first, you will see what I mean if you go there.
I've put this here and there before, more than once or twice, but it has been months now...you just refreshed my memory with some of your words.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Fabulous
July 28, 2009 - 23:22 ET by LindamaeThanks for the link. I hate to re-invent the wheel and am surprised there are others who have come to the same conclusions I have after the investigations I have made. Breibart, Pajamas, and Little Green Footballs are 3 of my favorite sites.
They actually think
July 27, 2009 - 23:29 ET by RR GOPThey actually think Conservatives are going to riot over anything?
Really, these Leftists need to quit assuming everyone's like them.
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 61% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory (yep...approval for Congress now at 39%...do you believe that!?).
The egalitarian damage of rhetoric
July 27, 2009 - 23:48 ET by KC MulvilleSo ... all derogatory language leads to dehumanization, and mass murder is not far behind.
The slippery slope from expressing derision at your opponents' point of view to mass murder ... isn't all that slippery. The rhetoric is pretty weaselly, but the slope is velcro. I hope Moyers doesn't really believe this. This is padded room stuff.
who listens to Moyers?
July 28, 2009 - 00:04 ET by RousseWho on earth gives any credence to Bill Moyers? He is utterly bereft of truth, honor, integrity, and veracity. He sold his soul a long time ago.
who listens to Moyers?
July 28, 2009 - 00:40 ET by misterbillMrs Moyers???
Out of the way!
July 28, 2009 - 02:47 ET by JWFMy mind is rioting as we speak. Oh the unspeakable damage my mind is doing in its rioting.
Please people, I beg you, stay in your homes. My mind cannot be stopped.
Wait, my mind just had an image of some of teh Fox News babes.
Sorry, what were we talking about again?
Sincerely,
a Veteran of a 1000 psychic wars.
So desperate for a boogey man
July 28, 2009 - 06:25 ET by VT Con Manthey have to imagine riots? of the mind? wow, whats next? imagination taxation?
JWF, hope your mind comes out of it OK. ;)
These riots it the minds of men
July 28, 2009 - 02:54 ET by hetookuazyare caused by those men discovering that not only have they been lied to, their minds manipulated to achieve desired results but further that they have been billed for it. That in effect they have paid good money for lies and cheats and the agendas of others, to everyone who can stake a claim to their wallets.
It is sad that to the end
July 28, 2009 - 03:41 ET by Andrew H.It is sad that to the end Moyers uses his intellect to try his best to prop a failed leftist ideology, the empty vessel known as liberalism we have seen for thirty years and to engage in such haughty denigration of others who beat him in every rating (and content) match there is in the marketplace. It is sad to see such vacuus personalities try to fool more people with their own straw men--all conservatives are out to force feed Thomas Jefferson to the ignorant.
Instead they obviously would rather more to be ignorant.
It is sad.
But he will pass on one day and his fight over.
Liberalism is a convenient lie.
wwhhhaaaaaa???
July 28, 2009 - 07:19 ET by AJBRush and the others make their living selling commercials on a for-profit-enterprise. Moyers makes his living suckling off the public teat -- NPR. Typical LiberalThink. Moyers couldn't get a paying job if he tried.
Moyers doesn't work at PBS
July 28, 2009 - 10:43 ET by ReaverMoyers doesn't work at PBS for free, he collects a very nice paycheck from them. Meaning you and I as taxpayers are helping to pay Moyers salary to spout this nonsense.
If stupidity got us into this mess,
then why can't it get us out?
--Will Rogers
Defending Again
July 28, 2009 - 11:12 ET by centurion2674These hacks like Moyers continually dish out comparisons and accusations and conservatives have to keep defending themselves against it. We need to turn the front to the offensive, and stop wasting time defending against this dribble. Lets put THEM on the ropes! They are trying to change our government into a community organization. We need to stop them! They're trying to overwhelm us so we can't keep up.
Defending Again
July 28, 2009 - 11:13 ET by centurion2674These hacks like Moyers continually dish out comparisons and accusations and conservatives have to keep defending themselves against it. We need to turn the front to the offensive, and stop wasting time defending against this dribble. Lets put THEM on the ropes! They are trying to change our government into a community organization. We need to stop them! They're trying to overwhelm us so we can't keep up.
Defending Again
July 28, 2009 - 11:16 ET by centurion2674These hacks like Moyers continually dish out comparisons and accusations and conservatives have to keep defending themselves against it. We need to turn the front to the offensive, and stop wasting time defending against this dribble. Lets put THEM on the ropes! They are trying to change our government into a community organization. We need to stop them! They're trying to overwhelm us so we can't keep up.
Moyers: "...scream like
July 28, 2009 - 12:09 ET by Chris NormanMoyers: "...scream like martyrs being stretched on the rack" about the alleged Fairness Doctrine"
Yes, well, the government suppression of opposing views and the public's access to tem is a serious matter, you old fool. Moyers sounds like a KGB agent, mocking dissidents as he loads them on a train for the gulag. As if he and his fellow welfare recipient "journalists" on PBS wouldn't scream bloody murder if funding for PBS was cut off and they lost their government welfare checks.
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
Moyers: "...scream like
July 28, 2009 - 16:33 ET by Dan The Man 2Moyers: "...scream like martyrs being stretched on the rack" about the alleged Fairness Doctrine
Frankinng priviliges anyone?
Left-twits like Moyers just
July 28, 2009 - 12:31 ET by mattmLeft-twits like Moyers just hate it when people who disagree with them are allowed to speak and be heard, and they even hate it more when the average citizen, thanks to alternate media, refuses to slurp up the leftist swill the MSM has been shoveling for years.
inciting riots in the mind
July 28, 2009 - 13:04 ET by grumpyoldb?? No, Limbaugh et-all are not inciting "riots in the mind". They are getting actual FACTS to the people and encouraging them to THINK FOR THEMSELVES!!
We need a congress and
July 28, 2009 - 13:13 ET by MaratWe need a congress and president that are bold and brave enough to start cutting a lot of those entitlements starting with PBS and NPR. Now THAT would be fair!
Consevative radio is more
July 28, 2009 - 13:27 ET by 24enakConsevative radio is more mainstream, and people like Savage, Rush, Levin, Boortz, Beck, and others demonize those they strongly disagree with. They try to make the liberals, or whatever other groups they disagree seem less than human, by calling them cockroaches, godless, un-American, and any other slurs they use.
Like the Hutu's in Rwanda they demonized the Tootsi's to seem less than humans, like whites did to black slaves, like Hitler did to the Jews. Radicals try to demonize their opponent to help justify calling them names and proving their point.
(notice I said Radicals not conservative media, some conservative radio host, Savage I think is the worst at demonizing, Boortz from this one comment I've heard is next. Rush isn't as bad as they are.)
I seen apart of Moyers segment, and this is a small sliver of what what said. They was a clip of Savage telling a "sodomite" to "go get aids and die" and Beck pondering for entertainment perposes if he could 'kill Micheal Moore, or if he would have to hiring someone else to do it."
There was other stuff that was hard to believe was said about other human beings and other Americans, let alone on a national radio show.
July 28, 2009 - 13:47 ET by jessieHNo, mr. Moyers, the only ones inciting riots are the idiots in office in D.C. If they can't stop the fraud in our present healthcare, what makes them think they can stop it in the next bill? I think it's because THEY are the ones commiting the fraud.
Yeah, Moyers, what a shame it would be if productive Americans
July 28, 2009 - 14:32 ET by R D Helm...were to rise up and take this country back from the societal leeches (like you) who now control it, and who are rapidly spending it into a total financial collapse.
A cryin' shame, that would be.
-Dave
centurion2674
July 28, 2009 - 15:19 ET by RoloTAmen. I keep thinking about the 2nd fight scene in Rocky III. It's time to get out of the corner, throw these libs against the ropes and starting punching the heck out of them (I speak metaphorically of course). For once, it would be nice to see them backpedal and have to try to counter punch.
Once again
July 28, 2009 - 17:53 ET by ahusserMoyers and the leftie hive-mind are projecting their hatred of the 'opposition' and how they really feel onto us. Their constant hate/slander/lies about conservatives are indicative of their true intentions. We are being classed as the inhuman ones, not sensitive compassionate or tolerant and we all know who really is not.
"Somehow, I told you so, just doesn't quite say it." Will Smith in 'I, Robot.'