MRC's Brent Bozell Rebuts 'Excrement In Broadcasting' Attack From D.C. NPR Commentator

MRC president Brent Bozell offered a radio rebuttal on Thursday morning defending Rush Limbaugh against a nasty January 21 commentary on D.C. NPR station WAMU. Regular commentator and longtime WAMU host Fred Fiske denounced Rush's show as "Excrement in Broadcasting."

After I blogged about that outrage, our request for a rebuttal was granted, so Brent recorded one, and it was scheduled for today. [Click here for mp3 audio.]

Here's what Brent had to say:

Public radio listeners are told during pledge drives that stations like WAMU are a civil space for information. Since public radio isn’t driven by ratings, they don’t have to shout and be partisan and mean-spirited.

That notion was shattered by Fred Fiske on January 21st when he denounced Rush Limbaugh. He actually suggested Limbaugh’s radio show was defined by the phrase "Excrement in Broadcasting."

Fiske wasn’t shouting. But grade-school dirty-toilet insults don’t exactly match the image of calm sophistication that public radio presents to its listeners. Fiske claimed he didn’t despise Rush Limbaugh – "any more." But nasty invective suggests that the hatred has never ended.

Fiske denounced Rush as heartless and bigoted – as if he’s ever spent an hour with this man to able to pass such a personal judgment.

All this came because, said Fiske, Rush had told his listeners that they should not donate their money to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. That is simply untrue.

Rush did boast that Americans are the most generous donors in the world, while anti-American countries like Cuba and Venezuela wouldn’t match our help. That is true.

Rush did suggest that despite decades of American aid, Haiti continues to be the economic wasteland of the Caribbean. That is also unquestionable.

Rush certainly insinuated that the Haiti crisis would be seen as a political opportunity inside the White House. Ask any conservative about how thoroughly liberals exploited the crisis of Hurricane Katrina, using it for political purposes, casting President Bush as a racist. Limbaugh’s argument, again, is defensible.

At no point did he ever call on Americans not to supply humanitarian aid. Period. How many time must the left be exposed for flat-out inventing things Limbaugh has supposedly said, only later to learn he never said any such thing? I’m Brent Bozell.