Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh is fast becoming a "relic," "as dated as Jazzercise or 'Macarena'" – or so says CNN regular Dean Obeidallah in a new CNN.com op-ed.

Ironically, a CNN contributor is calling someone else irrelevant. But in all seriousness, Obeidallah gloats over Limbaugh's lost ad revenue in the past year and points to his inevitable decline: "Has Limbaugh become as dated as Jazzercise or 'Macarena?' All you need to do is look at the bottom line to see that Limbaugh is in trouble."

Is it possible for David Letterman to get more partisanly petty?

On the CBS Late Show Thursday, the host said, “So Chris Christie had his stomach stapled, and now if we can get Rush Limbaugh to have his mouth stapled” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Predictions of the demise of Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio are a dime a dozen. That liberal wish has been a repeated incantation. But it’s more amusing when the demise talk comes from .... “Newsweek.”

Come again? Who’s yesterday’s news? John Avlon of the Daily Beast asserts Rush Limbaugh “Bleeds Millions From His Carriers as Toxic Talk Slumps.” Ahem, nobody’s bought Rush’s show for a dollar, like someone bought Newsweek. Avlon finds some guy whose newsletter has a Facebook page with nine Likes to insult Limbaugh’s audience as “all wearing Depends” – when he graduated college in 1968.

The leftists at Mother Jones are brandishing another secret tape. Pollster Frank Luntz, denounced as too conservative by liberals when he turns up on liberal networks, told a group of college students at the University of Pennsylvania this week that Rush Limbaugh and right-wing talk radio are "problematic" for the GOP and that he and Mark Levin were “killing” Marco Rubio for his immigration proposals.

Democrats have “got every other source of news on their side. And so that is a lot of what's driving it. If you take—Marco Rubio's getting his ass kicked. Who's my Rubio fan here? We talked about it. He's getting destroyed! By Mark Levin, by Rush Limbaugh, and a few others.” This might be a surprise to anyone who's listened to Rubio's actual interviews on conservative talk radio.

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh used his Tuesday radio program to criticize members of the mainstream media and others on the political left for diverting any potential blame from Muslims as the possible terrorists behind Monday's Boston bombings while suggesting that “right-wing” groups were possibly involved in the attack on the marathon.

“If you are a Muslim, and it turns out that a Muslim did bomb the Boston Marathon,” Limbaugh said, “how do you feel? I daresay that if you are a Muslim, you can be pretty certain … that everybody in the media will circle the wagons and say: ‘This is not because of Islam.’”

On Thursday's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, host O'Donnell ranted against Republicans who have argued that the proposed new gun laws would not have prevented recent high-profile shootings, as the MSNBC host referred to such talk as "the worst, most vicious lie being told by Republicans."

Referring to nine-year-old shooting victim Christina Taylor Green, who died in the Tucson, Arizona, mass shooting that targeted former Rep. Gabby Giffords, O'Donnell absurdly claimed that she "was safe" when magazine clips of more than 10 rounds used to be illegal, and asserted that "cowardly lawmakers' indifference to her right to life" was the reason she was killed. O'Donnell:

Rush Limbaugh is the most listened to talk radio host in America.

Yet for at least the second year in a row, he's been left off the Hollywood Reporter's "35 Most Powerful People in Media" list.

As NewsBusters reported, MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Monday actually said, “Racism is the belief that one race - whites - should rule all others.”

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain responded to this nonsense on Fox News's Hannity Tuesday stating, "It's laughable what Chris Matthews is saying...Maybe he doesn't have enough black friends who's telling him the truth" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews seems to think that only white people can be racist.

On Monday’s Hardball, he actually said, “Racism is the belief that one race - whites - should rule all others” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

In the midst of a segment bashing Rush Limbaugh Friday, PBS's Inside Washington panel nominated Charles Krauthammer over the talk radio host for voice of the Republican Party.

Playing along with the joke, Krauthammer replied, "If nominated, I will not run. But if elected, I’ll serve" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters previously reported, HBO's Bill Maher said Friday that liberals could lose him because of the combined federal and state income taxes he now pays as a California resident.

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh had some fun with this Tuesday saying, "It's amazing the things liberals do not know" (transcript follows with commentary):

When liberals and their media allies have an agenda to push, they’ll use any tool at hand. The left often rails against the presence of religion in civic life, mocking conservative Christians as “Taliban” agitating for theocracy. But other times, they find faith to be a handy weapon to bludgeon conservatives. And they’ll go so far as to reinterpret and rewrite the Bible to justify any liberal cause, no matter how outrageous. 

In 2010, MSNBC anchor Melissa Harris-Perry summed up this strategy in her call for “re-imagining the Bible as a tool of progressive social change.” Huffington Post contributor Mike Lux embraced Harris-Perry’s advice, writing that the Bible embodies “all kinds” of “liberal, lefty, progressive values.”

Regular readers of NewsBusters are by definition familiar with liberal media bias. For Kossacks, however, the concept is a non sequitur, since they consider the mainstream media to be water-carriers for corporatist, right-wing Republicans. Go figure.

As usual, each headline is preceded by the blogger's name or pseudonym.

On Saturday, Washington Post reporters Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane fretted, with the help of several leftists they quoted, that sequestration might not cause enough pain. Given that the so-called "cuts" under discussion are really "reductions in projected spending growth," that is a legitimate fear if your perspective is that government shouldn't ever shrink under any circumstances.

Rush Limbaugh was correct on Tuesday when he noted that the Post let the "sky is falling" mask slip in it report. Several paragraphs, followed by a bit of Rush's reaction, follow the jump.

MSNBC's Martin Bashir bashed the Tea Party Patriots for creating a picture of Karl Rove dressed in a Nazi uniform as part of a fund-raising email.

While he ridiculed "Conservative hypocrisy on Hitler at its blatant best," Bashir conveniently ignored his own Nazi references to conservatives (video follows with transcript and commentary):

On Tuesday's MSNBC Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough blamed conservative media outlets for recent Republican electoral defeats: "...for conservatives that think they have to stay in their own little media world, since Rush Limbaugh went on the air and became a national figure, Republicans have lost five out of the last six presidential elections in the popular vote. Since Fox News went on the air in 1996, Republicans have lost four out of five." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Co-host Mika Brzezinski snidely chimed in: "Please keep doing what you're doing." Scarborough continued his rant: "So when Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon had to go up against a media culture that absolutely hated them, that despised them, that mocked them, that ran them into the ground every night, and there was no conservative outlet, they won 49 states....But for people that think...they have to stay in this little box, I've got bad news for you. It's not working."

Wow, talk about being stuck in the '60s -- the 1860s.

With all the certitude of an arrested adolescent, left-wing radio host Randi Rhodes is convinced the South will secede once again, this time over the Second Amendment. (audio clip after page break)

New York Times reporter turned left-wing online columnist Timothy Egan riled the right again in his Thursday evening entry, "Right Flight." Egan, who showed clear liberal slant when he covered the Pacific Northwest for the Times, has previously smeared Rush Limbaugh as like "salt on a slug," a "clown," and "a swollen, sweaty man." On Thursday, Egan claimed Limbaugh "has lost significant advertisers and whatever respect he still had among a handful of decent Republicans" for his remarks about Sandra Fluke (Egan left out Limbaugh's apology).

After bashing the Drudge Report (shocking), Egan went through his list of "fringe," "broadcast bullies" on the right.

Don't be misled -- she doesn't actually mean it. False modesty is not one of Stephanie Miller's strong suits.

On her radio show yesterday, Miller did her part to parrot President Obama's demonization of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh while also claiming she lacks influence among liberals.  (audio clip after page break)

It's a classic MSM tactic: delegitimize opposition to a liberal proposal.  Suggest that there can be no principled objections, only base motives.  

Take the current proposals on "the pathway to citizenship"—AKA amnesty—being floated.  On today's Morning Joe, Politico co-founder and executive editor Jim VandeHei proclaimed that it was probably "the right thing to do," but fretted that it would be easy to "demagogue."  View the video after the jump.

"If a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox News or by Rush Limbaugh for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you'll see more of them doing it."

So said Barack Obama in an interview just published by The New Republic:

"It's just comical to listen to the abject, proudly, raise-your-hand-high-in-the-air ignorance of people like Piers Morgan."

So stated conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh Friday (video follows courtesy Daily Rushbo with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

Libtalker Mike Malloy is at it again.

Last Wednesday he actually said on the air, "This Limbaugh, this is one of the most vile human beings ever to live! If Limbaugh had the power, he would open gas chambers! If Limbaugh had the power, he would line people up against the wall and execute them...The only thing he sees in children is sex partners!" (video follows with transcript and commentary):