New York Times columnist David Brooks is supposed to be the house conservative of PBS’s NewsHour and convention coverage, but he dripped contempt for conservatives from Mitt Romney to Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday’s night live coverage. He decried Romney’s speech as extreme "He drifted so far right, I’m sort of, my mind is boggling." But he said the rhetoric wasn’t genuine, just a "strategic choice" in case McCain loses. When one panelist said the Sarah Palin speech would be "a huge hit among Rush Limbaugh Republicans," Brooks insisted Palin’s humor was light with a common touch, not "biting, belittling" Limbaugh humor. Earlier, he lamented the presidential choices didn’t include someone who hated tax cuts: "There might be a candidate who says ‘Actually, at this time in our country we can’t afford these massive tax cuts anyway,’ but that candidate is not running for president."

UPDATE: On the Charlie Rose show, Brooks grew even wilder, saying of Romney's speech: "I thought it was borderline insane," and proclaiming Palin was "not ideological in a Rush Limbaugh sense."

Not that it counts for much but who are the most influential political media figures? It's an interesting question, one that for the most part is hardly a provable assertion. How can one measure influence, after all?

You probably can't but you can at least measure how famous (or infamous) a pundit is. New York Magazine attempted to do just that by creating an index that looks at a given commentator's mentions in Google, blogs, newspapers/magazines, TV shows and then computes a "popularity score" based on the rankings for each category.

The top figure in the survey? Former Bush top aide Karl Rove with a score of 67.79. He's followed very closely by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh with 67.35.

Don't want to take Rush's word for it?  How about Mark Halperin's? The editor of Time's "The Page" thinks the choice by John McCain of a pro-choice running mate would be nothing short of a "disaster." Halperin expressed his view during an appearance today on CNN's American Morning.

KIRAN CHETRY: What about some potential running mates for John McCain?  Because there's been a lot of talk all over talk radio.  A lot of people are saying if he tries to go with somebody who's pro-choice like a Lieberman, that that would be it for the base: a big deflation for the convention.

MARK HALPERIN: Look, so many of the people who go to the convention in St. Paul are going to be pro-life, and very strongly pro-life.  I think it would be a disaster for him to pick someone who was not in agreement with the party platform on abortion. 

View video here.

Added Halperin . . .

Wolf Blitzer for one apparently doesn't think Tom Ridge's pro-choice position should disqualify him as John McCain's VP pick.  The former Pennsylvania congressman and governor was a guest on this afternoon's Situation Room, and Blitzer began by playing a clip of Rush Limbaugh urging McCain not to pick a pro-choice running mate, saying it would "obliterate all the progress that he experienced" at the Saddleback forum.

Ridge surmised that "Rush and everybody else hopefully can see that there's a clear choice regardless of the vice-presidential candidate. A choice that says that John McCain is needed now as president of the United States in this perilous time."

That's when Wolf made a more muscular case on Ridge's behalf.

WOLF BLITZER: And if he did pick you, he, the president, he'd be calling the shots.  You'd be the vice-president.  You'd be doing whatever the president asks you to do.

Ridge was only too happy to agree.

View video here.

Spreading the Word

NewsBusters.org's parent company, the Media Research Center, today released the following statement (related to this NewsBusters post) from President L. Brent Bozell, III.

BOZELL: NEWSDAY SHOULD APOLOGIZE TO
LIMBAUGH, HANNITY AND O'REILLY
Columnist suggested radio hosts responsible for Tennessee church murders

ALEXANDRIA, VA - Media Research Center President L. Brent Bozell today sent a letter to Newsday Publisher Tim Knight demanding an apology for the August 13 column by Jenna Kern-Rugile entitled "Does shock jock hate speech lead to violence?" in which she inexplicably and noxiously links the contemptible July 27 murders committed in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.

Bozell also insisted that Ms. Rugile never again appear on the pages of Newsday.

MRC President L. Brent Bozell:

Rush Limbaugh killed some church goers in Tennessee last July. That is the message from a Newsday.com columnist for a local New York newspaper chain. Now, I've listened to Rush Limbaugh many times. Because of my schedule, I cannot listen every day, so certainly I have not heard every word the man has ever uttered, but I am sure that you won't be able to find a time when he told people to go out and kill liberals. Neither have I ever heard Sean Hannity advocate murder. Michael Savage.... well, I haven't heard it but I almost wouldn't be surprised, almost. Still, even Savage is smart enough not to do so I am sure. Regardless of a complete lack of such incitement to murder made by these "right-wing Shock jocks," as she puts it, Jenna Kern-Rugile is sure that the killings of the members of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville last July is the fault of Limbaugh, Hannity and Savage.

Her premise is that the "rhetoric of extreme right pundits" such as Limbaugh, Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly "might" have caused shooter Jim D. Adkisson, 58, to gather up his guns and perpetrate a murder spree on July 27 at the Unitarian Church in Knoxville.

On Monday’s Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann attacked Sean Hannity for his recent declaration on FNC's Hannity's America that Obama "can’t point to a single instance in which President Bush or McCain or Karl Rove or Sean Hannity or talk radio or any other major Republican has made an issue of Obama’s race." Missing Hannity’s point that conservatives are not attacking Obama for being black or suggesting voters should be afraid to vote for him because he is black, Olbermann cited quotes from Hannity and Rush Limbaugh which, in the MSNBC host’s mind, proved Hannity wrong, and that "short-term memory is often the first thing to go right after ethics." Olbermann mocked Hannity and Limbaugh by concluding that, "What Hannity means when he says nobody has made an issue of Obama’s race is: He and Limbaugh haven’t called him the ‘N’ word." After a brief pause, Olbermann added: "Yet." Olbermann, who has a history of distorting the words of conservatives, read quotes from Hannity from the past about Obama and the race issue without conveying the context that Hannity was referring to Obama’s links to the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan, who are known for espousing racist views. (Transcripts follow)

This doesn't qualify as any kind of surprise, but it should be noted nonetheless.

Thursday, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama gave a stunningly downbeat assessment of the nation's overall situation in a response to a seven year-old girl who asked him why he is running for president. Obama's media water-carriers have virtually ignored his very telling response, one that is reminiscent of Jimmy Carter's gloomiest, malaise-based assessments of America during his awful presidency.

Here is a rundown of what happened from Ed Morrissey of Hot Air (direct YouTube link to relevant video is here):

If you believe that there's a 50-50 chance that your take-home pay will be cut by almost one-fifth beginning in as little as five months from now, would that belief affect your current spending habits?

Of course it would. But that idea apparently never occurred to the Associated Press's Mark Jewell.

In the course of a 950-word article Monday about how the rich are getting more stingy, he focused on how "the economic slump" and "downturn" are affecting their spending, while ignoring the massive tax hits high-income earners will likely be forced to absorb (illustrated in detail below the fold) if Barack Obama wins the presidency and Democrats retain control of Congress.

Here is some of what the AP's Jewell wrote (bolds are mine):

Today is the 20th Anniversary of Rush Limbaugh's national radio show.

We at NewsBusters wanted to congratulate El Rushbo on twenty fabulous years, and wish him well in another twenty behind the golden EIB microphone.

Rush Limbaugh likes to joke that he has "half my brain tied behind my back, just to keep it fair." But there's no sign Michelle Obama [file photo] was anything but serious when she said something similar in a current People magazine interview, h/t Michelle Malkin. Mrs. Obama claimed she could be "very competent" on policy putting in only a 70% effort. 

Throw in a few more statements from Mrs. Obama during the interview attesting to her own intellect, and a picture emerges of a woman either very sure--or insecure--about her smarts.

Excerpts [emphasis added]:

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh spoke with Fox News on Saturday about the passing of his dear friend Tony Snow, as well as the AP's disgraceful coverage my colleague Tom Blumer reported:

All of the major US stock indices are, unfortunately, in bear market territory.

The S&P 500 crossed into Bearland yesterday, and dropped a bit further today. The Dow did so on July 1, and remains mired in its own "grizzly" situation. The Associated Press reported on July 2 that "the Nasdaq ..... hit that (bear) mark in March, moved higher and has now returned to a bear level."

So if you're in index funds, this has not been the best of times (but, on the "bright" side, to the extent your 401(k) or other retirement investments are index funds, your current contributions are buying more shares).

Nonetheless, be thankful if you're not directly or indirectly invested in newspaper stocks.

Newsosaur reported today (HT to commenter dscott) that seven newspaper stocks hit record intraday lows in today's trading before recovering a bit before the close:

Is a second phase of Rush Limbaugh's highly-successful "Operation Chaos" in the works?

According to the conservative talk show host, such is possible, and if it ends up coming to pass, will have deliciously been set in motion as a result of a conspiracy theory espoused Monday by the Obama-loving actor Donald Sutherland.

For those that missed it, Kiefer's dad published a blog at the Huffington Post yesterday suggesting there's a Clinton cabal to "demoralize" presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama's base in order to "persuade disenchanted delegates on the floor of the [Democrat National] convention to make a resurgent Hillary Clinton the Party's nominee."

Limbaugh saw this, and wrote me this morning:

Thursday’s "Today Show" gave yet another demonstration that the mainstream media can’t get over the success of Rush Limbaugh. NBC correspondent Michael Okwu, reporting on Limbaugh’s new contract, which the New York Times has indicated is worth $400 million, "reminded" viewers of three past "controversies" involving the talk radio host: his 2003 resignation from ESPN after remarking on the sport media’s coverage of NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb; how Limbaugh mocked Michael J. Fox, "accusing the actor of exaggerating symptoms of Parkinson's Disease;" and the legal trouble he faced in Florida related to his addiction to prescription painkillers.

On this "doctor shopping" issue, Okwu remarked, "In 2003, Florida authorities charged Limbaugh with illegally-deceiving multiple doctors, in order to get overlapping painkiller prescriptions. He pled not guilty and the charges were later dismissed, though Limbaugh admitted he was an addict."

Rush Limbaugh's new deal with Clear Channel, as flashed by Drudge (also covered or addressed here and here at NewsBusters; here at the New York Times; and here in a very long New York Times magazine article), is north of $400 million for the next eight years.

Good tax planning too: Maharushie will get his reported nine-figure signing bonus this year before a possible President Obama does his hundreds of billions in damage. Limbaugh's tax savings, if the bonus is $100 million and Obama gets everything he wants, would be a hair under $17 mil (12.4% Social Security on all but $148,000, plus the 4.6% planned increase in the top rate).

One conclusion you can reach, based on what newspaper industry watcher Newsosaur told us earlier this week, is that Old Media covering the Limbaugh story is like zombies covering the living (link in excerpt was in original):