As CNN on Wednesday covered the passing of Rush Limbaugh, AC360 ran a pre-recorded piece from correspondent Randi Kaye that was nearly all negative about the conservative icon's radio career. Kaye declared: "[F]or decades, Limbaugh filled the airwaves with lies and conspiracy theories, racist and misogynistic comments."
Afterwards, host Anderson Cooper and CNN media analyst Bill Carter did at least credit Limbaugh as a crucial part of building the conservative media, but they also speculated that he did not really believe many of the views he touted on his show, and was just pandering to make money.
Kaye's report began by recalling Limbaugh joking about President Barack Obama not having a birth certificate, followed by a clip of him speaking gibberish to mock the president of China, Hu Jintao, in 2011. She then added: "For decades, Limbaugh filled the airwaves with lies and conspiracy theories, racist. and misogynistic comments. One of his most outlandish moments was in 2007 when he aired this racist parody called 'Barack, the Magic Negro,' to the tune of 'Puff, the Magic Dragon.'"
After playing clips of Limbaugh mocking Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and incorrectly predicting that COVID-19 would not be a big danger, she then lamented his ability to remain on air for so long as she suggested the American right had been played for low-IQ suckers: "Instead of knocking him off the airwaves, his commentary turned him into a national hero for the right and made him a very rich man."
The CNN correspondent eventually informed viewers that President Ronald Reagan praised him for his importance to the conservative movement, and recalled that President Donald Trump awarded him the Medal of Freedom last year.
After the piece ended. Cooper and Carter recounted Limbaugh's importance in the creation of right-leaning media, but the two then suggested that he was just pandering to people who had views Carter described as "wacky." The smug, left-wing Carter then sneered with disgust for Americans who weren't on the left side of the aisle:
He would say things that were really out there and wacky in a way that made you think, "oh, this guy is kind of pulling my leg a little." But he was making enormous money from this, and people were following him to hear this because they had views like that, and he was affirming those views. He was saying --- he was giving them cover. If you felt like gay people shouldn't be married -- if you felt women should, you know, not have an equal place in America, they were feminazis, whatever, you -- you didn't think he was kidding around or entertaining you. You thought he was telling you the truth and validating your views.
Carter also suggested that Limbaugh's audience responded favorably to views that were "meanspirited" and "nasty." Here was Carter:
[H]e built an enormous following and every town -- every media market then would have its own Rush Limbaugh. Somebody would have that --- the same sort of outspoken, kind of meanspirited, nasty views that, you know, people wanted to hear on the radio. And I think you absolutely have to say that radio owes all of that to Rush Limbaugh.
This episode of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 was sponsored in part by Lexus. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript can be found below:
CNN's Anderson Cooper 360
February 17, 2021
8:47 p.m. EasternANDERSON COOPER: Well, he was polarizing, bombastic, loved by listeners, derided by his critics. Rush Limbaugh died today after a battle with cancer at the age of 70. Randi Kaye tonight looks at his life and legacy.
RUSH LIMBAUGH: You don't have to worry about staying informed.
RANDI KAYE: He was the king of conservative radio and controversy. On The Rush Limbaugh Show, everyone was fair game. Whether you were a U.S. President --
LIMBAUGH [in June 2009]: God does not have a birth certificate -- neither does Obama. Not that we've seen.
KAYE: -- or the President of China whom he mocked during his 2011 visit to the U.S.
LIMBAUGH [on 01/19/11]: Hu Jintao was just going [Limbaugh imitates Jintao speaking]
KAYE: For decades, Limbaugh filled the airwaves with lies and conspiracy theories, racist. and misogynistic comments. One of his most outlandish moments was in 2007 when he aired this racist parody called "Barack, the Magic Negro," to the tune of "Puff, the Magic Dragon."
AUDIO CLIP OF PARODY: Barack the Magic Negro --
KAYE: He often mocked women, saying this when Nancy Pelosi was the first female Speaker of the House.
LIMBAUGH [on 01/05/07]: I wonder, when she loses next, if she'll go back to the kitchen.
KAYE: Last year, he floated the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was being weaponized to bring down Donald Trump and it was nothing to fear.
LIMBAUGH [02/24/20]: I'm dead right on this -- the coronavirus is the common cold, folks.
KAYE: Instead of knocking him off the airwaves, his commentary turned him into a national hero for the right and made him a very rich man.
LIMBAUGH [in 2018]: Somebody to stand up for you.
KAYE: The New York Times reports Limbaugh earned $85 million a year; lived in a 24,000 square foot ocean front mansion in Palm Beach, Florida; and owned a $54 million Gulfstream private jet. Not bad for a college dropout from Missouri. Ronald Reagan called him the number one voice for conservatism in the country, and, last year, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom at Donald Trump's State of the Union Address.
PRESIDENTIAL DONALD TRUMP [on 02/04/20]: Rush Limbaugh, thank you for your decades of tireless devotion to our country.
KAYE: Limbaugh was a Trump supporter early on, and, when Trump lost in 2020, Limbaugh helped incite anger by spreading the falsehood that the election had been stolen.
LIMBAUGH [12/16/20]: You didn't win this thing fair and square and we're not just going to be docile like the past and go away and wait until the next election. [SCREEN WIPE] [on 12/23/20] So much I want to say.
KAYE: But on his final radio show of 2020 , all that bravado was no more -- Limbaugh's usual sarcasm replaced by solemnity and a feeling the end was near.
LIMBAUGH [on 12/23/20]: I can't be self-absorbed about it when that is the tendency when you are told that you've got a due date, you have an expiration date. [SCREEN WIPE] [in the 1990s] That, ladies and gentlemen, is Little Rock.
KAYE: Now, after more than 30 years, the chair at Limbaugh's trademark golden microphone sits empty. Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach, Florida.
COOPER: Well, it's fair to say that, while millions of his listeners will mourn him, his death also will leave a void in the nationwide industry he's credited with launching, sustaining more than three decades. We're going to talk to Bill Carter, CNN media analyst and former television critic for the New York Times about this. Bill, thanks for being with us. It does seem like, in so many ways, Rush Limbaugh sort of laid the groundwork for this moment that we've been living through.
BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: There's just no doubt about it. I mean, you know, there's a direct line really from Limbaugh to Trump. I mean, you listen to that litany of views that he had -- and how different is that from what we've heard so much from Trump supporters in recent years and, you know, he --- he --- he really is the guy who sort of created Fox News and Newsmax and all the other right-wing news organizations. They're just feeding off his template. He created what is now really the conservative voice of media in America.
COOPER: The --- the -- in terms of just talk radio and conservative talk radio, he was really -- I mean, I don't know if he was the first, but he was certainly the biggest at the time and made it possible for Sean Hannity and all these others.
CARTER: No question, that industry absolutely owes everything to him -- the right-wing media talk industry -- because he came along, and, you know, radio was not strong. In fact, terrestrial radio was obviously on its way out, but he built an enormous following and every town -- every media market then would have its own Rush Limbaugh. Somebody would have that --- the same sort of outspoken, kind of meanspirited, nasty views that, you know, people wanted to hear on the radio. And I think you absolutely have to say that radio owes all of that to Rush Limbaugh.
(...)
COOPER: There's been speculation about whether it's possible, you know, did Rush Limbaugh believe everything that he said? I know you mentioned that, you know, especially at the beginning, he was very much about bombast and shock value.
CARTER: Yes. He was --- he considered himself an entertainer. If you look at his early work, he was sort of absurdist. He would say things that were really out there and wacky in a way that made you think, "oh, this guy is kind of pulling my leg a little." But he was making enormous money from this, and people were following him to hear this because they had views like that, and he was affirming those views. He was saying --- he was giving them cover. If you felt like gay people shouldn't be married -- if you felt women should, you know, not have an equal place in America, they were feminazis, whatever, you -- you didn't think he was kidding around or entertaining you. You thought he was telling you the truth and validating your views. And I think Rush went along with that. Look, he was making these enormous amounts of money. He wanted to make enormous amounts of money -- that was part of his ambition from the beginning. He overtly said that. So I think he jumped on the carousel and said, "teah, this is going to take me everywhere I want to go."
(...)
