They warned back in 2008 what might happen if Barack Obama was elected president, and according to conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh and Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck, a lot of bad stuff is unfolding right before our eyes.
Limbaugh appeared on Beck's Aug. 26 program to discuss the threat of the federal government attempting to regulate the media. He explained the president's policy maneuvers were evidence that this can happen - with very limited opposition in the media.
"The stimulus plan - Glenn, look at what they're doing to the U.S. economy," Limbaugh said. "Anybody with a sense of economic literacy would know that this is not how you create jobs. You do not rebuild the private sector. This is being done on purpose. All of these disasters are exactly what Obama wants - the more crises, the better, the more opportunity for government to say let us in and fix the problem. And, with his number one opposition is on radio and Fox News. His number one opposition is on radio. They can't go Fairness Doctrine because it's too obvious. So, they're trying to do this backdoor route with diversity and ownership, a 100-percent tax on operating in order to pay public radio because they're supposedly fair."
Limbaugh added that it wouldn't be done without some backlash from the American public - as they value their freedoms.
"It's insidious, but I don't think it's going to work in the end because the American people are too informed, Glenn," Limbaugh said. "They're too aware of it. Their radio means too much to them. Their free speech, freedom in general means way too much to them. And just as they're fighting back on health care and a number of other things, so will they fight back on this."
Beck was less optimistic about slowing the progress of what he perceived to be the Obama administration's effort to grab power when it comes to media. He argued that General Electric (NYSE:GE) CEO Jeffrey Immelt had situated himself, with his position on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's board of directors and control of GE's media interests, to help the Obama administration achieve these goals. He pointed to MSNBC content as a forewarning of what is to come.
"If you watch what could only be called the organization's or the administration's organ, anything involved with GE or NBC - you've got now Jeffrey Immelt on the board of the Federal Reserve, you have him in the Oval Office, consulting not only health care but the financial situation and they are an organ," Beck said. "If you watch MSNBC, I contend that you will see the future because they are laying the ground for a horrible event that will be - as what they're laying the ground for, anything from the right, there some awful event and I fear this government this administration has so much framework already prepared that they will seize power over night before anybody even gives it a second thought."
Still, Limbaugh maintained it wouldn't happen without some reaction from the American people, thanks to efforts by conservative talkers like he and Beck.
"I think because of what you're doing with your television show, with your radio show - what we're all doing, I don't think they're going to be able to seize it over night without anybody knowing about it," Limbaugh said.
