ABC’s Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl “honored” influential conservative talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh, who passed at age 70 from cancer Wednesday, with a snide, derogatory report on Good Morning America, Thursday.
Like his report on World News Tonight the previous evening, Karl was obnoxiously critical, calling the talk radio titan the "godfather of the type of politics that got Donald Trump elected president," "spawning an army of bombastic imitators." His report cherry-picked a highlight reel of Limbaugh’s “controversial” statements from his decades-long career:
Karl’s twisted version of an obituary disparaging the conservative icon, followed a perhaps even more negative report on ABC’s World News Tonight, Wednesday:
1951-2021: Controversial conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has died from lung cancer at age 70, with former Pres. Trump speaking publicly for the first time since leaving the White House to address his death. @jonkarl reports. https://t.co/uzVJjK4HyZ pic.twitter.com/krg5gVYvUl
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) February 18, 2021
“As wildly successful and influential as he was divisive and controversial, Rush Limbaugh was the godfather of the ‘offend anyone apologize to no one’ politics that got Donald Trump elected president,” Karl opened that report, also calling him “bombastic” “sexist” and “racist” while sneering at his criticism for feminists and President Obama.
But when “controversial” liberals die, the networks lionize them instead of demonizing them.
Last May when far-left gay activist Larry Kramer died, ABC’s GMA and CBS This Morning “celebrated” him as a “trailblazer” and didn’t once call him controversial, despite the man’s hatred for conservatives, even comparing President Reagan to Hitler. Instead they hailed him as a “monumental” hero who would “echo for generations.”
Even more abominable, the networks have had nicer things to say about murderous dictators and terrorists who have died in recent years than they’ve offered to influential conservatives who’ve passed on.
Read the GMA transcript below:
Good Morning America
2/18/2021
JON KARL: Rush Limbaugh not only created modern conservative talk radio, he was also the godfather of the type of politics that got Donald Trump elected president. From his perch at a radio station in Sacramento in the 1980s, Rush Limbaugh invented modern right wing talk radio.
LIMBAUGH: Members of Congress are our employees. It is not the other way.
KARL:Spawning an army of bombastic imitators. Many of whom now dominate cable television. The right wing media universe that helped fuel Donald Trump's rise started with Rush Limbaugh.
MICHAEL HARRISON: He gave conservativism a home. He gave the conservative movement in America basically mainstream status. He was that influential in changing the nature of how politics is expressed.
KARL: He boasted of fighting liberals with half his brain tied behind his back and built a massive audience. 20 million at the peak of popularity.
LIMBAUGH: This is not retail politics as its always been.
KARL: He derided feminists as femiNazis and made disparaging comments about AIDS patients and the LGBTQ community. His brief career as an ESPN analyst came to an abrupt end when he said NFL quarterback Donovan Mcnab was overrated because he’s black.
LIMBAUGH: The media’s been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.
KARL: And when Barack Obama became a national political figure, Limbaugh was among those promoting the racist myth that Obama had not proved he was an American citizen. During the 2016 presidential campaign Limbaugh did not support Trump until almost all of the other Republican candidates were defeated and even then he said Trump is not a true conservative.
LIMBAUGH: Can somebody point to me the conservative on the ballot? What do you mean Rush, are you admitting Trump's not conservative? Damn right I am.
KARL: But Limbaugh became a fervent Trump supporter and early last year the day after Limbaugh told his listeners he had advanced lung cancer, Trump gave him the presidential medal of freedom. Dramatically awarding it during his State of the Union address.
TRUMP: Rush Limbaugh, thank you for your decades of tireless devotion tour country.
KARL: News of Rush Limbaugh's death divided the political world almost as much as his radio show did. But Republicans of all stripes paid tribute. Former President George W. Bush said while he was brash and at times controversial and always opinionated, he spoke his mind as a voice of millions of Americans. And Sean Hannity said last night, ‘there is no talk radio as we know it without Rush Limbaugh. It just doesn't exist.’ And Hannity added that he would also argue, that without Limbaugh in many ways there is no Fox News. And on that even many of Limbaugh’s harshest critics, would certainly agree.
