Just a short time after the passing of conservative talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday afternoon, MSNBC welcomed on disgraced ex-Senator Al Franken and invited him hurl insults at the recently deceased media pioneer. The angry, bitter Democrat railed against Limbaugh’s influence and declared that he “spewed lies” throughout his career.
“There’s a reason that Rush Limbaugh got the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump. Without Rush Limbaugh, there’s no Donald Trump,” Franken complained. He then took the opportunity to remind viewers of a nasty anti-Limbaugh screed he once authored: “I wrote a book, Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot and Other Observations in 1995.”
While the former Minnesota Senator – who resigned in disgrace following a sexual harassment scandal – complimented Limbaugh for being “an incredibly effective broadcaster,” he accused the late conservative thought leader of having “spewed lies.” Even worse, Franken was outraged that Limbaugh paved the way for numerous other conservative media outlets: “...and after him there was Fox. And I wrote a book about that, too. And after that, the internet, and you know, Breitbart, Newsmax, and now social media.”
Moments later in the 2:00 p.m. ET hour, anchor Katy Tur offered this brief and despicable obituary of Limbaugh:
And before we take a break, we just were talking about it a moment ago, but reaction is pouring in to the news that Rush Limbaugh has died. The talk show host dominated right-wing radio for over 30 years, building a devoted following of millions of listeners. He held huge power and sway over Republicans in Congress and over several administrations. Promoting his allies while insulting his political enemies and average people alike, many times in deeply offensive ways. And his brand of brash conservatism eventually leading to the rise of Donald Trump. Limbaugh revealed a year ago he had lung cancer. Rush Limbaugh was 70 years old.
Perhaps washed-up leftists like Franken and frustrated cable channels like MSNBC are just upset that they have never been able to wield even a fraction of the political influence of someone like Rush Limbaugh.
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Here is a transcript of the February 17 coverage:
2:47 PM ET
(...)
AL FRANKEN: This is a really difficult time for our democracy because we have a Republican Party that really doesn’t believe in democracy.
KATY TUR: Well, you’re hitting on something that I think we should delve further into. So, yes, Democrats control Washington. Yes, there’s a lot of policy going on, but broader – speaking in broader terms about the country, we have a crisis of misinformation and disinformation. And what we saw today, after the news that Rush Limbaugh passed, was Donald Trump went on Fox News, and in memorializing Rush Limbaugh, he propped up again this lie that the election was stolen. He repeated it again on Fox News. What do you think of that?
FRANKEN: There’s a reason that Rush Limbaugh got the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump. Without Rush Limbaugh, there’s no Donald Trump. I wrote a book, Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot and Other Observations in 1995. Rush was an incredibly effective broadcaster. He was the first to understand when the Fairness Doctrine went away in 1987, how to exploit that. And he had a listenership of 20 million people. He spewed lies, and after him there was Fox. And I wrote a book about that, too. And after that, the internet, and you know, Breitbart, Newsmax, and now social media. And because of that, we have two universes of information. And one of them is – targets for Trump’s people.
(...)
2:50 PM ET
KATY TUR: And before we take a break, we just were talking about it a moment ago, but reaction is pouring in to the news that Rush Limbaugh has died. The talk show host dominated right-wing radio for over 30 years, building a devoted following of millions of listeners. He held huge power and sway over Republicans in Congress and over several administrations. Promoting his allies while insulting his political enemies and average people alike, many times in deeply offensive ways. And his brand of brash conservatism eventually leading to the rise of Donald Trump. Limbaugh revealed a year ago he had lung cancer. Rush Limbaugh was 70 years old.
(...)
