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Nate Silver: In Defense of Rush Limbaugh
FiveThirtyEight ^ | October 15, 2009 | Nate Silver

Posted on 10/17/2009 1:49:04 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

No, the headline is not sarcastic. No, I do not particularly care for the guy. Yes, Rush has said all other various and sundry sorts of racially inflammatory things.

But there's pretty compelling evidence a couple of particularly inflammatory quotes that have been attributed to Limbaugh on CNN and at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch are things he simply never said. There's no audio file, there's no YouTube, there's no transcript -- there's no sourcing of any kind to speak of, and given that Rush is one of the most listened-to and tape-recorded people in the history of the world, you'd certainly think that there would be. There's not even some kind of half-assed backstory -- "Oh, he said these things off the record at a fundraiser for Alexander Haig" -- or anything like that. The quotes appear, in other words, to have been completely made up.

Rush has handled the situation pretty well, not drawing undue attention to the quotes, but making the commonsensical argument that if he had said, for instance, words to the effect that James Earl Ray (Martin Luther King's assassin) was a hero, then surely there would have been a Don-Imus-to-the-nth-power-sized blowup long before now. I'm actually a little surprised that the conservative blogs haven't made a bigger deal of this -- some of them, I suppose, are so used to reflexively alleging irresponsible behavior by the media that they've sort of been led off the scent of a case where it actually seems to have occurred. And I'm disappointed that the "liberal" media and meta-media sites have in fact not lifted a finger to verify the veracity of the quotes, nor to call out those who repeated them without checking their facts first.


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Politics; Society; Sports
KEYWORDS: drivebymedia; limbaugh; nfl; racecard; racism; rush; rushlimbaugh; talkradio
Most of the comments will show you what a mental disease liberalism is.
1 posted on 10/17/2009 1:49:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Yes, Rush has said all other various and sundry sorts of racially inflammatory things."

Conservative statements are always 'inflammatory', while liberals can make inflammatory statements which are called candid, speaking from the heart or patriotic dissent.

2 posted on 10/17/2009 1:52:53 PM PDT by Baynative (With Obama, America is celebrating it's acceptance of mediocrity.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Yes, Rush has said all other various and sundry sorts of racially inflammatory things”

Yeah, riiiiight! If that were truly the case, then no one would need to make up any quotes, now would they?

Cheers


3 posted on 10/17/2009 1:55:30 PM PDT by DoctorBulldog
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Team Obama IS behind this, no doubt.

Those pompous bastards can't take any kind of criticism and will go to any lengths to destroy their advisories.

4 posted on 10/17/2009 2:00:11 PM PDT by wolfcreek (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd7DGqVSIc)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Watch your back, Rush!


5 posted on 10/17/2009 2:00:46 PM PDT by wolfcreek (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd7DGqVSIc)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
it actually seems to have occurred.

He doesn't follow the news too carefully , does he ?

6 posted on 10/17/2009 2:01:59 PM PDT by gusopol3
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think when the money is followed and facts come to light, this may have been a set up to discredit Rush from the beginning. It almost plays out like a scene crafted after reading “Rules of Radicals”. Rush even said he did not know the guy real well that approached him on “the deal” - and who were these ‘partners’ really? I smell a RAT.


7 posted on 10/17/2009 2:10:48 PM PDT by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.....)
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To: SERKIT
This whole thing makes Rush look good.

Rush comes out on top while the liberals, well, once again they expose themselves for the little wienies that they are.

8 posted on 10/17/2009 2:16:26 PM PDT by Bullish ( Reality is the best cure for delusion.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Liberals are anti-free speech when they disagree with it.


9 posted on 10/17/2009 2:29:33 PM PDT by VRWC For Truth (Throw the bums out who vote yes on the bail out)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Reading the blog is relatively easy. Reading the comments that follow makes one feel unclean. Much like the occasional visit to DU, one needs to take a blood pressure pill afterwards...


10 posted on 10/17/2009 2:29:58 PM PDT by Paisan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Most of the comments will show you what a mental disease liberalism is."

It also illustrates what Rush's term "Drive-By Media" means too.

11 posted on 10/17/2009 2:35:39 PM PDT by VR-21 (There was a rush, along the Fulham Road....)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The libtards seem to have forgotten that “GOTCHA” cuts both ways. Go Rush.


12 posted on 10/17/2009 2:42:21 PM PDT by JPG (Obama...a 24/7 nightmare.)
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To: Baynative

Right you are. When libs trash America it’s defined (by them) as patriotism.


13 posted on 10/17/2009 2:55:05 PM PDT by luvbach1 (Worse than we could have imagined.)
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To: wolfcreek

No way that Soros would want to own a football team with Rush Limbaugh.

Had to be a set-up.


14 posted on 10/17/2009 2:59:50 PM PDT by RummyChick
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I'm actually a little surprised that the conservative blogs haven't made a bigger deal of this -- some of them, I suppose, are so used to reflexively alleging irresponsible behavior by the media that they've sort of been led off the scent of a case where it actually seems to have occurred.

In fact, conservative blogs have exposed so much old media propaganda that it has become fairly routine.

15 posted on 10/17/2009 3:08:54 PM PDT by Interesting Times (For the truth about "swift boating" see ToSetTheRecordStraight.com)
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To: SERKIT

You smell a rat, and Soros is apparently another “partner...”


16 posted on 10/17/2009 3:10:35 PM PDT by ez ("Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is." - Milton)
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To: RummyChick
Rush thought we buying into a professional football team not, a marionette show.
17 posted on 10/17/2009 4:38:12 PM PDT by wolfcreek (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd7DGqVSIc)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hi, I’m Nate Silver. I’m a liberal Jew, a Communist, and I’m damn proud of it! I hate this country with a passion and anything I can do to destroy it, I will! Limbaugh is a bully who needs to be stopped and together with small brainwashed school children singing Obama’s praises all around this country, perhaps we can destroy it! I’m Nate Silver, and that’s the way it is!


18 posted on 10/17/2009 5:41:04 PM PDT by Doc Savage (SOBAMP!)
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