News broke on MSNBC at approximately 6:15pm EDT Friday night about the “arrest” of Rush Limbaugh on a “prescription fraud” charge. While the 7pm EDT Situation Room on CNN led with the “Breaking News” of the “arrest” -- which was really more of a booking session that did not put Limbaugh into handcuffs or any jail -- reporter John Zarella reported how it was really part of “a deal” between Limbaugh and the Palm Beach County prosecutor's office and CNN's legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin soon told anchor Wold Blitzer by phone that “the winner here is very clear: Rush Limbaugh. They cut themselves a very sweet deal.”
But while the reports on the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News conveyed how in exchange for 18 more months of drug treatment by Limbaugh, the one single charge would be dismissed, World News Tonight viewers were left assuming Limbaugh was in dire trouble...