.............
That's one weird-lookin' dude.
Posted on 04/25/2003 3:25:51 PM PDT by Timesink
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Since he asked a critical question at a CENTCOM briefing on March 27, Michael Wolff has been peddling a tale of woe. In numerous articles and media appearances, the New York Magazine media critic has blamed a flood of hate mail on Rush Limbaugh, who Wolff claims denounced his question, accused him of racism and gave out his email address on the air. But Wolff is severely distorting what happened, as Limbaugh has repeatedly pointed out.
As the Associated Press reported that day, Wolff generated applause from reporters for asking Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, "I mean no disrespect by this question, but I want to ask about the value proposition of these briefings. We're no longer being briefed by senior-most officers." Limbaugh criticized Wolff on the air on the same day (Windows Media Player audio), stating that if a conservative reporter had asked the same question of Brooks, who is black, the reporter would have been accused of racism.
In an article in The Nation, Michael Massing claimed Limbaugh "gave out Wolff's e-mail address and urged listeners to vent their displeasure. More than 3,000 messages poured into Wolff's inbox, accusing him of being unpatriotic, antimilitary and worse." This account, which apparently came from Wolff, was picked up in an April 10 article in the Austin American Statesman, which stated that Limbaugh "incited an e-mail campaign against" Wolff.
On April 11, Wolff claimed Limbaugh "gave out my email address" on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" (Real Player video). Then, in a New York Magazine article about his experience, Wolff expanded on his account, claiming that, "according to Rush, that great defender of the rights of African-Americans, I was a racist" and that "Rush gave out my e-mail address," prompting "3,000 e-mails, full of righteous fury." (This was later repeated in a reprint of the article in The Guardian, a British newspaper.)
Throughout, Limbaugh has questioned Wolff's account, beginning on April 8 and continuing on April 11 and April 14. Each time, Limbaugh has correctly pointed out that he never gave out Wolff's e-mail address. Wolf has continued to repeat his story, however, and to date, no corrections have been published that I can locate.
When asked by email about this discrepancy, Wolff replied, "my URL [the address of his website] appeared on his [Limbaugh's] website." When asked where the URL appeared since it is not currently posted on the original page about Wolff, "Hmmm...don't know. Not looking at it now. But I did see it--it was my burnrate.[com] address. And hundreds and hundreds of the emails referenced it." He later elaborated: "www.burnrate[.com, his website] goes to me but we took it down because [the] server got overwhelmed; it also identified my direct email."
However, even if Limbaugh did link to Wolff's website, that does not mean Limbaugh gave out Wolff's email address on the air and told people to email him, as Wolff has clearly implied multiple times. Links, even in a negative context, are not tantamount to inciting an email campaign. Limbaugh has an audience of twenty million listeners; in an audience of that size, many people will send emails to those discussed on the air even if the host does not tell them to do so. As Limbaugh has pointed out, if he actually told people to email Wolff or anyone else (which he specifically does not do), the deluge would most likely overwhelm them with tens of thousands of emails. Moreover, as Limbaugh correctly contends, he never accused Wolff of racism, but instead alleged a double standard in criticism of high-ranking black officials.
In short, Wolff's account is highly misleading at best; he should stop repeating it. For a journalist to be peddling such a tall tale is an embarrassment.
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Dear Brendan,
I just read your piece on Michael Wolff and wanted to let you know that contrary to what Mr. Wolff says, we never posted his e-mail address or his website URL on RushLimbaugh.com. We did not link to any of his articles on that day when Rush covered the CENTCOM briefing sound bite.
His e-mail address is listed at the bottom of his columns. If people found it, that's where they found it on their own, not with any encouragement from Rush or his website, nor via any link from the site.
Sincerely,
George Prayias
Webmaster, RushLimbaugh.com
General Brooks father was a Major General. His brother is also a Briagadier General and Commandant of Cadets at West Point.
I can't recall another family with three flag officers.
That's one weird-lookin' dude.
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