Tag: Rush Limbaugh

Right-wing media has turned a pandemic into an ideological purity test

Without a reliable adversary, the right-wing TV industrial complex crumbles. People like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are not Beltway policy consultants or think-tank lanyard-wearers; instead, as Fox News hosts, they are among the country’s finest purveyors of paranoia, ideological victimhood, and politics as a vicious personal bloodsport. Coronavirus, then, has presented them with a challenge. They can’t exactly thrill their audiences by waging war on the virus itself, in the blandly non-ideological style of the #FuckCancer movement. And with President Trump at the mantle, nor can they take too much issue with the federal response, as you can imagine they might have done if Hillary Clinton were president. Instead, they have been awkwardly split between denialism — initially accusing the media of overhyping the virus’s spread and lethality — and attempting to “own the libs” by accusing Democrats of distracting Trump from being able to properly focus on a global health crisis by launching impeachment proceedings.

A New York Times analysis of right-wing media over the past few months shows how this dynamic played out. As recently as Feb. 25, Fox News host Laura Ingraham described the disease as something liberals were exploiting as a political tool, rather than a genuine threat. “A coronavirus,” she said on air. “That’s a new pathway for hitting President Trump.” Continue reading “Right-wing media has turned a pandemic into an ideological purity test”

MSNBC’s Morning Joe busts Rush Limbaugh for risking listeners’ lives by pushing coronavirus ‘lies’

AlterNet logoMSNBC’s Joe Scarborough blasted conservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh and other “media hacks” for spreading coronavirus “misinformation” that endangers their listeners’ lives.

The “Morning Joe” host called out Limbaugh for downplaying COVID-19 by comparing it to the flu or the common cold, but then changing course as the outbreak spreads without ever acknowledging his previous claims.

“What concerns me even more right now, because, again, that was the past and we’re worried about misinformation being spread right now, but there actually have even been in the past week some of these media hacks who have been promoting more bad science, more bad medicine,” Scarborough said. “Like having entire segments suggesting that people in Middle America are basically immune to this, this is a New York problem, that this is not a problem for Middle America. Having guests on that sit back and laugh at the thought that people in Middle America need to be concerned by the coronavirus. They do need to be concerned.” Continue reading.

‘Weaponizing An Epidemic’ Is How Limbaugh Attacked Obama

“It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump,” Rush Limbaugh, February 26, 2020

The Man Who Lost The Popular Vote has said much the same, accusing Democrats of “politicizing the coronavirus,” which he characterized as “their new hoax.” Fox News and others in the rightwing media fell right into line as well.

Let’s deal with the substance of this in the manner in which it deserves. First, Limbaugh is a stone-cold liar (and so is Trump)—although we knew that simply by the fact that his lips were moving. Second, and I’ll try not to spit as I scream this: Limbaugh and his shamelessly hypocritical buddies on the right weaponized Ebola to (try and) defeat Barack Obama. There, I feel a little better. And here’s the evidence, which I gathered researching my new book on how Limbaugh paved the way for Trump by spending eight years deploying the worst kind of hateful, racist rhetoric against President Obama.

After having spent several shows in July and August 2014 using the outbreak of the Ebola virus—which, counting only documented cases, killed over 11,000 Africans and one American—as a reason to “close the border,” on Sept. 8, the host pondered whether the enterovirus D68 outbreak that ultimately infected people in all but one state, and which may have killed fourteen (they tested positive but their deaths could not be definitively linked to EV-D68) was connected to the unaccompanied minors from Central America, and noted that “some people” believe it could be. Limbaugh also wondered whether the White House was covering up such a connection. Talk about weaponizing illness. Continue reading.

Conservative pundits blame a grab bag of supposed villains amid the coronavirus outbreak

Washington Post logoChoose your scapegoat: Democrats, the news media, the Chinese government, the “deep state,” Bernie Sanders or even “identity politics.”

All received some share of the blame this week from conservative media figures for the growing public concern over the coronavirus, the communicable disease that has spread across the globe.

In fact, many conservative commentators have expressed less interest in the spread of the virus or efforts to combat it than they are in the story of the virus — a story they are convinced shows evidence of bias designed to harm President Trump. Continue reading.

Rush Limbaugh on coronavirus: ‘The common cold’ that’s being ‘weaponized’ against Trump

Washington Post logoJust hours after World Health Organization officials said they are preparing for a “potential pandemic” as coronavirus cases increase worldwide, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh told his listeners Monday that he would try to put the concerning news about the novel virus “in perspective” for them.

“It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump,” Limbaugh said during his Monday show. “Now, I want to tell you the truth about the coronavirus. … Yeah, I’m dead right on this. The coronavirus is the common cold, folks.”

In a roughly 10-minute segment, Limbaugh criticized the media for overhyping the virus in “an effort to get Trump,” repeated a debunked fringe theory linking the outbreak to Chinese biological weapons research and found time to attack Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Continue reading.

What Trump’s picks for the Presidential Medal of Freedom – like Rush Limbaugh and Antonin Scalia – say about him

President Donald Trump awarded his 15th Presidential Medal of Freedom to conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh on Feb. 4.

This award was notable for two reasons. First, it was controversial because Limbaugh is a polarizing political figure. And second, this marked the first time that any president awarded a Medal of Freedom during a State of the Union address.

Typically, Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremonies occur once or twice per year and provide Americans with an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of various people who have made an important contribution to U.S. culture. Because the president selects recipients with total discretion – American or otherwise, living or dead – this award also says a lot about the president himself. Continue reading.

Limbaugh’s Bigotry Set Stage For Trump’s Republican Takeover

I have sympathy for Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk radio host who announced this week that he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, and wish him a speedy recovery. Cancer is a brutal scourge that has claimed members of the Media Matters family in recent years, and no one deserves the suffering this disease and its treatment inflict.

But Limbaugh received the Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump during Tuesday night’s State of the Union not because he shares a terrible disease with many Americans, or because of his admirable charity work, but as a reward for what he accomplished for the conservative movement and the Republican Party over his decades-long career.

The stunt was a diminution of an honor established by President John F. Kennedy for those “who have made exceptional contributions to the security or national interests of America, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” It is nonetheless revealing that it was Trump who awarded Limbaugh the medal. You can draw a straight line between Limbaugh’s rise to prominence and his acceptance by the Republican establishment and the president’s own conquest of the party. Continue reading.

The View’s Whoopi Goldberg challenges Meghan McCain to explain why Rush Limbaugh deserved Medal of Freedom

AlterNet logo“The View” host Whoopi Goldberg to justify why President Donald Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh.

The conservative broadcaster, who announced this week he’s battling advanced lung cancer, was awarded the medal at the State of the Union address — and Goldberg admitted she didn’t understand.

You know, I am very sorry that Rush is ill, because you never want to wish bad stuff on people,” Goldberg said. “He has Stage IV cancer. But I’m sorry, I thought that the Medal of Freedom was supposed to go to people who actually did stuff.” Continue reading.

Rush Limbaugh joins the likes of Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks as recipient of highest civilian honor

Washington Post logoThere was Mother Teresa, “a heroine of our times,” and Rosa Parks, “a living icon for freedom in America.” Elie Wiesel kept “watch against the forces of hatred,” while Jackie Robinson “struck a mighty blow for equality, freedom, and the American way of life.”

Now, joining them and other recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award bestowed by the government on a civilian, is Rush Limbaugh, “the greatest fighter and winner that you will ever meet.”

Limbaugh, the combative and often-profane talk-radio giant who helped mold a form of loud and brash conservatism for decades, appeared surprised when President Trump announced the honor in the middle of his State of the Union address Tuesday. Continue reading.

Donald Trump just awarded Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Here are his 9 most appalling comments about women

AlterNet logoIf the planet manages to survive the stupidity of its dominant species, future generations will look back in astonishment on the fact that American businesses paid tens of millions of dollars each year to a swinish, cigar-smoking hatemonger who spewed stupidity, misogyny, racism, and fear to a coast-to-coast radio audience of troglodytes who prided themselves on being Dittoheads, unable to think for themselves, and perfectly content to let Rush “think” for them.

I decided to round up a sampling of Limbaugh’s views on women. What I found wasn’t pretty.

For instance, here’s Rush imagining that women secretly want to be sexually harassed. “The sexual harassment crowd,” he said. “They’re out there protesting what they actually wish would happen to them.” Continue reading.