Media Putz: Rush Limbaugh

http://mediaputz.com/07/08/putz0809.html

BuzzFlash.com Presents:
Honoring reporters who just can't handle the truth!
August 9, 2007

Rush Limbaugh

For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.

There is no more deserving role model of the demagoguery at the heart of the right-wing media echo chamber than the porcine, illegal pill popping, Vietnam draft-dodging (due to a claimed anal cyst -- how appropriate), thrice-married Rush Limbaugh.

Toss in a heavy dollop of racism, misogyny, and xenophobia, along with a streak of hedonism (don't forget his Viagra, condom-laden trip to the Dominican Republic where he sought sex with your pick of men, women, or children) – and you have the ideal role model for Republican hypocrisy.

But it's not the hypocrisy that makes Rush such an ideal shill for the right wing; it's his "down-home" appeal to the basest instincts in the disenfranchised white American vote (displaced by the globalization agreements that have put them in economic harm's way). Meanwhile, Rush's only real hardcore ideology, whatever his sexual orientation and latest drug addiction status, is to fatten his pocketbook.

So many progressives get caught up in trying to debunk Rush's lies that they forget his success as a right-wing on-air demagogue has nothing to do with the facts and everything to do with scapegoating and fear. He makes the vulnerable white male -- and female -- feel like victims. The world of "terrorist-supporting liberals and feminazis" is conspiring to deprive God-loving Americans of their "values," jobs, and rightful place at the top of the pyramid. Don't you get it?

Rush's appeal is straight from a not-so-coded "white power" script to the reptilian emotional needs of those who feel America has passed them by and need to blame someone Rush can toss like a ham hock into their salivating jaws.

BuzzFlash reader John Landis of Vienna, Virginia, nominated Limbaugh because he

"recently illustrated perfectly the fatuous arrogance and convenient forgetfulness of right wing media attack dogs' delusional assertions when he claimed he did not know who was implying that Hillary Clinton was a murderer -- when the record clearly showed he had made such allusions on multiple occasions on his radio show. Limbaugh daily employs sophistry (actually too kind a word for his juvenile bloviating, B.S. and lies) in his role as the primary mobilizer of the idiot vote for Republicans. He has been amazingly effective, much to the detriment of our country. His dittoheads are obnoxious, impervious to reason, and their votes count as much as those of rational people. He has done more to wreck thoughtful discourse in this country than any other individual in our nation's history. He is definitely a pathetic putz, but also much worse."

On behalf of Rush, thank you for those kind words. BuzzFlash reader Landis might be a tad harsh on Limbaugh listeners, who are more like sheep being led to their own economic and national security demise, but he’s definitely got the pigboy's number.

Rush Limbaugh, you are officially inducted into the BuzzFlash Media Putz Hall of Shame. You have proven without question that you are an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and tailor your incessant drivel to your corporate paymasters rather than serving the true needs of your listeners. You remind us how easy it is to separate faux punditry from the truth.