{"id":13182,"date":"2013-02-19T17:31:21","date_gmt":"2013-02-19T17:31:21","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-02-19T17:31:21","modified_gmt":"2013-02-19T17:31:21","slug":"delusional_politico_journalists_obama_is_our_puppet_master","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2013\/02\/19\/delusional_politico_journalists_obama_is_our_puppet_master\/","title":{"rendered":"Delusional Politico Journalists: Obama is Our Puppet Master"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, folks, this is incredible. This is incredible. There is a story in The Politico today written by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, called “Obama, The Puppet Master.” They are so ticked off over this golf weekend, being shut out. They\u2019re talking about Obama just mistreating them in the media and denying them access, how he\u2019s a master at limiting and shaping and manipulating media coverage. These guys are just a bunch of puppets and Obama is the puppet master. It\u2019s incredible, and I\u2019m gonna share it with you, excerpts of it. Of course, with expert commentary as the program unfolds. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell you what it\u2019s made me think, that we might want to start considering, at least talking about registering journalists, just like we have to register guns. Background checks and all of that. Because this is mental illness. This is bordering on delusion, this piece. It really is incredible. So I think we ought to do to the First Amendment practitioners what they want to do to the Second Amendment practitioners. We ought to register these journalists.<\/p>\n

We ought to do background checks on these people to see which of them are mentally ill, and, if they are, deny them access to the public airwaves and the newspapers as so-called news reporters or journalists \u2019cause they\u2019re dangerous. They are dangerous to the republic. The Second Amendment doesn\u2019t mean anything, why does the press get a free pass? I don\u2019t know, folks, I\u2019m just talking out loud. These are great examples of the constant and never-ending explosions taking place in my fertile brain. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll talk about this sequester business. Because, once again, my theorem announced last week is being documented again on this story. Obama\u2019s gonna have nothing to do with it. Obama\u2019s out fighting! He\u2019s doing everything he can to make sure the kids aren\u2019t starved and their schools aren\u2019t shut down. Obama\u2019s out there suggesting that the sequester is a “meat cleaver” on the economy. It won\u2019t help the economy. It won\u2019t create jobs. It\u2019s a meat cleaver approach and he\u2019s gotta save America from the Republicans. And the media? — ha! ha! — because Obama\u2019s such a wonderful puppet master…<\/p>\n

Yeah, the guys at The Politico say, “Obama\u2019s so good, we can\u2019t resist. We know when we\u2019re being puppetized; we know when we\u2019re being used! We know when we\u2019re being manipulated, but we\u2019re so susceptible and he\u2019s so powerful at it, that we can\u2019t resist,” and they make the point in like the second paragraph. Here: “President Obama is a master at limiting, shaping, and manipulating media coverage of himself and the White House.” Now, to show you how on the defensive they are, their second paragraph says, “But not for the reason that conservatives suspect, namely, that a liberal press willingly and eagerly allows itself to get manipulated.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Of course that\u2019s right. You don\u2019t need to be manipulated. You agree with Obama! You don\u2019t need to be manipulated. This is what\u2019s funny about this. These guys are acting like they\u2019re just innocent dupes. That\u2019s why I think we need to have \u2019em registered. Background checks! Find out how many of \u2019em have delusional mental disorders. These guys actually want us to believe that they\u2019re out there doing their jobs, and Obama is such a Svengali… “This guy, I mean, he\u2019s Enrico Caruso! This guy is manipulating us. We can\u2019t resist it. We can\u2019t stop it. It\u2019s not because we\u2019re liberals. It\u2019s because he\u2019s so good at it!”<\/p>\n

It fits the theory. Here\u2019s Obama setting himself up as uninvolved, minding his own business. He\u2019s fighting these powerful forces that want to take a meat cleaver to the economy, and he\u2019s not gonna let it happen. This guy named Andy Lancaster tweeted the following sometime recently. I guess it was this morning, or last night late. “CBS News: Congress being on vacation isn\u2019t stopping Obama from trying to solve the budget crisis. \/ Dear God.” He\u2019s causing it! The budget crisis is his creation! Every time we have a budget crisis, it\u2019s his creation. The Politico guys admit it, unwittingly. He\u2019s the puppet master.<\/p>\n

They really have blown his cover here with this story, \u2019cause Obama\u2019s getting away without appearing to govern. “Obama is part of the fight. Obama\u2019s not governing. He\u2019s campaigning! He\u2019s trying to stop these dastardly Republicans and these powerful forces.” Here comes The Politico saying Obama\u2019s this masterful puppeteer. He is just manipulating all of us, and evidence of that manipulation is in this tweet. Andy Lancaster tweeted it. He\u2019s not the CBS News guy. He just tweeted it. “Congress being on vacation isn\u2019t stopping Obama from trying to solve the budget crisis.”<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s been on vacation? Obama\u2019s been on vacation! CBS News is right in there. Yep, siree, Bob. “Congress being on vacation isn\u2019t stopping Obama from trying to solve the budget crisis.” So you see, this is how it happens. The low-information voters, they see the tweeted headline, and it\u2019ll get repeated and it will be followed and gazillions of low-information voters will see it, and the conclusion is that Obama is desperately fighting to save their food, save their water, save their thermostat, save their air-conditioning, save their houses, save their jobs, \u2019cause these dastardly Republicans want to take a meat cleaver to everything.<\/line><\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let\u2019s now go to Jim VandeHei. He\u2019s half of the writing duo that has this piece out on Obama being a puppet master. This is yesterday, Politico\u2019s video blog Behind The Curtain on their website. Jim VandeHei, the executive editor, said this about Obama and the media…<\/p>\n

VANDEHEI: We\u2019re taking a look at President Obama as the puppet master, all the different strings that he pulls with the media to get very favorable coverage. This has been the biggest critique, uh, by conservatives, uh, and we argue in our column that it\u2019s an accurate critique.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, and I have their column here. By the way, Politico has a Web page called Politico 44, because Obama is the 44th president, and right now the headline at Politico 44 is, “Obama to Do Local TV as White House Reporters Fume.” So Obama ticked off the White House correspondents by not letting them have access at the Floridian over the weekend. He did grace them with ten minutes of casual, off-the-record conversation in the back in the plane returning to Washington yesterday.<\/p>\n

He gets back to Washington and he hears how ticked off they are at him, and so (as authoritarian statists are wont to do) he\u2019s flipped \u2019em the bird and he\u2019s granting a lot of interviews to local TV and not talking to the White House national correspondents, and they are fuming. Now, here\u2019s the story — and, by the way, this is way too long to go the whole thing so I\u2019m just gonna highlight this for you. But it is quite illustrative. “Obama, the Puppet Master.”<\/p>\n

“President Barack Obama is a master at limiting, shaping and manipulating media coverage of himself and his White House.” So right here at the beginning of the story they lay the groundwork. “Hey, you know what? We are tricked. We\u2019re manipulated. Don\u2019t hold us accountable. This guy is so slick, he\u2019s so good that he somehow makes us write what we write every day. We have no control.” And then the next paragraph says, “Not for the reason that conservatives suspect.” So right off the bat they\u2019re very defensive. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In their first paragraph, they admit Obama\u2019s a master at limiting, shaping, and manipulating coverage. Meaning, we don\u2019t criticize Obama here, because he\u2019s so slick and manipulative, but it\u2019s not because, “the liberal press willingly and eagerly allows itself to get manipulated.” Oh, no, we\u2019re not that bad. “Instead, the mastery mostly flows from a White House that has taken old tricks for shaping coverage (staged leaks, friendly interviews) and put them on steroids using new ones (social media, content creation, precision targeting).”<\/p>\n

Now, this is bovine scatology here, folks. None of this would be possible without a news media as a willing accomplice to this. If Obama\u2019s the puppet master, they are willing puppets. They are eager puppets. They are eager manipulators, or eager to be manipulated, happy to be. They like the guy. And I\u2019ll tell you again, you can\u2019t take the racial component out of this in terms of journalists, the fact that they\u2019re gooey-eyed over this presidency. Plus the liberalism, plus they hate Republicans as much as he does. So any victory he has over Republicans, they celebrate it, too, they\u2019ll help. But they\u2019re trying to set it up here. They\u2019re not willing accomplices, you see, they\u2019re being manipulated, but not because they\u2019re liberal, but because Obama\u2019s so good at it. There\u2019s never been anybody better. <\/p>\n

Now, the media never had any trouble complaining about Bush\u2019s attempts to manipulate them. Even when he wasn\u2019t trying, they accused him of it, and they said he\u2019s not gonna get away with it. If the media were unhappy about all this manipulation… I mean, what triggered this? A weekend of golf where Obama shut \u2019em out. That\u2019s what triggered all this. It\u2019s like a jilted woman. It\u2019s like a jilted woman who\u2019s out for revenge now for a while. If they were unhappy about any of this, they would have been screaming bloody murder before Obama was elected in 2008. You talk about manipulation, they manipulated us all during the 2008 campaign. <\/p>\n

This manipulation business goes two-ways, and these people in the media manipulated media consumers throughout the 2008 campaign, and the past four years they have been doing it as well. There hasn\u2019t been any criticism. There hasn\u2019t been any vetting. There hasn\u2019t been any speaking truth to power. There hasn\u2019t been any attempt to hold Obama accountable for anything. But all because they got shut out of the Floridian this weekend and missed seeing Tiger Woods and Obama<\/a> on the links, their noses are out of joint. <\/p>\n

And then they say, “And it\u2019s an equal opportunity strategy: Media across the ideological spectrum are left scrambling for access.” So Obama\u2019s out there manipulating everybody. He\u2019s using all these new tricks: social media, content creation, precision targeting, and media everywhere are left scrambling for access. They all want to talk to Obama, and he\u2019s dangling that carrot in front of them, manipulating and manipulating and then denying them. <\/p>\n

“The results are transformational,” writes The Politico. “With more technology, and fewer resources at many media companies, the balance of power between the White House and press has tipped unmistakably toward the government.” Oh, cry me a river. The poor news media just don\u2019t have a chance up against the brilliant people in the Obama White House and regime. The balance of power, so many news media have had cutbacks. They\u2019ve cut back staff. They\u2019ve cut back bureaus. There\u2019s more technology but fewer resources, and the balance of power, they\u2019re powerless. They can\u2019t do anything. Obama is just running roughshod all over them. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How hard is it to write a story on Obama lying about green energy? How hard is it to do that? How hard is it to write a story critical of Obama\u2019s economic policies? How hard it is? Why do you need any resource other than a computer? What am I missing? Why is it so hard to question what the president says? You have a White House, you have a computer, you have a website, and you have a keyboard, and you write on there, and then it goes to your website, it goes out. What resource do you need beyond what you\u2019ve got? Oh, they wouldn\u2019t get access if they criticized him? That\u2019s the manipulation? That\u2019s the manipulation? So they\u2019d be on the bad list and get treated like Republicans if they\u2019re critical of Obama, and they need access to do their jobs. No, they don\u2019t. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have any access to Obama. I got zilch, zero, nada access to Obama. That hasn\u2019t stopped me. I don\u2019t want access to Obama. I don\u2019t need it, either, but I also am not a journalist. “This is an arguably dangerous development,” writes Politico, “and one that the Obama White House … has exploited cleverly and ruthlessly.” He hasn\u2019t had to exploit anything. Our so-called free press has given away their power and responsibility with both hands. And they\u2019re tied up with pink ribbons. But it\u2019s all because they\u2019ve been manipulated by a master puppeteer. <\/p>\n

I gotta take a break, folks. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, The Politico guys get a little upset when they perceive me as being unfairly hypercritical here. I know they\u2019ll hear about this. When you guys write this kind of stuff, those of us out here who are consumers of news, we don\u2019t understand when you talk about how hard your job is. We don\u2019t find it difficult to learn things that are true about Obama that you don\u2019t seem to be able to find, and we don\u2019t have any access. You know, those of us out here critical of you, we don\u2019t think you\u2019ve deigned to even investigate Obama and tell us who he really is, not like you go after Obama\u2019s opponents. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is a really bizarre paragraph, this next one here in The Politico story. Listen to this paragraph. “Conservatives assume a cozy relationship between this White House and the reporters who cover it. Wrong. Many reporters find Obama himself strangely fearful of talking with them and often aloof and cocky when he does. They find his staff needlessly stingy with information and thin-skinned about any tough coverage. He gets more-favorable-than-not coverage because many staffers are fearful of talking to reporters, even anonymously, and some reporters inevitably worry access or the chance of a presidential interview will decrease if they get in the face of this White House.”<\/p>\n

Now, I would think a self-respecting journalist would be ashamed to admit any of that. They are admitting that they are cringing in fear of the White House, and they\u2019re also admitting that they cannot possibly be critical unless somebody in the White House tells them something that\u2019s critical. So they say, “Well, we can\u2019t report that the administration\u2019s lying about that until they tell us they\u2019re lying.” But you didn\u2019t wait for Nixon to tell you he was lying. And you didn\u2019t wait for Bush to tell you he was lying about something, to accuse him of it. We don\u2019t hear any of this until Obama was safely reelected, and now we\u2019ve got the navel-gazing going on, and the introspection going on. <\/p>\n

“They find his staff needlessly stingy.” What do you mean, needlessly stingy? You don\u2019t seem curious to learn anything about this administration or Obama and his motives. He writes that Mitt Romney doesn\u2019t care if a guy\u2019s wife dies of cancer, and you go out and ask Romney, “Why do you not care if a guy\u2019s wife dies of cancer?” rather than investigate why the hell Obama would make such an outrageous claim. I don\u2019t know. We just don\u2019t see your job as that hard. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Sticking with this Politico story for one more moment, let\u2019s use another example — Benghazi — and let\u2019s take what we have learned from The Politico piece. Now, they say that they can\u2019t really be too tough because the White House denies access, and they can\u2019t really report on things if they\u2019re not given access. Well, let\u2019s look at Benghazi. You have four dead Americans, and those of us who are consumers of news have not seen any curiosity at ABC, CBS, NBC, Politico, Washington Post, New York Times.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t seen any curiosity on your part to find out what really happened. Now, apparently you can\u2019t report on what really happened in Benghazi unless somebody at the administration tells you. Well, the big question about Benghazi right now is — and, by the way, for three weeks we were lied to by the regime and told that all that happened was because of a video on the Internet. Now, you just parroted that. Is that how you\u2019re manipulated? ‘Cause we didn\u2019t believe that.<\/p>\n

Common sense said that nobody saw that video. We knew inside of two days that this was not caused by a video, that it was a planned attack. Where were you guys in this? Were you not even curious? Do you expect Obama to call you in and tell you where he was for those eight hours that nobody could find him <\/a>— and, until he tells you, you can\u2019t report on it? Because the big question is: “Where was Obama?” At 5:15 he told Panetta, according to Panetta and Hillary, “You guys do what you have to do here to save American lives,” and then Obama\u2019s off.<\/p>\n

Panetta said he never heard from him the rest of the day or night. Now, if that were George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan, you would be digging up every rock that you could to find out where the hell the president was while these four Americans were under assault. But with Obama, you didn\u2019t seem to care — and what you seem to be telling us is that you can\u2019t report on that until somebody in the administration tells you where he was. And if the story is, “Well, he talked to Panetta, and Panetta was told to do what he has to do,” and that\u2019s it until they tell you, where\u2019s the investigative aspect of what you do?<\/p>\n

Where is your sense of curiosity?<\/p>\n

When did it happen that you automatically believe everything an administration says?<\/p>\n

‘Cause I\u2019ve never seen that until this regime. It was a little bit of that with Clinton, but I never saw it with Reagan and I never saw it with either Bush. Whatever they said, you didn\u2019t believe. You tried to prove it was a lie. There\u2019s no such effort with Obama. Where Obama was for eight or nine hours is a big deal when it comes to Benghazi, and you don\u2019t seem to be interested in it! You say you can\u2019t tell us where he was until he tells you.<\/p>\n

Well, is he gonna tell you he was playing basketball with Reggie Love?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

Is he gonna tell you he was out at Five Guys burger joint?<\/p>\n

Is he gonna tell you he went to sleep? Is he gonna tell you that?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

No, because it\u2019s embarrassing that he wasn\u2019t around! It\u2019s a big deal, and they\u2019re trying to cover it up! So we\u2019re hearing from you that until they tell you, you can\u2019t report on it. Man, I would love to be covered that way! I\u2019m just telling you guys at Politico, I would love to be covered that way. Until I tell you something, you can\u2019t report on me! Until I tell you something, you can\u2019t tell anybody what I\u2019m doing — and you know something else I would like?<\/p>\n

I would like to require that every one of you who report on me actually listen to the program instead of reading from a third party what I\u2019ve said! But you\u2019re telling us, when it comes to Obama, you can\u2019t report on what\u2019s happening there until somebody in the administration or Obama tells you — and if they choose not to tell you, then there\u2019s nothing suspicious about it, and your hands are tied. Then there\u2019s this little passage: “At the same time, this White House has greatly curtailed impromptu moments where reporters can ask tough questions after a staged event — or snap a picture of the president that was not shot by government-paid photographers.”<\/p>\n

Well, let me tell you what I remember about that.<\/p>\n

The president strode out into the Rose Garden one afternoon and made some remarks about something (I forget what it was), and a reporter from The Daily Caller by the name of Neil Munro asked a question. This was an impromptu moment. It was an impromptu question, after a staged event, and what did you guys do? You guys at Politico joined in attacking Neil Munro for having the audacity to ask Obama a question at a staged event. You said that wasn\u2019t the right time to ask that question.<\/p>\n

You guys practically chased Neil Munro down to the Washington Monument, and you gave him holy hell for what he had done, and some members of the White House press corps demanded that Neil Munro lose his press credentials, and they physically chased him off the White House grounds. Yet you write here, “[T]his White House has greatly curtailed impromptu…” Sam Donaldson didn\u2019t wait! Sam Donaldson wasn\u2019t waiting around, or Dan Rather. At the end of a staged event, they just asked the question.<\/p>\n

But you\u2019re saying the White House “has curtailed impromptu moments.” So what we hear you saying is that you can\u2019t do anything the White House hasn\u2019t granted you permission to do. Well, that doesn\u2019t make you media anymore. It makes you an adjunct of the administration. Maybe I should start threatening the media with denial of access, too. Maybe I should just threaten everybody in the media: “No more access! I\u2019m not talking to you anymore,” and see if that gives me more favorable coverage.<\/p>\n

I just find all of this extremely interesting and curious, and do you know what\u2019s driving all this? What\u2019s driving all this is, Obama had a guy\u2019s golf weekend down here in Florida. Tiger Woods was in there and the Harmon brothers for some lessons, and Obama didn\u2019t let the media in. So they\u2019re sitting there and they\u2019re thinking, “You know, we give you everything! We give you favorable coverage. We look the other way on everything.<\/p>\n

“Whatever you want us to say, we say. And you treat us like dirt by not letting us get a photo of you and Tiger Woods, by not letting us into the Floridian to hang around. All we want is a little water so you can turn us into mud and you won\u2019t even give us that.” I find all this fascinating. So what I\u2019m hearing here in this story is, “Whatever the regime says is the truth, and it\u2019s what\u2019s gonna be reported, be it that this video is responsible for Benghazi or whatever.” Or, “Until Obama tells us what happened, we can\u2019t report on it.”<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

From an article on Politico 44: “Obama Interrupted by Heckling Reporter — In a surprising breach of etiquette, President Barack Obama\u2019s Rose Garden remarks on Friday were interrupted by heckling from reporter Neil Munro of the website Daily Caller, whose editor-in-chief is conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.” All he was doing was attempting to ask a question at an “impromptu moment” after “a staged event,” something you say that you\u2019re denied.<\/p>\n

Munro did it, and when he did it you jumped in his chili and chased him down to the Washington Monument! I don\u2019t know which reporter actually did the heckling story but it\u2019s Politico on their 44 Web page: “President Barack Obama\u2019s Rose Garden remarks on Friday were interrupted by heckling from reporter Neil Munro,” and the reason why they called it “heckling” is because Munro is from a conservative media outlet, The Daily Caller.<\/p>\n

All Munro was doing was what The Politico people say the White House is not letting them do anymore. “[T]his White House has greatly curtailed impromptu moments where reporters can ask tough questions after a staged event…” So what we hear is, you can\u2019t do anything that they don\u2019t let you do, and you\u2019re manipulated here. But it\u2019s not because you\u2019re liberal!<\/p>\n

You\u2019re being manipulated \u2019cause Obama\u2019s such a great puppet master. We just don\u2019t see any curiosity. We see you wanting to do everything to keep this man from being embarrassed or proven wrong or worse. But we think that you guys are the cover-up. You guys aren\u2019t Deep Throat. You guys have become what you so often have criticized. This is willing accomplice-type stuff, and you\u2019re being disrespected, so you want to get it off your chest.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: You know, I don\u2019t really think we have a free press anymore, and it\u2019s somewhat obvious. What we\u2019ve got, we have a bunch of skycaps running around carrying Obama\u2019s bags. And when he doesn\u2019t let them get on the plane, they get their noses out of joint. “Hey, man, we\u2019re carrying your bags, can\u2019t we go on the trip?” They\u2019re throwing a tantrum over the fact they didn\u2019t get in there to have a couple of adult beverages and hang around like they were members of that club. <\/p>\n

Beth in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I really am glad you waited while I had diarrhea of the mouth there. Great to have you on the program. Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hey, Rush. Hi. Thank you. I agree with you how Obama has been campaigner-in-chief and separating himself from his decisions, but I believe that next year it\u2019s gonna catch up with him. Obamacare will be starting. The low-information voter will be affected by tax increases. There\u2019s a midterm election, and I think that that might be the time the media will not be able to defend Obama the way they —<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I hope you\u2019re right, because that\u2019s the next phase. That\u2019s what Obama\u2019s aiming at is the 2014 midterms. See, if the Democrats win the House, then he effectively has his dictatorship. I mean, in terms of all practical reality, in terms of the functioning of things, there won\u2019t be anybody to stop him. I think what he\u2019s doing here — look, he goes on a three-day vacation, he comes home, gets off the plane and attacks the Republicans for not acting and want meeting with him and attacks him for being a bunch of reprobates who want to take food away from kids, take health care away from people, fire teachers. He gets off the plane doing this. Is it harder for him to meet with McConnell or Boehner than Tiger Woods?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes, it is. He doesn\u2019t want to. So he will meet with Tiger Woods —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Exactly.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — rather than meet with McConnell and Boehner.<\/p>\n

RUSH: He\u2019s star struck. I think he\u2019s gonna take these four years off. No heavy lifting. He\u2019s gonna let Democrats in Congress do all the heavy lifting and get their names on all the legislation, and he\u2019s gonna sit back, make sure his name\u2019s not on anything until after 2014.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, maybe I\u2019m overreaching, but do you think the Republicans have a chance to win both houses in the midterms?<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, but they gotta hold the House. I don\u2019t see \u2019em winning the Senate, but that\u2019s a long way off, anything can happen. I don\u2019t rule anything out here. I mean, it\u2019s gonna be volatile. These next two years are gonna be volatile as they can be, because there are going to be implementations of very punitive events, things that are gonna cause more job loss, less take-home pay, it\u2019s gonna get brutal. There is nothing on the horizon that indicates positive news for the economy. I don\u2019t care what anybody tells you. We had negative economic growth the last quarter. Who says the housing market\u2019s coming back? The administration says the housing market\u2019s coming back. We had economic growth of minus one-tenth of 1%. The Walmart guys are saying the February they\u2019re having here is the worst in seven years, and they\u2019re chalking it up to the payroll tax. <\/p>\n

Diana in Mesa, Arizona, great to have you on the program. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hey, Rush, you know what? It is not a free press anymore when you have to worry about your job if you tell you the truth. I mean, I\u2019m a former sports reporter from Canada, oh, 30 years ago, long before the Erin Andrews of the world. Just a little story that I want to try to tell just from the sports perspective, but you can just sort of crank it up when you think about the political ramifications of it. I covered hockey, and I was on the road with the LA Kings and the Calgary Flames during the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1988, and coach Terry Crisp gave the guys the morning off from practice before a huge game. I got pictures of them, cut B-roll of them, you know, swimming, playing by the pool, drinking, playing cards. And I did sort of a fun tongue-in-cheek piece that aired back in Calgary. Well, that night when they went to play the Kings, they lost, they got skunked. I can\u2019t even remember the score, but 13-3. And, of course, my piece aired back home, and I was worried to death that I was gonna have ramifications from showing them up.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n

CALLER: And, you know, for telling the truth about the fact that they had a day off. And, you know, when you have to worry about telling the truth —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, but, you know, for you, the way around that, all you have to do is show up wearing skintight leather pants like the sideline reporters do these days in the NFL, you can say anything.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, not back in the day when I was trying to be one of the first women in the locker rooms and covering and being taken seriously, and, you know, you wanted to do your job, you had to work, you know, twice as hard to prove that you were half as good. But, you know, in doing so, you really took great stock in the reporting that you did, but, you know, here was a fun, tongue-in-cheek piece, and I was literally sweating bullets.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, but, did anything happen to you?<\/p>\n

CALLER: I was worried that I might not have a job or wouldn\u2019t have access to the players.<\/p>\n

RUSH: But did anything happen to you?<\/p>\n

CALLER: You know what? I just want to say that because I was so new and it was so new having any sort of —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, I\u2019ve got ten seconds. You survived it, but I can understand you being worried about that. I mean, for access, the locker room, yeah, I understand that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Well, folks, this is incredible. This is incredible. There is a story in The Politico today written by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, called “Obama, The Puppet Master.” They are so ticked off over this golf weekend, being shut out. 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