{"id":22038,"date":"2004-06-18T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:05:39","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-03-11T11:46:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T16:46:45","slug":"censor_rush_amendment_watered_down2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/06\/18\/censor_rush_amendment_watered_down2\/","title":{"rendered":"Censor-Rush Amendment Watered Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Sam in Cincinnati, you\u2019re next. Welcome back to the EIB Network. Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi, Rush. It\u2019s an honor. Thanks for taking my call.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You bet.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I had a question on the Harkin amendment.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, given the failure of liberal talk radio and the fact that our defense is a valid receptacle of government funding, I wondered if his amendment could any way be a back door to mandating domestic radio, putting more liberal talk show hosts in their lineup.<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, I don\u2019t think that — let me — there have been some developments in this, too. Well, that could happen, but not via this amendment.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: That could happen via something called the Fairness Doctrine.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Right, right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And it wouldn\u2019t lead to more liberals on the radio — well, it would, but what it would lead to is the lack of discussion of issues that station management considered controversial because they would be mandated to give people who disagree with it the same amount of time. They couldn\u2019t run a business that way. So the Fairness Doctrine was part of Reagan, deregulation of broadcasting back in like 1986, and the left has done everything they can to try to get it reinstituted and if they ever get power back in the White House and control enough of the Senate or the House, they may try it again. It\u2019s going to be tough to get it done but they may try.<\/p>\n

The Harkin amendment, I talked to Senator Ted Stevens, folks, after the program yesterday. I called him, and because Ted Stevens is the senator from Alaska. He did the first eulogy for President Reagan at the Capitol Rotunda, before the public was admitted into the president lying in state. And I talked to him yesterday about five o\u2019clock, and I asked him about it. He didn\u2019t even know about this. He didn\u2019t know about this, which is classic. It\u2019s exactly what we thought yesterday, the way the Senate works. Harkin did not go to the floor of the Senate to read his amendment. He put a statement into the record that nobody read, just offered an amendment, nobody read. It was just, you know, an innocuous little amendment, statement on the website that was full of things that trashed me personally.<\/p>\n

And I talked to Stevens, and the reason I wanted to call him is because he is chairman of the subcommittee on defense appropriations, and he was an appropriations bulldog, and he didn\u2019t know anything about this. And he said, “Let me look into this and I\u2019ll get back to you tomorrow.” He sent me a fax today with a revised amendment. They\u2019ve gone in and fixed the amendment. They\u2019ve watered this thing down. Whatever the Harkin amendment was, it now doesn\u2019t mention my name. It\u2019s too long to read to you, but it\u2019s just full of whereases and herefors and from now on\u2019s and so forth we believe in balance on the Armed Forces Radio Network. We want to balance. We want to make sure that the people who program the Armed Forces Radio Network, assure that there\u2019s balance of opposing views and so forth and so on.<\/p>\n

Let me tell you what this is. What this is all about is getting a few more liberal talk shows on the Armed Forces Network. That\u2019s what I think the ultimate aim is all about here now. I\u2019m not through fighting this, because if this can happen without these people knowing about it, and it\u2019s not their fault, this is Senate procedure. We\u2019ve heard all along about how these bills get so bloated with so many amendments added at the last moment, it\u2019s impossible because the main thrust of this bill is to fund the military next year. So here you have an innocuous amendment about Armed Forces Radio and having it be balanced. Well, who\u2019s going to oppose that? It\u2019s like you may as well call this the Civil Rights Amendment of 2004. Nobody is going to oppose anything if it\u2019s called civil rights. You could have a bill that wipes out abortion. If it\u2019s called the Civil Rights Act of 2004, it will be a tough time for people to vote against it because of the term “civil rights.” It\u2019s a bit of an exaggeration, but I wanted to illustrate it that way.<\/p>\n

So Stevens did something yesterday, revised this, and he sent me the new amendment, and he said, “Is this okay?” He said, “Do you have any objections to this?” (Laughing.)And I looked at it, and I said, “Am I allowed to object to an amendment to the defense appropriations bill when I\u2019m not a senator?” I mean, I can as a citizen, obviously, any citizen can object, but it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

So apparently it\u2019s been really watered down. It\u2019s very innocuous, but Harkin accomplished what he wanted to accomplish, ultimately, because what this is about is getting even more liberal diatribe on Armed Forces Radio Network, probably the Armed Forces Network. Now, we\u2019re not through with this because there\u2019s a still a chance of getting this whole thing taken out over on the House side, and I do not withdraw from the position that I said yesterday. This is unprecedented for a United States senator to single out a single citizen in a defense appropriations bill, a major, major piece of legislation. A United States senator singles out a single citizen, me, as representing harm, as spreading propaganda, as damaging the morale of the troops. Now, that\u2019s censorship. That is attempted censorship, not what happens to other people in the private sector. That may be bad enough, but it\u2019s not censorship. This, when a United States senator, reacting to a bunch of numskulls that are extensions of the Democratic Party, can simply add an amendment based on a single citizen, why, I mean on the one hand, folks, it\u2019s astounding. It\u2019s unbelievable. On the other hand, I\u2019m going, “I am really screwing with these people, and I love it! This is cool!” (Laughing.)<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re still working on it, but to answer your question, I don\u2019t think that the Harkin amendment will find its way into the mainstream of American commercial broadcasting. They\u2019ve already got a vehicle for that called the Fairness Doctrine. They\u2019re itching to get it reactivated. I appreciate the call out there, Sam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Sam in Cincinnati, you\u2019re next. Welcome back to the EIB Network. Hi. CALLER: Hi, Rush. It\u2019s an honor. Thanks for taking my call. RUSH: You bet. CALLER: I had a question on the Harkin amendment. RUSH: Yes. CALLER: Well, given the failure of liberal talk radio and the fact that our defense is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nCensor-Rush Amendment Watered Down - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2004\/06\/18\/censor_rush_amendment_watered_down2\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Censor-Rush Amendment Watered Down - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Sam in Cincinnati, you\u2019re next. Welcome back to the EIB Network. Hi. 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Welcome back to the EIB Network. Hi. CALLER: Hi, Rush. It\u2019s an honor. Thanks for taking my call. RUSH: You bet. CALLER: I had a question on the Harkin amendment. RUSH: Yes. 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