{"id":26028,"date":"2007-06-25T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T05:20:21","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T05:20:21","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T05:20:21","slug":"the_man_who_runs_america_speaks2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/06\/25\/the_man_who_runs_america_speaks2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Man Who Runs America Speaks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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RUSH: We\u2019re going to get to Trent Lott\u2019s stuff. We\u2019re going to get to the Fairness Doctrine stuff. I go away for a week and the whole left ramps up trying to get rid of me. It isn\u2019t going to happen but they\u2019re all flirting with it and talking about it. We\u2019ll get to that and immigration of course. The early thinking is, I gotta tell you this, just have to be honest, the early thinking is that the Senate bill is going to pass this week, they\u2019re going to achieve cloture, they\u2019re going to shut off debate. It\u2019s not a guarantee it passes, but it\u2019s very likely. What\u2019s happening is that the White House — you know, it\u2019s really interesting in Missouri, too. Kit Bond will not say how he\u2019s going to vote on this. Claire McCaskill of the Democrats says that she\u2019s probably going to vote against it. What the White House is doing here is the White House, Lott, and Lindsey Grahamnesty are trying to convince Republicans to vote for cloture in exchange for letting them have their own amendments. Lott wants an amendment in there, for example, that would eliminate green cards, in his mind would eliminate amnesty. He says if they\u2019ll let me have that, then I\u2019ll vote for it. So the White House is trying to tell these guys, ‘Okay, we\u2019ll give you your amendments.\u2019 Most of the amendments will be killed, and the bill could then likely pass. So we\u2019ll just have to wait and see. It\u2019s gotta go to the House, if this all happens. The fight is still new, folks, it\u2019s still young, and there\u2019s plenty of time to deal with this. We\u2019ll get to all the details as the program unfolds here. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right, Trent Lott. He made this comment actually before last week, but only yesterday did he show up on Fox News Sunday to discuss this. What he said was talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem. It\u2019s about the immigration bill and how the people on talk radio got the immigration bill killed. And Lott thinks it\u2019s a problem. So he shows up on television yesterday with Chris Wallace and Senator Dianne Feinstein. One of the questions that Wallace asked Trent Lott was this. ‘Let\u2019s start with the controversy over talk radio because Senator Lott you stirred up quite a hornet\u2019s nest this week when you said, ‘Talk radio is running America, we have to deal with that problem.\u2019 Here was the reaction from a conservative talk show host.\u2019<\/p>\n

RUSH ARCHIVE: Talk radio is the American voter. That\u2019s what bothers Trent Lott.<\/p>\n

WALLACE: Senator, your response.<\/p>\n

LOTT: One of the mistakes that we have made many times on legislation is it\u2019s introduced, it comes out of committee, we bring it to the floor, we never bother to explain what we\u2019re trying to do and what is in it. I think that was the mistake that was made with immigration. Talk radio defined it without us explaining that there were reasons for it and the good things that were in it. So the onus is not on them. It\u2019s on us to do a better job of communicating what we\u2019re trying to do.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Trying to slither out of this.<\/p>\n

LOTT: — look, I\u2019ve been defended by talk radio many times —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Damn right.<\/p>\n

LOTT: — and I will support their right to tell their side of the story, right, left, or the middle, forever. I don\u2019t think in this Fairness Doctrine it would try to require that there be X-amount on both sides is fair. So, you know, it\u2019s caused quite a stir, but, you know, it goes with the territory.<\/p>\n

RUSH: What a slither job that was. He slithered out of that. Well, I can\u2019t describe how things in my life have slithered out of my control and keep it family oriented, but I\u2019m telling you, this is — (laughing) — he did not want to be held account to this. ‘Oh, that\u2019s not what I mean.\u2019 So the next question, ‘Senator, I\u2019m not going to let you off the hook quite that easily. You said this also last week. ‘I\u2019m sure senators on both sides of the aisle being pounded by these talk radio people don\u2019t even know what\u2019s in the bill.\u2019 Now, I talked to some of the talk radio people, and they say you make it sound like they\u2019re leading around their listeners like a bunch of sheep. They say, look, they know what\u2019s in the bill, the listeners know what\u2019s in the bill, and they don\u2019t like it.\u2019<\/p>\n

LOTT: As a matter of fact, I do talk radio in my own state in particular, but others, and I\u2019m sure Diane does, too. I was doing one interview, and the talk radio host said to his credit, ‘What are you trying to do here?\u2019 And I explained that we were trying to improve a bad situation. And that\u2019s a summation of it. And he said, ‘Well, tell me four things in this bill that you think are significantly better than the current law.\u2019 So I ticked them all. He said, ‘That\u2019s in there?\u2019 I said, yeah. See, that\u2019s the point. It\u2019s not that they are maliciously trying to —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, here we go.<\/p>\n

LOTT: — distort it, and this is a complicated bill with a lot of moving parts. Some of it I don\u2019t like. You know, I\u2019m not committed to voting for the final product. The wheels may come off. But I am committed to trying. That\u2019s what the United States Senate should be trying to do.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, Senator Lott, ladies and gentlemen, has asked to say something to those of you in this audience as a result of this controversy. (Trent Lott message spoof.) You know what I thought about doing today? I ought to not tell you; I\u2019ll just do it one day. No, I\u2019ll tell you. I actually thought about showing up here today with a gag in my mouth and still talking to you. To speak as though I am being gagged, sort of like I used to put the condom on the microphone to illustrate safe talk or the absurdity of safe sex and to put the gag in my mouth and say, ‘Hi, folks, this is Rush Limbaugh, the man who is running America.\u2019 And, by the way, when they say talk radio, they mean Rush Limbaugh. Coming back from Vermont on, I guess Thursday afternoon after we played up there, we had Fox News on the airplane, and I\u2019m watching, they\u2019re playing videotape of me in the studio doing the program and talking to somebody about this Think Progress report or this Center for American Progress, the John Podesta group that thinks that there\u2019s a big problem with talk radio, needs to be handled legislatively. <\/p>\n

One of the gentlemen on the airplane, one of the guests said, ‘Why are you in this?\u2019 I said, ‘Because I am talk radio.\u2019 He\u2019s a Connecticut guy, not sure what this was all about, reads the New York Times. I\u2019m watching this, and it is kind of surreal. So I thought about showing up here with a gag in my mouth, as the man who runs America. But let me say this. As the man who runs America, and Trent Lott I don\u2019t think successfully slithered out of that comment — if I\u2019m running America, here are my decisions today. I\u2019m going to have more decisions for America tomorrow and maybe even some the day after that. I have decided today as the man who runs America to move Trent Lott from the Senate back to the House. I have decided that tax cuts are no longer temporary. They are permanent. I have decided that September will be American Excellence Month. I have decided that energy independence will be a reality and not a slogan. Therefore I am authorizing ANWR on a fast track and we\u2019re going to build ten new nuclear plants starting tomorrow. Number five, I pronounce speaker Nancy Pelosi a failed leader of the House. <\/p>\n

If I\u2019m running America, all of these things and much more will be happening within days, within weeks. The whole comment illustrates a bunch of things. It illustrates their anger. They want to ram this immigration bill down everybody\u2019s throat without anybody seeing what\u2019s in it. That\u2019s what\u2019s sort of entertains me, amuses me. They complain that we don\u2019t know what\u2019s in it, and we do know what\u2019s in it. It\u2019s been analyzed upside down, inside out, left, right, top to bottom. We do know what\u2019s in it. That\u2019s the problem. We are responding to this on substance. They\u2019re the ones that put this together in a dark room with no committee hearings, none of the usual procedure by which legislation becomes law was followed with this. It was all done under cover of darkness, and they wanted to ram this through with nobody knowing what was in it, and precisely because we do what\u2019s in it and what the problems with it are, the substance, the opposition is on our side in this. That\u2019s what bothers powerful elites.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let\u2019s move on to the comments made by Senator Feinstein yesterday on Fox News Sunday. She appeared with Trent Lott, and here\u2019s the question that Chris Wallace asked. He said, ‘Let me bring in Senator Feinstein. Oklahoma Senator Inhofe says that he overheard Barbara Boxer and Hillary Clinton three years ago complaining about talk radio saying that there should be a legislative fix. Both of them deny it ever happened. But let me ask you about yourself, senator. Do you have a problem with talk radio, and would you consider reviving the Fairness Doctrine, which would require broadcasters to put on opposing points of view?\u2019<\/p>\n

FEINSTEIN: Well, in my view, talk radio tends to be one-sided. It also tends to be dwelling in hyperbole. It\u2019s explosive. It — it — it — it pushes people to, I think, extreme views without a lot of information. This is a very complicated bill. It\u2019s seven titles. Uh, most people don\u2019t know what\u2019s in this bill. Therefore, to just —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Stop the tape a second. Stop the tape. We do know what\u2019s in this bill. But if you believe that people don\u2019t know what\u2019s in it, tell us! Go debate somebody about the details and the substance of this bill that we can all watch, so that we can all learn, rather than trying to ram this all down everybody\u2019s throat. I\u2019m getting tired of hearing that we don\u2019t know what\u2019s in the bill. I\u2019m really getting tired of this. Talk about hyperbole! This is nothing more than mindless twaddle. It is clich&eacute; after clich&eacute; after clich&eacute;. What is happening here, folks, is this continues to reverberate from the loss of the media monopoly that Democrats and liberals in this country had all the way up \u2019til 1988 — and they can\u2019t deal with the competition. They can\u2019t deal with alternative points of view. To them, there are no alternative points of view that are legitimate, and so they should not even be given an opportunity to be expressed, and in order to convey that impression to people they say, ‘Well, it just creates ‘extremists\u2019 who are uninformed on things. It\u2019s ‘explosive,” as though what happens in the Senate and the House chamber and everywhere else is not? This is the government overturning, or trying to do away with speech that they don\u2019t like. This is the elected officials — the political class, particularly the left-wingers, the Democrats — trying to eliminate things they don\u2019t want to hear, largely about their views or themselves. So cut to the next bite. The question that he asked her point-blank was, ‘So would you revive the Fairness Doctrine?\u2019<\/p>\n

FEINSTEIN: I\u2019m looking at it as a matter of fact, Chris, because I think, um… There ought to be an opportunity to present the other side, and unfortunately, talk radio is overwhelmingly one way.<\/p>\n

WALLACE: But the argument would be, it\u2019s the marketplace, and if liberals want to put on their own talk radio, they can put it on. At this point, they don\u2019t seem to be able to find much of a market.<\/p>\n

FEINSTEIN: Well, apparently there have been problems. It is growing, but I do believe in fairness. I remember when there was a Fairness Doctrine, and I think there was much more serious correct reporting to people.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I don\u2019t think she has the slightest clue what she\u2019s talking about. When the Fairness Doctrine existed, there was no controversial commentary by anybody. Nobody said anything. Radio stations will not put up with constant complaints from one side or the other demanding an opportunity to respond to what just happened. I\u2019ll guarantee you what\u2019s going to happen. If this thing ever happened, and it won\u2019t, by the way, because the industry is too profitable, and the American people are not going to put up with it either. But if it ever did happen, the way it works is this. I go on the radio and I talk about Democrats, or say something about liberals. MoveOn.org calls every one of my 600 radio stations and says, ‘We demand an opportunity to go on and answer Limbaugh,\u2019 and they might do it a day or two, but then every week, if they get constant complaints, they\u2019re finally going to say, ‘Wait, we can\u2019t do business this way,\u2019 and, ‘We don\u2019t want the hassle,\u2019 and that\u2019s the express purpose of this. That\u2019s how this will be shut down, to get station ownership and management to do it simply because they we want to put up with the hassle. It\u2019s not ‘equal time.\u2019 Do not confuse the Fairness Doctrine with the ‘equal time\u2019 rule. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I know they are confusing and some people think they\u2019re the same, but they\u2019re not. For somebody like me who talks for a living, to have powerful government officials say there\u2019s not balance in what I do? The liberals have thrown whoever they think are the best at me, andat all of us on the right, and they have not made inroads, and they are not growing. They can\u2019t accomplish anything. Now we have this Center for American Progress — and you heard about this last week. That\u2019s John Podesta\u2019s group. He was Bill Clinton\u2019s chief of staff. He\u2019s a Hillary acolyte, as all these think-tank people on the left are. They\u2019re part of Clinton, Inc. They put out this thing and said, ‘Well, it\u2019s really unfair. We need legislation to fix this.\u2019 Of course, they didn\u2019t tell you that one of the members of the think tank — one of the study authors, I think — actually was a former investor in some liberal talk radio shows. It\u2019s some guy named Woodhull. They leave all of that out. This was not reported. They also don\u2019t factor in the success of NPR, which has a huge audience and is very liberal. This is not about ‘fairness\u2019 at all, as you all know. It\u2019s about silencing criticism and competition that they don\u2019t want to have to deal with. <\/p>\n

They don\u2019t want go into the arena of ideas, folks; they don\u2019t want to have debates with us about these issues, because they know they can\u2019t win and they\u2019ve demonstrated that by putting the people they think are the very best they have to offer out there, both locally and nationally, and it bombs. It\u2019s bankruptcy left and right. It doesn\u2019t work. The first guy they threw out there… Do you remember Jim Hightower? Jim Hightower was a former state official in Texas. I don\u2019t know what he was. This is like 1989. This is after a year or two. Jim Hightower was their savior! That bombed out. Then they did Gary Hart, and they did Mario Cuomo. I forget all the names, and each one of these people got massive amounts of publicity and New York Times puff piece profiles, which, of course, I\u2019ve never had. Not that I want one, don\u2019t misunderstand. That permits a United States senator like Dianne Feinstein to decide what is ‘correct reporting\u2019? Does that not scare you? As somebody who speaks for a living, it scares me. Who is she to define correctness? Who is she to sit in judgment and to proclaim that there\u2019s more correct reporting? While the Democrats are trying to shut me down and all of my brethren, they\u2019re also trying to close down Club Gitmo and bring all of these terrorists that are prisons into this country for the purposes of giving them constitutional rights! <\/p>\n

They want to deny my First Amendment right to me while bringing in terrorist suspects (prisoners of war, if you will), and grant them access to the US legal system as though they\u2019re citizens — and then I\u2019m sure you saw the story last week, a list of journalists taking sides. MSNBC had a story about all the journalists out there that contribute to Democrats. But who was shocked by this? Is there anybody in America who was shocked to learn that the supposed unbiased reporters give to the Democrats more than the GOP by nine to one? What\u2019s remarkable to me is that given the imbalance, the left still complains about talk radio, Fox News, any other outlet that doesn\u2019t pretty consistently toe the liberal line. You know, the idea that there\u2019s no bias on the left and that the mainstream Drive-By Media is just ‘what is\u2019 and that\u2019s natural and normal is something that they\u2019ve been trying to maintain for the longest time, but we all know that\u2019s a lie! We all know what the Drive-By Media is. We all know they\u2019re aligned with the Democrat Party and we all know that they\u2019re frustrated, too. Newspaper circulation is down. Their advertising revenue is down. They\u2019re being harmed. Their monopoly is over, and these are Stalinist-type people. These are people who are openly saying, ‘We are going to use the power of the federal government to silence you.\u2019 This guy, Maurice Hinchey in New York, he\u2019s working on his version of the Fairness Doctrine in the House. Dianne Feinstein says she\u2019s looking at it in the Senate. There\u2019s an argument among some people that actually the courts declared it unconstitutional back in 1987. Some people on the left are saying, ‘No they didn\u2019t! All we need to do is reinstate it. All we need to do is win the White House and we\u2019ll just reinstate it.\u2019 That probably will fail, but they\u2019re dead serious thinking about this and trying to do it. High government officials are trying to stifle speech, and it\u2019s not the first time. McCain-Feingold broke the mold on that. I\u2019ll grab a quick phone call here. This is Wes in Brigham City, Utah. Hi, Wes. It\u2019s nice to have you on the EIB Network, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi, Rush. How are you doing boss?<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019m getting a little hot in here, frankly. I don\u2019t know if the air-conditioning is breaking down, but it\u2019s getting a little warm, but other than that, no complaints.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You played good golf, hitting the ball good?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Say that again.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019m just wondering if you\u2019re playing good golf, hitting the ball good.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, for the most part, yeah. I played nine days in a row, and you lose it after the fourth or fifth day. <\/p>\n

CALLER: I know how that is.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, I\u2019m happy with the way I was hitting the ball.<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s good. Hey, I understand your animosity and everybody else\u2019s animosity towards this bill, this immigration bill, and I understand the distrust of government. I\u2019m worried, very worried, what are we going to do if there\u2019s a Democrat in the White House and they still control Congress, then what are we going to have? This is not a perfect bill, but it\u2019s better than anything we\u2019re going to get, and I\u2019ve listened to Senator Kyl; I\u2019ve listened to Senator Chambliss — and by no means are they RINOs — and I think based on their voting records, we should give them the benefit of the doubt. I mean, there are some positive things in this bill, and I\u2019m worried.<\/p>\n

RUSH: See, here\u2019s the problem. This is actually a good question. I\u2019m glad you\u2019re asking me this question. You have fallen into the trap of believing that the only way to fix a problem created by bad legislation is more bad legislation, something new. We have a problem because of previous legislation creating the circumstances that exist today. This does not fix it. We tried in 1986 to fix it with amnesty. It didn\u2019t work. Now we\u2019re trying to do it again with the same thing. The reasons that they want this bill have nothing to do with immigration. It has nothing to do with citizenship. It has nothing to do with any of that. This is not an immigration bill. This is two things. This is ‘the Comprehensive Destroy the Republican Party Act of 2007,\u2019 and ‘the Democrat New Recruitment of Voters Act of 2007.\u2019 That\u2019s what this is. But you\u2019ve fallen into the trap of thinking that the only way progress can happen in this country is if ‘the government\u2019 passes ‘a bill,\u2019 and we know we\u2019re going to get a bill, and so rather than try to do it right let\u2019s take the lesser of two evils, ‘Because if the Democrats get in and they control the White House and Congress 2008, why, who knows how bad it\u2019s going to be?\u2019 If they get in they can change it and make it even worse! Just because this bill is passed now doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t revive it and make it even worse two years from now. We have a piece of legislation, it\u2019s called the Simpson-Mazzoli Act, and if it were enforced — if the current laws were just enforced — we wouldn\u2019t have the problem! But this word ‘enforcement\u2019 seems to escape everybody at the federal level, be it in the new piece of legislation or the current laws that we have. You gotta get rid of this notion that progress and the right thing only results when Mother Government, Big Daddy Government, whatever, passes a bill. The experience that most of us have is that just like the opposite occurs. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Murray in Jacksonville, Florida. I\u2019m glad you waited, Murray, hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Mega dittos from Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Rush, I saw that interview last night with Chris Wallace. I got home very late and tuned in, and I was absolutely amazed, when they\u2019re trying to basically say that we do not understand and the American public does not understand and that talk radio is making everything one sided. The problem is they don\u2019t get it. Chris Wallace asked about their low approval rating and the only thing they could say is — Trent Lott basically said — ‘Well, we\u2019re not explaining ourselves very well. That\u2019s really what the problem is.\u2019<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, but have you noticed that they\u2019re not trying to?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Of course not.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Where are they? They\u2019re out there saying we don\u2019t know what\u2019s in the bill. Where are they out there telling us what\u2019s in the bill? All they\u2019re doing is insulting us. All they\u2019re doing is saying we don\u2019t know what\u2019s in it, then you\u2019ve got Dianne Feinstein saying, ‘Well, there just isn\u2019t fairness.\u2019 What the hell is fairness? You can\u2019t define fairness. The whole concept of ‘fairness\u2019 is elusive and it certainly cannot be a policy objective. Who gets to decide it?<\/p>\n

CALLER: It\u2019s not a policy objective, it\u2019s all about the parties and parties and party power. It\u2019s totally ridiculous. And the American public is fed up, and that\u2019s why they have such a low approval rating. They\u2019re sitting there deluding themselves that they think that we don\u2019t understand. We understand. They\u2019re the ones that don\u2019t get it. You talk about —<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019ll tell you what —<\/p>\n

CALLER: — we want fairness in the media? I gotta tell you something, one of the things that has absolutely chaffed me several months ago, and it\u2019s still never been brought up and never will be, is when the Chinese — it was on for one day — took one of their satellites out, okay? Where did they get that missile technology? We\u2019re talking about connecting the dots?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, we know where they got it, and if they don\u2019t get it from us, they\u2019re going to end up getting it from Dubai, which just bought the QE2 and is going to turn it into a floating hotel. Oh, yeah! Dubai just bought the QE2. Anyway, look, as I said last week or the week before last: This is a great thing that\u2019s happening. Look for the good in everything. You people are seeing on display every day the dangers of big, unresponsive government.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Christine in Madison, New Jersey, I\u2019m glad you waited. Welcome to the program.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes. Hello, Rush?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi. Many, many time caller, first time finally getting through. Thank you so much for taking my call.<\/p>\n

RUSH: My pleasure.<\/p>\n

CALLER: You give me hope on a daily basis. Please keep up the great work.<\/p>\n

RUSH: I\u2019ll do that. Thank you. I know they went away. I really don\u2019t. I\u2019ve trying to be mediocre, and I just can\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

CALLER: (giggles.)Well, I\u2019d like to change the subject, for a moment, back to the Fairness Doctrine. I don\u2019t understand. If Congress wants to try and define fairness on talk radio, won\u2019t those definitions apply to other sources of news —<\/p>\n

RUSH: No.<\/p>\n

CALLER: — such as TV and newspapers?<\/p>\n

RUSH: No.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Doesn\u2019t it occur to them that it might backfire?<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, because it won\u2019t apply. It will not apply to TV news. It would not apply to newspapers. If you can get yourself designated as, quote, unquote, ‘the press,\u2019 theoretically they can\u2019t do anything to you because you have First Amendment protection. Freedom of the press is spelled out in the Constitution. But news broadcasts, even these talk show hosts or talk shows on television at night, they might make a stab at going after them, but they\u2019re on cable, and cable\u2019s not regulated. There\u2019s no federal regulation of cable in the sense… This is the Broadcast Act of 1934, essentially, that\u2019s been updated a number of times and has this Fairness Doctrine in it, or had it. This would be aimed specifically… They\u2019re writing legislation to specifically aim this at one element of the media, talk radio, because they don\u2019t control it, and they can\u2019t beat it, so it would not impact any other media.<\/p>\n

CALLER: No editorialists, for example?<\/p>\n

RUSH: No. No. No. No. Besides, they would say, ‘Well, we do. We give letters to the editor. We let our people respond. We give our readers get a chance to respond.\u2019<\/p>\n

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

RUSH: I just took a call from a woman who disagrees with me. You know, regulation of media is, I think, one of the problems with cable news these days, for example. On all of these combat shows, like Crossfire, though it\u2019s not on the air anymore, but the people that produce these things think that every segment, every seven-minute segment has to be balanced and so there\u2019s a formula. You get three or four liberals and one conservative to argue the issue, with the host who is also a liberal, and then you have ‘balance.\u2019 But balance doesn\u2019t have to be achieved in seven minutes. Balance can be achieved in a broadcast. Balance can be achieved in a week. It\u2019s just how you choose to measure it. Television has gotten so boring and formulaic because of this so-called need to ‘balance\u2019 things that you really don\u2019t learn anything watching these programs anymore, not the ones I\u2019m talking about. Crossfire lost its interest to people. It lost its numbers. It\u2019s all too formulaic. Talk radio is the most pure, I guess it\u2019s the purest form of open democracy, divergent points of view that there exists in America today. That\u2019s why the opponents of it want to shut it down. Be very careful how you describe people on the proponent side of this issue. I love to use the term ‘Stalinist,\u2019 but sometimes it\u2019s too off-putting to people.<\/p>\n

I remember back in the eighties and early nineties, if you called somebody a communist you really weren\u2019t accomplishing anybody because nobody wanted to believe that communists were among us and that they were that big a deal. Stalinist is the same thing. We need to come up with a new word that means the same thing, and what it means is the government is going to enforce what you say and enforce what you think or you will be penalized, and in some cases, severely, and then you will be prevented from saying what you think, and you\u2019ll be very guarded about saying what you think even in your own home. How many of you to this day, at this moment, when you\u2019re in public somewhere, will want to say something, and you\u2019ll stop and say, ‘Gee, I wonder if I should say this. It might offend somebody. They might overhear it,\u2019 and you shut up? This is exactly like what was going on in the Soviet Union where people feared being overheard by a party member, so they\u2019d go into their bathrooms or into their homes and whisper what they really thought. They wouldn\u2019t dare speak in public. <\/p>\n

This is why Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was in jail when he finally wrote his books. He was targeted for murder and so forth. I\u2019m not saying where anywhere near that. I\u2019m telling you the thinking that leads to that is on display here, under the guise of such nice words as ‘fairness,\u2019 ‘correct reporting,\u2019 and all of that — and, by the way, I\u2019m only reacting to this institutionally. If I wanted to react to this personally, I could. The idea that what happens on this program is nothing but a pack of lies, the idea that what happens on this program is nothing but propaganda, the idea that what happens on this program is offered without any concern for facts or truth? Now, that\u2019s insulting. The people that make that claim either know it to be untrue or never listen. But I think they know it\u2019s not true. I think it\u2019s just pure character assassination of an entire media form because they can\u2019t handle it, they can\u2019t defeat it, and they consider it a threat. When government has the power to shut down voices they consider to be threatening, you gotta take that seriously. Not just people like me who talk for a living, but everybody else, because once it starts and nobody gets in the way and stops it. When you have this inexorable force of government with all this power, and the ability to imprison and to intimidate and so forth, people shut up rather than risk that. <\/p>\n

People already are beginning to shut up, and when you do not shut up and when you say things that are true and what you really believe — you\u2019re not just saying things outrageously to get people mad — you look at the reaction that people get. There\u2019s less courage in this country for people to say things. I was playing golf with someone, and we\u2019re talking about a friend of ours. We were saying, ‘Yeah, you know what I love about this guy? He will say whatever he wants. He doesn\u2019t care what he thinks about it,\u2019 as though it\u2019s rare — and it is rare! He\u2019s not a broadcaster. He\u2019s just a guy, and he\u2019s a country club member. He\u2019s not afraid to tell the members of club that he thinks it\u2019s being run the wrong way. Most people will shut up. There are fewer and fewer people will really tell you what they think anymore because of fear. That\u2019s what Feinstein and all these other people are trying to impose or instill on people like me, and it\u2019s not going to work. I\u2019m still a little amazed that it\u2019s gotten as far as it has. Liberals are liberals, though. They\u2019re just going to keep going for this one way or the other \u2019til they get close to getting it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: We\u2019re going to get to Trent Lott\u2019s stuff. We\u2019re going to get to the Fairness Doctrine stuff. I go away for a week and the whole left ramps up trying to get rid of me. It isn\u2019t going to happen but they\u2019re all flirting with it and talking about it. We\u2019ll get to that […]<\/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":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Man Who Runs America Speaks - 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:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/06\/25\/the_man_who_runs_america_speaks2\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Man Who Runs America Speaks - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: We\u2019re going to get to Trent Lott\u2019s stuff. We\u2019re going to get to the Fairness Doctrine stuff. I go away for a week and the whole left ramps up trying to get rid of me. It isn\u2019t going to happen but they\u2019re all flirting with it and talking about it. 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We\u2019re going to get to the Fairness Doctrine stuff. I go away for a week and the whole left ramps up trying to get rid of me. It isn\u2019t going to happen but they\u2019re all flirting with it and talking about it. 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