RUSH: I was talking to Snerdley here during the top-of-the-hour break and he was amplifying on a point that I made yesterday, discussing the CNN YouTube debate last night. And remember, just to refresh your memory, our discussion yesterday focused on the fact that some people, some critics, some TV critics, were mad that CNN was going to choose which YouTube videos were used as questions for this so-called debate last night. They would rather the questions that were used be voted on by the public because you could go to YouTube, you could look at all these submissions, and they wanted to have a national public poll of the best ones and then those are the ones that would be used. I pointed out that the Drive-Bys can’t do that. Anybody that takes themselves seriously as a broadcaster is not going to turn over a majority of its programming to rank amateurs. And yet they did, they did. I tell you why they did it. What we were discussing was we think that they’re piling dirt on their graves and that they don’t know it. When they do stuff like they did last night.
Say what you want about the Drive-By Media. In the old days, what made you watch was these larger-than-life news personalities, larger-than-life figures, the Walter Cronkites and the Chancellors, the Brinkleys, the Huntleys and so forth, and to a certain extent, Rather, although I think people watched Rather hoping that the crackup would happen on the air rather than after. And it did. The personalities are not as large in TV today because the new media has forced diversification and they’re not a monopoly anymore, but even so, they tried to make Katie Couric into one of these authoritative figures. It hasn’t worked. So what they were trying to do last night, I am convinced, CNN was trying to link itself with this burgeoning new media, the Internet. Everybody in broadcasting is in a quest for younger demographics. All of you people who think this is really good, this is so sweet, real people finally have a chance to ask these candidates questions. It was really great. No, it’s not. It really isn’t. People are rank amateurs for a reason.
There’s a romantic notion here that we’re bringing the country together and all of this democracy and isn’t it wonderful and so forth. This is no different than having a live audience and having somebody stand out there with a microphone. There’s nothing new about this. It’s no different than allowing viewers to send in e-mails and have somebody pick them and ask candidates questions from e-mails. But this actually put the rank amateurs on television and made them quasi-reporters. And guess who wasn’t there? None of the people that CNN theoretically promotes and supports as the stars on their networks, other than Anderson Cooper, who was the moderator. But we didn’t see Wolf Blitzer, we didn’t see the highly trained specialists that are the, quote, unquote, real journalists, regardless what you think of them.
This is happening in a lot of places. People who have no business hosting radio talk shows, have them. People who have no business with recording contracts, have them. People who have no business doing any job at the highest level — particularly in the entertainment industry — are getting these jobs for a host of reasons. But in the case of the Drive-Bys, I think while they believe that they are enhancing their image and solidifying a relationship with the yutes of America, via this YouTube stunt last night, they’re actually diminishing themselves — which we like, so I probably ought not say much more about that. (interruption) Hm-hm. Well. All right, all right, all right, all right. Okay. I’ve got that bite. You want to — (Laughing.) Snerdley, he’s getting all worked up in there, folks. He said, ‘Well, you gotta tell ’em that everybody’s opinion doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. Some opinions are worthless. Some of them are stupid.’ It’s just like you’re entitled to be wrong but it doesn’t mean you think you’re right. I’ve said it before, a different way: none of us have a right to be heard. We have a right to speak, short of the McCain-Feingold law, but none of us have a right to be heard. The theory behind we all have a right to be heard is what makes everybody qualified as a democracy participating citizen to ask questions. But not everybody’s opinion — not everybody’s question is worth anything.
There was a question on reparations last night. It’s from a guy named Will from Boston, and he says, ‘I hope, you know, they put this question on. It’s a question in the back of everybody’s head. You know, in some people, it’s further back than others, collecting cobwebs, but is African-Americans ever going to get reparations for slavery? I know you all are going to run around this question, dipping and dodging, so let’s see how far you can all get.’ And the Breck Girl decided to tackle it.
EDWARDS: I’m not for reparations. I can answer that question. But I think there are other things we can do to create some equality that doesn’t exist in this country today. Today there was a report that right here in Charleston, African-Americans are paying more than their white counterparts for mortgages than any other place in America, any other place in the United States of America, and here’s an example, what is the conceivable explanation for this? That black people are paying more for their mortgage — and, by the way, it’s not just low income African-Americans, it’s high income African-Americans. There’s absolutely no explanation for this. It goes to the basic question that I raised just a few minutes ago. To have a president that’s going create — he’s gonna fight for equality, fight for real change, big change, bold change, we’re gonna have to have somebody — we can’t trade our insiders for their insiders. That doesn’t work.
RUSH: What?
EDWARDS: What we need is somebody who will take these people on.
RUSH: Who?
EDWARDS: These big banks —
RUSH: Oh.
EDWARDS: — these mortgage companies,
RUSH: Oh.
EDWARDS: — big insurance companies,
RUSH: Oh.
EDWARDS: — big drug companies,
RUSH: Yeah.
EDWARDS: — that’s the only way we’re going to bring about change.
RUSH: You take a look at John Edwards’ enemies list — and this will go for all of them. Big Oil, Big Drug, Big Food, Big Dairy, Wal-Mart, every one of these successful industries they have targeted. There’s the Breck Girl. Now, the point here is, reparations is not in the back of everybody’s head. There is no Drive-By journalist even at CNN that would have even conceived of asking that question. But somebody sent it in and somebody at CNN said, ‘Whoa, excellent question.’ But this is a great example of how you turn this stuff over to rank amateurs, and this is what you get. Now, here’s Obama. He responded to the reparations question, too.
OBAMA: I think the reparations we need right here in South Carolina is investment, for example, in our schools. I did a town hall meeting —
RUSH: Give me a break.
OBAMA: — in Lawrence, South Carolina, in an area called the corridor of shame. They’ve got buildings that students are trying to learn in that were built right after the civil war.
RUSH: Whose fault is that?
OBAMA: And we’ve got teachers who are not trained to teach the subjects they’re teaching in —
RUSH: Wait a minute. How did they get the jobs then?
OBAMA: We’ve got to understand there are corridors of shame all across the country, and if we make the investments and understand that those are our children, that’s the kind of reparations that are really going to make a difference in America right now.
RUSH: Yeah, but your kids are never going to go to those schools, and that’s what the question came up to all the candidates, ‘Would you send your kid to public school?’ But I mean this is obscene. The amount of money we spend on education every year in this country, this is the kind of reparations we need in South Carolina, is investment. But this is a winner because everybody has kids — well, not everybody. But those who have kids are concerned primarily about their education so that eventually the kids can leave and have their own lives. So when you start talking about we need money for education, it’s going to be very hard — most people are saying, ‘We’re already spending enough on education,’ people’s hearts will melt. Because it’s for the children. But this is intellectually absurd. But I guarantee you that answer is why Obama did well in the focus groups, because he cares, Mr. Limbaugh, he cares, that’s what you can’t understand, you cold-hearted creep. No, no, no, no. By the way, that voice is the voice of the new castrati, linguini spines, you know, neutered, if you will.