RUSH: Let’s listen to the Reverend Jackson on Special Report with Bret Baier last night. The Reverend Jackson from the Monochrome Coalition.

Bret Baier said, “What do you think today, US, politicians here could learn from Nelson Mandela? And do you think there’s something that could translate today?”

JACKSON: There are those who engage in voter suppression, antithetical to the beliefs of Mr. Mandela, who believed we should have an open, free, fair process where you put the pictures on the ballot so you can see who you’re voting for. But then thereÂ’s unfinished business. That is to say, in South Africa today, and America we’re free but not equal. The disparity gap, north and south gaps are greater now than the east/west gaps were based upon race. Too few have so much, and too many have so little. That is the unfinished business. A free, but not equal is the unfinished business.

RUSH: Can you believe this? He’s asked a question about what we could learn from Mandela and we get this east-west, north-south divide business, and voter suppression. Shep Smith, sound bite number one. Shep Smith, we got time here earlier. Shep Smith basically said yesterday afternoon that the death of Mandela would meant the temporary suspension of the soap opera.

SMITH: There is a race to define and own the narrative, the political narrative that is that of this nation. It has changed hands repeatedly over the past few months, and the quest for ownership of the narrative is now going to take a short break and the world and the nation are better for it. Leave your narrative at the doorstep and let’s celebrate a great man of the world.

RUSH: Do you understand what you just heard? You just heard a leading anchor admit that there’s no news any day, there’s just a story — and whoever dominates it, writes it. The narrative is the soap opera, and it goes back and forth, and now let’s be big people and put it aside and celebrate a great man of the world outside the narrative — and then the Reverend Jackson goes right back to the narrative.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, I hate to be the one… No, actually I don’t hate to be the one. I’m actually kind of excited to be the guy that tells Jesse Jackson something. The Reverend Jackson, after you heard Shep Smith… Can you listen to this again? Play sound bite number one again. This is a Fox News anchor, and he’s now in charge of breaking news. He’s the breaking news anchor, and they bring Geraldo in… Well, you know what? They didn’t bring Geraldo in. Do you see Geraldo? That’s really strange. Hmm.

Well, anyway, I want you to listen, because Shep Smith is an anchor, and he’s explaining exactly how what you think is news is presented every day. There’s no news. It’s a narrative, and they battle for control over it. Now, stop and think about this for a second, ’cause Shep’s not alone. I don’t mean to be harping on Shep. He just happened to reveal the truth here. You have the Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, whoever is competing to dominant the news. The journalists know it.

Shep is admitting that journalists know it. They’re trying to get our attention. They’re trying to be the ones to influence way we report what’s going on. Some days someone wins; some days someone lose. Nowhere in this is there any allusion to the fact that what journalists do is simply tell us what happened that we don’t know. There’s all this rigmarole about a narrative and who controls it.

This explains why the Drive-Bys, when Bill Clinton or whoever on the Democrat Party lies through their teeth, they don’t care. They marvel at how good Clinton lied, and they talk about how easily they were swayed and how easily Clinton was able to control the narrative. There’s not even the pretense here of reporting, quote/unquote, “the news.” Listen to it again.

(replaying of sound bite)

RUSH: Shep, ignore the narrative. As a reporter, why don’t all of you just ignore the narrative, if you know what they’re doing, if you know how they’re trying to dominate the narrative and it goes back and forth? What is this, “put the narrative aside”? Nelson Mandela has become the narrative and how Obama is Mandela Jr. and how they might even be related in some such way and how one couldn’ta gotten where he got without thorough. It’s absurd.

But that has become the narrative, and they all eagerly glom onto it. You know what they don’t get? I tell you, I can guarantee you what they don’t get. What they don’t get is that the vast majority of people the country are not interested in this the way they are reporting it. They’re not interested. When Nelson Mandela dies, people are not talking about, “Oh, I wonder how that affects Obama. Oh, you know, Obama wouldn’t have been what he was without Mandela. Oh, gosh, I wonder if Mandela thought of Obama before he died.”

That is not how the people of this country react to something like this, and that’s what these people talking about the “narrative” do not get. The egos are so out of control that everybody thinks that every news story is about them or the people they admire, in this case Obama.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Oh, yeah, I was gonna tell you something and I got off on a tangent. The Reverend Jackson was asked about the meaning of the death of Nelson Mandela, and he said (paraphrased), “Well, the meaning is, we still have voter suppression in the United States. East and west, north and south, up and down, left and right, we got voter suppression everywhere. The haves have too much and the have nots have too little and that’s still unfinished business,” and what was the question?

“What do you think about the death of Mandela.”

“That’s right, we got a too much voter suppression!”

Do you know, ladies and gentlemen, somebody needs to tell the Reverend Jackson — I’m happy to be the one to do it — that South Africa — otherwise known in the media as South Africa — requires that all citizens over the age of 16 must always be in possession of an identity document. I.E., when you are stopped in South Africa, you must have your papers. Besides filling out a long application and paying a fee, you have to submit the following documents to get your identity document:

You have to submit two recent photographs, head and shoulder measuring 40 millimeters by 30 millimeters with the applicant’s name and ID number written on the reverse side. You need certified copy of the applicant’s old ID book or birth certificate, a copy of the major certificate, divorce decree, spouse’s… In other words, every citizen 16 and older in South Africa is required to have a photo ID, which the Reverend Jackson claims leads to voter suppression in the United States.

How are we to resolve this dilemma?

You think the Reverend Jackson knows this?

Probably does. It’s one of these things he’ll conveniently cast aside and forget, but if he does know it… Well, on second thought, maybe he doesn’t, but I’m telling you it’s true. Everybody 16 or over has to have a photo ID on their person at all times in South Africa. Everybody. What would happen if such a thing were proposed here? Ha! What would happen if somebody said, “In the name and in honor of the death of Nelson Mandela, every American shall now have and be required to have over the age of 16 a photo ID on their person at all times”?

What would be the reaction? This is too much fun here, folks.