RUSH: Couple of audio sound bites here before we get to the meat and potatoes of the program. This is just to illustrate something. You remember — what was it? I guess three weeks ago now, maybe a month where we heard that “Steak” Clyburn at the FCC wanted to post monitors in all of the newsrooms — well, Mignon. I called her Steak as a nickname. Mignon Clyburn, the daughter of James Clyburn, who’s also an accredited member in good standing with the Congressional Black Caucasians. She wanted to post monitors in all the newsrooms to measure how the newsrooms covered the news. Why they did a story; why they didn’t report a story. Why did they report the story they did report the way they reported it. This kind of stuff.

There was no outrage from the Drive-Bys. The Drive-Bys didn’t give a hoot. They’ve already thrown in. They looked at administration monitors as a chance to impress the boss, somebody with a direct pipeline to Obama watching, “Hey, man, this is a way for me to get noticed by the big guy.” But a lot of people, me included, recognized what this was. This was a back-door attempt at intimidating news organizations into shaping comment and coverage of the way the Regime wanted it. When that reaction happened then Steak Clyburn said (paraphrasing), “No, no, no, no. You got it all wrong. This is about minority ownership. We don’t have enough minority ownership, and we’re trying to find ways to increase minority ownership.”

And everybody said, “Well, what’s this got to do with it, then? Why does posting hall monitors in there to measure the content of what’s reported, what isn’t reported, what’s that got to do with minority ownership?” Anyway, the jig was up, and they eventually announced they’re pulling back and canceling the whole plan, which they’re not. They’re just shelving it for another time when the temperature falls, not as much heat on it, and they can sneak it in when nobody’s looking. ‘Cause the left never gives up an idea. They never retreat fully or they never abandon things. They just try to find a more strategic maneuver.

During this time, Byron York, who is a reporter for the Washington Examiner, sent me a note asking for my comment and I didn’t see his note ’cause I was off the grid. His note came in on a Saturday and I had 20 family members in town for a belated birthday bash, mine. So I was off the grid, and I didn’t see Byron’s note ’til it was too late to comment for his story. So I did send him a note and he said, “Rush, I think this really is about — I’ve gone back, I’ve looked at Steak’s history, I’ve looked at Steak Clyburn, what she’s had to say about it. She really is interested in minority ownership, but I think it is back door Fairness Doctrine.”

He said, “Rush, you have to admit, this is all about getting rid of you. They just can’t figure out how to get rid of you, and they tried it with any number of hosts. They tried it with the Fairness Doctrine; that didn’t fly. You’ve tried to help ’em get rid of you with some comments, but not even you could destroy yourself, Rush, and they’re frustrated that they can’t. And it turns out when this whole thing broke, by the way, I told you, I said be on the lookout, folks, I’ll bet it was journalism schools that came up with this idea for Steak Clyburn to post these monitors.

And, lo and behold, it was. It was the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. They have an honorary degree for Ronan Farrow, by the way, I understand, is coming, and the University of Madison Wisconsin. It was those two. Another honorary degree for Ronan Farrow, coming from there, too, I understand. He’s been on the air for six days, and that qualifies honorary degree at every j-school. That’s coming. Anyway, so it was j-schools that did it.

Anyway, to get to the sound bite, Byron was on Fox & Friends today, and he was talking to Brian Kilmeade about this. What has been learned is that George Soros money is behind all of this. It is George Soros money that has funded these projects at the two j-schools. So Byron was on there to talk about that. Kilmeade said, “New reports have linked big Democrat donors like George Soros to some pretty shady behavior.

“His Open Society Foundation has given $1.4 million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s journalism school, and $300,000 to the school’s Madison Commons Project. They also went out to the West Coast, to USC where they received $195,000 in donations and the school partnered with the Soros Foundation on ‘ethnic media conferences.’ It looks like he’s trying gain influence with the next generation of journalists.”

YORK: You mentioned those two because they were the ones who are involved in this study from the Federal Communications Commission. You have to look kind of at the bigger picture with the study. Because a lot of liberal reformers have been very unhappy for years at the continued success of Rush Limbaugh, and they want to limit that success, if they can. They used to cling to the hope that they could restore the old Fairness Doctrine. Clearly unconstitutional. I think they’ve given up on that. But they’ve come up with a new idea called “media diversity.” They want to change the ownership of radio stations around the country. If they can do that, new owners won’t play Limbaugh; they reduce his influence that way. That’s what they want to do.

RUSH: That’s what he has researched. He has found that Steak Clyburn is serious about this “minority ownership,” and the theory is that if they can get a bunch of minorities owning radio stations… Not networks. I mean, networks would be fine. But if they get minorities owning radio stations, then it just follows (Doesn’t it?) that those minorities would get rid of me. It just follows. It’s just axiomatic, apparently.

They would get rid of me and all of the revenue generated by the program. That’d be one of the first things they would do to be automatic heroes. Do you realize how long that would take? I mean, that’s a pretty convoluted effort. We’re on 612 radio stations. To have an impact, you’d have to have over half of ’em change ownership — and they’re gonna have to hurry up here, too, because there aren’t a limitless number of years that I’m going to be able to do this.

He’s right. They are just bamboozled. They have tried for 25 years every which way they can. I think that’s why, as I was alluding to yesterday, they’ve invested so much hope in this kid at MSNBC. They’ve just done it with whoever they think can win. They tried it with Air America. That’s why I said, “Can you name one big-name quote/unquote star media performer on the left?” And you can’t.

I mean, they’re everywhere, but there’s not one that embodies what they do, or is perceived as elite, and it just irritates them. The reason for that… Well, I’m not gonna give that way. There’s a reason why they’re never gonna be able to accomplish what we’ve accomplished here. They do not understand the business. That’s as much as I need to say about it. (interruption) Well, they do. They’ve got everything else.

They’re very open about it. It’s Me and Fox News. Me, talk radio, Fox News. They’ve got everything else. They’ve got 95% of it. But they are inspired, motivated by one principle, and that is the elimination of all opposition. Not debating with, not being bipartisan with, not winning an argument of ideas in the arena of ideas, but eliminating the opposition — and they’re profoundly frustrated they haven’t been able to do it.

So Byron was on, and I just wanted to pass this on to you. I want you to be fully aware that your host remains a big target for these people. Nothing new there, but I just wanted to pass that on. Byron has done his research and found this out. Now, just a couple other sound bites with me. I’m gonna get ’em out of the way, and then we will move on. Fusion TV. Do you ever watch Fusion TV? Have you ever heard of Fusion TV?

Fusion is ABC’s cable channel geared toward the Hispanic audience, and they had last night a guest, Alicia Menendez. Now, Alicia Menendez is the daughter of Robert Menendez, the Democrat senator from New Jersey who routinely accepted free private jet flights from a donor to the Dominican Republic and other love destinations in the Caribbean where he had flings with women who were not his wife.

It’s his daughter that is on the Fusion network and talking about the ABC broadcast of the Oscars and, of course, your beloved host.

MENENDEZ: 43.7 million people turned into watch Ellen DeGeneres host the Oscars Sunday night, the most in 11 years, and, yes, even Rush Limbaugh watched.

RUSH ARCHIVE: I watched it all. … It was filled with self-satisfaction and pats on the back and how important they all are and how compassionate, giving, caring, you know, all of those adjectives they reserve exclusively to themselves.

MENENDEZ: Rush is right. The Oscars are a night of adjectives, “best” perhaps the foremost among them.

RUSH: And they just… What do I have to do with this story? See, this is the point. What do I have to do with that? What’s the…? (interruption) Yeah, the fact that I watched the Academy Awards is news? (chuckles) And then one more bite — and of course, this is obligatory. This is the comment that I made about 12 Years a Slave winning that just has them all still in a tizzy.

MENENDEZ: Having made it through the whole ceremony, Limbaugh took issue with the fact that 12 Years a Slave — a tense, powerful film that Ellen joked was a lock for Best Picture — won Best Picture.

RUSH ARCHIVE: There’s no way that move was not gonna win. If it was the only thing that movie won, it was gonna win Best Picture. There was no way it wouldn’t. It didn’t matter if it was good or bad. I haven’t seen it. It was going to win. It had the magic word in the title: “slave.”

MENENDEZ: Yep, Rush calls it like he sees it — and he saw the Oscars. He did not 12 Years a Slave. But his batty logic holds up, people. I guess that’s why Django Unchained and Amistad didn’t win an Oscar.

RUSH: There you go. “My batty logic, she has… (laughing) She has to acknowledge “my batty logic.” Rush is right. “I guess that’s why Django Unchained and Amistad didn’t win an Oscar.” So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Your host announcing he watched the Oscars is big news on the left.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Mike in New Port Richey, Florida. Welcome, sir. Glad that you called.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Hello. Rush, this idea about putting in federal monitors in radio stations, what bothers me a lot when I first heard about it, what about the theft of intellectual property? You know, Peter Drucker said years ago that the most important thing you had in your company is your marketing, innovation. That’s what brings the customers in, and the federal government are gonna put people in there to basically steal your intellectual property, to give to competitors.

RUSH: Well, either that, or intimidate you into shaping what you do and do not report. Either way, they don’t have the constitutional authority to do it. The press has its own clause in the First Amendment. It’s called the freedom of the press. They’ve got their own clause. And that is just an abject, direct violation. And nobody — this is important to remind you — nobody in what we call the mainstream media objected to this at all. There was no outrage over this at all.

Now, there would have been had a Republican proposed this. However, that would have never happened. This would have never occurred to a conservative. This would never occur to a Republican — government monitors in newsrooms to do a study on what’s covered and what isn’t and why, and then to provide intimidation. Nor would they think of putting people in there to steal what these people are doing to give to minority broadcasters so they can leg up competitively. It wouldn’t occur to conservatives to do this. But it is just like turning on the tap water for Democrats to think of it, and there wasn’t one bit of opposition to it in the Drive-Bys. It was stunning.