RUSH: Do you know, folks, that I am responsible for fake news?  That’s right, your host, Rush Limbaugh.  According to NPR, I actually began the whole problem, the idea of fake news back in the 1990s.  Here is yesterday on NPR.  University of Virginia history professor Brian Balogh about the reason problems with fake news.  The host says, “You know, we’ve been talking about fake news.  How long has fake news been a problem, Brian?”

BALOGH:  It’s been a problem since the 1990s.  What really makes fake news fake news, as we call it, is the rapid dissemination and acceleration of that news.  Today that’s Facebook, for instance, or social media.  Back in the nineties it was conservative talk radio that took print stories that were often made up of whole cloth, such as Hillary Clinton’s aide, Vince Foster, who was found dead in a DC park. It was quite clear that he committed suicide, yet the story that started going around was that somehow the Clintons had killed him.  That originated in a small, little newspaper.  What really was different was this new venue, conservative talk radio, people like Rush Limbaugh disseminated that story, and that’s why you and I are talking about it today.

RUSH:  Nobody was talking about it today ’til you brought it up.  I’m responsible for everything.  I’m to blame for everything that’s gone wrong for liberals, and I wear that award proudly.  Man, oh, man, I am responsible for fake news.  By the way, it wasn’t a little newspaper.  It was the New York Post that alleged that Vince Foster may have been murdered.  It didn’t say by Hillary.  Just that he’d been murdered.  I just reported what was in the paper.  And it went from there. 

I remember Ted Koppel had me on Nightline, and a bunch of guests thought that I should have been drawn and quartered for this, which I just pooh-poohed.  But look at, fake news.  And then this there’s — I didn’t print this out so I don’t even remember where it’s from.  It’s some sports website.  Some guy is wringing his hands, he’s all worried that Donovan McNabb is not going to be voted into the NFL Hall of Fame because of me, ’cause I have so tainted McNabb’s reputation because of my comments on ESPN.

I don’t remember this guy’s name, but let me say, McNabb is not only gonna get in the Hall of Fame, he’s probably gonna thank me for it.  McNabb will get into the Hall of Fame just so the Hall of Fame voters can do what they think they’re doing, ramming it down my throat.  He’s gonna get in the hall, maybe first ballot.  I guarantee you.  He’s not gonna not get in the Hall of Fame ’cause of me.  He’s gonna get in because of me, and he may end up thanking me.  Well, that’s a stretch.  Not to the minute.  He’s four minutes before I thought he’s come out.  Obama just started his presser.  I predicted 2:45 or 2:50.  He started at 2:40. 

Anyway, Skyler in Bartlett, Illinois, we head back to the phones.  How you doing?  Welcome to the program.

CALLER:  I’m well Rush.  How are you?  Thank you —

RUSH:  Very good, thank you.

CALLER:  — for taking my call.  It’s an honor to talk to you.  So my father of 56 years and myself of almost 23 years have really wondered why there hasn’t been an effort on behalf of conservatives to get in the national network news.  We have Fox News and Fox radio, but the average American doesn’t listen to those.  They go home and listen to the lies the left has been spewing.

RUSH:  Well, but Fox News is an effort to do that or it was when it started, it was a conservative news network.  The fact that it didn’t replace NBC, CBS — what you’re basically asking is why don’t a bunch of conservatives buy one of those networks that already exists?

CALLER:  Essentially, yes.  Or create a new one, even, ’cause Fox is cable.  It’s not national network.

RUSH:  Fox News is a national network.

CALLER:  Right, but I mean it’s not on like local channels where you don’t need to have a package to see Fox.

RUSH:  Oh, so you want it to be available as one of the network —

CALLER:  Yes, networks, correct.

RUSH:  Well, I think that’s what Trump was gonna do until he won.  Isn’t that what people are saying, that Trump was gonna start of a big media channel and then a news channel, Trump News or something?

CALLER:  I haven’t heard that.  That’s why I turned to you.  You’re the man with the plan.

RUSH:  I’m the man with the plan. (laughing) It was bandied about.  I don’t know if he was going to do it, either.  The reason?  I couldn’t tell you why conservatives — a conservative, a wealthy conservative — hasn’t tried to buy one of these networks.  I wouldn’t have the… I mean, I could guess but the answers might not satisfy you.  They may not think it’s profitable.  They may not think it would matter.  They may not think… There may not be that many really that wealthy people who are conservatives who would spend their money that way.  I really don’t know.

CALLER:  Okay.  Is it…? Let me know what you think of this.  Is it possible they’re, you know, afraid? Kind of like the establishment Republicans, they’re afraid to stand up to the left?  Is that a possibility?

RUSH:  No, I don’t think it’s that.  When you get into that kind of money, people with that kind of money, I don’t think there are that many ideologues.  I think people with that kind of money are mostly interested in putting their finger in the air and finding which way it’s blowing and saying out of the way.  That’s why people… Look at all of these Wall Street banks, Skyler, who, before the campaign made it known they just loved Hillary Clinton. They couldn’t wait! They were paying her all this money to do speeches.

Now that Trump has won, they’re all coming out in full-fledged support of the guy.  So I’m asking myself, “Why weren’t they honest during the campaign?  Why were they actually trying to elect this woman they apparently really didn’t want to win?” And that’s because he thought she was going to be and they didn’t want to be on her bad side. Plus, corporate people do like to like to coexist with power, not take it over in this sense.  I just don’t think you have that many multi, multibillionaires who are conservative like you and me are.

CALLER:  Okay.  That’s… I accept that.  Thank you for answering my question.

RUSH:  It’s a wild guess, because there have been opportunities.  NBC was up for sale and Comcast bought ’em.  There’s been… I mean, ABC’s been merged and sold a bunch of times, and you don’t see anybody that’s a very wealthy conservative bidding. The closest to it was Laurence Tisch when he bought CBS.  And he wasn’t even really conservative, but he was not the fashionable left-wing ideological that we know today.  But, look, it’s down to nut-cracking time, here. What kind of iPhone 7 do you want, 7 or 7 Plus?

CALLER:  A regular 7 please.

RUSH:  What’s your carrier?

CALLER:  T-Mobile.

RUSH:  T-Mobile.  That’s cool.  Okay.  And do you have a color preference?

CALLER:  Do you have any glossy black for T-Mobile?

RUSH:  I don’t have any glossy black iPhone 7.  I’ve got the matte black. On the front it’s just as pretty, there’s no fingerprints on it on the back, and it doesn’t scuff.

CALLER:  That will work just fine.  Thank you so much, Rush.

RUSH:  It may have an AT&T SIM card in it, but it doesn’t matter.  The phone’s unlocked, and it will work on T-Mobile.  What kind of phone do you have now?

CALLER:  I have a regular iPhone 6.

RUSH:  Oh! Your SIM card in the 6? You can put it in this phone and you’ll be up and running on your same number, same T-Mobile network if you want to do that.

CALLER:  Oh, wonderful.  Thank you very much.  Merry Christmas, Rush.

RUSH:  Same to you.