On Limbaugh Vs McCain, the Mainstream Media's Treatment of Limbaugh, and the Immigration Debate

"Warring on McCain, Limbaugh Sees No Reconciliation", was the title of an article by Jacques Steinberg in the New York Times on 2/15/08. Here are some of my thoughts about that article, which are, essentially, the basis of a comment I posted at that time.

Although on most issues I am one of his hated "liberals", I used to listen to Limbaugh fairly regularly, because he was often funny, and he often had the ability to get to the heart of things. I listen to him very rarely now, because a lot of his broadcast time consists of shrill, ad hominem and hateful attacks on people or groups he doesn't agree with. To me the classic example was when CNN got the pictures of Obama and Osama mixed up, and CNN apologized to Obama. Limbaugh said, and not as a joke, that they should apologize to Osama as well.

Such vilification is unacceptable, in my opinion, by someone who is given any credence by the main stream media. He talks about the "drive-by media" and the "left-wing media" but he quotes articles or editorials from the LA Times, The Nation and The New Republic, among others, when he happens to agree with them. Sadly, his followers seem not to see the inconsistency in this.

Now Rush is warring on McCain, and he is treated as any other respectable, and powerful, pundit. Don Imus stepped over the line once or twice and caught all sorts of grief for it. Limbaugh regularly steps over the line, and yet all of that is ignored, and apparently forgiven, when he says something substantive, such as his inability to reconcile with McCain.

Here is something I posted on my blog last June, called "Rush to Limbaugh"

Well, the battle in the Senate over the immigration bill is coming down to the wire, but is it a rush to justice or a rush to injustice? According to right-wing talk radio and many cable news programs, it is the latter, and they are marshaling the troops as never before. One interesting question is this. Are dittoheads (aka Limbaugh's loyal listeners) capable of independent thought, or are they just pawns in the hands of El Rushbo? Having listened to Limbaugh's show - less and less in recent years as he has gotten shriller and shriller - my answer to that question is a qualified "the latter."

I will give an example. He rails against the "drive-by liberal media", but then he will quote them with approbation when they say something he agrees with. This inconsistency doesn't seem to bother the dittoheads. Well, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

In my opinion, at the core of the immigration mess is the fact that illegal's do menial jobs that can't be outsourced -in construction, agriculture, home maintenance, etc. - and often for low wages. So employers in these areas resort to "in-sourcing." For citizens affected by this, it is happening not in some far away third world country, but right in their own backyards!

What do I think about this? I think we should enforce existing immigration laws and secure our southern border, before anything else happens. And let's have price supports for agricultural products. We can afford it, and the workers deserve a living wage. Our grocer won't end up having to sing "Yes, we have no bananas, we have no bananas for sale."