Rush Limbaugh Cited a Fake Obama Thesis

On the October 23 edition of Premier Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show, Rush Limbaugh cited a fake Obama thesis from his senior year, entitled "Aristocracy Reborn." The paper showed that Obama had doubts about the so-called founders of America concerning, among other things, economic power in the country and the Constitution.

An unknown blogger found a satirical post concerning 10 pages of President Obama's college senior year thesis that said it came from the well-known journalist, Joe Klein, of Time magazine.

The fake thesis criticized the American founders and the Constitution. Of course, Rush Limbaugh jumped all over it like a starving dog and talked about it for an hour on his radio show, in the Republican effort to tarnish Obama's reputation and, in turn, that of the Democrats.

Halfway through the show, one of Limbaugh's researchers learned that the thesis has no cited sources and was only a fake. To save face, Rush had to say something in defense of his mistake. While an apology was in order, Rush failed to do just that. Instead of apologizing for his error and lack of professionalism when citing sources, he defended himself by saying that he was misquoted in the past and reporters continued to connect him with the quote even though he did not say it, so it is okay for him to do it as well to Obama. He went on to say he doesn't care if the thesis quotes are fake because "I know Obama thinks it." He said that he heard Obama criticize America in the past, such as with the Supreme Court. Really, Rush? Care to cite the source?

Joe Klein commented and called the report "nonsense" on his own Swampland blog and the blogger who thought the hoax was real also apologized. So, why hasn't Rush Limbaugh followed suit and apologize? That is the right thing to do, yet, knowing Rush, he will never admit to it directly. Just like Bill O'Reilly and others on the Fox news Channel, Rush will continue to say that Obama really does believe these negative things about America. This is not professional journalism!

Many who have heard about this error will probably say that it was a mistake and everyone knows it, so everyone will just move on. But, that is not how a misleading statement like this by Rush Limbaugh will end. Even though most of us know that the thesis is a fake, there will always be a minority of Republican followers that will continue to side with Rush and Fox news regardless of the amount of evidence proving what they say is incorrect. The seeds of doubt have been planted, which is enough to cast doubt on Obama with many Americans. I would hope that most people know how to disseminate reality from fiction, but that is not the case. A lot of Republican followers will make this one of their sticking points, just like they did with Obama's birth certificate.

Rush Limbaugh's error is just another incident of not thoroughly and accurately researching sources before publishing quotes, statistics and many other pieces of info before stating them as fact. A fake quote was recently published on Wikipedia from a celebrity that died and reporters from all around the world quoted it as fake -- the original poster of the fake quote did it just to see what would happen. I would hope that reporters and journalists, like Rush Limbaugh, would be absolutely 100% positive that what they post or say about someone else's information is accurate. Many people respect journalists -- even Rush -- so even more weight rests on their shoulders to be accurate and honest. When mistakes occur, the journalist should apologize profusely, not go off and say that it's okay for him to do it because it was done to him in the past. That is not professional journalism! That is inconsiderate, unprofessional behavior that can skew the opinion of unsuspecting readers or viewers. That really should be done about this -- maybe a monetary fine?

Listen to Rush Limbaugh's comments about the error on the October 23 edition of Premier Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show for yourself and like Fox news says, decide for yourself.