[Updates at the bottom of this post as of 4:21pm CDT 10-16-2009 AD]
This week there has been a whirlwind of character assassination done by the mainstream media to conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh’s bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams (American) football team of the National Football League (NFL).  They have been accusing Mr. Limbaugh of saying several racist quotes without confirming their existence. All the alleged racist quotes have been debunked by Snopes earlier this week as well as being denied by Mr. Limbaugh. Additionally many in the mainstream media have been unable to find any evidence of these allegations.
But today there has been a sudden realization of regret when the heat turned up on their yellow journalism. Regret that some elements of the mainstream media were involved in libel and slander.
The most prominent of the yellow journalists are liberal news anchors Anderson Cooper and Rick Sanchez of the left-of-center CNN, sports columnist Bryan Burwell of the liberal St. Louis Dispatch, and finally the liberal Huffington Post (HuffPo) blog.
This calumny was apparent from the get-go, but only today did the extreme liberal elements of the mainstream media finally stop after accomplishing their mission of destroying the character of Mr. Limbaugh. This character assassination so deeply tarnished Mr. Limbaugh that NFL commissioner Roger ‘destroyer of Patriots spy tapes‘ Goodell self-righteously said that ‘divisive comments‘ have no place in the league.
Rick Sanchez of CNN began retracting his false allegations towards Mr. Limbaugh yesterday calling it “our bad“. HuffPo pulled their false allegations today as well. CNN’s Anderson Cooper implicitly gave a non-mea culpa by using his native language of liberalese. St. Louis Dispatch newspaper Sports columnist Bryan Burwell gave a ‘so what’ in response that he falsely attributed racist quotes to Mr. Limbaugh. Mr. Burwell refused to retract nor apologize so his own editor had to step in and apologize for him.
The realization has hit these news outlets that they have done libel to Mr. Limbaugh that they began backtracking from these alleged quotes. Mr. Limbaugh seems to have a strong case for a libel suit say many legal analysts.
This brings to mind the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case that brought out a vicious reaction from the leftist professors there called the Group of 88. A stripper accused some lacrosse players of rape which turned out to be lies. During the period of the accusations 88 Duke professors openly condemned and charged the Lacrosse players of rape and racism in an open letter to the student newspaper. They never repented since they are protected by the University.
Which brings us back to the yellow journalism towards Mr. Limbaugh and the possible consequences that may ensue.
I for one would put Anderson Cooper, Rick Sanchez, Bryan Burwell on immediate leave without pay pending an investigation. But that’s me. Though I wouldn’t want to be those guys if Mr. Limbaugh decides to pursue legal action against these malefactors.
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To read a synopsis of these events click here or here.
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Update I: Apparently many of the ‘professional’ producers and researchers at CNN & MSNBC used a Wikipedia entry that provided these libelous quotes attributed to Mr. Limbaugh. Because of the ubiquitous amount of resources available online, many people have been able to locate not only the Wikipedia author who wrote these quotes, but also his or her IP address. Apparently the libelous quotes are coming from an IP address attributed to a New York City law firm by the name of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP. The ‘paper’ trail can all be found by the yeoman work of Ralph Alter of the American Thinker here.
Update II: MSNBC has come out and issued a non-apology. David Shuster of MSNBC reported that they have been unable to verify the source of the quotes:
“MSNBC attributed that quote to a football player who was opposed to Limbaugh’s NFL bid. However, we have been unable to verify that quote independently. So, just to clarify.”
To read more about this by Kyle Drennen of NewsBusters click here.
Update III: In an attempt to avoid a costly libel lawsuit and salvage what’s left of their soiled reputation, CNN has publicly apologized for their use of the false racist quotes attributed to Mr. Limbaugh. The following is a video of the liberal Rick Sanchez apologizing on CNN:
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.3666777&w=425&h=350&fv=]
To read more about this by NewsBusters click here.
If I were a St. Louis Rams fan, I would not want an owner who couldn’t tell how good a quarterback Donovan McNabb was (at least before his injuries).
I would not want an owner who couldn’t tell how good a quarterback Donovan McNabb was
Sigh. You know, Rush never actually said Donovan McNabb wasn’t a good quarterback. In fact he has repeatedly said that he is. The whole fiasco was about how he felt the media portrayed McNabb – a point that Chris Collinsworth actually all but confirmed the very next week when he overhyped McNabb’s role in an Eagles’ victory that was all but due to the defense.
BTW, somewhat tangentially, a person can be deemed overrated who, noentheless, is still a great player. Case in point: Derek Jeter. Jeter is no doubt a Hall of Fame caliber ballplayer, yet at the same time he is completely over-hyped by a fawning media. At the time Rush made the comments I think it’s fair to say that McNabb, while a very good player, was probably slightly overrated by the media. Even if you don’t think the media was motivated by racial considerations, I thought at the time that such a consideration was fair.
Being a liberal means never saying you’re sorry.
Yeah, I thought Rush’s comment was probably correct, but imprudent for exactly the reason that has manifested this past week. People with agendas would twist his words to manipulate people without gray matter.
A bit more on the lies:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDY4NTk5NDY0OGIxOWEzMTVjYTJmYTI3OTBjNDIzOWI=
This is on of the many instances where the mainstream media tries to silence crazy uncle Rush, not because of what he says, but because they disagree with his point of view and are jealous of his following and his wealth.
If he hasn’t pulled a Pete Rose (or something similar), why would he not be allowed partial ownership of a sports team? I guess I will never understand that one…
Speaking of bad journalism… Anderson Cooper did -not- use the false quotes, he merely pointed out they weren’t accurate, which is an example of yellow journalism? Logic fail.
No one destroyed Rush Limbaugh…he is still going strong…those who lied will have their lies backfire on them at some point…what goes around, comes around. Actually, Rush would probably not have had as much time for his radio show so the liars have enabled Rush to stay and fight against the radicals who have infiltrated our adminstration and our country. Way to go!!!!
Paul, Just this guy,
Being a liberal means never saying you’re sorry.
That was funny!