It was set to FM 88.5, one of our National Public Radio (NPR) affiliates. Four panelists, each with his or her own area of experstise, were talking about Egypt. The show was "All Things Considered."
I listened for a bit, then during a lull, I flipped it over to AM 1450, a local station where I get local news in the morning. I normally do this in order to hear what topic Rush Limbaugh is addressing.
As I did this, I said to myself, "There's no way Rush will be talking about Egypt, since he obviously has no expertise about that."
To my surprise, when Rush began talking, he was talking about Egypt.
And he said something to the effect of, "Before we start jumping on the bandwagon and throwing our support behing these protestors, we should at least find out who they are and what they stand for."
And here is the kicker. He actually said, "None of us even knows what is going on over there."
I then flipped it back over to NPR and the panelists were explaining exactly what is going on over there.
Who is behind it. Who is not behind it. Why it is happening.
And how it has nothing to do with Islamic fundamentalism, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or anything like that.
Then I turned back to Rush Limbaugh and he was saying how we don't know if the protestors are "down with" Islamic fundamentalism, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban. Yes, he said all those groups, like they are some big happy family.
He mentioned the "Muslim Brotherhood" and said we don't want to support them, implying they are behind the protests.
A man from North Carolina then called in and asked Rush whether it was true that Egyptian leader Mubarak was a multi-billionaire. And Rush said "I don't know, why?"
Rush also asked the man where he got that information.
The man replied, "I was just reading something in the liberal media, obviously."
The caller then suggested that the mainstream media in the US were covering the story simply because the people living there are protesting a very rich man, and the media love stories like that because they hate capitalism.
Sigh.
Of course, Rush took it from there, attempting to link coverage of this supposed protest against capitalism to other stories in the press that are critical of rich people. To Rush Limbuagh, this is only news because the media hate rich people; any story that makes rich people look bad will be appealing to the media.
My head started hurting, so I turned it back to NPR (today I woke up and realized my IQ had fallen five points. I'll work extra hard today to get them back).
Now, back to what Rush Limbaugh actually said on the program.
He said: "None of us even know what is going on over there."
By "None of us" he obviously meant himself and his listeners.
The show is always pushing an agenda and most of the time not even Rush knows what that is. Rush is a cash cow and all that matters to him is that he thinks he is moving society foward in a positve manner when the truth is he is probably taking society a step back. Here he is trying to relate Islamic practice (nothing to do with terroism by the way) with a political protest without a stitch of knowledge on the situation(linkage). This raises the question who is worse? Rush himself or the listeners who are taking him seriously. It scares me.
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