October 13, 2003

NEWSWEEK HATCHET JOB ON RUSH.

Newsweek has a cover story on Rush Limbaugh that’s as much of a slam as they could make it. Look at some of these quotes.

He was a lonely object of mass adulation, socially ill at ease, at least occasionally depressed and, for the past several years, living in a private hell of pain and compulsion.

First of all, note the past tense. They write the whole article as if it’s an obituary. That’s malicious wishful thinking on their part. It shows their bias.

Second, they definitely don’t know that for several years Rush was “living in a private hell of pain and compulsion.” It would be equally valid to speculate that the author of this article has for years been living in a private hell of malice. Rush’s show has continued to do spectacularly well over the past few years, and Newsweek has no basis for speculation over how Rush felt during that time.

IN THE END, he was betrayed by his own housekeeper.

Right, as if normally your housekeeper is your best friend.

Limbaugh clung to the ideology of self-reliance to the last. I’m not going to portray myself as a victim, he said.

As if self-reliance is a laughable thing. Evidently Newsweek would prefer it if Rush started blaming various doctors, drug companies, and government officials. Then Rush would be the darling of the media.

In fact Rush’s self-reliance is admirable, courageous, and the first step to recovery.

Note the phrase “to the last,” again as if writing an obituary.

The fall of a moralist is always a great American spectacle.

Is it immoral to be addicted to pain pills that are constantly being prescribed by doctors? Of course not. These pills are known to be extremely addictive, even more so because they can take away some serious pain.

Newsweek itself buries this quote from Gary Bauer, president of a conservative organization called American Values, in the second-to-last paragraph:

From a moral standpoint, there’s a difference between people who go out and seek a high and get addicted and the millions of Americans dealing with pain who inadvertently get addicted.

“The fall of a moralist”—they wish. As if the media never has times when things go wrong. Did Newsweek attack the NY Times as cruelly over the Jayson Blair fiasco?

I’ve got news for you, Newsweek. He’s not dead, and he’s coming back.