URNAsshole.com

It says a lot about our nation as it stands when the media can blatantly put out quotes that they know aren't true as news and it actually affects a multi-million dollar deal. My question is, what the fuck is wrong with us as a people when we allow this kind of shit to happen?

Rush Limbaugh is not the most sympathetic personality. We all know this. But what we know is more of his reputation than his actual behavior. We have predisposed assumptions about the man. Some are true. Some aren't. But what's important is that we get these predispositions from the public consciousness and the media rather than from actual experiences.

You "know" Rush. You "know how he is". You know "how people like him think".

But the problem is, you've never sat and listened to his show for any length of time. You just "know" him from what you've heard. See it's all in perception. Rick Sanchez (a CNN anchor) can say things like

"Limbaugh’s perceived racist diatribes are too many to name. Here’s a sample- he once declared that ‘slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back. I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.'"

That quote is completely fabricated and assigned to him. It's been suggested that a blogger came up with it, but no evidence has been produced. And it doesn't matter anyway. The damage has been done. Writer Mark Scwahn described the media's power (on his show One Tree Hill) as such

"Right now it's just a rumor. But as soon as {the media puts it on the air}, it becomes news."

That is to say, it become credible. And the problem is there is a portion of the population that is just going to walk away and say Rush is a slavery- supporter. He's a racist. Doesn't matter if it's true. See that's the way the modern media works. It throws out fads. They say something, hype it up, bleed it for all it's worth and then walk away without an ounce of guilt or an inkling of personal responsibility.

Responsibility. It's a word that's missing from our vocabulary. It's the biggest deficit we have. And seeing it played out on television makes it all the more real. When you say something about someone, it has power. When you call a man a racist in the world today, you destroy his reputation. In society today being labeled a racist has as much power as being labeled a child-molester. And it doesn't matter if the victim becomes vindicated in the long run. We KNOW Rush didn't say the despicable things that Sanchez claimed. People never believe the innocent.

I'm not a football fan. Nor am I a Rush fan, in as much as I am a Rush listener. But I know football fans. And I know Rush Limbaugh (at least in theory). There isn't a football fan out there that hasn't dreamed of owning their own team. And thanks to the media and their malicious lies, one man's dream was stolen out from under him.

Hello Drive-By Media... you... are an asshole.