# Who Takes Rush Limbaugh Seriously? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 18, 2002, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642 "2002-12-18T20:39:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/1 "2002-12-18T20:39:40Z")
In [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=151050) thread, **spoke-** states that “surely no one takes him [Rush Limbaugh] seriously”. So, I ask an admittedly vauge question: Do you? ---
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/2 "2002-12-18T20:41:08Z")
I do. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/3 "2002-12-18T20:43:14Z")
You damn well better, or he’ll sit on you! ---
**Author:** ![merge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9f8e36/32.png) [@merge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merge)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/4 "2002-12-18T20:46:23Z")
In a way… sometimes when he actually looks at the “other side”… but most of the time he seems to just be a pompous asshole… ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/5 "2002-12-18T20:46:45Z")
> [@](#): > > You damn well better, or he’ll sit on you! He’s not fat anymore. I take him seriously. He presents good, reasoned arguments. True, sometimes he rants, and true, he only presents the side he agrees with…but if he were an actual debate participant, I think he’d be extremely formidable. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/6 "2002-12-18T20:53:06Z")
I took his first book seriously. He had good, reasoned arguments, and a lot of serious points to make. His second book, however, was a collection of “neener, neener” rebuttals to bad things people had said about his first book, which kinda took the steam out of the fervor of my support. Bad form. No biscuit. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/7 "2002-12-18T20:56:34Z")
Actually, the Left takes him VERY seriously. FAR more seriously than we on the Right do! The Left hates Rush a lot more than the Right loves him. Conservatives may listen to him or they may not, but when they do, they’re usually just looking to be entertained. I may agree with him more often than not on the rare occasions I listen to him, but I know that, ultimately, he’s just an entertainer, a DJ with a schtick (to his credit, Limbaugh has admitted as much, many times). It’s the Left that treats him as a serious force to be feared. ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/8 "2002-12-18T21:12:33Z")
I find that a lot of people seem to take him seriously until he says something bizarre or untrue, at which point the same people declare that he is for entertainment purposes only. Kind of like the condoms you see for sale in gas station bathrooms. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/9 "2002-12-18T21:27:32Z")
**astorian** , I’d say that Limbaugh’s chacterization of himself as an entertainer in the guise of a serious political commentator would be more to his _dis_credit, but that’s just me. I’m curious, does he make that admission regularly on his radio show? ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/10 "2002-12-18T21:29:54Z")
Why single out Rush? Why not ask if we take, say, Dan Rather seriously? Or Time magazine? Or CNN? Or Dennis Miller? Or Sean Penn? Rush is simply a guy who offers commentary on current events. ---
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/11 "2002-12-18T21:34:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by notcynical \* > \*\ ***astorian** , I’d say that Limbaugh’s chacterization of himself as an entertainer in the guise of a serious political commentator would be more to his _dis_credit, but that’s just me. I’m curious, does he make that admission regularly on his radio show? \*\* Actually, yes. Just today he mentioned it. He realizes that whatever his experience and background may be, he is still an entertainer. He characterized his position as merely an educated entertainer trying to persuade people to agree with him. Whether you agree with him on most topics or not, I don’t think you could say that he takes himself too seriously. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/12 "2002-12-18T21:47:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Rush is simply a guy who offers commentary on current events. [Are you serious?](http://www.fair.org/press-releases/limbaugh-debates-reality.html) ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/13 "2002-12-18T21:57:09Z")
Here’s a couple of choice quotes from that link: > [@](#): > > LIMBAUGH: “It has not been proven that nicotine is addictive, the same with cigarettes causing emphysema [and other diseases].” (Radio show, 4/29/94) > > REALITY: Nicotine’s addictiveness has been reported in medical literature since the turn of the century. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop’s 1988 report on nicotine addiction left no doubts on the subject; “Today the scientific base linking smoking to a number of chronic diseases is overwhelming, with a total of 50,000 studies from dozens of countries,” states Encyclopedia Britannica’s 1987 “Medical and Health Annual.” > LIMBAUGH: Quotes President James Madison: “We have staked the future…upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” (Told You So, p. 73) > > REALITY: “We didn’t find anything in our files remotely like the sentiment expressed in the extract you sent to us,” David B. Mattern, the associate editor of The Madison Papers, told the Kansas City Star (1/16/94). “In addition, the idea is entirely inconsistent with everything we know about Madison’s views on religion and government.” > > LIMBAUGH: Comparing the 1950s with the present: “And I might point out that poverty and economic disparities between the lower and upper classes were greater during the former period.” (Told You So, p. 84) > > REALITY: Income inequality, as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau, fell from the 1940s to the late 1960s, and then began rising. Inequality surpassed the 1950 level in 1982 and rose steadily to all-time highs in 1992. (Census Bureau’s “Money Income of Households, Families and Persons in the United States”) Wow. How could _anyone_ take this guy seriously? ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/14 "2002-12-18T22:00:13Z")
neutron star, LIMBAUGH: In an attack on Spike Lee, director of Malcolm X, for being fast and loose with the facts, Limbaugh introduced a video clip of Malcolm X’s “daughter named Betty Shabazz.” (TV show, 11/17/92) REALITY: Betty Shabazz is Malcolm X’s widow. Wow, that’s some pretty hard-hitting stuff. The gist of the website you provide (which appears not to have been updated since '94, by the way) is that Limbaugh isn’t a scientist. So what? Who in the world would trust what ANYBODY says without a cited source? And how is the above any worse than, say, CNN’s infamous “expose” called Operation: Tailwind, a story that was SO discredited it led to the firings of at least two CNN producers? Do you still consider CNN a reputable news source? My question stands: why not subject CNN, Rather, Brokaw, et al. to the same rigorous fact-checking standards that Rush is apparently held to? ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/15 "2002-12-18T22:14:44Z")
My mistake. It appears the site has been updated at least once since '94. That said, where are the websites dedicated to the mis-statements of, say, Jon Stewart? Or Larry King? Or Jay Leno? Why is Limbaugh singled out? Just curious… ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/16 "2002-12-18T22:37:31Z")
As the one who did the “singling out”, at least in this thread, I was just curious about opinions here. But by all means, start a thread on whomever you see fit. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/17 "2002-12-18T22:51:20Z")
Uh, a lot of Limbaugh’s mistakes hardly seem unintentional. Ever hear Tom Brokaw accidently say that nicotine isn’t addictive and that cigarettes don’t cause disease? You don’t have to be a rigorous fact-checker to avoid completely _making up_ statements and printing them in a book (I’m referring to the Madison “quote”). I also find it interesting that you found it neccessary to pick the weakest example from that page, the one that was most likely to be an honest mistake, and hold that up while ignoring everything else. Talk about a straw man… ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/18 "2002-12-18T23:03:12Z")
neutron star, So Limbaugh found and cited a scientist who claimed that tobacco isn’t addictive. So what? Also, I notice that the very quote the site references… LIMBAUGH: “It has not been proven that nicotine is addictive, the same with cigarettes causing emphysema [and other diseases].” (Radio show, 4/29/94) …proves Rush said that it hadn’t yet been proven that nicotine is addictive. Yet you seem to imply with your reference to Brokaw that Rush STATED AS FACT that nicotine isn’t addictive, etc. Ironic that you take Rush out of context in order to prove a point, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/19 "2002-12-18T23:18:43Z")
The problem isn’t that he states his opinion. It’s that he presents his conjecture as fact. Here’s an excerpt of the first Chapter of “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot” by Al Franken: > [@](#): > > _We just concluded a study of 360 people, whom we watched watch the health care reform debate for nine months. And at the end of that period, we took the people who said they relied on talk radio, and by this, we mean primarily Rush Limbaugh. . . . And we asked them how well informed they felt. . . .Of all the people we watched, they said they were the best informed. And of all the people we watched, they were the least informed._ > > What a surprise, huh? Limbaugh listeners thought they were the best informed, and yet were the least informed. > > How is such a thing even measured? Well, like all the other people studied, talk radio listeners were asked questions of “objective fact” such as: "Which groups (the elderly, poor, middle class, etc. “are most likely to be uninsured?” The Limbaugh listeners were “highly likely” to give an incorrect answer such as “the elderly” who, of course, are all covered by Medicare. > > But why would people so woefully lacking in the basic facts of an issue think they were the best informed? Social scientists call the phenomenon “pseudo-certainty.” I call it “being a fucking moron.”(\*) Read the whole chapter on [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) [here](http://btobsearch.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?userid=3287C2GW3I&sourceid=0039357300&btob=Y&isbn=0788161857&displayonly=chapter). ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2002, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642/20 "2002-12-18T23:21:28Z")
_ **YES** _ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-takes-rush-limbaugh-seriously/143642.md?page=2)