Right-Wing Media Already Feeding Its Post-Election Anger

An article in Sunday's Los Angeles Times takes a look at how the right-wing media is responding to Obama's victory last week. Already, it seems, the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have started to rile up their listeners/viewers by going after Obama. The relationship of Fox News and the Obama administration will be particularly interesting to watch, given that Fox News was cut out of the questioning at the first Obama press conference. As for Obama's harshest critics among fellow politicians, the New York TImes reported yesterday on how many of them have, for various reasons, rushed to praise him.

From the LA Times:

Opening his first post-election rant against the president-elect, Limbaugh launched in with a certain relish. "The game," he told his radio listeners, "has begun."

Sean Hannity, on the other hand, insisted on feigning a post-election detente, telling his Fox News television audience last week, "I want Barack Obama to succeed."

Didn't he think anyone would notice that, just a moment later, he was back parroting the failed campaign argument that Obama is a "mystery"?

"I fear [this] is the guy that has these radical associations 20 years ago," Hannity added, an odd way of demonstrating support for the new commander in chief.

KEEP READING


Heard any other big names already turning up the vitriol against Obama? Let us know.

Comments

[TruckerJohn]

Hello Conservatives! It was your guys (Bush snr and Cheney) all those years ago selling weapons to Saddam in Iraq for a healthy profit, so who is the supporter of terrorists?

[firelord5000]

Actually it was the US government, supplying weapons to Iraq to fight Iran. It was the US government financing Taliban to fight Russia. If you think about it realistically, all the problems we faced are our own creations, we used them, and abandoned them, thinking washing our hands was enough... yet those problems keep coming back to haunts us. You can blame all you want GOP for that, but it takes 2 hands to clap, and Democrats are as liable as GOP.

[bnye]

Not for Chuck Norris.

[lorenzo48]

its amazing how we create our enemies, but a trillion {that we know of} a year on defense spending must be justified somehow

[janh64tx]

True - we really are like 8 month old puppies. Excitable, easily distracted, our attention span can be broken with shiny objects, a dramatic news story, or a free concert :-)

We have a history of choosing sides based on the most recent history, not necessarily considering the last 100 years of events. This often leaves us in precarious situations in other countries. (Yet here in our own country we have no problem citing flaws and failures from 200 years ago ad nauseam !!!)


Take Iraq, for example - every time our politicians ramped up the "get out now" rhetoric, the locals would clam up and stop supporting the US. Why? Gee, maybe because they remember what happened to the Kurds. We encouraged them to RISE UP before, then we left Saddam in power, abandoned them, and thousands died. That was not merely a BUSH/Republican plan - that was an AMERICAN plan to those who lost families, communities, etc.

[JLM23]

I can't agree more with ThirdEye's comments. It will take some time for the loosers of this election to realize that the time of bipartisan, hard and constructive work has began. The country has chosen, leaving no room for Mr. Limbaugh's negative and fearmongering comments to be effective.

[navymike]

Actually JLM, the popular vote figures are clear evidence how strongly divided this country remains. Once the lovefest for BO subsides, and the media removes its rose-colored glasses, expect more of the same partisan bickering.

[Urner]

Best analysis of where the right is headed. Not a pretty picture for any of us.

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2008/11/sarah-palin-is-the-future-of-conservatism.html

[janh64tx]

Not so fast - the liberals may WISH she is the face of the new party, I have much higher hopes.
I'm hoping for a Bobby Jindal - if he can check his social conservatism at the door when it comes to personal freedom. He has the right message for economic growth, government efficiency, etc.

[uvymopkq]

One man's hate speech is another man's freedom of speech.

[Faultline]

Wrong! Hate speech is hate speech and freedom of speech does not mean that you are free to spread malicious lies and (yes) hate. Rush Limbaugh cares about one thing and one thing only: Rush Limbaugh. As long as people continue to tune in to his pathetic brand of manure, Rush will be more than happy to squeeze it out. Hopefully, however, we have learned our lessons since the Clinton years. His lies and slander cannot remain unanswered. Not even for a second. Anyone who thinks that the fringe right is going to be in the least bit courteous should pay a little visit to townhall.com. They are most certainly spoiling for a fight. Progressives need to show that they are not going to be cowed by a bunch of irrational bullies and that if it's a fight they want, we won't back down this time.

[byny2000]

We need more journalists like Keith Olberman to stand up to these jerks.
http://collegedemsny.com/blog/?p=346

[ThirdEye]

Life would be so boring without the Yin and Yang. You've got to give these guys some credit for trying even though they're a couple of babbling idiots preaching Fear and Hate to a slowly diminishing minority audience.

[diagonal]

I don't give them any more "credit" than the guy selling "Sham-wow". Don't elevate these "hate-entertainers" to anything above cheap entertainment. If neighbor A and neighbor B are loudly yelling at each other, the whole neighborhood comes out to watch. That's all these guys are..yelle­rs. Whatever sticks. They get negative credit, since what passes as "reason and information" is often truly, terribly WRONG...es­pecially the economics.

Anyone saying something about content and "What Rush said.." the best response is,
"He's an entertainer. He'd say the Earth is getting a second moon, if it would help his ratings. For entertainment purposes ONLY!"

[DeejTu]

I'm in total agreement with your post...it'­s entertainment only and that is the reason for their garbage. But there are so many people out there that simply can not or will not see things that way and those are the ones we need to watch out for. Somehow, their shows have to be toned down or taken off the air before there is a tragedy.

[Moffie]

Let's not forget that Rush Limbaugh owes his success to Bill (and Hillary) Clinton. I'm sure he is delighted that there is a Democrat in the White House again. The Bush years must have been lean times for him.

[ceasespin]

FixNewsNow.org offers a solution for tempering the Hannity O'Reilly Rush problem. Visit the site and sign the FCC News Quality Rating System petition. It's considered a media reform "break out" solution that has a great chance to succeed.

learn more at fccliesins.org, ceasespin.org or FixNewsNow.org

[janh64tx]

Hey Ceasespin - there is a big difference between talk shows (which clearly state they are giving OPINIONS) and NEWS ROOM JOURNALISTS.

Rush does not claim to be a journalist. He COMMENTS on the news. My god - don't you see the difference?

[janh64tx]

Oh - nay - nay - your new leader opposes the fairness doctrine.

Must...Not­...Go...Ag­ainst....D­ear...Lead­er....

[shadow322]

I'll bet Rush is already popping pills again.

[spazz]

My question is why do Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh hate America?..­....Love it or leave it.

[retmarut]

Right on! Let them move to Canada and worship at the Neiman-Marcus-shod feet of Sarah Palin.

[LSP]

Rush Limbaugh will never allow this country to be united as long as he has anything to do with it. He's like a devil's disciple - spreading misery, hatred and divisiveness.

I believe Barack Obama can, and will, usher our nation into a new era of change. For the first time in 8 years we are feeling that this is OUR nation again and we can be proud of it. But most important, we have hope.

And the one thing we do NOT need right now is Rush Limbaugh, doing his best to spoil it. The majority of this country has had enough of that. Even the GOP now knows they are going to have to make some changes or they will die out like dinosaurs.

I can't think of a better way to start than with Rush Limbaugh. Show him the door. We should ALL show him the door.

[4LeafClover]

Right on, LSP.

[Ipanemagirl]

We need people to turn away from Fox news and Rush limbaughs and O'reilleys, before we can make any real progress in this country. Fake news should not be encouraged!

[foofy]

LSP, you are so right. Rush Limbaugh and Fixed News needs to be marginalized, they are a pathetic minority. Ignore them, they have too long fanned the fires of hatred, lies and scare tactics. They have hijacked our country and turned Americans against each other. It is time we took back our Proud Nation. THEIR WORST FEAR IS THAT WE WILL ALL WORK TOGETHER FOR A BETTER AMERICA. THEY MAKE THEIR LIVING BY DIVIDING US. STOP FANNING THE FLAMES OF FEAR AND TURN THEM OFF. WRITE TO THEIR ADVERTISERS AND STOP BUYING THE PRODUCTS ADVERTISED ON THEIR SHOWS.

[AllenAllen]

I wonder sometimes if he is an agent of a hostile foreign power.

[EseAncianoSharqui]

Hannity is to free speech what halitosis is to breathing.

[LAThinker]

Setting up for years of failures

http://www.ucubd.com/Index.aspx?id=886&cid=3168

[STUPIDgit]

That was great! Thought I was tired of Palin/McCain stuff but that was very well done.

[Cynicon]

Molly, you are absolutely correct. I'm not sure when it happened but too much of the media has shifted from reporting on politics to trying to play an active role in determining outcomes. Further, they are supported wholeheartedly in their new role by sites like this -- who are so desperate to install their lefty agenda that they willingly abandon their principles if it means they can get their people into office. Case in point: I did not see one MSM outlet (or this website for that matter) calling out Obama for ditching public financing of his campaign. When the Republicans outraised Dems, the MSM and lefty blogs were all for limiting the candidates to publice financing. Now that it is reversed, not a peep. In fact, you saw people bragging about how much money Obama raised.
2004 -- "We need to get the dirty, private financing money out of politics!"
2008 -- "It's too bad Obama had to ditch public financing, but isn't it great how much money he raised?"
One thing about abandoing your principles -- it's hard to get them back.

[Vigla]

Sour grapes.

Bottom line is Obama collected money from millions of Americans, not wealthy interests like Republicans. Do you deny that the RNC collected quite a bit of money to keep the McCain campaign afloat? Had Obama chosen public financing, he would have been at a substancial disadvantage since the DNC did not have the warchest like the RNC had.

Quit trying to pull a fast one on us. We're too smart for that here.

[retmarut]

Yes, but given the racism I saw on posts all over the web, Obama needed every dime of that campaign fund, or he would have been swift-boated and beyond.

[lvdragonlady]

Who in the heck let Rush out of his cage? That man is a blight on America and his mouth needs to be washed out with soap, for all the lies he tells.

[Cynicon]

Name one lie, please.

[4LeafClover]

He lied up the ying-yang about all his pill popping and where he was geting his pills, until he had no other choice but to come clean or go to jail. What a hypocrite.­... go ahead, Cynicon, defend him, he needs people like you to survive and feed his fat belly.

[leolabeth]

Ummm. Did you even read the LAT story linked in the main post?

[Vigla]

He lied in 2006 when he had to "carry water" for Republicans just because, well, they had an "R" after their name. He clearly didn't want to, but he kept on plugging them every day until after the elections. The man has no soul.

[lynettema]

His lips are moving? He lies!

[uvymopkq]

They can't name one.......­but they can lie about it.