Rush Limbaugh Falls For Wikipedia Hoax About Judge Roger Vinson

Rush Limbaugh fell for a hoax about a federal judge based on an erroneous Wikipedia entry, according to the New York Times.

The paper reports that, on his Tuesday show, Limbaugh spent some time discussing Roger Vinson, a District Court judge for the Northern District of Florida. Vinson had recently announced that he was likely to allow a full hearing for a challenge to the federal health care bill. Limbaugh told his listeners that the judge was a longtime hunter and amateur taxidermist, and that he had once killed three brown bears and mounted their heads above the entrance to his courtroom--in order, Limbaugh said, to "instill the fear of God into the accused."

"This would not be good news" for supporters of the health care law, he added.

Unfortunately, none of that information is true.

It came from a Wikipedia user called Pensacolian--Vinson's court sits in Pensacola, Florida--who, on Sep. 13, updated Vinson's page to include these sentences:

"Vinson is an avid hunter and amateur taxidermist. After a 2002 hunting trip during which he killed three brown bears, Vinson had their heads mounted over the door through which defendants must pass to enter the courtroom. The heads were later removed following complaints by local defendants' rights groups."

The information was removed on Tuesday afternoon. Pensacolian named as the source for this information a news article which the Times found did not exist. The paper also spoke to Vinson, who corrected the record:

"But, in fact, Judge Vinson has never shot anything other than a water moccasin (last Saturday, at his weekend cabin), is not a taxidermist and, as president of the American Camellia Society, is far more familiar with Camellia reticulata than with Ursus arctos...'I've never killed a bear,' he said Wednesday, 'and I'm not Davy Crockett.'"

Comments

[GrokkusMaximus]

08:30 PM on 09/21/2010

Why did Rush Limbaugh make this recent "Wiki" gaffe?

He made this gaffe because . . . the Libs are coming to take him away, he-he, ha-ha, ho-ho . . .

From today’s Rush Limbaugh Show:

“You know what I was thinking of? I saw a picture of that TIME Magazine cover they did on me back in the nineties: "Is Rush Limbaugh Good for America?" The subhead on that headline: "Talk radio is only the beginning. Electronic populism threatens to short-circuit representative democracy." I'm thinking, looking back... What's the date of this thing? I think it was 1995. So here we are 15 years later, and how prophetic were these fearmongers at TIME? The same question asked about me in 1995 is being asked about the Tea Parties today, and it was asked about the Internet two years ago. And it's because interactive engagement in politics by people who make the country work and who love their country, scares the hell out of the ruling class. I scared the hell out of the ruling class back in 1995. Sadly, I didn't understand why. I knew they didn't like me but I didn't understand why.” – Rush Limbaugh 9/21/2010

Cont…

[GrokkusMaximus]

08:45 PM on 09/21/2010

“I wasn't thinking of ruling class. I wasn't thinking of high school cliques. I was thinking professional jealousy, and there might have been some of that. But that's really not what it was. Oh, my. What it was, what they were afraid of, was the inmates running the asylum, in their lingo. To the ruling class, this is an asylum, and we are the inmates. The people who run it are in Washington. They're the wardens or what have you, and now there's a revolution or a rebellion, and we the inmates are going to run the asylum. That's what they looked at me as in 1995. That's how they see Palin. That's how they see Beck, Levin, any of us. It's how they see the Tea Party. It is how they see conservative bloggers.” – Rush Limbaugh 9/21/2010

Limbaugh is absolutely right, of course. The smart people in America think that he, Rush Limbaugh, and his Tea Party friends, are batsh!t crazy.

[dhhh]

06:29 PM on 09/21/2010

Blood to water.....

[exeldo18]

02:56 PM on 09/21/2010

"Rush Limbaugh fell for a hoax about a federal judge based on an erroneous Wikipedia entry, according to the New York Times."

Nice trick there. Have an associate add this entry so you can get it out there and then say oops. My kids used to do that to their siblings when they were younger.

[mick e]

11:53 AM on 09/21/2010

Take another handfull of oxycodone, Rush...

[spatula]

05:47 PM on 09/20/2010

This isn't the first time Rush has had egg on his face. Last year he also fell for the "Obama's Thesis" hoax.

http://washingtonindependent.com/65015/the-obama-thesis-hoax

All the Oxycontin must be impairing his ability to learn.

[Middle Blue]

04:57 PM on 09/20/2010

Tea Party et al = Trivial Pursuit answers in 2020.

[s najder]

04:11 PM on 09/20/2010

At least Limbaugh pulled this one out of the massive Wiki, which would always be the better choice.

[Donald Rose]

01:32 PM on 09/20/2010

I'm surprised anyone still listens to that pretentious windbag. Even Wally George (Rush's Idol) could not take himself seriously all the time.

[Karpy]

02:39 PM on 09/20/2010

Those of us who enjoy hearing our impressions of current events expressed articulately and with such incredibly accuracy still listen to Great Maja Rushie. You have obviously never listened to his amazing show, or you would know that Rush never takes himself all that seriously, and that others must invent hateful or racist statements in order to claim he has said such things in endless futile attempts to slander and ruin him.
Just as the man says, he handles all such attacks with: "half my brain tied behind my back", and it is a fascinating thing to listen to.
Please give EIB (Excellence In Broadcasting) a chance, and I promise you will learn from it and come away a tad enlightened.
Say with me now "All Hail The Great Maja Rushie!

[Middle Blue]

04:58 PM on 09/20/2010

I needed a laugh today. Did you know that there is an actual language which sounds like that guy's last name?

[jtbackwoods]

11:33 AM on 09/20/2010

Most democrats and the such will be gone by after the next 2 rounds of voting.

[mcmutter]

06:02 PM on 09/20/2010

try winning an election ... outside the confederate states ....

[Hilton Alligood]

10:54 AM on 09/20/2010

Ohh what a Rush Limbaugh

[goosegoose]

05:07 PM on 09/20/2010

I agree..excuse me, I need to run to the john..I need to a big Rush..!

[Dbos]

10:16 AM on 09/20/2010

Gigantic head peanut brain,fool me once shame on you eh eh you cant fool me again.

[Karpy]

02:59 PM on 09/20/2010

Ah, but that Gigantic Head is filled with vibrant, pulsing brains. Brains that are fed unending data streams from extraordinarily efficient passive sensors arrayed around and within the incredible biological machine that feeds, supports and coveys it to points of interest. A brain that assimilates billions of terabytes of data effortlessly, and processes the information in a logical, fair manner as it delivers irrefutable, compelling conclusions and summary in flowing abundance.

So be afraid Liberal Elitist.... Be very afraid.

[Dbos]

04:24 PM on 09/20/2010

If it has to do with the brain it spits out the fair, the logical, the irrefutable, and the compelling if it has anything to do with this guy,it keeps saying lie,lie,lie.

[Mr Pena]

09:40 AM on 09/20/2010

I must say that I am "shocked" to find that Mr. Limbaugh doesn't fact-check more carefully. I really liked the bit about the stuffed bears and "fear of God." That was the most believable part.

[Duane Hanes]

09:31 AM on 09/20/2010

I'd trust Wikipedia, heck I'd trust Charley Manson, before I'd trust anyone associated with the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or any conservative American politician. Manson's psychosis prevents him from awareness of his own lies, what is the right wing's excuse?

[Kevin Vandenbroek]

09:31 AM on 09/20/2010

Reminds me of an old carpenter's aphorism: Measure twice, cut once.

[Frank Lauten]

03:22 AM on 09/20/2010

Rush and Beck put on glasses and their fans are brainless enough to think they're intellectuals. Sarah Palin does it too. But really, it's just bad porn isn't it? The old librarian gimmick. I wonder if Beck even has a prescription in his glasses?

[Vanitas1301]

08:39 AM on 09/20/2010

This is a good point, but it falls on both sides. Blind zealotry by the left, blind zealotry by the right. Politicians win in the end and we all just look silly.

[BlackWidowPilot]

10:44 AM on 09/20/2010

You're arguing a false equivalency and appealing to cynicism, citizen. Such as Limbaugh the Hutt's corporate paymasters love it when enough Americans buy that canard, that the two parties are just the same, that our votes don't matter.

Our votes do matter, but if enough Americans believe as you do, keep spewing self-defeating canards which are just an excuse to not do the legwork to fulfill our civic duties as the Founders intended, then indeed, the *corporations* such as pay Limbaugh the Hutt and his ilk to spew drivel copy-pasted from Wikipedia will win.

Keep giving in to cynicism, keep promoting defeatism as you're doing, and yes indeed, *you* and everyone else who swallows those big lies you're parroting will indeed look silly, and Limbaugh the Hutt and pals will keep laughing all the way to the bank.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[Frank Lauten]

02:04 PM on 09/20/2010

Are you a paid lobbyist?

I'm tired of paid lobbysits coming on these websites and in every article where Republicans make themselves look ridiculous arguing that Democrats are equally as bad. It's ridiculous. There is no equivalency. Republicans are a joke. They don't represent people, only corporations.

[jtbackwoods]

11:51 AM on 09/20/2010

Glen Beck and Palin 2012 I've sent a email to you for your contribution.