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Katie's Cross Purposes

Uur affair ended last night when Couric said that she wanted to help restore "civility" to the public discourse and then announced she would have Rush Limbaugh help with the job.
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Nation columnist, CUNY Distinguished Professor, Senior Fellow, CAP

Nation columnist, CUNY Distinguished Professor, Senior Fellow, CAP
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Altercation

Zeroing in on to the most important news in the history of the universe, Katie Couric read the news for a few minutes on CBS. Hosannah.

I really couldn't care less who reads the news, but I've always had a soft spot for Katie, particularly since I worked with her late husband on MSNBC when the station first began ten years ago, but our affair ended last night when she said that she wanted to help restore "civility" to the public discourse and then announced she would have Rush Limbaugh help with the job. I guess that's the last time I can believe anything she says--or at least make sense of it. I wonder which of Limbaugh's comments led the poohbahs at CBS, who, like NBC's "Meet the Press," decided to give Limbaugh this honor. Could it be:

  • When the shocking photos at Abu Ghraib were published, Limbaugh voiced his enthusiastic agreement with a caller that what was done at Abu Ghraib was no worse than "a college fraternity prank that stacked up naked men. Exactly," Limbaugh replied:

Exactly my point! This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of need to blow some steam off?"

  • Could it be Limbaugh when he went into business to make money making fun of the torture; selling souvenirs for what he joshingly called "Club Gitmo," where he sold mugs, bumper stickers, and "soap on a rope?"

  • Could it be when he said "the religious left ... hates and despises the God of Christianity," because "Liberals consider themselves more powerful than God?"

  • Could it be when he opined that a letter to President Bush from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad--the very same one who previously advocated "wiping Israel off the map," has referred to Israel as a "rotten, dried tree," and has dismissed the Holocaust as a "myth."-- contained, in Limbaugh's scholarly view, "some liberal Hollywood Jewish people talking points?"

  • Could it be when he said John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz, was called "one of the nation's leading wackos...in love with a dead man?"

  • Could it be when he said the Supreme Court "expelled gas" in striking down antisodomy laws in Texas. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is a "racist" for upholding affirmative action programs?

  • Could it be when claimed that women "actually wish" for sexual harassment?

  • Could it be when he said Democrats believe "the more deaths in Iraq the better?"

  • Could it be when Limbaugh told a black caller, "Take that bone out of your nose and call me back?"

  • Could it be when he said, "The NAACP should have riot rehearsals?"

  • Or what about when he announced on another occasion, "They should get a liquor store and practice robberies?"

  • Could it be when he asked "Have you ever noticed how all newspaper composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"

  • Could it be when an environmentalist died of breast cancer in 1997, Limbaugh played the sound of a buzzsaw and said the woman had "finally been cut down to size." And "she'll never be able to bark up the wrong tree again?"

  • Could it be when he compared then-teenage Chelsea Clinton to a dog?

    • Let us know, CBS, which of these comments were the ones that convinced you that Limbaugh was the right guy to "restore civility" to our political discourse. We'll wait ....

    Moving on to ABC, I'm not sure. Is this worse?

    Tell ABC to tell the truth (What %$#R@ Liberal Media?)

    Tell ABC to tell the truth (Again) Tell 'em twice.

    Tell 'em here.

    (And how about some resignations in the news division, Smart Boys, if they don't, or do the million dollar babies up there believe it's right to exploit 9/11 for the purpose of partisan, political lying?)

    (We are equal opportunity network bashers, here. Send me some NBC, particularly MSNBC horror shows and we'll print 'em too. I just don't have any handy right now.)

    Heroes or Schmucks:

    Five years ago, we thought they were heroes. Today, they must think themselves schmucks. Who but a schmuck would believe the word of George Bush and company when they say it's safe to breathe the air at Ground Zero? Ok, we didn't have all the information back then. Like a schmuck, I supported the invasion of Afghanistan, trusting Bush not to screw that up, or at least be honest about it. Ha. These people (and here) went in to rescue the workers and are now paying the same price that everyone who has ever trusted Bush has paid; betrayal. They are paying with their health. In Iraq and Afghanistan, our soldiers and are paying with their lives. Too bad for the Iraqi schmucks (and here) who trusted this president's words too. (I'll bet Tony Blair secretly wishes he had been less of schmuck, too; if he had been, he'd not be resigning in ignominy these days.) The failure, by the numbers, here. And the joke is, when they tell us of a threat, they've become impossible to believe except to the members of the media, who hype these threats for their own, indefensible reasons.

    Rest in Peace, Dewey Redman and Bernard Wohl, great New Yorkers, both.

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