Presto! False Associated Press Reporting Makes Limbaugh's Bogus Pushback Sound Perfectly Reasonable
September 29, 2007 -- 1:10 PM EST // //
This is just sad.
The Associated Press has now covered the controversy surrounding Rush Limbaugh's now-infamous assertion that soldiers favoring withdrawal from Iraq are "phony soldiers." Unfortunately, the AP's reporting on Rush's pushback on the controversy is outright false -- so bad, in fact, that it goes much farther than even Rush himself did in falsifying the actual meaning of his original remarks.
As Steve Benen notes over at TPM, Limbaugh is now trying to explain away the "phony soldiers" comment by saying that he wasn't referring in general to pro-withdrawal troops, but to specific phony soldiers whom the left is using for propaganda purposes. Limbaugh has posted a transcript of the controversial radio episode, and in it, he refers to these specific "fake soldiers" later in the broadcast.
Here's how the Associated Press reported on this today:
In a transcript of Thursday's show posted on his Web site, Limbaugh said the comment followed a discussion of Jesse Macbeth, who was sentenced to five months in prison earlier this month for collecting more than $10,00 in benefits to which he was not entitled...In the AP's telling, Limbaugh says he first mentioned the specific phony soldier, and then "followed" with a reference to "phony soldiers." This description, of course, makes Limbaugh's pushback sound completely reasonable: Limbaugh says he established the specific context -- a discussion of MacBeth -- before using the controversial phrase."He became a hero to the anti-war left. They love phony soldiers, and they prop 'em up," Limbaugh said Thursday. "I was not talking ... about the anti-war movement generally. I was talking about one soldier with that phony soldier comment, Jesse MacBeth."
But this is not what Limbaugh's transcript says at all, of course. Indeed, not even Limbaugh himself is arguing this. Rather, Limbaugh's transcript shows that the mention of MacBeth came long after his initial reference to phony soldiers. He hadn't established this context first at all. This is just a pathetic error.
Limbaugh's actual explanation for what happened, of course, is also thoroughly bogus. As the transcript clearly shows, he used the phrase "phony soldiers" in direct response to his caller's complaint in general that we "never" hear from "real soldiers" who oppose the war, only troops who "spout" against the war "in the media."
What's more, even Limbaugh's caller took Limbaugh to be referring to antiwar troops in general. After Limbaugh used the phrase, the caller responded: "Phony soldiers. If you talk to any real soldier and they're proud to serve, they want to be over in Iraq, they understand their sacrifice and they're willing to sacrifice for the country." The caller himself understood Limbaugh's meaning perfectly: You're not a real soldier if you oppose the war; "any" real soldier "wants" to be in Iraq.
It's not surprising that multiple wingnut bloggers are pretending that Limbaugh's explanation is valid, as Benen notes. But for the Associated Press to misrepresent Rush's own explanation in a way that airbrushes away the controversy more effectively than even Limbaugh's own pushback does is just deeply embarrassing. Not sure I've ever seen this happen before, actually. Correction, please.
Special thanks to TPM Reader DK (not David Kurtz) for sending this in.
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