Radio host Rush Limbaugh dismissed a New York Times report from Sunday that compared years of his on-air rhetoric to the text of the El Paso mass shooter’s manifesto: “It think it’s a flailing attempt. I think it’s a last gasp attempt.”
According to the Times’ detailed analysis, many examples of the anti-immigrant rhetoric from Limbaugh’s radio show, as well as other right-wing media figures like Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, were also repeatedly echoed in the El Paso mass shooter’s xenophobic themes and phrases about a “Mexican invasion.”
According to Mediaite, Limbaugh, however, proclaimed himself unbothered by the striking similarities.
“I know the motivation behind it. It’s been a constant attempt by the left since I started this program to discredit me, to impugn me,” Limbaugh said. “I don’t have it in me to be righteously indignant and ‘How dare they!’ because I think this is a flailing attempt. I think it’s a last gasp attempt.”
Per the Times’documented analysis: “Limbaugh has repeatedly described the flow of migrants across the Mexico border as a flood that will overtake America with cheap labor and dilute the country’s identity.” The right-wing radio host did not try to directly refute the Times‘ facts or analysis. Instead he just simply dismissed it out of hand.
“I don’t even want to seriously credit [the Times] by having to seriously defend or react to this outrageous allegation,” Limbaugh replied. “We’ve read the guy’s manifesto, this guy who shot up in El Paso was, by no means, a fan of conservative media.”
According to Limbaugh, "These people incite the same kind of violence in their own coverage. If we’re guilty of it, then they are in spades. Of course, they never consider that they could have a role in this. I find it fascinating that we now have… This is the New York Times story: “Epstein Suicide Conspiracies Show How Our Information System Is Poisoned.” No! The Russian conspiracy hoax, the Russian collusion hoax — the “fact” that Trump was a traitor, the “fact” that Trump didn’t really win in 2016 — that has “poisoned our information system.”
"That has tarnished the integrity of our electoral system.
"That has created all kinds of rifts and strife within our culture. It is the media that’s dividing people in this country, and we are not on the offense here at all. We are simply defending ourselves and our culture and whatever when others are on the move and on the attack. But we went back. They’re worried about me because I called this invasion a flood. Not only did I use the “invasion” word, I used the word “flood.” So we went back to December 15, 2005. Senator Barack Obama held a joint press conference with Senator Mel Martinez, Republican of Florida at the time, about proposed immigration reform legislation.
Limbaugh played archived audio with Obama stating:
OBAMA: We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked. We need a guest-worker program to replace the flood of illegals. People will point to the last amnesty program that existed...
RUSH: Okay, New York Times. Why didn’t you put him in your montage? I mean, this is long ago. This is 14 years ago. The man who would become the first African-American president was talking about the “flood of illegals” coming in to the country and was advocating that we need to do something to stop it.
No comments:
Post a Comment