May 2, 2011

Media Duped by Limbaugh’s Phony Obama Praise

© Marco Garcia/ZUMApress.com

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It was too good—nay, too impossible—to be true.

A number of media outlets today seized on comments made by Rush Limbaugh in which the king of conservative talk radio appeared to praise President Barack Obama for his leadership in the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on Sunday. “Rush Limbaugh: ‘Thank God for President Obama,'” read a headline at Politico, which went on to report that “Limbaugh credited the president with the strategy that led to the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.” In a post titled “And Hell Freezes Over,” Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Beast noted Limbaugh’s “going out of his way to celebrate Obama’s singular role” in the bin Laden assassination. And the site Mediaite wrote that “Limbaugh opened his show today with huge praise for his President, his military, and his country. That’s right, folks. America can still get along.”

Well, not quite. At first listen, Limbaugh does in fact sound like he’s praising Obama for being the leader who “single-handedly came up with the technique in order to pull this off.” But then you remember: This is Rush Limbaugh, people. That’s not praise; it’s sarcasm at its very thickest. Here’s the video of Limbaugh’s remarks with an excerpt below it:

“You see, the military wanted to go in there and bomb as they always do. They wanted to drop missiles and drop bombs and a number of totally destructive techniques here. But President Obama, perhaps the only qualified member in the room to deal with this, insisted on the Special Forces. No one else thought of that. President Obama. Not a single intelligence adviser, not a single national security adviser, not a single military adviser came up with the idea of using SEAL Team 6 or any Special Forces.”

Limbaugh’s not lauding Obama’s role here. He’s mocking it. If you’re still not convinced, listen to Limbaugh’s reaction later in the day upon reading the reports citing his praise of the president, per Media Matters:

The guy can’t stop laughing. Even if hell had frozen over, Rush Limbaugh would still find a way to bash Obama for it.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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