WSJ reporters play dumb about Rush Limbaugh

Nothing shocking here, since the Beltway press has been committed for years to not highlighting, or even mentioning, the hate speech that anchors the turbo talker's program. Today's Journal just happens to feature a particularly illuminating case.

“The GOP's Limbaugh Dilemma,” reads the Saturday headline to the article written by Naftali Bendavid and Greg Hitt.

Here's the lead [emphasis added]:

Rush Limbaugh is right where he wants to be and right where the White House wants him: in the news. But Republicans have more mixed feelings about the controversial talk radio host's recent elevation.

I emphasized “controversial” because it was the only adjective in the entire article that describes Limbaugh's rhetoric. And no, the article does not bother to include a single quote from Limbaugh's program to illustrate why Limbaugh is considered to be controversial, or why some Republicans object to him becoming the face of the GOP.

The fact that Limbaugh just yesterday made light of Sen. Ted Kennedy's life-threatening illness? The fact that Limbaugh recently tagged some journalists as being butt boys for Obama? The fact that Limbaugh claimed Americans were being told to bend over and grab their ankles because Obama's father was black?

At the Journal, that's all been tossed down the memory hole in order to pretend that Limbaugh is simply “controversial.”