Limbaugh distorts discussion between Brokaw and Rose to assert they were "trying to figure out who Obama is"
SUMMARY: Rush Limbaugh played an audio clip "montage" from Charlie Rose's interview of Tom Brokaw, in which Limbaugh asserted that Rose and Brokaw were "trying to figure out who Obama is." In fact, Limbaugh heavily edited the clip, at one point falsely suggesting that Brokaw expressed the opinion that "there's a lot about him [Obama] that we don't know," when in fact Brokaw attributed that assertion to "conservative commentators."
During the October 31 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh played an audio clip "montage" from the October 30 edition of PBS' Charlie Rose in which Limbaugh asserted that Rose and his guest, NBC Meet the Press host Tom Brokaw, were "trying to figure out who [Sen. Barack] Obama is." In fact, Limbaugh cropped the clip, distorting what Rose and Brokaw said, at one point falsely suggesting that Brokaw expressed the view that "there's a lot about him [Obama] that we don't know," when in fact Brokaw attributed that assertion to "conservative commentators."
Limbaugh played audio of Rose and Brokaw stating that they don't know Obama's "worldview":
ROSE: I don't know what Barack Obama's worldview is.
BROKAW: No, I don't know either.
ROSE: I don't know how he really sees where China is.
Rose and Brokaw actually expressed uncertainty about both Obama's and Sen. John McCain's worldviews (segments played by Limbaugh in bold):
ROSE: I care about a almost as much as you do in terms of being a political junkie, but there are questions you don't know in terms of -- I don't know what Barack Obama's worldview is, I really don't know.
BROKAW: No, no, I don't either.
ROSE: I don't know how he really sees where China is and where it wants to go and how smart he is about that, or India, or the whole global structure.
BROKAW: Well, one of the things that.
ROSE: And -- or John McCain either.
BROKAW: Yes, one of things I tried to get at in the national debate, and they began to answer it a little bit, which was -- which I think is an important question, what is the Obama doctrine and the McCain doctrine when there is a humanitarian crisis?
Limbaugh also edited a clip to falsely suggest that Brokaw stated as a matter of his own opinion that "[t]here is a lot about him [Obama] we don't know." In fact, Brokaw attributed that position to "conservative commentators." From Limbaugh's audio clip:
ROSE: What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?
BROKAW: There is a lot about him we don't know.
In fact, Brokaw said "there are conservative commentators who say there is a lot about him we don't know because we haven't asked enough tough questions." Further, Brokaw did not respond to Rose's question about "heroes of Barack Obama" in the manner Limbaugh presented; Brokaw actually responded that the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall is "a big hero" of Obama's. Brokaw's assertion "there is a lot about him we don't know" was made at a different point in the discussion, and, again, in making the statement, Brokaw was not expressing his own opinion.
From Charlie Rose (segments played by Limbaugh in bold):
ROSE: Exactly, two of them, two books. What do you make of him? Tell me what you see there. Because I was talking to a friend of mine, and he said, I see someone who is clearly aspirational, someone who is clearly bright, someone who is clearly ambitious in the best sense of that, but who is clearly cautious, and in the end, he may very well be a man of the center.
BROKAW: He is a very interesting figure in American politics. He has made very few false steps along the way, when you think about this long, difficult road that he has been on. Against the Clinton machine first, and the appearances he has made all over the country.
Sure, he has hit some speed bumps and there are conservative commentators who say there is a lot about him we don't know because we haven't asked enough tough questions, the Bill Ayers relationship, even those who say we've got to go back and explore what his drug use was.
[...]
ROSE: All right. We know people sometimes buy the books that they read, heroes they have, we know John McCain, for example, enormously admires Teddy Roosevelt, probably more than anyone else in a political sense. And really wanted to run a campaign in which Teddy would be his model, Teddy Roosevelt.
What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama, like the books?
BROKAW: Well, he -- Thurgood Marshall is a big hero of his. He has got a picture of him in his office.
ROSE: Now was that because of his central role in arguing Brown versus Board of Education?
BROKAW: Well, I think that remember Barack Obama went to Harvard Law School and taught at the University of Chicago, and there was no greater legal figure in the African-American community, or (INAUDIBLE) signs when America was changing than Thurgood Marshall. So that makes perfect sense.
From the October 31 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:*
LIMBAUGH: Now, on Charlie Rose show last night on PBS -- are they doing their pledge drive yet? PBS doing their -- because you know, without your pledge, we cannot dust. He had on Tom Brokaw last night, ladies and gentlemen. Here's a montage -- now, this is last night. As you listen to this, keep in mind everything you've heard from Brokaw and others in the drive-bys for the past six months, three months, two months, or whatever. This is a montage of Charlie Rose and Brokaw trying to figure out who Obama is.
[begin audio clip]
ROSE: I don't know what Barack Obama's worldview is.
BROKAW: No, I don't know either.
ROSE: I don't know how he really sees where China is.
BROKAW: We don't know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy.
ROSE: I don't really know. And do we know anything about the people who are advising them?
BROKAW: You know, that's an interesting question.
ROSE: He is principally known through his autobiography and through very aspirational speeches.
BROKAW: Two of them. And I don't know what kind of books he's read.
ROSE: What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?
BROKAW: There's a lot about him we don't know.
[end audio clip]
LIMBAUGH: Incredible. That's just -- let's send a journalist to find out. Why, have you guys ever thought of that, Tom? Have you ever thought about sending a reporter to find out who the guy is? Charlie, you got plenty of reporters there at PBS, at least on the radio. Have you ever thought about sending someone out to find out who he is, besides the two books? I cannot believe this. We know who his heroes are, and of course, that's the point. We know who his heroes are, we know who his alliances are with. We know who his friends are. We know that he chose them all. But to hear this -- this is last night. This is, what, four days, five days before the election. These are two of Obama's biggest media supporters. You gotta -- I gotta hear this again. This is hilarious. If it weren't so damn maddening, because the answer to this is -- hey, Tom, talk to the bureau chief in Washington, the new guy who replaced [Tim] Russert. What you do is you assign a reporter to go out and find out who Obama is.
[begin audio clip]
ROSE: I don't know what Barack Obama's worldview is.
BROKAW: No, I don't know either.
ROSE: I don't know how he really sees where China is.
BROKAW: We don't know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy.
ROSE: I don't really know. And do we know anything about the people who are advising them?
BROKAW: You know, that's an interesting question.
ROSE: He is principally known through his autobiography and through very aspirational speeches.
BROKAW: Two of them. And I don't know what kind of books he's read.
ROSE: What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?
BROKAW: There's a lot about him we don't know.
[end audio clip]
LIMBAUGH: Well we know one of his heroes is a member of the Communist Party, Frank Davis, mentored him in Hawaii. There's a lot we know, Tom. Does this not ice it? Does this not ice it? We know as much as can be known about Obama, far more than he wants us to know, and here are these two pillars of drive by journalism, "Oh no, I don't know, interesting question, Charlie. It's an interesting question." I just think -- that's true, two pillars of journalism. One has an audience and one doesn't. But it doesn't matter, they're both still pillars.
From the October 30 broadcast of PBS' Charlie Rose, taken from the Nexis database:*
BROKAW: Now John McCain, when I asked him the other day about defending her, he said, not just defending her.
ROSE: I know, he said that in.
BROKAW: I admire her and wanted to make that clear. So he is not backing away in any way.
ROSE: All right. Barack Obama, we know his him because he has been in the public view for a long time. He is principally known through his autobiography and through very aspirational speeches.
BROKAW: Two of them.
ROSE: Exactly, two of them, two books. What do you make of him? Tell me what you see there. Because I was talking to a friend of mine, and he said, I see someone who is clearly aspirational, someone who is clearly bright, someone who is clearly ambitious in the best sense of that, but who is clearly cautious, and in the end, he may very well be a man of the center.
BROKAW: He is a very interesting figure in American politics. He has made very few false steps along the way, when you think about this long, difficult road that he has been on. Against the Clinton machine first, and the appearances he has made all over the country.
Sure, he has hit some speed bumps and there are conservative commentators who say there is a lot about him we don't know because we haven't asked enough tough questions, the Bill Ayers relationship, even those who say we've got to go back and explore what his drug use was.
ROSE: Even though Senator McCain had a chance to do that very thing and ask him about it in one of the debates.
BROKAW: And did not. He chose not to go there. And look, he is a very smart guy, I love this phrase "postmodern," even though I don't know what it means.
[...]
ROSE: All right. We know people sometimes buy the books that they read, heroes they have, we know John McCain, for example, enormously admires Teddy Roosevelt, probably more than anyone else in a political sense. And really wanted to run a campaign in which Teddy would be his model, Teddy Roosevelt.
What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama, like the books?
BROKAW: Well, he -- Thurgood Marshall is a big hero of his. He has got a picture of him in his office.
ROSE: Now was that because of his central role in arguing Brown versus Board of Education?
BROKAW: Well, I think that remember Barack Obama went to Harvard Law School and taught at the University of Chicago, and there was no greater legal figure in the African-American community, or (INAUDIBLE) signs when America was changing than Thurgood Marshall. So that makes perfect sense.
You know, it is an interesting question. I don't know what books he has read. I know that he has got a great curious mind. So does John McCain, by the way, he has always got a book in his hand. Mark Salter, who is a first-rate writer, is his --
ROSE: And his best friend, yes, right.
BROKAW: -- alter ego, and they are trading book ideas constantly. So that is an interesting question.
[...]
ROSE: Foreign policy, economic crisis will stand out, but there is also enormous challenge here, have we had a serious debate about foreign policy in this country?
BROKAW: No. We have not had -- there are a number of issues that have not come up. John McCain believes in the league of democracy, putting together a separate group to push against Russia. Charles Krauthammer wrote that that was -- he couldn't say, and I can, as Charles put it, he said, that is designed to kill the United Nations, which is a good idea, we need to examine that very carefully.
We don't know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy. China has been not examined at all.
ROSE: At all.
BROKAW: Which is astonishing.
ROSE: But do we know about what they think? I mean, it is more likely we we'll know more about John McCain, because he has been speaking about foreign policy, just over a longer time. But I really don't know -- and do we know anything about the people who are advising them, I mean, in terms of whether Susan Rice and where they are? And then who -- do we know who might populate these governments?
BROKAW: Tony Lake, who worked in the Clinton administration, Dick Holbrooke, obviously, is eager to be involved in the briefings. There are some kind of neutral foreign policy specialists in the academies and in the Council of Foreign Relations that Barack Obama has been reaching out to.
John McCain has been reaching out to those think tanks and institutions that are --
ROSE: AEI and others.
BROKAW: -- right-of-center. So, sure, we do know -- who do we know is going to land as secretary of state? No, I don't think we know that yet. I had Colin Powell on 10 days ago, who was endorsing Obama at that time, and I raised with him the idea of going back into government service.
[...]
ROSE: I mean, Time magazine did a cover story called "Does Temperament Matter?", which is part of that -- I mean, part of that because it is said -- I mean, there are so many things that I don't know, you know, in terms of the make-up of -- we have gone through this long campaign.
I care about a almost as much as you do in terms of being a political junkie, but there are questions you don't know in terms of -- I don't know what Barack Obama's world view is, I really don't know.
BROKAW: No, no, I don't either.
ROSE: I don't know how he really sees where China is and where it wants to go and how smart he is about that, or India, or the whole global structure.
BROKAW: Well, one of the things that.
ROSE: And -- or John McCain either.
BROKAW: Yes, one of things I tried to get at in the national debate, and they began to answer it a little bit, which was -- which I think is an important question, what is the Obama doctrine and the McCain doctrine when there is a humanitarian crisis?
We are going through one this week in the Congo again. I raised the Congo as an example of that. And the use of American military forces to intervene if we have no national security stake in all of that. And they both said in kind of the broadest possible terms, well, we should help out.
But you didn't get the impression that they were going to go pull the trigger on that in the next day. That is an important discussion for this country to have.
ROSE: Well, and if you look at Rwanda and where you have been, I remember at some point I saw you off on a trip to Rwanda, I think, and the former secretary-general of the United Nations has said, we made mistakes. The president of the United States has said, we made mistakes.
Surprise - more lies. In the picture of him shown here, I think he's demonstarting either the size of the sandwich he had at lunch OR the size of that cyst on his a$$.
Or the size of the OxyContin pill he took last night....
...or the amount of Viagra he has to take before he travels to the Dominican Republic, just to get 'it' to work.
Or he was demonstrating how he expects all the other right-wing talk radio hosts to kiss his a$$.
..or the amount of Viagra he has to take before he travels to the Dominican Republic, just to get 'it' to work.
It was Cialis, and it was only one. There was only one missing.
It was Cialis, and it was only one. There was only one missing.
No, it was Viagra. Here's a link to Jeff Christie's sworn affidavit, courtesy of The Smoking Gun - it's way too big to post the image here:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0706062rush1.html
Or the size of the OxyContin pill he took last night....
How much of that stuff does it take to overdose?
More lies from Jeff Christie - the "man" who still hasn't told his faithful listeners the truth about his arrest in the company of a male prostitute in Pittsburgh back in the '70s.......
WZ. I'm glad to know that i'm not the only one yelling at the radio when the likes of LIMBAUGH, HANNITY, AND LEVIN ARE ON . I can only stand a couple of minutes of these clowns before i have to turn the channel.
He does seem angry. He also seems to be moving into an area of pure propaganda that's so clumsy it can't be designed to win over any new listeners,only to stabilize the already infected.
I heard the closing minutes of his show today, in which he advised his monkeys to let fear motivate them in the voting booth tomorrow. I then heard the opening of Seannie the Sissie's show. He told his bedwetting puss patrol that fear should be their driving force as well.
They're not even trying to disguise it as tough talk anymore. They're just telling their audience of weaklings and submissive to be afraid.. be very afraid, and let that fear take care of any scrap of rational thought they may have ever had.
Maybe Sean and Rush took my advice to tell their minions to embrace their inner bedwetter.
I flip between Ed Schultz and Limbaugh during lunch, just to get the two perspectives. I find it difficult to listen to Rush as I can hear him constantly drop his hamhock fists on his desk. Then I had to laugh out loud at his ridiculous suggestion that "someone" is adjusting the reverb on the microphones when Obama is giving speeches to give him an "almighty" air. Rush is just a sad sack of goo.
I listen to Tom Hartmann if I'm on the road, and flip to Rush during the commercials. It's a pretty hilarious study in contrast.
For starters, it's like going from a college classroom to an elementary school special ed. class, as far as the level of the material.
The other difference is in the "reality ratio". Hartmann gives his opinions freely, but his show's loaded with facts, history, numbers that are relevant to the topic. Rush's strawman showdown is mostly made up of his brutal attacks on things he's imagined about "The Left".
The good part about El Show De Rushbo is that you can get the gist of the whole thing just by tuning in for a minute or two. Sort of like a minute of Sesame Street, if you're an adult you get it without all of the simplification, explanation and repetition.
Like limpaugh, Hannity's daily tripe-fest can is little more than a thimble-full of thought interrupted by commercials over a 3-hour period. Heard him today (yes, on purpose), left the truck, went inside for about 20 minutes, came back out, and it was like he had courteously stopped just for little ol' me, and waited to finish his sentence after I came back out again.
Now I realize we're not dealing with the sharpest bulb short of a load here, but surely even HE could memorize more stuff. I would think that when you're just making it up anyway, there's an infinite amount of material to talk about. Then I realize what their target audience is, and I see that it's a match made in heaven. Your typical conservative shallow thinker, with Limpaugh as the Guru, Hannity as the loudmouth peer.
Funny I just saw Obama on Saturday night down here in deep red southwest Missouri and I heard no reverb during his speech but I did see almost 40,000 people at the speech. The right wing is just upset that they can't trick people any more.
All DJs process their own voices on the air. It's the standard in broadcasting. Been that way for years. People don't really sound like that.
Call him up some day and ask him if he does it on his own show.
To be fair, I noticed the reverb thing too, even before Limbaugh mentioned it. I mean, someone has to mix the sound, no candidate would get on a stage without a competent sound engineer to make sure they sound good and they all use theatrical devices to set the tone. It bothered me a little, but I'm much more interested in what he's saying than how he presents it. This obsession about the reverb seems to be missing the point. Which is the point, of course, to distract you from what he's saying.
And likewise, as another poster mentioned, the Rose and Brokaw are discussing criticism that they haven't gone after Obama the way they've gone after McCain and Palin. It's a legitimate point, I mean why hasn't anyone asked Obama what he reads to keep informed? I think the answer might be interesting. But rather than play that angle, Limbaugh has to doctor the recording and fraudulently make it appear to be about something else. He makes no sense, I gave up listening to him 15 years ago because I always felt uneasy and misinformed afterwards.
I've read numerous articles in the last few years about what both Obama and McCain read. There was another article about presidential candidates reading pfrerences in today's NY Times.
McCain likes Hemmingway, Obama Stienbeck. Both are fond of Robert Penn Warren's "All The Kings Men".
Neither mentioned Vonnegut, unfortunately.
A perfect example of Rush shamelessly deceiving his audience. I'm no sound engineer but i've been around live sound enough to know a little about reverb. Reverb is an audio effect that is added to a dry signal for the purpose of artificially replicating the effect that naturally occurs when live sound is recorded in a venue and reverberates within that space, thus re-enforcing the signal. In many situations, there is also an unavoidable delay or echo due to loudspeaker placement. I witnessed this effect first hand during Obama's appearance in Denver's Civic Center Park the other day.
The point is that when recording audio of these Obama addresses in outdoor spaces with these huge temporary sound systems necessary to reach the tens of thousands of attendees, even the most experienced engineer couldn't possible capture anything even close to a dry signal. On the contrary, the signal would be hopelessly, irrevocably soaked with naturally occuring reverb, delay, and echo. Rush knows this, yet finds it necessary to lie, while at the same time citing his own supposed expertise, to dupe people like my otherwise rational father into thinking Obama is not what he appears. I've noticed that Rush begins a lot of his diatribes with the phrase "Let me tell you how you should be look at this, folks." A liberal conspiracy hiding around every corner. Sorry, Dad. I love you, but you've been punked.
I think it depends on the feed. A couple days ago, I was watching Obama on CNN and then they cut away to talk about it. I still wanted to watch the speech so I switched to C-SPAN and noticed immediately that the sound had a lot of reverb, so much so that it was distracting. So, it looks like it's the news source that is doing the mixing, not Obama's campaign.
This is fabulous. Nobody really knows who Obama is, not even the media! LOL. After listening to the audio, I don't understand where the "distortion" is?
Funny, Zam! Nice caricature of the 'clueless voter'.
I second that, Kyle. Maybe a bit over the top, I mean, some adults might not spot the BS while listening to Rush's version, but it's a little hard to believe somebody could be confused after listening to the real interview.
No, I guess you wouldn't.
HAHA! I guess everything in regards to "Obama" is taken out of context, right? Not a big fan of Limbaugh, but this was beautiful reporting on his part. I wish some of the people in the MSM would work so diligently. Oh, and I can always tell when Limbaugh has done something well: people start talking about Oxycontin ad nauseam.
Let's just put it this way: I dropped my ballot off at the Clerk's Office this morning and voted for Obama; McCain never appealed to me at all. However, I have not been pleased with the way reporters such as Brokaw et. Al. have been so biased in their praise for a man that they obviously still don't know a lot about. Personally, I am going with my gut feeling that Obama is ok. But as journalists, I think people like Brokaw have let this country down. I hope it gets better and not worse.
So let me see if I understand - it wasn't Bush and Cheney and Libby and Plame and Iraq and wiretaps and McCain and flip flops and torture and bailouts and Gonzales and Rove and deceit and contempt and Brown and FISA and the half-a$$ed reporting done regarding those issues. It was what you feel you still don't know about Obama that has you doubting the press?
I MUST be wrong...
If the press had done its job, we would have never been in Iraq. Right after 911, the press was SO AFRAID to report anything critical about Bush, his policies, the possibility that it was Arab's and not Iraq that did the hijacking etc that America was forced into the war that we are still in today. Since then, I take anything I hear in the news with a grain of salt (and an Aspirin).
Obama's grandmother in Hawaii died today. Let's see if Rush even tries to weasel out of the stories he was telling about Obama going to Hawaii to fix his birth certificate.
Limbaugh better just shut up about the grandmother dying. He always gets himself into trouble when he touches sensitive stuff like that. Michael J. Fox anyone? I personally think it is a cruel act by nature have her die ONE DAY before her son possibly wins the Presidency. What are the chances of that???
He'll probably say Obama hired someone to kill her like the Clintons killed Vince Foster, right ;)?
The Freepers are already at it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2124024/posts
"before her son possibly wins the Presidency"
Her grandson
I actually saw the Rose/Brokaw exchange.
They WERE trying to cover their butts- about their not VETTING Obama.
The main stream media- never disappoints.
First they try to try to mislead the people into voting in this FRAUF who is Obama- now they are making excuses. Pitiful.
McCain -Palin 2008
Or say goodbye to the nation and your freedoms as you know them now.
Which freedoms, BB? The freedom to make a phone call without fear of your phone being tapped by the government? The freedom to cover the Republican National Convention as a journalist? The ability to have an AG who defends habeus corpus? What is a Frauf anyway? Is that a clever pun for a German woman?
I'll choose option B, saying goodbye to the nation, and freedom, as I know it now. I can't wait to get rid of BushWorld and start getting America back.
Or say goodbye to the nation and your freedoms as you know them now.
I can't wait for the Obama Administration to repeal the PATRIOT Act so we can get our freedoms back. And reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine so the truth will win out over the lies that abound on right-wing talk radio.
Typical Pigboy Bullsh*t. He does this on a regular basis.
As I've said before, I think it's an inside joke for him and his cronies.... he plays an audio clip, then lies about it in his commentary immediately afterward, just to prove what zombies his listeners really are. Then he takes numerous calls from outraged sycophants agreeing with his assessment and wondering how they could possibly survive Marxist America without him.
A few weeks ago, he did the same thing with a Brokaw clip. Brokaw was commenting on the financial crisis, speculating how society would react. Brokaw said that we, as a society, might have to rethink how we use credit, and ask ourselves how big a house we really need, do we really need that new car right now, etc. He was clearly advocating restraint and common sense in using credit (a fiscally CONSERVATIVE viewpoint, by the way).
Rush came on immediately after the clip and accused Brokaw of saying that government would need to dictate the size of house we would be allowed to buy. It was a brazen, obvious lie..... Limbaugh's specialty.
It was a brazen, obvious lie..... Limbaugh's specialty.
And more often than not, it seems that Sean Hannity listens to Jeff Christie's show and spews the EXACT SAME GARBAGE for three more hours. And then M. Rotten Levin spews it for two additional hours, shouting all the time.
It will be fun listening to them tomorrow, after their boy Gramps goes down in flames......
And then the local wannabees repeat it the next morning. This repetition is how they protect their dittobot zombies from the perils of critical thinking.
If Obama wins, I plan to take a long lunch tomorrow and listen to the whinefest on Pigboy Limbaugh's show. If McCain wins, I think I'll have to give up politics for a while. If the polls are that far off, or the Republicans can steal an election that openly, then our political system is broken.
After today, the knuckle draggers will get an answer to the question they're been asking, "Who is Obama?"
The answer?
The President Elect of The United States of America.
And the other question may be "Who is Sarah Palin?"
The answer; "Who?"
If Obama wins, wouldn't it be funny if he took the stage, spread his arms and said: "Caaaaaaan youuuuuuu dig iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit?"
I think it would be classic.