Limbaugh: Women “Actually Wish” for Sexual Harassment
Limbaugh: “A Chavez is a Chavez. We've Always Had Problems with Them”

In December 2002, columnist E. J. Dionne argued that nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh's “new respectability is the surest sign that the conservative talk network is now bleeding into what passes for the mainstream media.” [Dionne column, The Washington Post, 12/6/02] In January 2003, Dionne declared, “Rush Limbaugh has now been mainstreamed.” [CNN, Reliable Sources, 1/4/03]

Recent coverage of Limbaugh in The Washington Post and The New York Times confirms Dionne's contention that Limbaugh is enjoying a newfound respectability in the mainstream media.

For example, on April 26, The Washington Post described Limbaugh simply as a “Republican”; on April 24, the Post described Limbaugh as a “radio commentator” but did not mention Limbaugh's party affiliation or ideology. And on March 23, the paper reported Vice President Dick Cheney's guest appearance on Limbaugh's show but did not even mention Limbaugh's party affiliation or ideology.

Likewise, New York Times articles from March 23, March 24, and March 25 referred to Cheney's appearance on “the syndicated Rush Limbaugh radio program” or, alternatively, “Rush Limbaugh's radio program.”

Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz, however, apparently thinks that Limbaugh's acceptance by the mainstream media is not the result of having “been mainstreamed” but, rather, that Limbaugh simply is “mainstream.”

In 2002, after Senator Tom Daschle criticized Limbaugh for his “attacks” on public figures, Kurtz said on CNN that Limbaugh criticizes Democrats “mostly about policy. Not in a way, to my ear at least that much different than you hear on the cable shout shows every night.” [CNN, Inside Politics, 11/21/02] Kurtz also defended Limbaugh in his "Media Notes" column on Washingtonpost.com:

Has Tom Daschle lost a couple of screws? Did the normally mild-mannered senator accuse Rush Limbaugh of inciting violence? He came pretty darn close. There were cameras there. You can watch the replay.

We can understand that Daschle is down, just having lost his majority leader's job and absorbed plenty of blame for this month's Democratic debacle.

What we can't understand is how the South Dakotan can suggest that a mainstream conservative with a huge radio following is somehow whipping up wackos to threaten Daschle and his family.

Has the senator listened to Rush lately? Sure, he aggressively pokes fun at Democrats and lionizes Republicans, but mainly about policy. He's so mainstream that those right-wingers Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert had him on their Election Night coverage.

Is Limbaugh really the policy-focused “mainstream conservative” Kurtz portrays him to be? Or is Dionne right that Limbaugh has “been mainstreamed” -- that is, he's as extreme as ever and has been granted unjustified “new respectability” by the media?

Media Matters for America monitored The Rush Limbaugh Show from March 15 to April 29. During that time, Limbaugh used the term “femi-Nazis” eight times; he suggested that women want to be sexually harassed; he repeatedly equated Democrats with terrorists; he twice resurrected long-discredited right-wing claims that Clinton deputy White House counsel Vince Foster was murdered; he repeatedly called Senator John Kerry a “gigolo”; he called environmentalists “total wackos”; he called Howard Dean “a very sick man”; he said Democrats “hate this country”; he referred several times to Democratic National Committee Chair Terry McAuliffe as a “punk” ... and so on.

On March 17, Limbaugh -- referring to remarks made by Senator John Kerry that were picked up by a microphone -- told listeners, “I'm proud to be a member of the lying crook Republican attack machine.” One week later, Limbaugh reassured his listeners that his radio program is “a choo-choo train of truth.”

We report. You decide. Below, Media Matters for America has listed 77 recent comments that Rush Limbaugh made on-air during the national broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show [with the show's air date in brackets].

Limbaugh Makes Sexist Comments:

1) Some of these babes, I'm telling you, like the sexual harassment crowd. They're out there protesting what they actually wish would happen to them sometimes. [4/26/04]

2) Will it be the Democratic insiders' dream of Kerry and John Edwards? Or maybe the media's dream team of Kerry and John McCain. Or will it be the femi-Nazi dream team of Kerry and Hillary. [4/5/04]

3) Some funny comments from the femi-Nazis at the pro-abortion rally in Washington yesterday. Not many. It didn't take long for us to put together our montage, but we'll let you hear it when we come back. [4/26/04]

4) Oh, if you missed the “morning update” today, the femi-Nazis have really stepped into it. Karen Hughes just said some of the -- well, the most innocent, true, great stuff. And the femi-Nazis have assumed she was comparing them to the terrorists, which she wasn't. But now they've linked themselves with the terrorists. [4/29/04]

5) [W]e got the femi-Nazi uprising over comments made by Karen Hughes. [4/29/04]

6) Today's morning update, for those of you who missed it, let me share it with you. Angry Democrats and radical femi-Nazis are demanding an apology from Karen Hughes, presidential adviser, over some remarks that she made on CNN. Now, since very few people watch CNN any more, let me tell you what she said. While the femi-Nazis' pro-abortion march was taking place in Washington on Sunday, Karen Hughes, on CNN, was asked how the issue of abortion would play in the elections. [4/29/04]

7) So, to Eleanor Squeal [sic-“Smeal”] and the Pro-Choice crowd, the femi-Nazis who marched in such rage and anger on Sunday, we're so sorry. [4/29/04]

8) What is Eleanor Squeal [sic-“Smeal”] doing? Shut up. [4/29/04]

9) On Hannity & Colmes last week, Sean Hannity asked Patricia Ireland, who I guess was most recently with the Young Women's Christian Association, ahem, about placards reported in the crowd among the pagan ladies. [4/29/04]

10) The purpose -- Al Gore wants this channel to create a liberal version of the FOX News channel. We've already got CNN. We got CNN Headline News. We've got, for all intents and purposes, PMS-NBC. [4/5/04]

11) Well, Rich Lowry has a column today, National Review Online, and Time magazine has just discovered that stay-at-home moms are women who have made legitimate choices to stay home and raise their young children -- a cover story. Time magazine has headlined the case for staying home, and the magazine, according to Lowry, reports without sneering or condescension, the trend toward more new mothers leaving the workforce. Yes, it's a trend. It started years ago when the feminist movement decided that their best friends were going to be German shepherds. You know. So that's -- well, it's true. You go to the right airports and you can see it. [3/19/04]

12) Several liberal Democrats, most of whom did not support Kerry during the primaries, asked his national chair babe, former Governor Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, who was appearing at a House Democrat caucus meeting, why the Party's presumptive presidential nominee has not responded more forcefully to Republican broadsides on his patriotism and his service in Vietnam. [4/29/04]

13) All right, there's a story here from The Washington Post, Lois Romano, who've I've -- I've dealt with Lois Romano, but she was pretty good. Pretty good reporterette. [4/9/04]

14) That was Star Jones, resident member of The View, recently engaged -- from what I'm told, amazingly so -- and she's joking about sending a weapon of mass destruction at Bush. And here these babes are all upset that they're going to miss American Idol tonight. Well, tough toenails! Going to miss -- ? You liberals have been out there demanding and clamoring to see Bush put himself through this, and now he's doing it, and you're all bent out of shape that he's going to force you to miss American Idol? What is your IQ, about that of a pencil eraser? [4/13/04]

15) Oh, gosh, that hurts, my friends. It reminds me of my first wife. Ah! Gee! It is just painful to hear this, and then she [Hillary Clinton] starts yelling everywhere -- Dawn, you can smile. She's in there shaking her head. She's -- she's here in a den of sexists, folks, and she puts up such a game front. Chauvinists, I should say. We're not sexists, we're chauvinists -- we're male chauvinist pigs, and we're happy to be because we think that's what men were destined to be. We think that's what women want. [4/15/04]

16) Then here comes this Joe Wilson clown whose wife was the CIA babe that Novak ostensibly was responsible for spreading information of her identity. [4/5/04]

17) Now if Hilary does become Kerry's VP, will she have to change her positions to be on the same page with Kerry or will Kerry have to change his? (laughter) Don't forget that testicle lock box, folks. (laughter) Just as we haven't talked about it in awhile does not mean (laughter) that it's -- that it's been buried. [4/15/04]

18) If I were Bob Woodward, I would be on a lookout for Mrs. Clinton and her testicle lockbox, because she has just been snookered, like every other Liberal, by believing what Woodward says is in his book in these interviews, as opposed to what's actually in these books, or this book, because it's exactly what she claims she needs in an administration. [4/21/04]

Limbaugh Makes Racially Charged Comments:

19) And then what if -- there are all kinds of little Communist regimes in -- what if [Fidel] Castro shows up and says I endorse Kerry? The Black Caucus would like that, but Kerry wouldn't. [3/19/04]

20) Look. It's one thing to say you like it. It's OK. But to try to pass this off as something that you've intellectually examined and have assigned value you to -- ah, sorry, Senator [Kerry]. And I'm not going to believe this business that you don't like heavy metal. I mean, I think heavy metal's probably your anthem. You know, from the Vietnam era and all that. But here, again, don't stand up for white music. Associate yourself with rap. [4/5/04]

21) The -- the gang culture has given us rap, elements of rap, or rap has influenced -- whichever. They are intertwined. [4/7/04]

22) OPEC announced a cancellation of its 10 percent cutback in production so -- and there's some little strife going on in Venezuela with that wacko, Cesar Chavez, down there. Hugo. Hugo, Cesar -- whatever. A Chavez is a Chavez. We've always had problems with them. So the bottom line is that I don't think supplies are going to be interrupted. [3/26/04]

23) We are reviewing the testimony, the grilling, the interrogation of noted criminal Dr. Condoleezza Rice who appeared before the law today, the 9/11 Commission attempting to assign blame and seeking to affix it to the Bush administration via beating up on the girl. Only in Washington when the girl is a Republican and a black can you beat up on her. Couldn't do this if she were representing a Democrat administration regardless of her color, but especially given that she's black. This couldn't even have happened had she been in a Democrat administration. Nobody would have had the guts to say that she needs to testify beyond what she said behind closed doors. But since she's a Republican, since she has the audacity to be a black woman Republican, why, it's OK to beat up on the girl. And they tried to beat up on the girl today, folks, and she hit them below the belt. [4/8/04]

Limbaugh Finds Common Cause Between Democrats and Terrorists:

24) I'm going to tell you is what's good for Al Qaeda is good for the Democratic Party in this country today. That's how you boil this down. And it doesn't have to be Al Qaeda. What's good for terrorists is good for John Kerry. All you got to do is check the way they react. [3/15/04]

25) So the only real question is, if Al Qaeda's active and capable, what are they going to do? Because we know what they want: they want Kerry, they want the Democrats in power. They'd love that -- I mean, based simply on what they're saying and how they're reacting to what happened in Spain. I'm not guessing. [3/15/04]

Media Matters for America notes: According to Reuters, an apparent Al Qaeda letter that surfaced in March stated that the group supports Bush's reelection: “The statement said it supported President Bush in his reelection campaign, and would prefer him to win in November rather than the Democratic candidate John Kerry, as it was not possible to find a leader 'more foolish than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom.' ... [The letter added,] 'Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilization. ... Because of this we desire you (Bush) to be elected.'” [Reuters, 3/17/04]

26) They [Democrats] celebrate privately this attack in Spain. [3/16/04]

27) I mean, if you wonder -- if you want the terrorists running the show, then you will elect John Kerry, who is a bed brother with this guy who just won election in Spain. [3/18/04]

28) I'm telling you, we're in the midst of a huge liberal crackup. They are so motivated by the quest for power. They are so motivated by rage and hatred, that they are not in power. And they focus that on Bush. That they have aligned themselves unwittingly -- I'm going to grant them that -- with those who intend harm on this country. [3/24/04]

29) You don't hear the Democrats being critical of terrorists. In fact, you hear the Democrats saying, “We've got to find a way to get along with them.” [4/5/04]

30) Senator [Ted] Kennedy, a simple question. Does it please you to learn who your friends are? Does it excite you, Senator Kennedy, to learn that the militant, firebrand, murderer of American civilians and military personnel is on your side, Senator Kennedy? Does it encourage you? Does it invigorate you? Does it inspire you, Senator Kennedy, to know that a murdering Al Qaeda-related terrorist has taken up your argument for use against his enemy? How does that make you feel, Senator Kennedy? Does it embarrass you? Because it should. Or does it probably excite you and think you're making headway now. You've got the enemy aligned with you. [4/8/04]

31)It's never that people are evil, or bad, because remember the elitist Liberals of today are skeptical of the difference between good and evil. This is why people like liberal Democrats in the country will look at what's happening in Madrid and what's happening in Baghdad today and they'll see George Bush as a greater threat than the people setting off the bombs. And these are the people that want to oust Bush. The people who remain skeptical of the fact that there is any difference between right and wrong, or good and evil. [3/17/04]

32) Let me ask you a question. Who do you think the terrorists enjoy watching more on TV? Aljazeera or the commission coverage in the United States? I say it's a toss-up. I say the terrorists are having trouble making up their minds which is better for them -- the press coverage of the commission hearings in this country or Aljazeera, their own network in the Middle East. [3/29/04]

Limbaugh Suggests Democrats Hate America and Like Dictators:

33) [Speaking about Democrats] I don't know who they are, I don't know what they believe, but I can't relate. I can't possibly understand somebody who hates this country, who was born and raised here. I don't understand how you hate this Constitution. I don't understand how you hate freedom. I don't understand how you hate free markets, but that's who elites are, because freedom and free markets challenge their power. It's the only thing I can come up with. I know it's much more insidious and hideous than that, but I still can't relate to it. [3/16/04]

34) The Democrats believe that the presence of the US military is what makes the world dangerous. The Democrats, liberal Democrats in this country, believe, and have for a long time, that the U.S. military is the focus of evil, is the primary agent provocateur for all of this. That if we weren't the way we are, the terrorists wouldn't hate us. And if we weren't as big as we are, if we weren't as powerful as we are, if we weren't as decadent -- whatever. Well, they won't say “decadent,” because they support that. [3/18/04]

35) [Daschle parody]: Hi and welcome back to the Tom Daschle Show... The country is suffering, and, ah -- and we're happy about that here at the Tom Daschle Show because it's -- while it's bad for the country, it's great for our party, and that's what's important. [4/5/04]

36) We are not going to commit the same mistakes [in Iraq that we made in Vietnam]. There's not a person in Washington, DC, alive that has anything to do with this who is going to see to it that those same mistakes are made again. This is wishful thinking on the part of the Democrats. And once again they undercut the morale of the military. [4/6/04]

37) Well, Senator Kennedy, it's different people running the show now with a different objective than existed in Vietnam. And what he's engaging in here [in suggesting an Iraq-Vietnam parallel], folks, is wishful thinking. [4/6/04]

38) Senator Kennedy has just told us what he hopes happens. He wants a quagmire. [4/6/04]

39) We've got elements of one of the two major political parties in this country doing things, saying things, taking steps that are designed to demoralize. And if they're not designed to demoralize, they are certainly resulting in either one of two things: the demoralization of our troops who hear them, or they're providing motivation and inspiration for the enemy, all in the silly selfish quest for their own political power. [4/7/04]

40) This is why, folks, you cannot, we cannot entrust liberals with the defense of this country. They will not do it. They will not defend the American military. They will cut and run every time. They will not defend freedom. They will not defend this country. [4/7/04]

41) The Liberals put their party and their quest for power above national interests. They wouldn't join with Reagan during the Cold War. Defended the Soviets. Tried to make Gorbachev the hero of the world. Iraqi freedom, George W. Bush. Then we had the situation down with the Contras in Nicaragua. Democrats did everything they could to support the Contras and their client state, the Soviet Union. We've got Iraqi Freedom. [4/13/04]

42) These people have become the mainstream thought -- thinkers, generators of the Democratic Party. It's who they are. They hate this country. They hate the military of this country. [4/15/04]

43) Castro's the kind of guy that Kerry would probably lionize, to tell you the truth. [3/15/04]

Limbaugh Ridicules Kerry's Marriage:

44) He's [Kerry] been a senator with no name on legislation, his own name not on legislation. I mean, he's been there, but he's basically a skirt-chaser, folks. He's a gigolo. He has not been somebody that a lot of people have taken seriously. [3/16/04]

45) [On James Carville of CNN defending Kerry]: “So he's out defending a gigolo.” [3/16/04]

46) Kerry is cheap. Most gigolos are. I mean -- I think it -- I think it goes with the, with the definition. [4/7/04]

47) The fact that he's [Kerry] a gigolo is just funny to me. You know, that fact that he -- he has no passion, and the fact that he's a dullard and a dry ball, those are funny things to me. [4/8/04]

48) Are you really -- you're not -- the intern story, whatever that is -- that affair story -- that's not over. I'll guarantee you." [3/16/04]

49) Speaking of that, I saw a picture on the attack Internet today of Kerry kissing Teresa Heinz last night after the Illinois primary, and I'm not -- folks? This woman does not look like she wants to be kissed at the moment she's being kissed. Her arms are down at her side and her lips -- I mean, it looks like -- it just doesn't -- I say, in full attack mode here, it just doesn't look affectionate, but it could have been that he surprised her. He probably never kisses her and it gave and it gets -- I'm just kidding. But you should see the picture. It just looks like -- let's put it this way, folks, when you dream of kissing a woman, this is not what it looks like. [3/17/04]

50) [W]hat do you consider a fair wage? John Kerry considers a fair wage a wife with 500 million. So, he had to find a company that had one. Well, there aren't too many of these companies that have little heiresses running around that are single, have 500 million that some guy can marry into. [3/23/04]

51) Because see, Al Gore's daddy was a senator and Al Gore's daddy worked his way up from wealth and power to wealth and power. I mean, he got more of it than anybody ever dreamed of for having as little to go on. I mean, he's one of those old boys. You know how that worked back then. Then John Kerry's daddy is his wives. (laughter) I mean, he's a gigolo. Everybody knows this. There's nobody in our party really has much respect for this guy and you can see it last night, but I can't say that. I mean, you got sugar daddy wife back then. You got sugar daddy wife now. He worked his way up from a blue blood to a platinum American Express card, and it doesn't have his name on it. [3/26/04]

52) We have a new, little Kerry song here, my friends. Paul Shanklin [Rush Limbaugh show's “man of many voices”] had to put his testicles in a lock box in order to sing this song. [4/20/04]

53) John Kerry does not look young, and he does not look like the future. John Kerry looks like Lurch from The Addams Family and that's a family that got up out of caskets every day to go about their business. [3/25/04]

54) Now you've heard Kerry talk about the fact that when people have criticized his legislation, his voting record, “Well, you don't know how these things work. You've never been there. You're just a little peon. You've never married rich women like I have. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't drink brandy from snifters. You use Styrofoam cups. I'm a real man and I know what I'm talking about. And I'm just telling you, you can't hit me on my record, because you're challenging my patriotism, and I served in Vietnam, so shut the f*** up,” that's your John Kerry response. [3/29/04]

Limbaugh Says Environmentalists are “Nuts”:

55) [Speaking about environmentalists] These people are nuts, folks. They're absolute wackos. They're total wackos. And yet they represent quite a bit of thinking in the Left of this country. They are not -- I mean to us, they're fringe, but the -- the Left fringe is more and more defining them as their mainstream. ? Well, that's part of it. I -- you know, there's -- there's no question there's commerce competition here. I have no question, because she does run this co-op, but make no mistake that these are a bunch of people that look at capitalism as an enemy of the people. And are trying to influence thinking in that, in that. I mean, that's what the modern environ -- environmental movement is about, folks. [4/7/04]

Limbaugh: Howard Dean “Very Sick”; McAuliffe a “Punk”:

56) In the meantime, ladies and gentlemen, Howard Dean, truly, a very sick man, said yesterday, President Bush's decision to send troops to Iraq appears to have contributed to the bombing deaths of 201 people in Spain. [3/17/04]

57) You know, Howard Dean is a -- I mean, it was already demonstrated that he was a sick man. This is why we were hoping he would get the nomination. [3/17/04]

58) They came out and did their speeches in time for the punk, Terry McAuliffe, to come out, who, by the way, Page Six today, the gossip page column of the New York Post, Page Six, says that if Kerry wins that the punk will become the ambassador to the court of St. James. That's Great Britain for those of you in Rio Linda. [4/6/04]

59) We have here, ladies and gentlemen, this is the Punk, Terry McAuliffe, he was on The Today Show today. ? So the Punk wormed his way onto The Today Show today. [4/16/04]

60) Then Terry McAuliffe, the punk, came out, and he introduced a video and it was a John Kerry campaign video that started off with Vietnam footage, and testimony before the Congress, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and his appearance on Dick Cavett with some other veteran... Then after the video was over, here came the punk back. The punk walked back out there, McAuliffe, and introduced Kerry. [3/26/04]

Limbaugh Attacks Welfare Recipients

61) Can you imagine some poor welfare recipient in Arizona, doesn't know what's up. Doesn't know why the check's not as big. Doesn't know why the food stamps don't stick to whatever he tries to mail. [4/8/04]

Limbaugh Makes Xenophobic Remarks

62) We had an attack in Weird-zakistan or whatever -- one of these Zakstan places. Uzbekistan, yes, whatever it is. They're all Weird-zakistan to me, but -- How many Zakistans are there over there? Seems like a new one pops up every day. You can't keep track of them. I'm a geography expert and I've never heard of some of these. I don't expect Ron Wyden (sp?) to know where it is, but I would think I would. Now I've heard of Uzbekistan, but there was one the other day that I -- that I -- Kazakistan, Kazikstan, oh, I've heard of those. But it looked like Weird-zakistan to me. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. [3/30/04]

63) Why is the United States of America almost always alone in carrying this burden? We are almost always alone, Senator Kerry, because Europe is fat and lazy, spoiled by our bailing them out. [4/9/04]

64) A French journalist has been kidnapped in Iraq, but I don't believe it. I think the guy surrendered. [4/13/04]

65) As I said yesterday, truce is an old Arabic word. Goes way, way back in Islamic-Arabic culture, and it means, “We will get you later.” [4/16/04]

66) The UN preaches hate, preaches anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism. [3/26/04]

67) [Referring to new Spain's new Prime Minister] Hey, locoweed. [3/17/04]

Limbaugh Says Peace is “Not Healthy,” Trashes September 11 Families:

68) I'm almost going to come out in favor of war every 10 years so that we always have a group of people in this country that know what it's like. It's not healthy to go without a war for all these many years, because you get people that are born and grow up, and don't know what one is, and then the war happens, you start firing ammunition, and they think the world is coming to an end. When the truth is we're kicking ass over there. [4/9/04]

Note: It's worth keeping in mind that, while Limbaugh wants to have a “group of people in this country” who know what war is like, he didn't want to be in that group himself: Limbaugh didn't serve in Vietnam and told Jeff Greenfield in 1992, “I did not want to go.” [link: snopes.com]

69) Some of these families [of 9/11 victims] I think are auditioning for co-host of The Today Show. [4/9/04]

70) We had a typically snooty, silly little Liberal on the phone who wanted to take potshots at me for daring, daring to say that some of the 9/11 family members are close to becoming or have become Democrat operatives. [4/9/04]

Limbaugh Suggests the Clintons are Murderous, Again:

71) That's why I'm telling you, whoever briefed Janet Reno, start searching Fort Marcy Park [in suburban Northern Virginia where Clinton deputy White House counsel Vince Foster's body was found after he committed suicide], folks. [4/13/04]

72) They [the Clintons] know that -- they're pretty confident Kerry is going to lose and if Kerry wins there's always Fort Marcy Park. So they're rolling the dice on this. [4/15/04]

Limbaugh Makes Weird, Sexually Charged Comments:

73) Little news here about all of our children. “Princeton University faculty have approved a plan Monday to combat rising grades by limiting the number of A's that it awards to undergraduates. The faculty voted 156 to 84 to implement the plan, making Princeton the first college or university to formally curb grade inflation by rationing A's, said the dean of the college, Nancy Weiss Malkiel, who proposed the plan.” And I'm not sure that's how she pronounces her name. “Under the guidelines, which go into effect in the fall for Princeton's 4,600 undergraduates, faculty are expected to restrict the number of As to 35 percent in undergraduate courses.” Sounds to me like this is just a -- a -- sort of a -- a secret ways to reduce the number of affairs between professors and students. [4/28/04]

74) Duke University has now decided that students, college students at Duke, 8:00 classes are too early. They're going to eliminate 8:00 classes because the students are showing up dead tired. Now what this means to me is that more professors are having affairs with students. And there's a reason for the fatigue. [4/19/04]

75) Republicans did not make a big issue of [Richard] Clarke being granted executive privilege or having it claimed by Clinton in '99, because they understood that there's a legitimate constitutional issue here. But somehow all the reporting on this issue has missed this, because these new breed of White House reporters came from covering the Lewinsky scandal, and all these cable networks, or from Court TV, or some such thing, and they basically are, you know, just -- just entertainment gossip columnists that have been assigned the White House beat.

This is not the old days where Tom Brokaw had to be on The Today Show for 44 years before he got the White House beat, and then after that he gets the anchor job or whatever the pattern was. I mean, they didn't pluck these guys out because they turn on little 18- to 24-year-old girls that they hope to be watching. They're just going for lookers these days, let's be honest, everybody knows this.

And that's now happened to the network news as well. You can't find an ugly person on TV. Well, subjective, everybody might find somebody ugly, but it's hard to find ugly people on the news anymore. The news used to be full of them. You know, journalism was a haven for the ugly. Politics, you know, as they say show biz for the ugly, and the news is part of politics.

I mean, you go back and look at -- do I have to mention any names? Let's just face it, Walter Cronkite's not going to have anybody undressing in front of the TV saying, “Oh, please, only me, Walter.” Isn't gonna happen. Eric Sevareid, same thing, Brinkley, Huntley, all these guys. No, they were respected journalists. [3/30/04]

76) All of this August 6th PDB, why the White House declassified it on a Saturday? And why they did it on a Saturday to bury it during the news cycle on the day before Easter and on and on. And everybody says, “Look at this, it's out.” And Bill Schneider, I saw Bill Schneider on CNN, he can barely contain himself. My folks, he was orgasming on the air. [4/13/04]

77) And we have people, all three sexes listen to this program. [4/5/04]