The September 7 broadcast of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric featured nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh on its nightly "Free Speech" segment, during which Limbaugh attacked unnamed critics who are “not interested in victory” over what he termed “Islamofascism” and who do not conform to his definition of “patriotism.” Limbaugh specifically attacked specifically those “critics” who “are more interested in punishing this country over a few incidents of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay than they are in defeating those who want to kill us.” Limbaugh has previously referred to the prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib as “blow[ing] some steam off” and rebuffed allegations of torture at the Pentagon's detention facility at Guantánamo Bay by referring to the prison as "Club G'itmo."

Limbaugh has also said that the story of anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, “is nothing more than forged documents”; spread gay-baiting sexual innuendo about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and alleged that Sen. Clinton was involved in the 1993 suicide of deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster; and, most recently, handicapped the “tribes” in the 2006 season of the CBS reality program Survivor -- in which the teams will be reportedly divided by race -- by assigning them ethnic stereotypes, and stating as a fact that “blacks can't swim.”

On the CBS Evening News, host Katie Couric introduced the segment, which she described as one in which “where newsmakers, opinion makers, and just plain folks tell us what's on their minds” by stating that the topic was the “war on terror” and “there may be no one more opinionated on the subject than” Limbaugh. As Media Matters for America noted, nine days before his appearance on CBS, Limbaugh asserted that "[i]t would be a shame" if Couric were “hit by one of these buses” in New York City bearing advertisements for Couric's CBS debut.

From the September 7 broadcast of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric:

COURIC: If you've been with us this week, you probably know we have a new segment we're trying called “Free Speech,” where newsmakers, opinion makers, and just plain folks tell us what's on their minds. With the fifth anniversary of 9-11 coming up, the topic tonight is the war on terror, and there may be no one more opinionated on the subject than radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

LIMBAUGH: My friends, it's time to face a hard, cold fact: Militant Islam wants to kill us just because we're alive and don't believe as they do. They've been killing us for decades. So it's time to stop pretending these terrorist incidents are mere episodic events and face the reality that our way of life is in grave danger. Now, this threat is not just going to go away because we choose to ignore it. Some say we should try diplomacy. Yeah, well, tell me, how do we negotiate with people whose starting point is our death? Ask them to wait for 10 years before they kill us? When good negotiates with evil, evil will always win, and peace follows victory, not words issued by diplomats.

But some Americans, sadly, not interested in victory, and yet they want us to believe that their behavior is patriotic. Well, it's not. When the critics are more interested in punishing this country over a few incidents of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay than they are in defeating those who want to kill us, when they seek to destroy a foreign surveillance program which is designed to identify those who want to kill us and how they intend to do it, when they want to grant those who want to kill us U.S. constitutional rights, I don't call that patriotic. Patriotism is rallying behind the country, regardless of party affiliation, to defeat Islamofascism. Patriotism is supporting our troops in the battlefield, not undermining the mission and morale.

But let there be no doubt about this: America will prevail. We're the same country that survived a bloody civil war, defeated the Nazis and the Soviets. Each generation has a responsibility to the next. Our generation will not disappoint.