Reading from an Associated Press article on his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh attacked “the American media” for “keeping a tally” of U.S. fatalities in Iraq, calling such a practice “sick.” But the Department of Defense publicly releases statistics on U.S. deaths in Iraq. These figures are updated regularly to reflect total deaths, non-hostile deaths, those killed in action (KIA), and those wounded in action (WIA).

From the August 3 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: “U.S. death toll in Iraq surpasses 1,800.” How do we know? Because the American media's keeping a tally. Right here, I have it in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers. Sameer Yacoub, the AP: “Seven U.S. Marines were killed in two separate attacks west of Baghdad, where American forces were trying to seal a major border infiltration route to foreign fighters. The deaths pushed the U.S. military death toll in Iraq past 1,800.”

This is sick. People are keeping a body count on this. As we mentioned yesterday -- all right, a brief time out. We'll be back. We will continue.