From the May 6 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:
Limbaugh Compares Lack Of Media Vetting Of Obama’s Birth Certificate To Lack Of Vetting Trump Policy
Rush Limbaugh: When Obama Was Accused Of Being Born In Kenya “There Was No Examination Of The Issue”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): With every issue, the coverage of Obama is will he get? How will he look? Does this help or does this hurt Obama? There's never any questioning of what he wants in terms of is it good, bad for the country or not, it's just, hey Obama's the hero and he wants Obamacare and so the coverage is totally devoted to whether or not Obama's going to get it. Now in that scenario who are the villains? Well, your good old reliable Republicans are the villains, and they are always portrayed as the people trying to deny our beloved hero what he wants. Ace of Spades says that this became clear to him in a revelation one night. He was watching Chris Matthews interview Obama, and he didn't get one question. He didn't ask Obama one question about how Obamacare works. Every question was, one degree or another, how do you feel about Boehner opposing it? How do you feel about, what will make you happy, do you think you can get it, what it was was irrelevant. The details of what Obama was going to do to the American healthcare system didn't matter, all that mattered was whether or not Obama was going to get it. If someone comes up and says “Obama was born in Kenya” the story becomes “Will Obama succeed in refuting this charge” and then can we make these villains making the charge look like reprobates." No examination of the allegation, no examination of the issues. No exam -- but herein folks, lies the answer of Trump's success.
In other words, the media covers things as stories that you would read about in a book, or watch in a movie or a television show. And in this case, in the Republican primary, Trump was not the villain. Trump wanted the nomination, and all these other Republicans and their supporters didn't want Trump to have the nomination. So who became the villains? And what Trump wanted became the story. Will he get it? Will Trump get to 12 -- and, did not Ted Cruz become a villain in the middle of this by virtue of trying to stop the hero by getting delegates in all of the state conventions. Everything Cruz was doing was legal, it was above board, but it was portrayed as Cruz was the villain and here's Trump, and what he wants, and will he get it? Will he get to 1237 before the convention? And if he doesn't will they block it? And that became the news. And therefore the substance of Trump policies never got covered, because it wasn't what interested the media.
Previously:
Editorial Boards Decry Trump’s “Dangerous” Foreign Policy Speech
The Right-Wing Media Figures Who Did Not Like Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy Speech At All
Fareed Zakaria Demolishes Donald Trump’s “Jacksonian” “Embarrassment” Of A Foreign Policy Speech