Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh responded to an item by “our poor old buddy, David Brock” and “his fledging little website” Media Matters for America documenting that Limbaugh aired a “commercial” parodying Democratic opposition to Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. without noting that the ad was fake. Yet Limbaugh refused to inform a confused caller that the ad was fake and later admitted that he had received emails and phone calls from listeners who “believe that these [the Roberts ad and another ad about White House senior adviser Karl Rove] are actual George Soros commercials.” Limbaugh finally informed listeners that the ads were fake and opined that Media Matters “is upset” about them because they are “effective in identifying the absolute lunacy of the left in the current realm of American politics.”

From the August 4 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: Now, I'm going public with this because so many people, particularly on the Rove spot and the John Roberts spot, believe that these are actual George Soros commercials. My email is inundated. We're getting phone calls about this.

People hear about it. Radio stations are calling local stations asking why this is only running on my show and, as I say, the voice on these -- you've heard this voice for 17 years on this program, Johnny Donovan. You've never heard that voice on a George Soros commercial. I just want to warn you, there will be others.

Mr. Snerdley -- why would so many people? I don't think so many people do believe it, but we have such a large audience it doesn't take very many to be a lot and for a small percentage to be a lot but the reason they believe it, Mr. Snerdley, is because they are brilliantly conceived, brilliantly assembled and flawlessly executed.

The reason that they're -- it's what I've always said -- good comedy has to have an element in truth in it or it's not funny, and the reason people believe this is because they think this is actually the kind of stuff that is in a George Soros ad or a 527 ad or a MoveOn.org ad. This is the kind of stuff that's out there, and we're just parodying that, so I don't want anybody to labor under the illusion here that we are -- because the big complaint is that we are selling time to enemies of the president and making money on it.

That's the -- they think these are actual commercials that we are selling, and we are not doing that, folks. These are “in program” parodies, and I don't want anybody to label them. Even our poor old buddy, David Brock, who we love -- we love David Brock here -- and his fledging little website, Media Matters, or whatever, is upset that we're running fake commercials and not identifying them as fake because they're too good.

Because they're effective. They are effective in identifying the absolute lunacy of the left in the current realm of American politics, and so we consider these things home runs. These are grand slam home runs. We are extremely proud. This is the kind of thing that you will see when the Limbaugh Museum of Broadcast finally opens after I retire.

On the August 3 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, Limbaugh did not reveal that the Roberts ad was fake -- even when confronted with a caller who believed that it was real:

CALLER: I just heard the new Soros commercial smearing Judge Roberts, and apparently he has taken away a 12-year-old girl's civil rights by not letting her eat French fries on the subway, and he is also from Germany, just like the Pope, and, basically, what I got out of it was insinuating that he was a Nazi of some type, and that President Bush needed to nominate a more mainstream judge such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

LIMBAUGH: This is a Soros ad, you said? I thought his group just broke up. We're gonna have to look into this.

CALLER: It was sponsored by Soros and the Hollywood friends of Nancy Pelosi. And I'm so tired --

LIMBAUGH: But the Soros group, the Americans Coming Together [sic: America Coming Together (ACT)], just disbanded. I'll look into it. Thanks for the heads up, [caller].