Politicized Environment Turns News Issues Into Ammunition

PIGGY POLITICS

Left Plays 'Gotcha' Game With Talk Radio Over Swine Flu




*** UPDATED BELOW ***


In an era where political spinmeisters look for opportunities to score points from almost any news event, a widely-publicized swine flu is too profitable to ignore. From the earliest outbreaks, some immediately look to smear their enemies.

And with talk radio under the left's microscope, "progressives" have been watching it closely, looking for "gotcha" moments that will build their case for a crackdown against the popular medium.

Already, they've launched attacks on Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Fred Thompson and Michael Savage over swine flu comments deemed offensive, particularly those who might dare to criticize the Obama Administration's handing of the crisis.

Attacking talk radio is only half of the strategy, however: in addition, Republicans are being blamed for opposing pandemic funding in the pork-laden stimulus bill. Complicating that message, however, is the fact that some Democrats voiced the same objection, including Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). That could make the partisan blame-game a bit tricky.


The left-wing Talking Points Memo was so eager to use swine flu to smear talk hosts and other conservatives that it didn't even wait for the programs, instead resorting to this supposed "parody":

Glenn Beck: "Am I mistaken or is Swine Flu one of the plagues that the ancient Egyptians used against the Jews? Could this be just one of several plagues that the Pharaoh Obama will unleash against the American people? I..I..fear for my country. I......don't want to see MY country......consumed by the pestilence of this president's Islamo-fascist communist Muslim agenda and the diseases that it will unleash."

Rush Limbaugh: "Here it is, folks. The nanny government is going to move in and tell you that you have to go get shots with dangerous vaccines against some made-up disease. 'Swine flu? Swine flu?' That was something that Jimmy Carter made up back in the 70s to try to distract everyone from his foreign policy disasters and blowing up the economy. There's no such thing, folks. It's a joke. And, even if there was, if you choose to live in a place where some disease from Mexico can come into your neighborhood and infect you and your family, you only have yourself to blame for it. For anyone that dumb, I say 'tough luck.' You should have known better. Stop looking for the government to save you from yourself."

At least the George "I'm having a very good crisis" Soros-funded Media Matters waited for the programs to get actual quotes:

Following an outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and subsequent confirmation of dozens of cases in the United States, conservative media personalities have baselessly blamed Mexican immigrants for spreading the disease across the border, continuing their long-standing trend of scapegoating immigrants while discussing major news stories. However, Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, M.D., the interim deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's science and public health program, stated in an April 26 media availability: "I know that we have confirmation of disease in people who have traveled to Mexico, and I don't know the numbers, but I know that that is definitely the case in some of our cases, and that's an important factor to consider." Indeed, several media reports on U.S. swine flu patients indicated that they had recently traveled to Mexico.


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Following the confirmation of swine flu cases in the United States, radio hosts Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Fred Thompson purported to detect possible political motivations in the U.S. and United Nations' handling of the situation, with Limbaugh suggesting on his April 27 show that the official response "is designed to expand the role and power of governments and schools" and accusing the media of "fall[ing] right in line here with amplifying the nature of the crisis."

Also on April 27, Beck asserted that there are "only two ways to look at" the government's response to the swine flu. First, he claimed that it "could be that because Barack Obama's administration is so incredibly efficient, could be that they know that this is much worse than we think it is." Second, Beck claimed the administration's response to the crisis "could be to move his Health and Human Services person [Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius] into the office rapidly." He added: "She can be confirmed right out of the gate because of this swine flu. So don't look over here, look at the swine flu, look at the swine flu, look at the swine flu. And she just goes right through the gate."

For his part, Limbaugh made light of Obama's "not to worry" approach to the swine flu, taking particular note of the president's governing-from-the-golf-course strategy:

RUSH: Imagine a flu outbreak, swine flu, bird flu, Democrat flu, whatever, imagine a flu outbreak, and George W. Bush going to play golf and getting hourly reports on the golf course. This flu, folks, let me tell you something. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to sweat here.

I'm not going to worry about this outbreak of flu until Fox News puts Geraldo Rivera on 24 hours a day. Geraldo Rivera is the grim reaper, and when enough people start dying from this then we'll get Geraldo all day and night and he'll be in 15 different cities at one time to report on it. Great to be back with you, folks. How are you? Rush Limbaugh here behind the Golden EIB Microphone at the distinguished and prestigious Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. Telephone number if you want to be on the program today, 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.

Well, everybody's getting all caught up in the hundred days. The press is running numerous stories about the hundred days, and there's this giant disconnect, there's absolutely not one thing that has been fixed, not one thing that this administration has taken on has even been improved, and yet President Obama's approval numbers are higher than ever. This means, ladies and gentlemen, that there is a perception of President Obama that is nowhere near the reality of President Obama. And this phenomenon is going to continue until somehow, some way, President Obama can be tied to all of the failures that his administration is racking up, until he could be tied to them in terms that he will be held responsible. That's going to be very, very, very, very difficult because of the cult-like belief and status that President Obama benefits from. The situation is that he's trying, and he cares. And he's got a magic word. Barack Obama has a magic word: "Bush." He's actually got another magic word: "torture." Any time the administration wants to distract anybody from economic news, failures here, failures there, just bring up torture.

By the way, I need to point out here on this flu stuff, we've got some Obama sound bites coming up where he says not to worry, it's cause for alarm, but not panic. Obama has not yet chosen a Surgeon General or even put in a director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (interruption) How does that affect you, Mr. Snerdley? I'm just running a little test here. Well, but no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. It's a good thing I asked the question. We don't have a Surgeon General. We don't have Centers for Disease Control director. I asked Snerdley, "What does this mean?" He said it means we don't need one; we can handle it without them. I understand what you're saying. But to me the concern over not having -- what's a Surgeon General do anyway but teach kids how to masturbate so as to prevent AIDS? Hello, Joycelyn Elders. What's a Surgeon General do except run around and attack Joe Camel to get kids not to smoke? What's a Surgeon General do? The Surgeon General doesn't even perform surgery. I have yet to see the Surgeon General in this country in my lifetime actually operate on anybody.

UPDATE: the cheap shots continue as WOWOWOW, a liberal site for women, took Limbaugh's tongue-in-cheek commentary and turned it into this week's OUTRAGE (!!!!), using Media Matters as a supposedly credible source:

Rush Limbaugh is doing his best to pin the swine flu outbreak on President Barack Obama.

The radio host used his show yesterday to suggest that Obama’s recent trip to Mexico caused not only the flu pandemic, but also an earthquake. "[E]verywhere Obama is spreading Obamaism, there is a deadly disease taking place, either in the TARP community or in the newspaper business … Obama goes to Mexico — they have an earthquake. Obama goes to Mexico — get pig flu," according to The Huffington Post.

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While Rush Limbaugh and other right-wingers want to blame Barack Obama for the swine-flu pandemic, medical authorities say they’ve traced the illness back to its true source: a four-year-old Mexican boy, Edgar Hernandez.

FOR New England regional talk radio updates, see our other site.



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