Daily Caller Opinion Page An Embarrassing Spectacle Of Conspiracy Theories

Birthers, Billionaires And Fox: The GOP Freak Show In Full Effect
by Eric Boehlert
MediaMatters
June 1, 2012

Of course, this week Fox News gave the billionaires' secretive super PACs a run for their money by producing its own campaign attack ad. Like Glenn Beck's infamous wake-up appearance three summers ago when he announced to Fox's breakfast audience that Obama was a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people," Fox & Friends debuting its blistering, four-minute evisceration of Obama, complete with jarring graphics and ominous music, will likely live in cable news infamy.

The brash and unethical move, which had been in the works for weeks and was cheered in real time by Fox hosts, represented yet another door the Fox Team has marched through in its unapologetic transformation into a purely political operation. Tired of playing the middle man and increasingly eager to be the origin of partisan attacks and campaign initiatives (not merely reporting on them), the ad was Fox News' not very subtle nudge to the Republican National Committee: This is how you go after a sitting president!...

Fast forward and Fox News is now in the business of producing and airing campaign attack ads. At least most Beltway insiders have smartly silenced their defense of Fox.

But it's not just Fox. What we're seeing unfold this year, and what came into such sharp focus this week with the Zombie-like return of Trump's birther sideshow, is just how radical today's conservative movement has become, and how that radical streak is being championed by the right-wing press, which enjoys unprecedented influence at the highest levels of the Republican Party.

Witness the type of fringe, hate-based bloggers Romney personally met with for two hours last month. Witness the fact Romney refused to even mildly rebuke Rush Limbaugh when he spent three days on his nationally syndicated radio show unleashing a non-stop barrage of sexist attacks against Sandra Fluke. And note how Romney refused to denounce his prominent supporter, and Fox News favorite, Ted Nugent after he unleashed a violent rhetorical attack on the president that earned him a private visit from the Secret Service.

In the context of embracing the right-wing media's extremist side without reservation or concern for public appearance, Romney's decision this week to wallow in the fumes of the birther movement begins to make a little bit of sense.

For some conservatives though, it's all become too painful to watch. Detailing his break from what he calls the "new right" (i.e. Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News), former National Review writer, and Reagan administration official, Michael Fumento last week denounced the movement's signature lack of seriousness. He complained that, "Nothing the new right does is evidently outrageous enough to receive more than a peep of indignation from the new right."

Also last week, Atlantic conservative writer Conor Friedersdorf dismantled Breitbart.com's ongoing attempt to "vet" the president, calling it a "case study" in "right-wing malpractice." He dismissed the Breitbart effort as "an utter waste of time."...

Michael Tomasky on the Media’s Foolish Elizabeth Warren Witch Hunt
The Daily Beast
May 26, 2012

So now Elizabeth Warren has to prove that she’s 1/32nd Cherokee? The temperature on the story is rising. There was a huge article in the Boston Globe on Friday written to raise a number of questions and suggest that Warren used the minority designation to get her job, or get ahead—exactly at the same time that a poll was released showing that 69 percent of Bay State voters don’t consider her heritage to be a “significant” story. It reminds me of nothing so much as Monica Lewinsky, and of the media’s need sometimes to get a grip...
 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A national syndicate will offer replacement "Doonesbury" comic strips to newspapers that don't want to run a series that uses graphic imagery to lampoon a Texas law requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion, executives said Friday.

A handful of newspapers say they won't run next week's series, while several others said the strips will move from the comics to opinion pages or websites only. Many already publish the strip by cartoonist Garry Trudeau, whose sarcastic swipes at society's foibles have a history of giving headaches to newspaper editors, on editorial pages.

"We run 'Doonesbury' on our op-ed page, and this series is an example of why," said David Averill, editorial page editor for the Tulsa World. "Many of our readers will disagree with the political stance the series takes, and some will be offended by the clinical language. I believe, however, that this series of strips is appropriate to the abortion debate and appropriate to our op-ed pages."

The comic strips feature a woman who goes to an abortion clinic and is confronted by several people who suggest she should be ashamed. Among them is a doctor who reads a script on behalf of Texas Gov. Rick Perry welcoming her to a "compulsory transvaginal exam," and a middle-aged legislator who calls her a "slut."

One panel equates the invasive procedure to rape and describes the device used to perform it as a "10-inch shaming wand."

"Our readers are accustomed to pointed political and social commentary in strips like 'Doonesbury' and 'Mallard Fillmore,'" Tom McNiff, managing editor of The Gainesville Sun and Ocala Star-Banner in central Florida, said in an emailed statement explaining the decision not to run the series. "But the language the author used to make his point in two of the strips was quite graphic for a general readership."

Trudeau said Friday that "it would have been a little surprising" if there hadn't been any pushback against the series.

"Abortion remains a deeply contentious subject. Having said that, the goal is definitely not to antagonize editors and get booted from papers," he said in an email to The Associated Press. "It's just an occupational risk."

Texas' law does not specify the type of sonogram a woman must receive, but a transvaginal ultrasound is necessary to meet requirements that the doctor show the woman an image of the fetus, describe its features and make the fetal heartbeat audible in the first trimester. The procedure uses a wand inserted in the vagina to yield an image instead of a wand rubbed over a woman's belly.

Asked for comment on the "Doonesbury" series, Perry spokesman Catherine Frazier said the governor is proud of his leadership on the sonogram law.

"The decision to end a life is not funny," Frazier said. "There is nothing comic about this tasteless interpretation of legislation we have passed in Texas to ensure that women have all the facts when making a life-ending decision."

Sue Roush, managing editor at the Universal UClick syndicate, said newspapers uncomfortable with the abortion law series have the option of a set of substitute strips.

Steve Shirk, manager editor of The Kansas City Star, said his paper would use the replacements in the comics section while moving the abortion series to the opinion page.

"We felt the content was too much for many of the readers of our family friendly comic page," Shirk said. "We felt that (op-ed) page was more appropriate for that story line."

Dennis Ryerson, editor of the Indianapolis Star, said the newspaper would use an earlier "Doonesbury" strip instead.

"We simply don't want to be part of the personalization and debasement of political discourse. We've had too much of that from all sides," Ryerson said.

Chris Mele, executive editor of the Pocono Record in Stroudsburg, Pa., said the paper will run the replacement strips during the week, but the Texas series will appear March 18 on the front of its op-ed section. He said the paper would try to "have a dialogue" with its readers about the debate.

Universal UClick president Lee Salem said he wouldn't be surprised if 20 to 30 of the 1,400 newspapers that carry "Doonesbury" decided to opt out and run the replacements.

"Once every five or six months there's usually something in 'Doonesbury' that causes a stir. Every two or three years there's something that causes a bigger stir," Salem said. "Historically, that's par for the course with 'Doonesbury' because Garry explores topics on comics pages that are not normally there."

Six installments of "Doonesbury" satirizing the anti-abortion movie "The Silent Scream" were canceled in 1985 when the syndicate decided they were too controversial to be distributed.

Other states have enacted laws requiring pre-abortion ultrasounds, although Virginia removed a provision from its measure that specifically called for the invasive exam. The measure in its original form had become a target of national political columnists and the word "transvaginal" was mocked and parodied on "Saturday Night Live" and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

Boycott Rush Limbaugh and his sponsors:

Quicken Loans - confirmed sponsor
1050 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, MI 48226
Client Relations - (800) 863-4332
and: (800) 251-9080
also: you can chat online

Century 21 Real Estate LLC - confirmed sponsor
International Headquarters
1 Campus Drive
Parsippany, NJ 07054
Web contact form

ProFlowers
Email
Web contact form
Sales or Service: 1-800-580-2913
Phone: 800.580.2913

Sleep Train (Mattress Center)
4350 Warehouse Ct., Ste 100
North Highlands, CA 95660
Phone: (800) 919-2337
Fax: (866) 293-5719
Web contact form

eharmony
300 N. Lake Ave., Suite 1111
Pasadena, CA 91101
media@eharmony.com
Web contact form
Email
626.795.4814
FAX 626.585.4040

CARBONITE, Inc.
617-587-1100
177 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
carbonite@mailnj.custhelp.com
Direct Dial Office: 617-587-1100 EXT:1115

Sleep Number Bed
Select Comfort Corporation - confirmed and long-time advertiser
6105 Trenton Lane N
Minneapolis, MN 55442
Phone: 763-551-7000
Fax: 763-551-7826
800-438-2233
investorrelations@selectcomfort.com

Oreck Upright Vacuum Cleaners
Oreck Corporation
100 Plantation Road
New Orleans, Louisiana 70123
Online contact form
800-289-5888

Mid-West Life Insurance Company of Tennessee
9151 Grapevine Hwy.
North Richland Hills, TX 76180
Phone (800) 733-1110
(web banner ads on rushlimbaugh.com)

AutoZone Inc.
901-495-7185; Fax: 901-495-8374
P.O. Box 2198, Memphis, TN 38101
investor.relations@autozone.com

LegalZoom.com - confirmed and long-time advertiser
800-773-0888; Fax: 323-962-8300
Site has a Web Form

Citrix Online (GoToMyPC)
6500 Hollister Avenue, Goleta, CA 93117
Phone: 805-690-6400; Fax: 805-690-6471
info@citrixonline.com

American Forces Network
Contact Us: @MyAFN.net

Mission Pharmacal Company
10999 IH-10 West Suite 1000
P.O. Box 786099
San Antonio, TX 78278-6099
Telephone: (800) 531-3333
Bennett Kennedy - Citracal Product Manager

Life Quotes, Inc.
32045 Castle Court
Evergreen, CO 80439
1-800-670-5433
info@lifequotes.com.au

Lending Tree
(704) 541-5351
Online Contact page

If you know of any other Limbaugh advertisers who should be on our list, you can send them to us. If we can't shut him up at least we can try and make his life less comfortable than it is now.

These companies were once on our list of Limbaugh advertisers but were removed when they stopped advertising on this program and/or for other valid reasons. You can view our list of former advertisers who were removed.

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Employers and other information you might find helpful:

Clear Channel Communications (parent company of Premiere Radio Networks, Inc.) 200 Basse Road San Antonio TX 78209 Phone 1-210-822-2828

Lowry Mays, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
LLowryMays@clearchannel.com

Mark Mays President and Chief Operating Officer
MarkPMays@clearchannel.com

Randall Mays, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer RandallTMays@clearchannel.com

Lisa Dollinger, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communication Public Relations lisacdollinger@clearchannel.com
pr@clearchannel.com

International Email

Advantage Website
www.clearchanneladvantage.com
Email - Lori Wellinghoff
Phone 1-REACH-OUT-70 (1-732-246-8870)

Radio Station Listing
Phone 1-210-822-2828

Premiere Radio Networks, Inc. (Rush's immediate employer)
15260 Ventura Blvd. 5th Floor
Sherman Oaks CA 91403
Kraig Kitchin http://www.premrad.com/

Members of the press, please contact: Amir Forester, 818-461-5404 aforester@premiereradio.com

Main: (818)377-5300 Fax: (818)377-5333 Toll Free: (800)533-8686

Citadel Broadcasting Providence WPRO (airs his show) 1502 Wampanoag Trail East Providence, RI 02915 Business Phone: 401-433-4200 no website contacts found

List of stations that air him

—————————

Contact Information:

Show Call-in Number 1-800-282-2882

Show Fax Number 1-212-563-9166

If you would like to contact Limbaugh at his PRIVATE email addresses, you might do so on AOL/Compuserve at: 70277.2502@compuserve.com or rhl@eibnet.com or rprivate@eibnet.com

Rush's public email address is: rush@eibnet.com

"Show your Support to Rush's Sponsors" - of course our viewers will want to do just the opposite

RUSH APPROVES OF BOYCOTT!

Several times recently Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winning professor at Princeton, has placed a large part of the blame for the appalling level of the budget debate on the media. (Here is one example.) The problem, he asserts, comes because there is no political cost to being outrageously wrong, irresponsible, stupid or even dishonest. In the eyes of the major media all opinion is equal. The content of political rhetoric does not matter. The truth or falsity of claims does not matter. All that matters is who is on what side. As a result we have had a crucial public debate in which perfectly absurd notions were reported as if they had serious merit. Rationality, civility, not to mention sanity have been major casualties.

This is a very serious accusation, one that responsible journalists should deal with. If it has merit, the profession needs some major self-examination. Granted that, in Professor Krugman's view, the most outrageous rhetoric came from the Tea Party and its allies, but his accusation cannot be dismissed as mere partisanship. There is nothing new in the charge that the major media are indifferent to factual issues, but the budget debate has conspicuously raised to a new level the media's inability or unwillingness to discuss factual issues.

Think about what's happening right now. We have a crisis in which the right is making insane demands, while the president and Democrats in Congress are bending over backward to be accommodating - offering plans that are all spending cuts and no taxes, plans that are far to the right of public opinion.

So what do most news reports say? They portray it as a situation in which both sides are equally partisan, equally intransigent - because news reports always do that. And we have influential pundits calling out for a new centrist party, a new centrist president, to get us away from the evils of partisanship...

Murdoch Gets Rich Off High-Profile Evangelicals