KO’S K O
May 24, 2009 
It was bound to happen sooner or later.
In a brilliant move by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, Rush Limbaugh was revealed for the intellectual field mouse that he is. Combine that “attribute” with the personality of a rake and his Jabba-the-Hut posture as seen on his “Ditto Cam” and you have the buffoon that conservatives are inexplicably afraid to defy.
Many think Rush is a genius when it comes to how well he markets himself, but let’s give credit where credit is due. ClearChannel Communications through its subsidiary, Premiere Radio Networks, markets Rush’s show free of charge to hundreds of radio stations. Because Rush’s popularity is barely 20%, Premiere uses his show as a loss-leader to obtain advertising time for national sponsors. In other words, radio stations don’t pay a dime for three hours of national programming. They simply trade for 45 minutes of advertising in that three hour time slot. None of this was Rush’s idea.
Olbermann has gone after Rush in the past for some of his insulting, racist, and incendiary rants. Here’s Keith highlighting some of Rush’s “greatest hits.”
Rush has now challenged MSNBC. He believes they can’t go 30 days without talking about him.
This was a bad idea.
What Rush didn’t expect was Olbermann throwing the same challenge back on him in his “WTF!?! Moment” on May 21st, which featured Keith saying… you guessed it… “F. U.” to Rush. (Not the actual words – just the letters.)
Rush responded by saying that Olbermann’s “back-at-you” challenge was incoherent. That’s rich. The man with no ability for thoughtful discernment calls the highly educated and intellectually superior MSNBC host “incoherent.”
Never give Keith Olbermann a second chance to make a fool of you. He’s too good at it the first time. Olbermann not only re-issued and re-aired his challenge the next night, calling it the “WTF Coherency Test,” but had his graphics team create a new “Bouncing Rush” logo from Rush’s entrance at the CPAC Convention earlier this year.
Maybe “buffoon” is too generous.
Sincerely,
Rants and Observations by Michael Kontras 
Overblown is on a network that struggles to get attention. So this windbag went after Bill O’Reilly for over a year and no one paid attention so now the failed sportscaster is trying a new approach for some kind of rating, going after the #1 talk guy in the country, Overblown is a joke and his desperate attempt is hysterical.
Try shutting off FOX “News” and Rush Limbaugh for a week and READ some FACTS about your statements.
Ratings does not equal truth.
Michael Kontras
May I suggest the same with MSNBC and NPR for you, find out the truth and maybe you will see how wrong liberalism is.
Need I remind you that Liberalism gave us the forty-hour work week and paid vacations. It gave women the right to vote and created a saftey-net for our elderly and our poor. It brought civil rights into the forefront so we could finally address the social injustices that for too long plagued our country with fear and hate.
If that’s what you think is so bad, so be it. I happen to believe that we are a better nation than what the world has seen for the last 8 years.
Michael Kontras
Oddly you mention civil rights, I was at the Civil Rights Institute this past weekend in Alabama and during discussion it was brought up how the Democrats fought so hard to keep segregation in the south while Republicans were leading the real change.
You should have been there you may have actually learned something away from the education of the government indoctrination camps call universities and colleges.
I’m pretty sure it was a Southern (Texas) Democrat named Johnson that signed Civil Rights legislation into law.
All of this discussion goes far beyond Republicans and Democrats. There are good people in both parties, and there are ill-intentioned people in both parties.
If it is the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute that you speak of, then it appears they are doing good work.
“There is a sense of civic pride in Birmingham and wanting very much to rid itself of an old image,” says Odessa Woolfolk, president of the Institute’s board of directors. “And it seems ironic that the vehicle helping us move forward is the Civil Rights Institute.”
Republicans weren’t always as fear-mongering as many are today, and Democrats weren’t always as the party of equal rights – especially in the South during the Civil War era.
This country overwhelmingly voted for a change last year. We are a long way from knowing if change will come to pass. It is way too early to know how well our current President is doing.
I watch all 3, 24/7 news networks to see what’s being said – not to agree or disagree with pundits. The back-and-forth between media pundits is entertaining, but certainly not newsworthy and often times, not substantive.
If they make statements they can back up with documentation, then they have my ear a little longer. If their guests are credible people with histories and facts that can be researched, they too have my attention.
If I see pundits on the left going after politicians on the left, and vice versa, that’s a good thing. If however, I see conversation digressing into name-calling and labels, then I shut it off.
Terms like socialism, communism and fascism have no place in the discussion. Same with the demonization of the terms liberal and conservative.
I have voted Ropublican far more than I have voted Democratic in the last 30 years. I even gave W. a chance. He blew it and therefore didn’t get my vote the second time.
The history I learned in high school and college is sugar-coated, to be sure. But you can usually find the truth by researching beyond the lectures.
Many universities and colleges are not government sponsored, but funded through private donations and annual fees. There are both conservative and liberal higher learning institutions.
Thanks for the conversation.
Michael Kontras
[…] his attack on MSNBC backfired in May of this year (KO’s K O), Rush decided to go after their latest host and his one-hour show (6:00pm EST weekdays), Ed […]
I started listening to Rush a couple of years ago sorta by accident. He came on after a show I was listening to and I just didn’t change the channel emediatly. I had heard all kinds of things about him but had never actually heard his show. I thought I would get a laugh checking out someone, I had heard from some sources, who was so rediculous.
Instead he challenged the listeners to think for themselves. He had lots of differing opinions on that he disagreed with but was kind to them. Definitely a blowhard by any measure but I didn’t find him to be this big negative, downer, like I had heard him called. Quite the opposite. He seems to be a, generally, pretty happy and boisterous person on his show.
I used to see those quotes from Rush posted about him as examples of his racisim, bigotry, and such and think, why would anybody listen to a guy like that. After listening to him off and on over the last couple of years it has become easy to spot the people critizing Rush that obviously never listened to him much.
At first when I was still an early listener and kinda liked the new perspective of examining ideas and critical thinking, I would cring when I saw those seemingly dubious quotes. I would think, surely he didn’t say something like that? Then I would check it out and find out what the topic was about and what came before the one sentence cut from a three hour per day transcript, and what came after. Time after time it kept turning our to be a total mischaracterization of the quote.
One of the favorite mischaracterizations seems to be he is some sort of racist. From listening to his show it seems pretty obvious he is quite the opposite. He touts regularly the ideals of Martin Luthor King. I think where the problem rises when he tends to disagree with the ideals of the likes of Malcolm X. If you are not familiar with the differences in their approaches and ideals, there is not sufficent room here to delve into that for now.
These days, I challenge some of the critics around me to just listen to Rush’s point of view for a bit and then discuss with me what they think. So far 7 of my fellow liberal friends who have taken some time to check the show out. They all have admitted to me that, surprisingly, they seem to agree with rush on the principles of his arguments.
I don’t know why I’m a little timid to say so but Rush helped me take a different look at what I had been taught. I have become a more critical thinker. I no longer just take a stance because thats what I heard I was supposed to think. I now want to know how things work and I can make up my mind for myself. As it turns out I have, unknowingly, been teaching my kids conservative values while claiming to be a solid Democrat. I guess I should have actually looked at what the agenda of the parties was a long time ago.
First of all, thanks for such an articulate response. It doesn’t happen often in the blogosphere.
When Rush asks people to “think for themselves,” he’s not asking them to research the “facts” he stating on his show. Therein lies the difference between him and many of his progressive counterparts in radio and on TV.
He lies, plain and simple. Here are some examples:
1.) A consultation with your doctor once every five years about end-of-life choices is labeled “death panel” (a statement he used after Sarah Palin first used it.) NOT TRUE
2.) One of the twenty-one choices in a health insurance exchange managed exactly like the Medicare reimbursement program is the “government take-over of our entire healthcare system.” NOT TRUE
3.) Loaning money to the auto industry (something we’ve done more than once in the last few decades) is the government “now in the business of building cars.” NOT TRUE
Not only are these statements false, but they are designed to invoke fear. Once fear is implanted, people gravitate to whoever is feeding them this “evidence.” Yelling “fire” in a theatre may be wrong and even illegal, but once you hear someone shout it, you’re first inclination is to heed the warning, not investigate its truthfulnes
Rush’s forté is making you BELIEVE what he says is true. Anyone who takes the time to research his statements knows this.
Thankfully, we now have very good websites that help us navigate through all the BS that comes from both sides of the political spectrum.
Snopes.com, Politifact.org, FactCheck.org, and MediaMatters.com all go after radio and TV pundits, checking their veracity. Everyone is fair game – no “liberal media” here.
I have voted Republican as much as I have voted Democratic in the last 40 years. I’m not someone you can label “R” or “D.” I’m liberal on some issues and conservative on others.
Something tells me you are very level-headed and only want to know what’s really going on. If you took the time to write such a lengthy response to an unknown blogger like me, then I believe you will use the tools we now have to learn what’s really going on in our politics.
An informed electorate is the best weapon against politicians and pundits who do not have the best interest of the American people at heart.
Thanks again for responding.
Sincerely,
Michael Kontras
http://www.MichaelKontras.com