Headline: TRUTH DETECTOR OR MAN BEHIND REIGN OF ERROR?
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Fri., July 1, 1994
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 13E, Edition: FIVE STAR

THE BAD BOYS OF KMOX - Kevin Horrigan and Charlie Brennan - scored a coup last week when they landed an interview with President Bill Clinton, who lit into talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
  On the program, the president asked for fairness by conservative talk show hosts. He asked for a willingness to present the entire picture, not just their points of view.
   At one point, the president remarked: "After I get off the radio today with you, Rush Limbaugh will have three hours to say whatever he wants. And I won't have any opportunity to respond. And there's no truth detector."

Limbaughpounced on the president's remarks.
   "The gauntlet has been thrown, " Limbaugh said. "There is no need for a truth detector. I am the truth detector."

But Limbaugh's "truth detector" must be out of whack. Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, a media watchdog group known as FAIR, issued a report earlier this week, contending that Limbaugh's broadcasts and publications amount to a "reign of error."
   The organization compiled dozens of Limbaugh's statements and writings that it said were inaccurate.
Some examples:

• Limbaugh: "If you have any doubts about the status of American health care, just compare it with that in other industrialized nations."
• FAIR: "The U.S. ranks 16th in life expectancy and 21st in infant survival among industrialized nations, according to the CIA's 1993 World Fact Book."
• Limbaugh: "You know the Clintons send Chelsea to Sidwell Friends private school. A recent eighth-grade class assignment required students to write a paper on `Why I feel guilty being white.' My source for this story is CBS News."
• FAIR: CBS denied ever running such a story, and a Sidwell spokesman said no such assignment was ever given.
• Limbaugh: Regarding gasoline shortages, "Those gas lines were a direct result of the foreign oil powers playing tough with us because they didn't fear Jimmy Carter."
• FAIR: "The first - and most serious - gas lines occurred in late 1973-early 1974, during the administration of Limbaugh hero Richard Nixon."
• Limbaugh, on Bosnia: "For the first time in military history, U.S. military personnel are not under the command of U.S. generals."
• FAIR: "How far back do you want to go?" asked Cmdr. Joe Gradisher, a Pentagon spokesman. "Americans served under Lafayette in the Revolutionary War" and under foreign commanders in both world wars.

The list of Limbaugh errors goes on and on. "From AIDS to ozone, from Whitewater to the Bible, Limbaugh seems to be able to dissemble and disinform on virtually any subject, " FAIR said.

By the way, when approached by The Associated Press, Limbaugh did not deny saying or writing the statements attributed to him, nor did he defend their accuracy.
   Limbaugh seems to be perfectly willing to bend the truth to lend credence to the points he makes. It seems to be a habit with him.

Limbaugh and I don't share political ideologies. The First Amendment guarantees both Rush Limbaugh and me the right to free speech. I listen and watch Limbaugh, just as I'm sure he reads and watches liberal columnists and commentators.

But as a commentator, Limbaugh needs to aim for accuracy and not twist the truth to make his points. His talk shows are broadcast on 625 radio stations and 250 TV stations around the country. He's written two books and publishes a newsletter with 460,000 subscribers.
   With that many listeners, viewers and readers, it would seem he owes his audiences accuracy, at the least.
   This is especially so because he pounds the news media regularly for what he calls incomplete truths.

But I won't be surprised if few Rush fans will actually urge him to be more factual. Limbaugh enjoys the cult of personality. His fans love him, no matter what he says. He's the talk-show equivalent of Ronald Reagan. Reagan said all sorts of wacky things, like blaming trees for pollution. But comments such as that didn't dissuade Reagan's followers.

Limbaugh has that same talent, that ability to say "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, " and have his fans believe him.
That's really too bad. But when you've got a cult of personality going for you, who really cares about the truth?

COPYRIGHT © 1994, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

back