I had assumed that by now the Rush Limbaugh story about “phony soldiers” would be old hat, but it really seems like the thing has legs of its own at this point. So I suppose it’s high time we take a look at the whole thing and marvel at what has become a two-pronged story. Not only do we have a chronicle of just what a windbag Rush is, but how great the media is at completely missing the point.
As a note. Yes, I’m going to be using MediaMatters for my transcripts. If that paints me as unfair somehow I welcome anyone to explain the problem.
Anyway, the story is old hat at this point. Rush took a caller named Mike and started accusing those in the military who don’t support the war and the surge of being “phony soldiers”. Everyone pounced on his verbiage, and naturally I’m going to quote the pertinent paragraph. With one key difference: I’m going to highlight a different part.
The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they’re willing to sacrifice for their country.
Now, the media leapt on this one. Only they gave Rush far too much credit. They assumed he was speaking metaphorically. They figured he was saying that the only true soldiers are ones who support the Iraq War, and that anyone else is a phony in that they may serve and wear the camo but they aren’t of the same build as the “real” ones who blindly support this idiocy of a war.
Naturally, Rush and his supporters immediately started to defend themselves and point out Jesse MacBeth, the guy who pretended to be a veteran who’d seen horrors committed by the military. While it’s true he edited his transcript because initially he hadn’t spoken of it as though he meant only out and out frauds like a guy who serves 42 days and then claims he’s a war veteran, it’s very likely that Rush is telling the truth, and that’s not any better.
