Government officials are reviewing a skit which aired on the network Monday evening -- a skit featuring an apparent gunshot warning to the president!

The announcer: "A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn't safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here's your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [audio sound of 4 gunshots being fired.] Just try it, you little bastard. [audio of gun being cocked]."

The audio production at the center of the controversy aired during opening minutes of The Randi Rhodes Show.

http://www.drudgereport.com/mattabt.htm

Very bad form but my gues is that it is legal.

It is illegal to talk about killing the president or attempt to kill the president but I am not sure how this "skit" would be classified. They may call it entertainment and thus get away with it. Or because it was a "warning" shot they may get by with it. All in all though I would think that the stations attorneys should have curtailed it before it aired.

Many people dream about it and some even hope it happens but few want to risk life in prison for it.

Like I said....very bad form.

I guess when you are desperate for ratings you will do almost anything

Originally posted by Travh20
I guess when you are desperate for ratings you will do almost anything
How are they desperate for ratings? They add about 3 or 4 new stations each month. They keep growing...I don't see your point...

I agree that this is over-the top...and Randi admits that. She has said her sorry, and although that may not be enough in your eyes, it's enough to me.

I love Randi Rhodes, she's very intelligent and smart. Wonderful women. :) She can be extreme, but mostly she's a very smart women.

Brooks, as for saying "class act"...if you listen to republican air waves, they can be just as bad and they never admit they are wrong when they say or do something wrong on the air waves. Saying the Prisoner Abuse was like "college hazing"? And one time an extreme republican was talking and saying the Arabs deserved everything they got in the scandal. Rush Limbaugh has said some of the most vulgar things on his show. Seriously, every side on the air waves can make mistakes and go too far. At least Randi admits it.

she admits it because what she "Said" was illegal. she hasnt said any of the other hate crap she spouts is wrong any more then limbaugh or the others. and she is not smart. she seems smart becasue you agree with her. anyone who says the nazis killed jews in the name of christ is fucking moron who doesnt know history

she admits it because what she "Said" was illegal.
Did she say it, or was it an audio clip that she found?

she seems smart becasue you agree with her.
She is smart, because she gives valid infomation and always cites her sources.

anyone who says the nazis killed jews in the name of christ is fucking moron who doesnt know history
lol, proof? hahahahaha

overdose, your selective memory is very fucking convienient. I posted a whole thread on the topic of the nazis killing jews in the name of christ, you even were in on it and said you heard it

Ah yes, Revisionist history from the christian right.

look, I know what I heard. I do not appreciate being called a lair.

Reminds me of the time class act Jesse Helms threatened Clinton would get fragged if he entered the state of North Carolina. Neither is acceptable, but both sides do it.

Originally posted by Overdose
I love Randi Rhodes, she's very intelligent and smart. Wonderful women. :)
Rush Limbaugh has said some of the most vulgar things on his show.

Wonderful woman once ran a skit making fun of the men who round up shopping carts at supermarkets. The skit said wonderful things like retarded, brain-dead, losers, etc.... How wonderful. After the wonderful skit they cut back to her and she was in hysterics.

Find me anything as "vulgar" from Rush Limbaugh as the President Bush skit. There are plenty of anti-Rush websites so it should be pretty easy.

Rush once showed a picture of Chelsea and said "cute white house dog" and later denied it, which was really wrong, but not quite as bad as an assassination joke.

In our fashionable zeal to lay Nazism at the foot of Christianity, we forget about heroes who deserve to be remembered.

http://www.liv-coll.ac.uk/pa09/europetrip/brussels/wrose.htm

Originally posted by Brooks

Find me anything as "vulgar" from Rush Limbaugh as the President Bush skit. There are plenty of anti-Rush websites so it should be pretty easy.

Rush once showed a picture of Chelsea and said "cute white house dog" and later denied it, which was really wrong, but not quite as bad as an assassination joke.

As a young broadcaster in the 1970s he once told a black caller: "Take that bone out of your nose and call me back." A decade later he was musing: "Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"1

In 1992, on his now-defunct TV show, Limbaugh expressed his ire when Spike Lee urged that black schoolchildren get off from school to see his film Malcolm X: "Spike, if you're going to do that, let's complete the education experience. You should tell them that they should loot the theater, and then blow it up on their way out."
In a similar vein, here is Limbaugh's mocking take on the NAACP, a group with a ninety-year commitment to nonviolence: "The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."
Once, in response to a caller arguing that black people need to be heard, Limbaugh responded: "They are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?" That's not an unusual response for a talk radio host playing to an audience of "angry white males." It may not play so well among National Football League players, 70 percent of whom are African American.
But since a national sports show is very different from the clubby dumb white guy audience his radio show enjoys, he's gotten into trouble over his analysis of the play of Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Donovan McNabb.
"I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well," Limbaugh said. "There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."
Limbaugh did not back down during his syndicated radio talk show Wednesday.
He reiterated that he does not think McNabb is a bad player, just that he isn't as good as some members of the media think he is.
Rush Limbaugh went to Afghanistan and seized the opportunity to generate fodder with which to pander to his audience back home. Rush told bare-faced lies to the troops about the content of a Reuters report discussing the quality of front line medical efforts, fatalities and gauging the human costs of the war. Rush is certainly capable of comprehending a story. Here (yet again) he chose not to and instead, lie utterly about the content and claims made in the story. Rush lied thoroughly.. about specifics in the article, how it was "presented" and what it "means".

In going to Afghanistan and lying the troops, Rush (a person who dodged the draft) is using our armed forces for the purposes of enriching himself through his show.

Pictures from Abu Ghuraib prison in Iraq showed prisoners being stripped naked, stacked in pyramids, forced into homosexual acts, menaced by dogs, placed on the ground with leashes around their necks, etc. It is difficult to assess this as anything other than it is.. inappropriate, counter-productive humiliation. But here is Rush casually dismissing it as pranks like that of a fraternity, excusable as mere boredom and blowing off steam.
5/04 : BEGIN TRANSCRIPTRUSH: Exactly. Exactly my point! This is no different than what happens at the skull and bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?

Rush Misrepresents Kerry's Statement The Attacks Him for It...

Here Rush Limbaugh completely misrepresents what Kerry actually said and then proceeds to launch an attack and proves his ignorance in the process.
4/13 : BEGIN TRANSCRIPT"Don't stand up for white music, associate yourself with rap. Can you just see old J.F. Kerry and Teresa [Heinz, his wife] riding around in the Range Rover or whatever . . . tuning into hip-hop? What CD is in the player right now? It's one thing to say you like it. But to try to pass this off as something that you've intellectually examined and have assigned value to? END TRANSCRIPT


Yeah, a real class act to be admired.


:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :@@: :@@: :@@:

So it seems to me that during his 30-year tenure, you've selectively cherry picked roughly ten instances of Rush acting inappropriately. I don't think that's a terrible track record considering the fact that he's recorded on a nationally syndicated show almost every day.

Originally posted by The Praetorian
So it seems to me that during his 30-year tenure, you've selectively cherry picked roughly ten instances of Rush acting inappropriately. I don't think that's a terrible track record considering the fact that he's recorded on a nationally syndicated show every day.

I have listened to Rush many times and find him to be a master of lies and half truths everytime that I've tuned in. Unfortunately, I did not record every show and comment for your review. Sorry. If you find his comments informative and enlightening, well bully for you.

its funny, becasue when i listen to rush I hear good points and true statements, but when i listen to air america I hear half truths and lies. I guess we all hear what we want to hear.

Originally posted by Travh20
its funny, becasue when i listen to rush I hear good points and true statements, but when i listen to air america I hear half truths and lies. I guess we all hear what we want to hear.

Speak for yourself only Trav. I have never listened to Air America. Sorry.

I was speaking for myself

Then for future consideration, please try to refrain from using the word "we", as in the collective, when responding to a post. Thanks.

Tapeworm, I would disagree with you on any of that being worse than joking about assassinating the President, but that's subjective I guess. But I have to admit, you surprised me with the bone in the nose story.

The Malcolm X comments came within the context of Rush Limbaugh feeling that the early criminal life of Malcolm Little being portrayed in the film as justified because of the racist society. He felt that this wasn't how this should be presented to schoolchildren.

Donovan McNabb: "I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."

There was nothing racist about what he said. Right after he said it, Michael Irvin, a black commentator on NFL Sunday, said "Rush has a point". It was only in the days following that everyone decided how terrible this was. Chris Berman said it wasn't malicious, but the following week ripped Rush apart. This was a commentary about the media. There is no racism in that statement.

I heard his comments about the front line medical facilities in Iraq. Since you didn't post them, I won't defend them, but they were actually a comment on the media's presentation of the facts.

I don't see the problem with the John Kerry story.


**

A couple of years ago Rush Limbaugh said that only white christian males should be elected to public office and then went to a commercial. I was thinking he really screwed up this time. When he came back he said that an aggressive media was needed to report honestly on politicians and that the media was less likely to criticize non-white christian males (a fact proven when Al Sharpton ran for president), therefore those politicians wouldn't get the scrutiny they deserve.

If you heard the first part out of context you would have thought it was outrageous. My point is that this is a technique he uses so context is important with a lot of the things he says. Some of these things may not sound as bad if paired what was said right before or after.

A couple of years ago Rush Limbaugh said that only white christian males should be elected to public office and then went to a commercial. I was thinking he really screwed up this time. When he came back he said that an aggressive media was needed to report honestly on politicians and that the media was less likely to criticize non-white christian males (a fact proven when Al Sharpton ran for president), therefore those politicians wouldn't get the scrutiny they deserve.

If you heard the first part out of context you would have thought it was outrageous. My point is that this is a technique he uses so context is important with a lot of the things he says. Some of these things may not sound as bad if paired what was said right before or after. [/B][/QUOTE]


That being said, I have heard Rush speak on many issues and I have a fair idea of the context that he frames his arguments in. It usually disgusts me whenever I have even a fair idea of the issues involved when he has a topic. I have not listened to Air America and I am not defending their skit about assassinating the president. My point, however, was to show a historical pattern of outrageous comments. Comparing them to a (presumably) one-time event is a bit unfair. I would love to assume that intelligent conservatives and liberals would take offense at the idea of an assassination but I would also hope that these same people of intelligence would condemn Rush for his history of racial and political intolerance and baiting. By bringing him into the argument, I fear this is not the case.

I didn't bring him in, I was responding.

I can't defend the bone comment and can't imagine it making sense in a larger context. But many of his other comments need to be heard in their entirety before it can be fairly said what point he was trying to make.