Rush Limbaugh has no shame

The controversial radio personality's odious remarks have been the stuff of outraged conversation for years, but the perennial question becomes louder yet: has he gone too far this time? Limbaugh's comments on this administrations efforts (to crush the Lord's Resistance Army) are disgraceful, say the least. In a textbook example of misreporting, Limbaugh informed his listeners and readers that the president was sending one hundred American troops "to wipe out Christians." How many lies can one man tell?

Conor Friedersdorf weighs in:

Many conservatives complain, with good reason, when they're caricatured as racially insensitive purveyors of white anxiety politics who traffic in absurd, paranoid attacks on their political opponents. Yet many of the most prominent brands in the conservative movement elevate a man guilty of those exact things as a "statesman" whose civility and humility ought to inspire us! In doing so, they've created a monster, one who knows that so long as his ratings stay high, he can say literally anything and be feted as an intellectual and moral role model.

Obviously Limbuagh has unceremoniously sat on every opportunity of being perceived as a respectable journalist, and few on the Left or (sensible) Right will be willing to grant him a second chance. I'd hate to sound even more elitist than usual, but the danger relating to the Fox News strain of the American media is that they lead parochial news consumers to become misinformed. It's all very well to pen articles in the Atlantic about the lies of Rush Limbaugh, but how many people will that affect? Not many, I suspect.

(Image: "Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh attends a Medal of Freedom ceremony at the White House January 13, 2009 in Washington DC. During the ceremony U.S. President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Freedom to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe." Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images North America, via.)