Rush Limbaugh, Free Speech and Lies

A few weeks ago, I posted about the Democratic petition regarding Rush Limbaugh. I thought the petition ludicrous and I still do.

But interestingly, I have gotten these remarkably similar comments from an Anonymous commenter.

rush limbaugh works for the ultra conservatives that made him. i have listened to his show and found out what he says is maybe 10%
truth the rest republican brainwashing that is lies. why even have him on the air. you get more truth by reading the national enquirer. with more talk shows coming up i assumed they were getting rid of the fat nazi.

and this one:

personally i think they should have the freedom of speech act placed upon conservative talk radio shows. if you reallly listen to what they are saying only 10% is truth the rest is propaganda lies. by having callers call in i think the facts will come out more.

I like the 10% truth meme, I find it amusing.

What is also obvious to me is that these two (I am assuming they are two different people) don't actually listen to Rush Limbaugh. If you listen long enough, he will almost always (probably 90% of the time) tell you where his source material comes from and you can look it up for yourself. But interestingly to me, is that they assume that only the TRUTH should be aired. Truth, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder. (which as Obi Wan Kenobi once said, "A great many of the truths we cling to depend greatly upon our point of view.") Facts however are verifiable and Limbaugh relies on facts (of the verifiable kind) and the written words of others as material for his show.

But lets leave truth aside, it doesn't matter whethe Limbaugh is "true" or not. He will tell you (and often does) that his show first and foremost is designed to entertain as much as it is to inform. He can entertain and he is so good at it that he has probably the single most syndicated show in America. He makes good money for him, his syndicator and his advertisers.

The left seizes upon Rush Limbaugh because he can and does entertain, inform and yes, get a little outlandish at times. But rush Limbaugh is better at it than anyone else and the one thing lefties don't like is that someone is smarter than them, better at something than them and has the audacity to dare them to challenge him.

By the way, I wonder if I had posted comments like those on say the Huffington Post or some other lefty blog, would those comments have made it past a moderator? I have comment moderation to prevent comment spam, not to deny legitimate and even anonymous commenters (unless you language is vulgar or contains profanities on the George Carlin 7 Dirty Words list.)