TERRY KREPEL & ANDY NEWBOLD/Media Matters For America
Rush Limbaugh has frequently attacked citizens who voted to re-elect President Obama as "low-information voters," but Limbaugh has made so many false and misleading attacks that he could be considered a low-information radio host.
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Limbaugh Bashes "Low-Information Voters"
Limbaugh Does "Low-Information Voter Segment" Of Celebrity News. In an effort to appeal to "low-information voters," on the January 7 edition of his radio show, Limbaugh ran a segment on "breaking news from TMZ" about how "Kyle XY star Matt Dallas has come out." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 1/7/13, via Media Matters]
Limbaugh: "A Low-Information Voter Is Actually A High Liberal Information Voter." On December 21, 2012, Limbaugh defined a "low-information voter" as "actually a high liberal information voter" that cares about celebrity news, and "there just isn't much room left" in their brains for things like "deficits, tax cuts, economic matters, the country going to hell in a handbasket." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show,12/21/12, via Media Matters]
Limbaugh: Obama Won "Person Of The Year" Honor Because He Attracted Low-Information Voters.Limbaugh said that Obama was named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" because "he turned low-information, apathetic voters into people who vote." Limbaugh added that Obama is "a symbol of the new low-information America" and "it's only a low-information voter -- we used to call them morons -- that could think he's outside politics." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 12/19/12, via Media Matters]
But Limbaugh Has Repeatedly Supplied False Or Bad Information To His Listeners
Limbaugh Displays Debt Ceiling Ignorance While Attacking CNN's Velshi. Limbaugh insisted that the federal debt ceiling is like a limit on credit card spending in an attempt to prove that CNN's Ali Velshi was a "low-information reporter." In fact, failure to raise the debt ceiling is actually like refusing to pay a credit card bill because it restrains the government's ability to pay its debts, not future spending. [Media Matters, 1/4/13]
Limbaugh Falsely Claims Union Members Have No Say In How Dues Are Spent. Limbaugh claimed that "there a lot of union workers who are not Democrats, not liberals," but they "have no control" over how union officials spend their dues on political activities. In fact, workers at unionized workplaces already can choose whether to pay for the political activities of the union that bargains on their behalf. [Premiere Radio Networks,The Rush Limbaugh Show, 12/12/12, via Media Matters; Media Matters, 12/11/12]
Limbaugh Mocks Fact That Unemployment Benefits Are Stimulus. Limbaugh denied that unemployment benefits have a positive effect on the economy, saying it's a "crock" that extending them translates into economic growth. In fact, studies show that these benefits stimulate the overall economy and provide greater economic impact on growth than the Bush tax cuts for upper-income earners. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 12/10/12, via Media Matters]
Limbaugh Dismisses Guns' Role In Domestic Violence Deaths. Limbaugh dismissed the notion that Kasandra Perkins, who was killed in a murder-suicide by her boyfriend, NFL football player Jovan Belcher, would still be alive today if Belcher hadn't had a gun. In fact, data show that guns greatly increase the probability that women who are victims of domestic violence will be killed by their abuser. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 12/3/12, via Media Matters]
Limbaugh: "Everything -- Except The Polls -- Points To A Romney Landslide." Under the headline "Everything -- Except The Polls -- Points To A Romney Landslide," Limbaugh's website posted a transcript of his radio show in which he said his "intellectual analysis" of the election was that "it's not even close. Three hundred-plus electoral votes for Romney." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/5/12]
Limbaugh: Climate Change Is "A Nonissue Anymore Because It's Fraudulent. The Whole Thing Has Been Proven To Be A Hoax." Limbaugh asserted that climate change is "a nonissue anymore because it's fraudulent. The whole thing has been proven to be a hoax." That statement was one in a long series of Limbaugh repeatedly denying the scientific consensus that climate change is driven at least in part by human activities. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 10/30/12, via Media Matters; Media Matters,12/19/11]
Limbaugh Falsely Claims Reagan "Inherited A Worse Recession Than Obama Did." Limbaugh said that President Reagan "inherited a worse recession than Obama did." In fact, the two recessions are not comparable; the recession in the early 1980s was caused by monetary restriction aimed at bringing inflation under control, while the 2007 recession was caused by a financial crisis, which typically takes more time to recover from. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 10/15/12, via Media Matters; Media Matters, 8/3/12]
Limbaugh Falsely Claims Conservatives Didn't Attack Supreme Court Nominees. Limbaugh declared he and other conservatives "don't try to destroy" the careers of Democratic nominees to the Supreme Court. But Limbaugh himself, backed up by the right-wing media, launched a string of vicious and offensive attacks on both Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Sonia Sotomayor during their appointment processes. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 10/12/12, via Media Matters]
Limbaugh Peddles Unproven Conspiracy Theory That Jobless "Numbers Have Been Cooked."Limbaugh said he agreed with former General Electric CEO Jack Welch that unemployment "numbers have been cooked." In fact, experts dismiss the claims as unfounded conspiracy theories and agree that the numbers are accurate. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 10/8/12, via Media Matters; Media Matters, 10/5/12]
Limbaugh Promotes Discredited Obama Gun Grab Conspiracy. Limbaugh claimed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Operation Fast and Furious was hatched as an Obama administration plot to disarm Americans. In fact, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General found "no evidence" that the agents involved in Fast and Furious had "improper motives" and that the goal of the operation was "dismantling a dangerous firearms trafficking organization." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 9/21/12, via Media Matters]
Limbaugh Spreads Discredited Rumor That Marines At U.S. Embassy In Cairo Didn't Have Bullets.Limbaugh said that on the day of the attack on the diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, "the Marines didn't have bullets in Egypt." In fact, the rumor that Marines protecting the embassy in Cairo were prohibited from carrying live ammunition was debunked by the Marine Corps itself, which called it "not accurate." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 9/14/12, via Media Matters; Media Matters, 9/13/12]
Limbaugh Falsely Claimed Obama's Election Caused 2008 Job Losses. Limbaugh encouraged his listeners to "[g]o back and look at the monthly unemployment numbers" to confirm his claim that job losses in 2008 were a reaction to President Obama's election in November of that year. In fact, the U.S. economy began losing jobs in February, and the pace of job losses began to accelerate prior to the election. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 7/3/12, via Media Matters]
Limbaugh Returns To Years-Old Smear By Saying Obama "Trash[ed] The Founders." Limbaugh claimed that Obama was "trashing the founders" by saying that the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren "wasn't that radical." In fact, Obama was pointing out that because the Warren Court "didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution," it was not as radical as its critics have claimed. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 7/2/12, via Media Matters; Media Matters, 10/28/08]
Limbaugh Falsely Claims IRS Is Hiring "16,000 New Agents" To Implement Health Care Reform.Limbaugh said that the Internal Revenue Service is hiring "16,000 new agents" who will determine whether individuals and businesses are buying "the right kind" of insurance inder the Affordable Care Act. In fact, according to FactCheck.org, that claim is "wildly inaccurate" and "stems from a partisan analysis based on guesswork and false assumptions, and compounded by outright misrepresentation." [Premiere Radio Networks,The Rush Limbaugh Show, 7/2/12, via Media Matters; FactCheck.org, 3/30/12]
Limbaugh Entertains Absurd Conspiracy Theory That President Obama Might "Dispense With Elections." Limbaugh said, "What if Obama decides that the 22nd Amendment is no longer relevant?" adding the idea is "worth throwing out" because Obama championed a health care reform law that "basically pees all over" the Constitution. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 6/25/12, via Media Matters]
Limbaugh Rewrites Obama's Dreams To Falsely Claim "Racist" Attack. Limbaugh used a new biography about President Obama's life to claim he viewed his high school basketball coach and his team as "racist" and that Obama wrote in his book Dreams From My Father that "he played black ball, the coach coached white ball, and as such the coach was a racist, the team was racist, strategy of the game was racist, and Obama rode the bench." In fact, Obama wrote that he disabused a friend who suggested racism was a factor in him not getting more playing time on the basketball team. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 6/25/12, viaMedia Matters]
Limbaugh Endorses Romney's Discredited Allegation That Obama Knowingly Slowed Down The Recovery. Limbaugh said that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was "getting a lot of positive feedback" for claiming that the Obama administration "knowingly slowed down our recovery in order to put in place Obamacare," adding, "That is something we would say and have said, but to hear a Republican presidential candidate say it, it is kind of cool." In fact, the actual comments to which Romney and Limbaugh were referring make clear that the White House has always rejected the dubious claim that it could not focus on economic recovery and health care reform at the same time. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 6/7/12, via Media Matters; Media Matters, 6/6/12]
Limbaugh Promotes Dubious Story About "Necrophilia Law" In Egypt. Limbaugh hyped a thinly sourced column in an Egyptian newspaper about a supposed proposal to legalize necrophilia, saying that "one question I had of my own was, 'Who provides the contraceptives when an Egyptian guy has sex with his dead wife?' " But Al-Arabiya reported that members of the Egyptian parliament were denying that any such law was ever proposed. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/27/12; Media Matters, 4/30/12]
Limbaugh Revives Bogus Attack That Obama Supports "Infanticide." Limbaugh said that while serving in the Illinois State Senate, Obama "voted for infanticide," claiming that "Barack Obama voted to allow babies who survived an abortion to go ahead and be killed." In fact, Obama voiced his opposition to the legislation as a state senator because it would have given legal status to fetuses and would thus have been struck down by the courts, and because Illinois already had laws to ensure infants who survived abortions would be given medical attention. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 2/23/12, via Media Matters; National Journal,2/22/12]
Limbaugh Falsely Claims "There Is A Relationship Between Abortion And Breast Cancer." Limbaugh said that "there is a relationship between abortion and breast cancer," adding that "it's been medically documented." In fact, the American Cancer Society says that "research studies have not found a cause-and-effect relationship between abortion and breast cancer," and the National Cancer Institute states that it found that "having an abortion or miscarriage does not increase a woman's subsequent risk of developing breast cancer." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 2/3/12; Media Matters, 11/19/09]
Limbaugh: Nobody Is Mentioning That Sandusky Is "A Gay Guy." Limbaugh said that the media refused to identify former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who had been charged with child molestation, as "a gay guy," due to the influence of a powerful "gay lobby." In fact, experts say that men who molest young boys aren't necessarily gay, and there is no credible link between homosexuality and pedophilia. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/18/11; Equality Matters, 11/17/11]
Limbaugh Falsely Claimed Obama Is "Target[ing] Christians" In Uganda. Limbaugh said that "President Obama has deployed troops to another war, in Africa," adding that the group being targeted, the Lord's Resistance Army, "are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. ... So that's a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians." In fact, claimed Christian ties of the Lord's Resistance Army are reportedly part of a mish-mash of other religious and occult beliefs, and the group has a long record of alleged atrocities, including sexual enslavement and forcibly conscripting children. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 10/14/11, via Media Matters]
Limbaugh Falsely Claimed That "The Democrat Party" Was Proposing To "Outlaw Your 401(K) Plan."Limbaugh claimed that Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had a proposal to eliminate 401(k)s in favor of a retirement plan administered by the government. In fact, they had not made such a proposal. Rather, the idea of guaranteed retirement accounts -- which was distorted by Limbaugh -- was mentioned by a panelist from the Economic Policy Institute during a hearing held by Harkin and Sanders on retirement security issues. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/2/10, via Media Matters]
Limbaugh Falsely Claimed That Obama Thinks Iran Should Have A Nuclear Weapon If Israel Does.Limbaugh claimed that President Obama believes Iran should have a nuclear weapon because "that's fair," commenting that "Obama knows he can't make any other nation get rid of theirs" and so Obama has decided that "If the Israelis have one, the Iranians should." However, Obama and his administration had repeatedly called Iranian nuclear activity a "threat" and demanded that they adhere to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 10/13/10, via Media Matters]
Limbaugh Falsely Claimed Center For Science In The Public Interest Wanted To "Ban Chinese Food."Limbaugh discussed the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which advocates for nutrition, health, and food safety, and its intent to file suit against McDonald's for its "unfair and deceptive" promotion of toys to children through its Happy Meals. The CSPI has lauded Chinese restaurants and labeled most Chinese dishes "healthy," yet Limbaugh stated of the Washington-based group: "They wanted to ban Chinese food. These people want to get in your life and tell you what to eat," and attacked them as "kooks, statists, [and] nannies." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 7/9/10, via Media Matters]
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