RUSH: We got a couple of ‘get this’ kinda news stories today. This is one of them. Last night on CNN, John King USA, here is a portion of the host, John King, apologizing for an earlier guest, Andy Shaw, the executive director of the watchdog group Better Government Association and some remarks he made during his appearance. Listen to this.
KING: We were just having a discussion about the Chicago mayoral race just a moment ago. My friend, Andy Shaw, who now works for a good government group out there, used the term ‘in the crosshairs’ in talking about the candidates out there. We’re trying, we’re trying to get away from that language. Andy is a good friend. He’s covered politics for a long time, but we’re trying to get away from using that kind of language.
RUSH: He’s serious, folks. CNN issued an apology for a guest using the term ‘in the crosshairs.’ Well, hey, Mike, I’m gonna change the sound bite order. I need to find Wolf Blitzer and Sheriff Dipstick because that also happened on CNN, and this is just classic as well. They’re dead serious. Here, play this again. They wonder why they have 54,000 viewers age 25 to 54 at 8 p.m. during Spitzer and the Ditzer, 54,000 viewers. We have that many on the corner of Fourth Avenue and wherever in Oshkosh. Listen to this again.
KING: We were just having a discussion about the Chicago mayoral race just a moment ago. My friend, Andy Shaw, who now works for a good government group out there, used the term ‘in the crosshairs’ in talking about the candidates out there. We’re trying, we’re trying to get away from that language. Andy is a good friend. He’s covered politics for a long time, but we’re trying to get away from using that kind of language.
RUSH: What is somebody watching CNN think when they hear this? You know, if I were watching, I woulda said, ‘Why don’t you just reshoot the interview?’ Ha-ha-ha-ha. Just reshoot the interview. (laughing) What is this apologizing for ‘in the crosshairs’? (laughing) My gosh, you know, it hearkens back to Ted Turner, you couldn’t use the word ‘foreigners’ for a long time on CNN, and then you couldn’t use the word ‘terrorist’ for a while, and now you can’t say ‘in the crosshairs.’ And I wonder if they would apologize if I were on there and said, ‘Well, why don’t you guys just reshoot it?’ I marvel — (laughing) — I don’t know what to say. I just love it. Notice the sincerity here, the hand-wringing. (imitating King) ‘We’re trying. We’re trying. We’re trying to get away from that language.’ Now, that was last night on CNN’s John King USA. What happened here with Wolf Blitzer and Sheriff Dipstick was before this happened with John King apologizing for his guest Andy Shaw using the term ‘in the crosshairs.’ Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer interviewing the Pima County sheriff, Clarence Dipstick, and we have four sound bites, and here’s the first.
BLITZER: Some of your critics say you’re basically implying that, you know, Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin may have created the environment that led to this massacre.
DUPNIK: Well, I think all the flamethrowers are responsible.
BLITZER: Give me some specifics. Who?
DUPNIK: Well, you mentioned two of them, and I think that people who go out and call for people to take the Second Amendment up in order to resolve certain problems, those kinds of statements are so vitriolic, and I can’t tell you how vitriolic the campaign was against the Tea Party candidate that ran against Gabrielle Giffords.
RUSH: Does he realize what he just said there, how vitriolic the campaign was against the Tea Party candidate that ran against Gabrielle Giffords. So there’s Wolf Blitzed, you know, he slips back into fair journalist mode. Here’s the next segment of the discussion with Sheriff Dipstick.
BLITZER: In your investigation over these ten days, Sheriff, do you have any information that leads you to believe that this alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, was listening to these, what you call flamethrowers, whether Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or anyone else on the left or the right, do you have any specific information that he was influenced by them?
DUPNIK: No, I do not but I can tell you that he has been preoccupied the last three years with an elected official, government official.
BLITZER: You talking about this congresswoman?
DUPNIK: I am.
BLITZER: Gabrielle Giffords. But because we heard that he had Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto among other books in his possession, based on what you know, was he more influenced by the left or the right?
DUPNIK: I have no way of knowing that, Wolf.
RUSH: Well, isn’t this just peachy. Sheriff Dipstick doesn’t know anything. All he knows is that Loughner hated one politician, Gabrielle Giffords. Now, do I need get into a logic explanation here? The sheriff has just explained unbeknownst to him what might be the root of this event. He doesn’t have any evidence or information whatsoever that I, Beck, Palin, or anybody is responsible for this, even had any language responsible for it, but he can say that Loughner was preoccupied the last three years with an elected official, a government official. Who? Gabrielle Giffords. Sheriff, many people hearing this might think the way you’ve been talking lately that you’re all of a sudden now blaming her. The guy was preoccupied with her, not with me, not with Palin, preoccupied with her. Let’s keep listening as Wolf Blitzer tries and tries again to get into the deep, dark crevices of the mind of Sheriff Dipstick.
BLITZER: Because a lot of people are asking, Sheriff, if you don’t know that he was influenced by these individuals, whether Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or anyone else, why make the accusation that they helped create this environment that resulted in six people getting killed?
DUPNIK: Well, it just happens to be my — my opinion based on 52 years in law enforcement.
BLITZER: You’re just speculating?
DUPNIK: I am.
RUSH: Well, that’s gonna make law enforcement happy. (laughing) He’s speculating as to who’s responsible for a crime based on his 52 years in law enforcement. And Wolf Blitzer says, ‘You’re speculating?’ ‘Yeah. Yeah, I was speculating.’ I mean, Sheriff, if Jared Loughner was focused on a government official for three years, where the hell were you? It seems to me to be a rather obvious question. Sheriff Dipstick here admits that Loughner had it in for Gabrielle Giffords, and Gabrielle Giffords is unfortunately in the hospital. Meanwhile, Sheriff Dipstick is blaming me and Sarah Palin. The purpose of the interview is they’re trying to rehab the sheriff here. They’re trying to get the sheriff back on the side of credibility, but no, the sheriff is sticking to his guns, so to speak. I apologize to CNN for the phrase ‘sticking to his guns.’ But that’s what the sheriff is doing here. So finally Wolf gets Dipstick to admit that he doesn’t have evidence that Loughner even listened to the radio.
BLITZER: Because I just want to make sure that you don’t know something — I know you’re — you know a lot more about this investigation than I know or viewers know —
RUSH: Stop the tape. Wolf, no, no. He doesn’t. That’s the whole point, Wolf. He just got through telling you that for three years the shooter has had a hate-on for Gabrielle Giffords. Where has the sheriff been in all these three years? So here’s Wolf, they’re trying to rehab the sheriff. They like the sheriff, he’s a good liberal, he’s law enforcement. They want what Dipstick says to have some credibility. By the way, Wolf, let me ask you a question. Given that John King has apologized for the phrase ‘in the crosshairs’ and I can’t say CNN should ‘reshoot’ the interview, do you think you might want to change your name, Wolf Blitz, Blitzer? I mean nobody thinks of the reindeer when they hear that term. Blitzer sounds like big-time force being used to overcome an opponent. Blitzer is like a little Mein Kampf lingo. Well, anyway that’s just something for them to think about. Here’s the final sound bite.
BLITZER: Jared Loughner was listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio?
DUPNIK: I don’t know what he listened to on the radio.
BLITZER: All right, so you’re not backing away from that controversy. You know you’re gonna get a lot of criticism for making these statements, Sheriff, but you’re not backing away?
DUPNIK: Well, the flamethrowers are pointed at me almost everywhere in the country.
RUSH: (laughing) The only thing I know to do here to be polite is laugh. The sheriff now thinks the flamethrowers are pointed at him everywhere in the country. So I guess it’s okay for the sheriff to come out and defend himself with idle speculation, but if I do it or if Palin does it, why, it’s too defensive and it’s tantamount evidence of guilt. I don’t know, folks. It’s one of those ‘get this’ episodes.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I wonder if CNN will issue an apology soon for their 20-year program entitled ‘Crossfire.’ I wonder if CNN will tell James Carville and ‘The Forehead,’ Paul Begala, they will no longer reference their movie about the ’92 Clinton campaign called ‘The War Room.’ You never know, after John King’s on-air apology last night on CNN.
(replaying of sound bite)
RUSH: ‘We’re trying. We are trying to get away from using language’ like ‘in the crosshairs.’ ‘We’re trying.’
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Matt in Jacksonville, Florida. Matt, welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. I think your boy Sheriff Dipstick might be held liable in this accident, as Nancy Pelosi put it. I’ve been law enforcement for 15 years, and this guy apparently had made numerous death threats, Loughner did. And anybody like that, they’re supposed to be taken before a judge or a magistrate and if it’s found that they are to be possibly a threat to themselves or others, they’re to be involuntarily committed for a psych eval, and he obviously didn’t do that.
RUSH: See, I think this is why Dipstick is trying to shift everybody’s focus to other people, get it off of his office.
CALLER: Absolutely. And the other thing is if I was a family member of one of these victims I’d be suing him big time. He shoulda had security out there, and he didn’t, and I know where I work, something like that, an event like that, even if you’re not gonna commit a beat unit, they’ll put out, ‘Hey, anybody who is off duty, you want overtime, come check out a marked car and go stand by it,’ and they didn’t do any of that.
RUSH: Especially when Dipstick says on CNN last night that he’s known for three years that the shooter had a hate-on for Gabrielle Giffords. I’ve heard guys like you in law enforcement are looking at this with mouths open with incredulity, can’t believe it. But the guy’s protected, he’s a good liberal, he’s saying things the Democrat Party, the media, wants said, so he’s protected.