RUSH: Temecula, California, this is Lynn. I’m glad you waited. Hi.
CALLER: Hey, Rush.
RUSH: Hey.
CALLER: It?s ironic that you’re taking my call because I had called in just to make a comment that your show is already too short, and it gets clogged up with people who call in that are extremely, either ignorant, or way out of touch.
RUSH: Like who?
CALLER: Like the gentleman earlier that called in to say that because these guys were athletes in Durham, they must be guilty. That’s absurd.
RUSH: Well, I think what he was really trying to say was that just because the rape charge has been dropped doesn’t mean that they’re nasty guys that did something to this woman. The reason I take calls like that, you call ’em ignorant. That is a person who I don’t think is using anything other than a template oriented bias about it, and so he fit the bill to give me the chance to explode that myth again. You know, it’s a risky thing to start saying people are ignorant and dumb and stupid.
CALLER: No, I know that. I find it ironic that you took my call because here I am one of them.
RUSH: No. See, I look at every caller here in two ways. I look at it as an opportunity to build the show, to bounce off something a caller says, to take it in a direction that I might not on a particular topic or issue, and the second thing is I look at the opportunity to teach people. Because, after all, I am a great teacher.
CALLER: And that is true.
RUSH: Look, everybody that hosts these shows gets complains about callers. The biggest complaint I get about callers is, ?Why do you even take them? All they do is slow the show down, they slow the pace down. Here you?re ratcheting up and you’re going and you get a call, ?Hi, Rush, milked the cow this morning before I called you. She loves you, too.? Why do you do that?? Because I invite these people to call. I think it’s fun. I might be rolling the dice with every call before you go there, but generally it allows a branch out. And remember, the purpose of a call is to make the host look good and that’s not by virtue of being complimentary. I can be inspired, too. I can have my memory jogged or a flash point idea inspired by a caller comment. So it’s fun. (interruption) You don’t put up calls like what? Here’s Snerdley’s taking it personally what I said. That example was not specific. That example was a catchall. Anyway, the thing is to remember, Lynn, if callers were hosts, then they wouldn’t be calling.