RUSH: You wouldn’t believe the audio sound bites I got out of Green Bay today. It wasn’t just Green Bay. I mean, it made other networks. It made Fox.
You know, it was all over the place. Here I’m just minding my own business. You know, I’m the last guy to blame for what happened up there. I don’t have access to the school’s PA system. I don’t have access to the local radio station. They chose to carry our feed, which I am eternally grateful for. I love my affiliates. I love every one of the stations that carry this program. They have made me who I am. I am as loyal to them as I am to anybody else in this whole chain of related links. But I didn’t choose to dial in that station at that school — and, by the way, we let everybody know in advance what we were going to do. This was not a surprise to our affiliates. In fact, let me give you a dirty little secret. You know, folks, I’ll tell you what. We sit here and we take a lot of grief — and, of course, the pioneers take the arrows and I’m used to taking the hits.
I’m used to being the focus of this. Fine and dandy. I know how to deal with it, but I just want you people to know — and H.R. will back me up on this ’cause he got the phone calls. Starting two weeks prior to the election, our affiliates began to call us asking what our plans were for Inauguration Day. They wanted us, a lot of people that called said, ‘Would you carry it and do the commentary during the speech that you usually do?’ They pleaded to us to do this. Many of our affiliates pleaded for that because there was no other show that does this, and it was going to be the same thing was going to be available on thousands of media outlets, but only one media outlet — every EIB station — would have me, analyzing it, at the moment, as it happens, which we are known for here. So they asked us for this. And they asked us to stick with it for as long as necessary without commercial breaks, and we said, ‘Okay. We will do it.’
So in responding to a request from my business partners, I now am the focus of blame, when I had no control whatsoever over what happened up there in Green Bay. I don’t mean to sound like I’m whining. I’m not, ’cause I think this is a teachable moment. I think that is a great educational exercise. It’s another illustration of how the Drive-By Media loves to take things out of context with me and get them all wrong, for the express purpose of trying to discredit and destroy me because they can’t beat me on ideas.
RUSH: Last night, WFLD, Eyeball News in Chicago, Fox News, anchor Jan Jeffcoat reported.
JEFFCOAT: Rush Limbaugh is offering to teach a civics lesson at the Green Bay school, that’s after the school randomly chose to air his coverage of President Obama’s inauguration speech on Tuesday over their PA system. Some teachers and kids were upset about what Rush said afterward. One teacher wrote him an e-mail to complain after he commented during Obama’s speech. Well, now he’s offering to visit the school and even let the children ride in his private jet. By the way, at the end of the e-mail, the PS said, quote, ‘Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.’ So Rush printed it 150 times.
RUSH: That’s one of the most objective reports in local Drive-By journalism involving this program in many, many moons. They just said what happened. There wasn’t any judgment in there.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: All right, back to audio sound bites, Green Bay media buzzing over the Limbaugh school flap, the immaculation address and all that attended to it.
HORNACEK: As President Barack Obama made history, students at Edison Middle School in Green Bay heard this.
RUSH ARCHIVE: There it is, folks! There it is: history in the making, with a botched oath.
HORNACEK: That is the voice of conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. His show airs in Green Bay on WTAQ, and that’s the radio station Edison hooked up to the PA system so students could listen to the inauguration.
STUDENT: We were looking at each other, like, open mouthed, like, who’s doing this? Like ,nobody should be doing this. And then, the principal came on and said, ‘It’s very inappropriate.’
HORNACEK: …a sixth-grader at Edison and had never heard of Rush Limbaugh before. Anna’s mother could not believe Limbaugh made his comments during the ceremony.
MOTHER: Rush has got his show. He can make those comments, uh, another time regarding that, if he chooses to.
HORNACEK: And his teacher was also upset with what happened. This is a voicemail she left with WTAQ.
TEACHER: I’m very, very disappointed that you allowed this to happen. I’m disappointed in his choice to take a wonderful moment of history and to taint it the way he did.
BADER: Twelve people called and were upset what happened. Thousands of people listen to Rush Limbaugh.
HORNACEK: WTAQ program director Jerry Bader actually agrees that Limbaugh’s comments were disrespectful, but he did not believe they were hateful. Limbaugh addressed the situation on his show.
RUSH ARCHIVE: There’s a lot of ‘taint’ that has occurred in our culture, our pop culture, a lot of ‘taint’ that has occurred in public education.
HORNACECK: Limbaugh has offered to come to Green Bay to speak at Edison Middle School about civics. He even offered to take 15 students for a trip on his private jet. No word on whether the school will accept Limbaugh’s offer.
RUSH: That was the reporter Bob Hornacek, Robert Hornacek from Fox Eyeball News 11, WLUK in Wisconsin. I don’t know why they chose that bite. There is a lot of taint that has occurred in our culture, our pop culture? That’s sensible if you don’t know what I was talking about around it. Again: context. But that was Green Bay media all over the story. Now, folks, let me, again, explain to you what happened here. I’m minding my own business, and we gotta go back two weeks. I want all you Drive-Bys to hear this. Two weeks ago, our office began receiving calls from our affiliate radio stations, asking what our plans were for carrying the inauguration, because the inauguration ceremony — well, on the timeline, the acceptance speech — was exactly when this program began. So they wanted to know what our plans were, and as discussions ensued, we received requests from many of our affiliate stations to provide instant analysis and commentary as I always do, regardless.
Whenever we JIP a presidential press conference or anything else, we offer comments at the time it’s happening. They asked us to do this. They asked us to blow through commercial breaks. Since they asked us to do this, we did this. The last person in line here who has any responsibility for my show ending up on a PA system at a school is me! I’m not in Green Bay. I don’t have the power to tune in the radio at the school and then to patch it into the PA system. But there is an aspect of this that has gone unremarked upon — and, as always, that is left to me to remark upon it. There is this little thing out there called copyright. This is my show. We have a contract with WTAQ in Green Bay to carry the program. We do not have a contract with this middle school. This middle school does not have the right to take my program and put it on their PA system.
Now, everybody is whining and moaning at me for upsetting these poor, helpless, sensitive little angel students who probably were ticked off because this thing happened to interrupt their sex education class, is my guess. Poor kids! Oh, they’re so fragile! They can’t… All they heard me say was, ‘And there it is, folks. An historic moment, blah, blah, and a botched oath,’ and who knows? And it was true. It was true. It’s exactly right. It might have required counselors to come in to deal with the fragile psyche of these kids. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I, of course, would never approach this school. I would never approach this school and demand payment or file a lawsuit for violating the copyright of this program. Not just anybody can broadcast it out there. We have contracts with our radio stations.
That’s why we’re not on satellite, that and a host of reasons. So while I, a harmless, lovable little fuzzball, who was asked by our affiliates to provide this coverage, am being now laced and ripped to shreds for something about which I had absolutely no responsibility — and, in addition, I was ripped off in the process. By the way, we had to redo the ‘oaf.’ We had to redo the ‘oaf.’ Obama and John Roberts had to redo the ‘oaf’ because it was Roberts that botched it. And they had to redo it, but they didn’t do it with a Bible, do you know that? There was no Bible when they redid the ‘oaf.’ They might have to do it a third time. So, anyway, here I’m used to this. I’m used to being a Big, Bad Wolf and these little children, so fragile, so helpless, who can’t handle anything. ‘Mommy! Mommy! What happened? I can’t believe this happened.’ I had nothing to do with it. I had nothing to do with it, nor did my affiliate, by the way.
WTAQ is minding its own business. WTAQ can’t walk over to that school and say, ‘Here, tune us in and pipe it into your PA system,’ and now the school is investigating? The school? I ought to be investigating! I should be the one asking, ‘What the hell happened here?’ But I, of course, am the Big, Bad Wolf, and they’ve got to investigate me. And out of magnanimity, my friends, I have offered to go to the school and give a couple lectures on civics and then let 15 or 20 kids earn a ride in EIB 1 and explain economics to them while we’re up there, having pizza and whatever. Well, whatever they want.