RUSH: David in Nashville, your turn, Open Line Friday. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. First, thanks for letting this lovable amateur chime in. This is the second time I’ve gotten through in my life, and it is a thrill of a lifetime.
RUSH: Well, I’m glad you made it.
CALLER: You have made some great points about how the media sort of helps create so many issues and create some of the stories, and it reminded me: Back when I was in high school I had a social studies teacher who had been a student at Kent State and was there when the protests went on and when they burned down the ROTC building and things like that. And he shared with us that when the ROTC building was burned down, he said it was like watching a movie or a TV commercial being filmed where the students tried to burn it down one time and it didn’t start, and so then they went to the news media and said, “Okay we’re gonna try it again.” So it was like, “Okay, roll the cameras.” They tried it a second time; it didn’t light. The third time, the news media actually stepped in and gave them advice as to how to get the building to burn.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: It didn’t work the third time, and then the fourth time — again after getting input from the news media telling them how to start the fire — finally on the fourth time it started.
RUSH: Let me tell you something. Back in those days NBC knew how to blow up trucks on their Dateline show. ABC knew how to infiltrate grocery stores and make things look like what they weren’t. So the fact that the media would help the Kent State people start a fire, all for the purposes of having a story? I’m not surprised at all.
CALLER: Right. What it did for me, though, it gave a valuable learning lesson. Any time I see something on the news I question it, and I think, “Okay, who’s really behind it and what’s the story that’s really behind it?” and you do a great point. I try to spend the first 30 minutes of my lunch every day listening to you so that way I really know what’s going on.
RUSH: Well, that’s wise. The news media is very seductive because it’s so consistent from network to network, from newspaper to newspaper. The news — ABC, CBS, NBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today — it’s identical, and therefore it’s consistent. When people see a news story treated identically in so many places, they just have to assume, “Well, that’s actually what happened. That’s actually the truth,” when oftentimes it isn’t — and I think you’re very wise. I think everybody ought to be suspicious and questioning, curious and doubtful of everything they see in the media for that very reason. So I’m glad that you have your sensitivities tuned that way. Thanks very much.
Where we headed next? Ron in Prosper, Texas. You’re next on Open Line Friday. Hi.
CALLER: I love your show, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: Yes, sir.
CALLER: Rush, so much of the media and talk shows try to frame the problems in our country whether good or bad based on, you know, Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative. And the problem that I have with it I think our country is got a really moral or if you want to call ethical problem. Every time I turn around, you know, today in the news was a railroad workers, you know, frauding $1 billion. Out here in Texas it was a big real estate thing and a bunch of 20 to 40 people from lawyers all the way down. You know, it was $200 million to a bank. You know, George Bush didn’t tell these people to defraud the country. And so much of it, like I say, labels don’t mean a lot to me. I think that, you know, whether you’re a Madoff and you have access to a billion dollars and you steal it or you’re a janitor and you steal a dollar, you know, it’s still the same. You’d do it no matter what. So I think our country is in trouble simply because we don’t have on our values. They’ve are really degraded. I could go on and on. And I’d like to hear your opinion on that.
RUSH: Well, it’s been the case for a number of years. In fact, multiple generations. There’s no question that there’s been a moral and cultural decline purposely waged. The left wants no judgmentalism. The left does not think anybody is qualified to sit in judgment of them. They don’t want that. They are qualified to sit in judgment. But I don’t think there’s any question about that. Standards have been obliterated and have been blurred. This has led to a lot of confusion and a sense that there’s really nothing that’s really “wrong” anymore. There are explanations for everything.