RUSH: By the way, I meant to mention this earlier. CBS last night did about a 15-minute interview with Romney and Ryan. They left out something very interesting. Did you know this? They left out something that Ryan said. They edited this out. I think they actually did the interview on Sunday at a furniture factory in Hickory, North — somewhere. But this is what did not air. It’s been found, CBS website. Ryan said, “My mom is a Medicare senior in Florida. Our point is, we need to preserve their benefits because government made promises to them that they’ve organized their retirements around. Now, in order to make sure we can do that, you must reform it for those of us who are younger, and we think these reforms are good reforms. They have bipartisan origins. They started from the Clinton commission in the late nineties.”
Now, I want to go back, the three things every voter needs to know about Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan in a hundred words, and number one is, no one over the age of 55 would be affected in any way. Ryan’s mother lives in Florida. She’s a senior on Medicare. He’s not cutting his mother’s Medicare. They didn’t air this. They edited that out. Now, don’t you think it’s kind of important to put that in? CBS wanted to leave the impression that Ryan’s Medicare cuts are Draconian and harmful. Don’t you think if you’ve got the guy saying, (paraphrasing) “Well, my mom’s on Medicare in Florida, and we need to preserve their benefits, government made promises to them, they’ve organized their retirements around this. We can’t cut that.” Don’t you think it would be kind of important to air that if you really are trying to help America understand who the guy is?
And don’t you think that if you edit that out, which, I’m sure was just an oversight, right? Just like the NBC oversight of editing the 911 call in the Trayvon Martin case. Just like when CNN plays “Stupid Girl” when they’re preparing an interview with Palin, or when Jimmy Fallon opens up with Lyin’ Ass B-i-itch when he’s gonna interview Michele Bachmann. These are just accidents, and I’m sure just an accident, right, that CBS somehow couldn’t find room to leave in their 15-minute interview Paul Ryan telling the nation that his mom lives in Florida and is on Medicare and that we need to preserve their benefits. If you don’t put that in, isn’t that journalistic malpractice? Maybe not lying to the American people, but pretty close to it, when you’re trying to portray Ryan as some guy cutting the program, when he said in your own interview he’s not.
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RUSH: Justin in New York City. I’m glad you waited, Justin. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: Thank you so much, Rush. I’m really enthusiastic about this ticket, and I think that the keywords that you said earlier were “potential” and “opportunity.” And you talked about a hanging pitch just before about the CBS 60 Minutes scandal last night. And my question is really just about the proper follow-up to all this. You know, this week can’t be it. They need to follow up about this interview last night. It seems like a perfect way to do it, with a smile, and put it in stump speeches and send it to media outlets, maybe put out some viral videos. “Here’s what CBS wanted you not to see,” and then follow that up with blanketing the media with other interviews. Because this is a race, and it’s about who’s gonna be defining the narrative and who’s gonna define Ryan first. And as we know from what happened last night, the media doesn’t want people to see Ryan because they just might like him.
RUSH: Well, I don’t know if Ryan will say, “Now, I told Bob Schieffer at CBS something, but they didn’t air this portion of the interview,” and then run in and make the point about his mother, or if he’ll just say it. But I can guarantee you this: Whether he talks about what happened on the 60 Minutes interview or not, his mother will be a focal point of every stump speech on Medicare.
It will be in the first five or six paragraphs: “My mother is on Medicare in Florida.” He’ll say exactly to his audiences what he said to CBS that they cut out. Now, whether he says, “CBS didn’t air this,” whether he goes after CBS? I don’t know. I don’t know what their strategy is gonna be on trying to keep the media honest. But I know his mother and her circumstance will be a feature of his stump speech. No question about it.
CALLER: Well, we don’t need to attack 60 Minutes. It just seems a fun thing that can go viral about, “Here’s what CBS did.” You know, it doesn’t have to be from Ryan or Romney themselves; it could be from other people. But I guess the point I’m really trying to get to is about follow-up in terms of having… You know, 60 Minutes last night, that can’t be it. I mean, they need to be saturating the airwaves with other, you know, major interviews. You know, this week, next week. ‘Cause the Democrats are gonna do this immediately. I mean, they’re already out today from — not even the super PAC — the Obama campaign. They have an ad in Florida targeting seniors about Medicare. The last I saw about the new ad from the Romney campaign, it’s about welfare, and what Obama did with that. That’s fine, but where’s the follow-up? You know, where are the other interviews? Where are the ads from Romney? Where’s the full-court press to shape the narrative on Medicare and these other issues?
RUSH: Well, it’s only day three here. You sound like Snerdley!
CALLER: Well, only because the Democrats were out there Saturday morning with this. They’re out there again today, and it’s a race. So I’m not saying I’m concerned —
RUSH: Well, Ryan’s not sitting in the easy chair with his feet on the footstool! He’s out there in Iowa, too.
CALLER: Um, yeah.
RUSH: Look, I know what you’re saying, but if I’m hearing you right — if you want them to, every day, correct what’s in the media about them — that isn’t going to happen. They’d have time for nothing else. I mean, if you want them to specifically say, “You know, they lied about me yesterday afternoon on CBS.” Or, “They left something out about me on CBS, and I’m gonna tell you what it was”? I think they’re gonna get the message across without seeming defensive about the media.
It’s not manly to run out there and complain about how the media’s treating you. It just doesn’t get you anything. It just doesn’t. But they’ll get it done in a number of other ways. I’m pretty confident about it. I mean, we’re helpin’ here. I’m not exactly a potted plant saying this. We’re doing what we can. I appreciate your concern, and I think they have it. I think they’re well up to speed on how to deal with this. That’s one of the benefits, I think, to having Ryan on the ticket. He gets this stuff. He knows it full-fledged.