RUSH: Joe Klein, by the way, Joe Klein, TIME Magazine, big, big Drive-By Media emeritus lib. He says that CNN’s gone in the toilet and MSNBC’s got a criminal on there, Al Sharpton, and he’s turned to Fox. This is at the 92nd Street Y. Jeff Greenfield speaking with Joe Klein, this is Sunday night, New York City.
KLEIN: I turn on CNN at six o’clock at night because that’s something I kind of do in preparation for the 6:30 network news to see what Wolf is being really hyperbolic about, and he’s talking about the plane! It is such an embarrassment to our profession that CNN has gone in the toilet the way it has.
RUSH: Ooh, Joe Klein, TIME Magazine, such an embarrassment that CNN has gone in the toilet such the way it has. And then the discussion on cable news continued, and Greenfield, you know, expressed shock and outrage. And Klein continued.
KLEIN: I miss being able to turn on a straight newscast. And it turns out the only place you can go to get one at six o’clock at night is Fox.
GREENFIELD: That’s right Yes. It’s true.
AUDIENCE: (gasps and grumbling)
GREENFIELD: Don’t mumble, folks. He’s telling you the truth. Special Report by Bret Baier —
KLEIN: The other option is to go to MSNBC and see the Reverend Al Sharpton, who I still consider to be a major criminal. I mean —
AUDIENCE: (applause)
KLEIN: — the guy can have a job on network TV on NBC cable network, and he still hasn’t apologized for Tawana Brawley? Give me a break.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
RUSH: Holy smokes, folks, what’s happening out there? What’s happening out there? Common sense at the 92nd Street Y. Did you hear Greenfield, he’s telling the audience (paraphrasing), “Hey, don’t mumble, folks, don’t snicker, Joe Klein’s telling you the truth. The best straight newscast on TV is on Fox at six o’clock every night, Special Report with Bret Baier.” And Fox does straight news much of the rest of the day, particularly in the daytime as well. Shocking stuff, is it not?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want to go back to the audio sound bites. I want to play audio sound bite number eight again for you. This is Joe Klein at the 92nd Street Y on Sunday night in Manhattan with Jeff Greenfield. You know, I have appeared at the 92nd Street Y with Jeff Greenfield back in the Rush Limbaugh the Television Show days. I’m telling you, the 92nd Street Y is the belly of the belly of the beast of New York liberalism.
I remember Greenfield asked me about some quotes that he had found that I had said. One of them was on abortion. He said, “Do you really mean this?” I said, “Yeah,” and I repeated it, and the audience… I mean, it was like all the oxygen got sucked out of the room. I said, “Abortion is genocide, and I’m amazed that some people who have experienced genocide themselves don’t see what abortion is.”
You could hear the air get sucked out of that room. I’m sure it was one of Greenfield’s most successful evenings at the 92nd Street Y. I sped up there after the TV show. It was the end of a long, busy broadcast day. But I’m just telling you, it is the belly of the belly of the belly of the belly of the beast of New York liberalism.
Joe Klein is in there, and I want you to listen. I want to play this sound bite again, because I want you to listen to the audience gasp when he tells them that the only place you can go to get straight news is Fox News at six p.m. You can hear this audience audibly gasp in shock and disbelief.
KLEIN: I miss being able to turn on a straight newscast. And it turns out the only place you can go to get one at six o’clock at night is Fox.
GREENFIELD: That’s right Yes. It’s true.
AUDIENCE: (gasps and grumbling)
RUSH: Hear that?
GREENFIELD: Don’t — don’t mumble, folks. He’s telling you the truth. Special Report by Bret Baier —
KLEIN: The other option is to go to MSNBC and see the Reverend Al Sharpton, who I still consider to be a major criminal. I mean —
AUDIENCE: (applause)
KLEIN: — the guy can have a job on network TV on NBC cable network, and he still hasn’t apologized for Tawana Brawley? Give me a break.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
RUSH: You know, it really does matter who says things. If I had said that, there’d have been total outrage in that room. Joe Klein says it, and there’s laughter and applause. I said it to Sharpton one night. You know, back in the old days. You remember when Ollie North had a show on whatever it was, CNBC, MSNBC, whatever it was.
It was over there in Secaucus or Fort Lee. I went over, again, after my TV show one night and I appeared with him. Maybe it was Al Joker that was hosting one night. I don’t know. But Sharpton was there, and I said to him, “I don’t understand why you have any credibility at all with anybody.”
“What are you talking about!”
“Tawana Brawley. Why do you have any credibility?” The whole place blew up again. But here Joe Klein says it? “Right on. Right on.” But that audience gasped when he talked about Fox being the only place to go to get straight news. I’m telling you, it’s like going to Zabar’s and saying that.