KEN: I was thinking before, we were talking about the news media and how useless and biased and angry it’s become. And I often think of the role it could play if it wasn’t so invested in a particular narrative, where sometimes you get news people that they’re just invested in hate.
Or maybe they’re just invested in not hate, but just a lackadaisical attitude where they just don’t know what’s really going on. And they’re allowed to get away with it. And I want to give you a wonderful example of this, and I’m sure you’re familiar with this. Two months ago, the Washington Post published a story. They ran a big story. I’m sure you remember this two months ago.
It’s hard to believe how much history has transpired in the last couple of months. Two months ago, they said that President Donald J. Trump called Georgia top election officials and the top election investigator in the secretary of state’s office — the Georgia secretary of state — and pressured her, threatened her, told her to find fraud, you know, whatever they wanted to make up.
In fact, I have some of the misquotes here. The reason this is special to me is — well, first of all — I voted for Trump. That’s number one. But the other thing is, I have the tape. I have the entire conversation, and there’s nothing on it that’s bad. It’s just two grown-ups. Now, that does frighten liberals a lot. You get a couple — a guy and a girl in a big boy skirt and big boy pants — and they’re talking grown-up stuff.
That frightens a lot of liberals, because people like Don Lemon aren’t used to hearing that. But that’s all they did. In fact, I lost track of how many times they complimented each other and said, “Well, thank you. Just please tell them I appreciate their work,” and, “Yes, sir. You, too, Mr. President, and please have a wonderful holiday, blah, blah, blah.”
But the point is the news media gets to get away with whatever they want. The Washington Post just admitted that they had misquoted that phone call. They misquoted the entire thing. So all the headlines you saw? They were fake. It was fake. Now, how did they get so many fake headlines? Well, the same way, you may remember, that Rush exposed years ago with Dick Cheney.
Remember he was said to add “gravitas,” and all of a sudden everybody said, gravitas, gravitas, gravitas. Well, here’s how the news media does it, and they all know this; so they’re gonna get angry if they hear this. I don’t care. ‘Cause they all do the same thing. You get to that point you’re making so much money, you’re so lazy, you’re so angry, you’re so biased, and you so hate Trump that all you need is one of your buddies.
Let’s say NBC News. “NBC News reported it confirmed what the Post said.” “USA Today claimed a Georgia official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters, confirmed the details of the call…” “ABC News went on to report that President Donald Trump phoned a chief investigator in Secretary of State Raffensperger’s office asking the official to find the fraud, telling this person they would be a national hero for it, an individual familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.”
And on it went, from PBS to CNN to the Washington Post. On it went. No one had heard the tape. Oh, yeah, some talk radio people did. Maybe a guy in central Pennsylvania. Maybe someone in the office cleaning up. But nobody took the time because the news people know no one will hold them accountable. They’ve been lying about Donald J. Trump since he came down the escalator.
They never had to back it up. So here it is yesterday afternoon, the Washington Post now admitting it. The correction ran atop an online version of the updated original story that misquoted the anonymous source. (laughing) Oh, my God. It’s just so easy to do that level of damage, and that’s what they do. That’s why so many of us in the conservative community just roll our eyes when we see most newscasts now.
How do we trust you? How do we trust you? You use the same sources, but they’re not even sources — and what was the first thing many of us said when that happened? Remember when it first came out? Actually, there was more than one call. Every time President Donald J. Trump would get on the phone to anybody about anything, the news media was there to lie, and what is one of the first things President Trump used to say?
“Play the tape. I got nothing to hide.” Remember quid pro quo? You know, the thing that Joe Biden should be in prison for right now? Yeah, I know. We missed that, didn’t we? President Trump didn’t do quid pro quo. He said, “Play the tape,” and we did. I played the tape of him talking to the secretary of state’s office and the top investigator. I forget woman’s name.
He also had a conversation with the governor, and all he said was, “Play the tape.” Doesn’t it kind of surprise you that he says, “Well, play the whole tape. Why don’t you play the whole tape? I didn’t do anything wrong.” But the news media says, “No, we’re not gonna do that. Why should we play the whole tape when we could call someone we’re dating over at ABC or NBC?”
‘Cause they’re all buddies, they’re all happy hour friends, and, yes, a lot of them are married and date. So why even do any research? Why even leave the studio — if you work for a major news station — to get the truth? And that’s why when Rush came out with “the Drive-By Media” and that definition, it was so dead on, because on one hand, the media’s useless.
But I will say — and this may trigger some white liberal men in the media. So maybe some herbal tea or something before the end of the day. But I would say you’re either useless or dangerous, depending on what part of the election cycle you’re in. Like the coverage you did of January 6th with some of the most dangerous, inflammatory, disingenuous lies the world has ever seen. And thank God, the world is smart enough to know what you were trying to pitch.
RUSH: People still say, “Rush, what’s Drive-By Media?” It’s very simple. What happens in a Drive-By? You’re at a stoplight or something, a bunch of hoodlums drive up and start shooting you, shooting you, shooting the people in the car, what they do? Create the mess and drive on down the road, waiting to do it again. That’s the media! Arriving at any story. They show up at any story, make a total mess of it, maybe even get some people killed or get some people wounded and then head on back down the road, drive right on by and do it all over again.
KEN: And that is the truth. That’s why our population, through no fault of their own, ’cause people have lives. Not everybody does a talk show. Not everybody can tune into a talk show. Not everybody is a history geek or has time to do the research. They have lives. They have families. They have jobs. It used to be the news media’s responsibility to say, “Here’s what really happened.”
But they don’t. Like Rush said, they just drive by. And how often have you seen the news media cover a story, and they know they can only go so far. You can only go so far in a Biden story or he ends up in jail. The same with Hillary. You cannot thoroughly cover a Hillary or a Biden or an Obama story or someone’s getting indicted. (laughs) So you have to kind of beat around the bush.
You got get a drive-by.