From: bd@fluent@dartmouth.EDU (Brice Dowaliby)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.perot,rec.humor,talk.bizarre,talk.politics.misc,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Re: Bush Campaign TV Ad
Date: 14 Sep 92 13:41:44 GMT
Reply-To: bd%fluent@dartmouth.EDU
Distribution: na
Organization: Fluent Inc., Lebanon NH


barich@bach.udel.edu (Dewey H Barich) writes:

>In article <BD.92Sep12083407@fluent.UUCP> bd%fluent@dartmouth.EDU writes:
>>tip@lead.aichem.arizona.edu (Tom Perigrin) writes:
>>>Rush is obviously a bright fella...  what I can't understand is;
>>>1)  how can a bright fella like Rush not see the simple truth of this  OR
>>>2)  is he purposefully twisting facts for political gain
>>>If he values truth less than political gain,  then how can any of us
>>>ever trust him (or what he stands for)?   And why do people fall for it?
>>Rush is fun to listen to, but I can't think of a single time
>>that he has honestly presented the liberal position on _anything_.
>>His entire show consists of setting up straw dogs and shooting them down.

>Sure, Rush is using facts that favor his position, but so does just
>about anyone.  At least with Rush Limbaugh, he TELLS you that he is "a
>conservative's conservative," and thus you can listen to him with the
>properly sized grain of salt.  Why should he present a liberal position?
>He claims that his show is conservatives' "equal time" against the
>liberal media.

Why should he present a liberal position?  For intellectual
honesty's sake, that's why.  I never said he had to promote liberal
ideas, what I said was that if he wants to argue persuasively against
the liberal position, he has an obligation to present that position
honestly and then argue against _that_, and not set up some straw
dog argument, for instance a parody of the liberal position, and 
argue against that false position.

>>Of course he is twisting the facts for political gain.  Most of
>>his listeners, however, don't care too much about the facts.
>
>For political gain?  Whose?  He's said several times that he has no
>interest in running for President, he doesn't want to owe favors to
>campaign contibutors.  Maybe a lower office, but why campaign nationally
>for a regional office?  I'm not saying you are wrong, but who's
>political gain is he doing all this for?

I did not say personal gain, I said political gain.  Whose gain?  
Conservatives in general, of course. 

>Who are you to judge his listeners?  Do you know the majority of his 2.7
>to 3 million listeners a day?   I doubt it.  So how can you state that 
>they don't care about the facts?  That's a stupid statement.

No, it isn't.  Having listened to the show daily for over a year, and
having listened to all the calls he's gotten over that year, I think
I have the right to make judgements about his audience.  You have the
right to disagree, of course, but that doesn;'t mean that my statement
was stupid.

>I don't listen to him often, but I do enjoy the program, and I take a 
>few salt tablets before it starts.

I _do_ listen to him often, and I enjoy him immensely.  Perhaps you 
should listen to him more, if you doubt what I have said.

>And, for that matter, I don't think he does much twisting of facts, just
>selecting only those he wants to use.  But then again, unlike most talk
>show hosts, he TELLS you that he is doing it.  He even tells you that they
>screen the callers.  Besides, one main intent of his program is to
>entertain, and he does just that.

That just isn't true.  One of his favorite techniques is to take a
statement from an individual and then say that all liberals feel that way.
For instance, I don't think that most liberals agree with Katherine
McKinnon (sp?) that all sex is rape.  But Rush would have you
believe that that's a liberal position - it isn't, it's a McKinnon
position, and she doesn't speak for me or for any liberal I know.

He certainly does entertain.  He also claims to educate, and I think
he falls fails miserably on that one.
-- 
   Brice Dowaliby, Fluent Inc., 10 Cavendish Court, Lebanon, NH  03766
                         bd%fluent@dartmouth.edu        
             I don't speak for them, they don't speak for me
                              DoD # 0698
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush