I’d bet that caller didn’t think Rush Limbaugh was talking about one “phony soldier.” He was hopping mad that the mainstream media always found those “soldiers that come up out of the blue” (as in rare but certainly there) to criticize Bush or the war or the military. Rush tossed in the infamous appellation in a fit of solidarity and reciprocity (by making soldiers plural too).
Limbaugh and his right-wing ilk loudly accuse the mainstream media of misconstruing what they stand for and say. It really doesn’t matter whether Rush, on that day, meant the one soldier ABC had outted for lying about his service to give weight to his criticism of the war or whether he was referring to all military personnel who disapprove. The accusations he abhors are consistent with what the right-wing faithful feel free enough to share with their more celebrated comrades in anger. They, like Rush’s caller, don’t do nuance.
The intensity of the right-wing’s protestations notwithstanding, the mainstream media are the frontline defenders--either by pretending the fake rationale is normal or by downplaying or ridiculing the few real questions allowed in the debate-- of the nonsensical. It was they who accepted Bush’s “They hate our freedoms” as a legitimate answer to why 9-11 happened. One would have thought that American or Israeli behavior in the Middle East would have come up. And later, they didn’t ask either why again are we bombing Iraqis when they didn’t participate in the attacks; or whether, when Bush changed the reason for the invasion, if this democracy that’s to be built will be allowed if it’s anti-American; or what’s up with all those permanent U.S. military bases if you’re going to leave Iraq to the Iraqis; and if it’s not about oil, who controls the oil now?
The right-wingers call out from the rear to let the mainstream know when they slip and broach anything approximating journalism and free speech. These are the very people who conservative pundits assert are in bed with America’s alleged enemies, but they’re actually—albeit frequent warring--partners in this venture.
The right-winger talking heads exaggerate when they complain that the mainstream press (and the mainstream left--the left we see on mainstream media) hit them a lot. Not really, at least directly. However, they are actually correct when they charge that their counterparts mainly ignore them. They’d rather not deal with this crew publicly. They could be tossed out of the white boys’ club.
