The Rush to Judge Rush

I'm getting increasingly frustrated by what I'm hearing in the mainstream media regarding the Rush Limbaugh/Michael J. Fox kerfuffle. I've seen a lot of bad reporting, but this one may top them all. The media is focused like a lasar beam on one little portion of what Rush said, and have ignored the big issues surrounding the Fox ads.

Last night I heard a local anchor give his nightly commentary, and the subject was his anger at Limbaugh for accusing Fox of "acting" out his Parkinson's symptoms. I was practially screaming at the TV: "WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE STATEMENT, YOU *&%)%!!!" (The Mrs. was asleep so I had to scream this to myself.)

What was I referring to? The original statement, which I heard myself as it was broadcast, was Rush's contention that Fox was "either acting, or off his meds". The "off his meds" part is being ignored by the press because with even a little bit of research, they would discover that Fox himself admitted both in his book and in a 2000 TV interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America that he had purposely skipped his meds before he testified in front of a Senate Committee so as to present the worst case image of his disease, knowing full well that many people would be shocked at his appearance. He played 'em like a cheap banjo.

So how many times has the mainstream media asked Mr. Fox if the same thing happened before he taped the ads that are now running in Missouri and Maryland? Not once that I'm aware of. To ask such a question of a dedicated liberal would be an unthinkable act. After all, Mr. Fox is infallible.

How did he achieve this infallibility? The same way every infallible liberal achieve it - he becomes a victim. You see, because Mr. Fox suffers from a terrible affliction (or has experienced a terrible loss), anything he has to say that could possibly refer to his situation must be accepted without question. That's standard liberal operating procedure (see also Cindy Sheehan and the Jersey Girls).

My objection to the Michael J. Fox ad is threefold:

1. Fox chose to exploit his condition, and allow others to exploit it, for partisan political purposes;
2. Fox made false and misleading accusations about GOP candidates;
3. Fox made false promises to victims of terrible diseases.

All we have to do is run Fox's ad through the HolyCoast Liberal Translator (patent pending) to see what he's really saying. Here is the result:

MICHAEL J. FOX: "Hi, I'm Michael J. Fox. You may remember me as a Republican high school kid on Family Ties, but look at me now. I'm a mess. Michael Steele and Jim Talent want me to keep twitching like this, so please vote for Claire McCaskill and Ben Carden so I can stop twitching. By the way, if you have a terrible disease, they'll heal you too. "

You can complain all you want about that, but that's really what he was saying. Although he may be considered infallible to the liberal media, he's not infallible to me and if he's going to make such allegations in a public campaign, he's going to get challenged.

The editorial last night also included a snippet of tape from Rush's Dittocam in which he was trying to explain to his viewers and listeners what he was seeing on the ad. No audio was included, and the anchor was suggesting that the video showed Rush making fun of Fox. I heard the broadcast, and I've heard Rush's further explanation and it was nothing like that at all. Even a small amount of research would have revealed that. How come a blogger like me can figure that out and a news anchor can't?

This isn't going to go away anytime soon.

UPDATE: Inside Edition (not exactly a network news show) asked Fox about the allegations that he hadn't taken his meds. His replay was that the symptons he showed on that ad (I don't remember the medical name for them) were the result of "too much medication".

That raises an interesting question. If Fox recognizes the reaction he has to too much medication, he probably knew that as the medication wore off his symptons would ease. Since this spot was taped, why didn't they wait until the spasms had lessoned? After all, this was not a live performance but one which could have been taped later and edited.

The answer is easy. A relatively still Michael J. Fox reading the same lines wouldn't have the same emotional effect as the spasming version would. It becomes more and more obvious that this ad is nothing more than a late minute dirty trick hit piece. Oh, and by the way, there's word that another ad will start running in Virginia as well.