OPINION:
Rush Limbaugh, conservative talk show host, used his syndicated radio platform to rail a bit at Fox News for giving so many “never-Trumpers” a national voice.
He’s got a point.
Fox has bent over backwards to give “the other side” an opportunity to speak. There’s Juan Williams. There’s Donna Brazile. There’s Jessica Tarlov. There’s Andrew Napolitano. There’s the widely reported sniping of Tucker Carlson versus Shepard Smith — over Napolitano’s claims of a possible impeachment smoking gun, no less.
On the one hand, that makes for good news discussion. How boring it is to listen in on chats among the choir, where everyone simply nods in agreement.
On the other hand: Fox News viewers really don’t like seeing Brazile’s face. That’s what CNN is for, they say.
This is what Limbaugh said, in context of discussing Rep. Adam Schiff’s Pinocchio-worthy characterization of Trump’s call with the Ukraine president: “There’s something interesting about this impeachment inquiry, ladies and gentlemen, because they are doing it in the Intelligence Committee. One of the things Trump said, by the way, is that Adam Schiff should be charged with treason.”
Why?
From Limbaugh: “Schiff is out there as the chairman of a committee, the Intelligence Committee, openly lying about the president’s phone call with the president of Ukraine. … He literally said that the president told the Ukrainian president to ’create dirt,’ to ’make it up, as much as you can.’ When the Republicans finally called him on it, Schiff said, ’Well, I was just engaging parody. I’m sorry it wasn’t seen.’ “
That’s hardly parody. That’s a lie.
“None of what they are saying happened in that phone call did,” Limbaugh went on, “and we’ve even got Never Trumpers now all over Fox News, ’Well, this phone call is very hard to defend. I wouldn’t want to have to defend this phone call.’ … There’s nothing hard to defend about the phone call. You just don’t want to defend it. You know, Fox really ought to change the name of the network from the Fox News Channel to the Fox Never Trumper Network, because that’s who’s getting the highlights, and they’re bringing in Democrats like Donna Brazile.”
The free market prevails.
And Fox isn’t the leader in cable news for nothing.
But then again: Limbaugh has a good pulse on conservative America. He’s not a leader in talk radio for nothing.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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