Why won't Rush apologize?

Well, maybe I'm misreading what you're saying here, but I don't think that this sort of thing is indicative of the "right" or Rush or Rush listeners. People error in general, sometimes knowingly, willing and unapologetically. It's a trait of mankind, not that of a "side."

How many ran wild with Dan Rather's false documents when he and his producer and his network attempted to knowingly sabotage President Bush's 2004 reelection campaign? And this is CBS -- not talk radio.

To Rather's credit, he did attempt to offer a loosely justified apology. Not to Bush, mind you, but to CBS's audience. He didn't want to "lose their trust." It only took him a few weeks of standing behind the lie to do so.

Maybe Rush will eventually come around. I think he should.

I'm all for the freedom of speech, but that shouldn't include blatantly lying about someone. That's libel.

Of course, all I know of the story is what I'm reading from you. I can't get the link to load in my browser, and when it comes to Rush, I'd rather actually work than to listen to any zealot, right or left or mid middle, go on and on and on and on and on for hours. It's depressing.

Rush represents (don't misinterpret the word) and speaks for, in part, a very large part of the country that is completely and utterly shunned by mainstream "big city" society. To average folks in middle America, the mainstream puts a huge emphasis on the coasts and on progressive ideology and goes out of its way to rub middle America's nose in sh1t for simply being who they are: by and large traditionalists who work hard, pay their taxes, and want to be left alone.

If he's lying on the air, then I think he owes them better than that. If they're to be made fools of, they may as well all give up talk radio and watch Garofalo or MSNBC.

I always like to go to the source, and in this case it's the actual transcript of the show where Rush read the paper that Obama supposedly wrote. Here's some of it, edited only for space considerations:

RUSH: "In the first hour of this program, I cited a statement that Michael Ledeen found on the blog Jumping in Pools reporting on Obama's college thesis written when he was at Columbia...
Now, I got a note from a researcher who has been scouring the Internet, and the note says this:

"Rush Limbaugh: Mini-warning on these quotes." Because the paper that Obama wrote, "Aristocracy Reborn," the first ten pages were all that reporter Joe Klein was permitted to see; and it says here that Klein did write about it for TIME Magazine. A researcher has been scouring the Internet and can't find any sources for the quote.

So we have to hold out the possibility that this is not accurate. However, I have had this happen to me recently. I have had quotes attributed to me that were made up, and when it was pointed out to the media that the quotes were made up, they said, "It doesn't matter! We know Limbaugh thinks it anyway." Sort of like Dan Rather said, "I don't care if these documents are forged. I know that Bush did what he did at the National Guard. I don't care if the documents are forged." I don't care if the Limbaugh quotes are made up. So, I can say, "I don't care if these quotes are made up. I know Obama thinks it. You know why I know Obama thinks it? Because I've heard him say it." Not about the Constitution, but about the Supreme Court. Again, 2001, FM radio station interview in Chicago when he was a state senator in Illinois. "

So even during the broadcast in which he read this paper, Rush stated that his staff was researching it and they weren't sure it was for real. I think that's fair enough. I don't think he could have announced that it was suspect prior to getting this information. What should he have done then? Find all the listeners who tuned out before the second half of the show? I do think he should have had the research done before he read it on air, just as those networks who reported the lies about him should have done. Apparently all news reporters now get to say anything, even if it can't be proved.

I also think he believes that Obama believes what was in the phony paper and I do too, having heard Obama's views on the Constitution from his own mouth.

So Rush has admitted he was fooled but has not apologized for his opinion of Barack Obama. I am not going to apologize for my opinion of Obama, either. What is anyone going to do about that? Call the thought police?

I think it's telling that so many people who didn't see anything wrong with CNN lying through their slimy teeth about Rush, are now so vocal against Rush when he was just wrong.

It really exposes the liars and scum in our society. They don't care about lies, in fact, they love a good bit of libel and slander, as long as it is against someone they are happy to lie about themselves.

Yes, Rush was wrong for running with this, and maybe he ought to apologize, but what he did was NOTHING compared to the crimes and incompetence of the vermin at CNN.

"Rush... chose to refuse to apologize saying that the article may have been satire but that it was how Obama really was, so no apology was needed." Rush admitted the article was a satire, but since he also believes it to be true, why should he apologize? Why should he apologize for speaking the truth?

Rollo already pointed this out, but it bears repeating. He did admit the possibility of the document being wrong. We have to consider, however, that this IS Rush Limbaugh we're talking about - you're not getting an apology out of him that easily. I'm surprised he said as much as he did.

This is why I always tell people to fact check your sources.

Like the fake Kenyan birth certificates against Obama, and whatever other little pieces of info some people happen to drop on the right-wing to watch them make fools of themselves, this is simply one of them.

Rush Limbaugh apologizing for making false statements.... Never, never, never... he is so brain dead that he believes every rumor or falsehood spread by "rabble rousers" on the right is true. How can you expect such a person as he is to apologize, don't you know he is always right??? LOL Most people with any sense or able to think for themselves know that he pulls that stuff all of the time and his brainwashed followers will believe him.

Rush APOLOGIZE??? Don't you know that apologizing is BENEATH him...lol?

All through the years that I listened to his show every day while I delivered mail that's what he did - misquoted people or took them out of context and his favorite thing was claiming to "know" what the "evil liberals" were REALLY thinking and what their TRUE goals were. His most die-hard, rabid fans don't recognize satire because they're hoping to hear the worst things possible about their perceived enemies.

It's a shame that during the drama over his attempt to buy the Rams that some people felt the need to make claims of quotes he'd said that they couldn't substantiate! There was more than enough on tape and definitively confirmed without using anything in the least bit questionable and in so doing they only gave him an excuse to play the same games, knowing there would be those who would fall for any crap he'd say!

Annie

because in my opinion, he is a bigot and an idiot. I wouldnt expect anything different from that guy. He has a big ego also. He probably thinks he hasnt done anything wrong. That would be typical Rush as far as I am concerned.

...Hi jerzgirl, Mr Rush won't apologize because it is not in his DNA. He is Mr. Right, pun intended. He will not apologize because he said something about Obama, that turned out not to be exactly as he laid it out, no matter how his loyal fans slice it. Be that as it may, the man gets paid $400 million, to sit his pompous
behind there, and spew out, in the name of freedom of speech I must add, all kinds of rubbish, which those who love him just absorb and become more, his pushers of Rush's guile and belligerence everyday. One day maybe there will be deliverance. Take care.

Rush is the biggest boob in the universe. Don't know why anyone would want to listen to him and his psycho babble. Does not surprise me that his big fat ego will not even allow him to apologize.