Beck Weeps for 'Simpler America'

Rush still has no business trying to own the Rams

(NEWSER) - Columnist Bryan Burwell acknowledges that he is among those who ran with an old quote attributed to Rush Limbaugh on the "merits" of slavery without verifying it. Limbaugh insists he never said it, and Burwell is fine taking him at his word on that. It doesn't change his view that Limbaugh has no business trying to buy the St. Louis Rams. "I think we just threw a deck chair off the Titanic," Burwell writes in the city's Post-Dispatch. More»

Rap and right-wing talk radio are more similar than you might think

(NEWSER) - After listening to hours of Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, and Mark Levin on the radio while driving the Nebraska countryside, a peculiar thought occurred to David Segal: conservative talk-show hosts are surprisingly similar to gangsta rappers, he writes for the New York Times. Consider the parallels:

• Huge egos. Both groups praise themselves relentlessly—both Jay-Z and Rush Limbaugh have referred to themselves as “living legends.”
• Denouncing haters. Despite their enormous popularity, both rappers and talk-show firebrands commonly portray themselves as underdogs, beset by critics.

He agrees with the left at times—but for different reasons

(NEWSER) - Even those who typically write off Glenn Beck as paranoid, even crazy, must admit sometimes he “catches a real-life demon in his fantasy-world gallery of rogues, and he becomes oddly reasonable”—and he did so twice this week. First, he argued the alleged Times Square terrorist should have been read his rights; then, he offered “a partly coherent and even accurate critique of the International Monetary Fund,” writes Gabriel Winant on Salon . More»

Obama 'makes us look evil as he tightens iron grip'

(NEWSER) - When liberals aim to discredit right-wingers, they accuse them of plotting violence, complains Rush Limbaugh. The current "meme to equate skepticism of the Obama administration with a tendency toward violence" is just like former President Clinton blaming "loud and angry" conservative commentators for the Oklahoma bombing, he writes in the Wall Street Journal. "What self-serving nonsense." Liberals "are perfectly comfortable with anti-government protest when they're not in power," he adds. Anger is "in their DNA." More»

Top Republicans complain talkers are pushing party to fringe

(NEWSER) - Top Republicans are fed up with Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh—off the record at least. Without naming names, Politico says that “congressional leaders” privately complain that the conservative commentariat is hurting their chances in 2010 by pushing the party too far to the fringe. Operatives close to top 2012 presidential contenders say they’d like to harness the grass-roots anger against Barack Obama, but worry about seeming too extreme. More»