Audio: Tom Brokaw gets taken to task for dissing Rush
posted at 11:45 am on November 26, 2007 by Bryan
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From today’s Laura Ingraham show. Brokaw’s new 60s glorifying book (like we needed another one of those) runs through a riff on “influential Baby Boomers,” yet only mentions Rush Limbaugh in connection with his former addiction to pain killers (an addiction that was also suffered by the legendary Brett Favre, by the way). Limbaugh single-handedly revived AM radio and more or less created talk radio as we know it today. He helped craft and inform the conservative movement and played more than a bit part in its resurgence in the 80s and especially the 90s. He took political commentary and satire to an entirely new level and is probably responsible for creating thousands of jobs across the country by making AM radio viable and profitable. I know, because I used to work at one of his affiliates. In his industry, whether you love him or hate him, Limbaugh’s career may be the equivalent of Brett Favre and Babe Ruth put together. For that, Brokaw gives him one line in his book, and that line is a knock. And Brokaw thinks that Limbaugh is biased.
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But remember, the only media bias is in the minds of the conservatives.
doriangrey on November 26, 2007 at 11:49 AM
I heard this live and found myself wanting to vomit out my car window. (Brokaw’s patronizing Ingraham with “Oh, I’ve never classified you as one of those…” is infuriating.)
I love how just because Rush doesn’t interview the big name liberals, he gets described as only wanting to hear one side of the conversation. Rush lets all kinds of liberals call in. I’m sure Brokaw could if he wanted to. (Of course, then he would look like the utter fool we all know he is.) Limbaugh is truly one of the most polite, uplifting, optimistic, and truly nice guys in the political arena.
The concept that only the well known should have a voice is one of the most condescending and repulsive foundations of liberalism.
simon on November 26, 2007 at 11:55 AM
Of course Rush is biased, but he comes right out and tells you, unlike the MSM dinosaurs. Like Rush says – “I am equal time.”
JimRich on November 26, 2007 at 11:56 AM
Of course he is, the difference is that Rush admits his bias. Unlike Mr. Brokaw.
conservnut on November 26, 2007 at 11:58 AM
Pot smoking and drug use is just groooovy when its a liberal activist or a democratic presidential candidate does it, when a republican does it its horrible and its destroying the morals of hte country.
Defector01 on November 26, 2007 at 12:01 PM
Cancer? Brokjaw’s so-called profession is the cancer.
Warner Todd Huston on November 26, 2007 at 12:03 PM
Brokaw is part of the self annointed elite. He gets these ghost written books out there and pretends to be an intellectual. When he tries to wing it with his own observations on live radio he shows that he is a knee jerk, intellectually challenged empty shirt. I get tired of hearing that leftists like him are such great guys when they are constantly dishonest and nasty. He wishes he was as influential as Rush.
peacenprosperity on November 26, 2007 at 12:08 PM
Tommy Boy is just ticked because he knows the name of Rush Limbaugh will live on long after Tommy Boy is forgotten.
Labamigo on November 26, 2007 at 12:08 PM
Mr. Rather, move over, Mr. Brokaw would like to join you in the Washed-Up Dinosaur Media Moonbat Bitterness Bleacher Seats.
Always Right on November 26, 2007 at 12:12 PM
While I’m at it. I love Laura Ingraham but does it drive anyone else crazy that before introducing a topic regarding one of the elitist leftists (isakoff, matt cooper, chris matthews, madelyn albright) she constantly feels the urge to say what nice people they are. I’m sorry Laura, but I don’t go to cocktail parties with these people. All I know is that they are trying to destroy an America that I love. I don’t care if they are witty over cocktails, if they are actively trying to hurt my country then they are not nice people.
peacenprosperity on November 26, 2007 at 12:12 PM
Civil discourse? That’s so ironic. It’s the radical left that refuses to let it happen. How many conservatives need to be shouted down in Berkeley, or had pies thrown at them like Coulter and Horowitz.
The radical left is the true cancer on our political system and Brokaw is projecting in a perfectly Fruedian way.
swami on November 26, 2007 at 12:14 PM
Unbelievable! Brokaw sits there and whines about the lack of civil discourse, but when Laura puts a straight question to him he REFUSES to answer! AND, then he slips out the back door muttering something about having more dialog. What a JERK. Fire-breathing libs like him, don’t want to have “civil discourse,” they want everyone to shut up and listen to their tripe. Now that they have to defend their views in an intellectually honest way, they can’t. So they whine and cry and simper around about how mean everyone else is. WHAT A LOSER.
dung.
Moose Dung on November 26, 2007 at 12:14 PM
Fortunately for Rush, the MSM and Hollywood raised me to believe that drugs are cool and Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” was a bad joke. So the drugs are, as Rush says, a “resume enhancement.”
But seriously folks: Rush has been very candid about his addiction, and his segments on his experience in rehab have been exceptionally inspiring to me.
saint kansas on November 26, 2007 at 12:16 PM
I wonder if Brokaw had a line about Obama smoking crack?
Capitalist Infidel on November 26, 2007 at 12:17 PM
Brokaw = Irrelevent (and pissed about it)
tickleddragon on November 26, 2007 at 12:21 PM
LOL. Does a bear s**t in the woods? At least Rush is honest — about being biased and in general — and that, my friends, puts him leagues ahead of the vast majority of those in mainstream journalism, incuding Tom Brokaw.
Dusty on November 26, 2007 at 12:23 PM
You have to listen to what he actually said. He said that the “motive” of these radio talk show people is to feed a “mob mentality” for “commercial gain”.
This isn’t the same as a lack of civil discourse, or his criticism of Rush that he “only wants to hear his own opinion”. Brokaw first said that the programming is all about making money by cynically manipulating listeners into a mob, with complete disregard for the topic or the angle.
With respect to Rush, nothing could be further from the truth. With Rush, there is a very specific fully acknowledged bias in favor of his defined conservative principles. Maybe in the first tape he was talking about Savage? If so, I generally agree.
Jaibones on November 26, 2007 at 12:24 PM
Exactly, good old Adolph Hitler was a very charming host at the parties he threw we know this to be a fact from the film footage shot at several of these events. Which one among us would be foolish enough to suggest that he was anything but the enemy of humanity?
Sorry Laura but the greatest evils that have ever confronted mankind have always came packaged as intelligent polite cordial and beautiful people. Jason and Freddie only exist in hollyweird celluloid.
As peacenprosperity said, anyone attempting to reconstruct America as a socialist/communist utopia is trying to destroy the dream of our founding fathers and the nation I grew up in and love. I will not call them nice people, I will call them traitors and monsters.
doriangrey on November 26, 2007 at 12:26 PM
Just because one has read a teleprompter and has written a book doesn’t make one an expert.
SouthernGent on November 26, 2007 at 12:29 PM
Rush is able to accomplish what people like Brokaw can’t even imagine.
Now we can sit back and get bombarded with a series of books rewriting the history of each decade of the last century by a Liberal that lives in a vacuum. (yawn)
Hening on November 26, 2007 at 12:29 PM
I think what infuriates Brokaw, is that Rush uses humor to get his point across. and since that humor is directed at the left, it is unacceptable. The left always say they have a better sense of humor, until their on the receiving end. Then its hate speech and intolerant. I was watching the daily show a few weeks back, and Stewart (to his credit) was making fun of Hillary’s flip flop at the debate. You could of heard a pin drop, the audience was in such shock.You could almost hear a collective(ist) voice say “You can’t make fun of Hillary! she’s one of us!”
jojostan on November 26, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Could someone clear up my memory:
Was it Tom Brokaw or Peter Jennings who refered to the ‘94 Gingrich Revolution as a “temper tantrum” by “angry white men.” Of course he did this on air, on election night as the returns were coming in.
Civil discourse. Right.
billy on November 26, 2007 at 12:32 PM
Brokaw is a frickin’ communist.
Griz on November 26, 2007 at 12:36 PM
I wish Laura would have pointed out that Rush puts liberal callers at the top of the call list so they can discuss their views. How is that not wanting to listen to other views?
Wade on November 26, 2007 at 12:36 PM
The tinfoil hatted leftist loon, Tom Brokaw, has finally come out from under his rock to display his slimy soul!
sharinlite on November 26, 2007 at 12:40 PM
I’d like to know when discourse was particularly civil…
Vizzini on November 26, 2007 at 12:46 PM
Slightly off topic, but if you ever want to read an absolutely great takedown of the 60’s boomers (and a good antidote to Brokaw’s book), you must read Balsamic Dreams by Joe Queenan. We are talking wickedly funny.
thirteen28 on November 26, 2007 at 12:49 PM
Rush is playing the clip now.
Valiant on November 26, 2007 at 12:50 PM
Obama was a kid in the 60s.
terryannonline on November 26, 2007 at 12:52 PM
I’ve never listened to Rush. Does anyone know a place where I can listen to him online?
terryannonline on November 26, 2007 at 12:55 PM
Tom who?
leanright on November 26, 2007 at 12:56 PM
You have to remember it was people like Brokaw, Rather & Donaldson that drove people to Rush Limbaugh.
Had there been a fair approach to the news in the 80’s, Limbaugh would never have exploded on the scene like he did. And he’s maintained his popularity because the MSM actually refuses to believe he’s a product of their arrogance.
Nethicus on November 26, 2007 at 12:58 PM
terryannonline–
I used to use WLS in Chicago when I listened to Rush.
Nethicus on November 26, 2007 at 1:00 PM
In a word: Jealousy.
JammieWearingFool on November 26, 2007 at 1:05 PM
I never understood how Brokaw held onto his anchor position for so long at NBC. When he talks it’s like listening to someone with a mouthful of marbles. Every sentence sounds like the last gasping breaths of a dying man. Just plain annoying, if you ask me.
It was nice to hear him walk into the lion’s den on Laura’s program and display his empty-headed buffoonery to the public.
Way to state your case Tom, “…. shows like Limbaugh’s fail to give an opposing point of view”.
Two words.
MSNBC. Olbermann.
fogw on November 26, 2007 at 1:13 PM
That was Jennings. Back in 1983 though, Brokaw had this to say about Reaganomics, even as they were turning the nation’s economy around after the debacle of the late 1970s under Carter.
Ed Driscoll on November 26, 2007 at 1:18 PM
Tam Brokal NBC Nihghly Nhews
I’m objective to my point of view…., don’t question meh, don’t mock meh
Kini on November 26, 2007 at 1:25 PM
A friend of mine once told me that the way to move up the TV Anchor chain is to have “The Look”. You don’t necessarily need to be good at your job, but as TV is a visual media, you need to look good. I think Rush has addressed this several times, stating that your hair part cannot be less than 6″.
PappaMac on November 26, 2007 at 1:29 PM
Tom faults Rush for not presenting an opposing point of view. We already hear the opposite point of view from the “drive-by media.” In the world of liberal media bias, Rush IS the opposing point of view.
Geoffry T. Spaulding on November 26, 2007 at 1:32 PM
When I hear Brokaw rail against the left he will have a shred of credability. In a word, never.
The age of the blow dried anchorman is over!
RobCon on November 26, 2007 at 1:34 PM
Who is that a picture of Johnny Carson?
Wade on November 26, 2007 at 1:45 PM
I used to listen to Rush commercial-free on WMAL.
Valiant on November 26, 2007 at 2:09 PM
I knew Ed would be able to come up with that one!
Bob's Kid on November 26, 2007 at 2:28 PM
I listen to many different radio talk shows across America and I can honestly Tom Brokaw has no clue what he’s talking about. I seriously don’t think he has ever spent time listening to a talk radio show. I’ve listen to dozens of talk show hosts they have been social conservatives & liberals, economic conservatives & liberals, pro-union, pro-business, pro-choice, pro-life, pro & anti-gun control, pro Iraq war and those who want to pull the troops out now, anti-illegal immigration & open border advocates.
If anybody in the media is “one voice and intolerant of dialogue”, it’s NBC, CBS and ABC. How many times do you see the takes calls from people around the country to get their opinions about current events?
Planet Boulder on November 26, 2007 at 2:48 PM
Wet’s have morwr diawogg, but wet’s not whav it on NBC Wightly Wews, wecauwzz, the 60’s generwation was about open windedness and wopenwess.
benrand on November 26, 2007 at 3:07 PM
Over 11 years ago, Brokaw was making the same complaints while arguing that “we’re probably at about the end of a cycle on talk radio.” Guess he was wrong about people tiring of it.
BTW, one of my favorite Brokaw moments was his criticism of Eason Jordan for admitting that CNN withheld vital information from the public and kowtowed to Saddam Hussein’s regime to maintain access. Brokaw is all about wide-ranging debate.
Karl on November 26, 2007 at 3:26 PM
BOOM!
BobH on November 26, 2007 at 4:53 PM
Why can’t media dinosaurs be like real dinosaurs and all perish at once?
Zach on November 26, 2007 at 5:54 PM
A little speech therapy Tom. Try it ! !
Rush has made you a jealous little troll. So much so that even any of your few good points are buried by you
delivery. Go away Tommy Boy, Go away ! !
Texyank on November 26, 2007 at 6:41 PM
Yawn. I thought he had died. He’s still around?
JellyToast on November 26, 2007 at 7:52 PM
How does an empty shirt jerk its knee? :)
mikeyboss on November 26, 2007 at 8:20 PM
The kind of dialog that Tom has in mind, as do most elite liberal media personalities, is where a rube from flyover country gets to hear Tom talk for 5 minutes, and then responds… “Well, garsh I never thought about it that way before… thanks for helping me see how wrong everything I believe in is, Mr. Brokaw!” That’s the ticket.
The really simple answer: celebs like Tom are so used to having their ass kissed, that anyone who doesn’t is assumed to be weird a marginalized nutjob. In their world, non-ass-kissing is aberrant behavior!
drunyan8315 on November 26, 2007 at 10:02 PM
“Civil discourse”, my ass. Hey, Tom: what was so civil about the bloggers who exposed Rather’s sloppy reporting being called a “jihad” by you?
He has my total contempt for being a lying, hypocritical pile of garbage, just like almost all of the MSM.
JimC on November 27, 2007 at 4:29 AM
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