“Roast Porkulus + 1 side, priceless”
(a random pagemonkey rant)

I haven’t paid any serious attention to Mr. Rush Limbaugh for a couple years, not since I finally got around to reading Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Liar by Al Franken.

Which, by the way, is a wonderful book if you like the literary stylings of Franken and don’t like Limbaugh - but if you can’t check both boxes, you prolly won’t enjoy reading it much.

I’ll openly admit that I have always found Rush to be entertaining, and occassionally even astute. But I much prefer the “pre- oxy-dized” Rush to the man who lives and rants now; there is a big difference between unabashed and unafraid to speak one’s opinion and merely being brash.

Limbaugh is my topic du jour because of an email I received from an old buddy the other day pointing me to a bLog somewhere which explored in depth Rush’s latest tidbit of cleverness: Porkulus!

 

Rush was of course referring to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009.

It’s difficult to call any peice of contemporary legislation elegant, and this 1,000 + page behemoth will likely never be referred to with any more cordiality than “mostly necessary.” But one must examine the motives of a media personality who, in a time of national crisis, chooses to apply flippancy to a nationally-broadcast discussion of economic recovery. Engaging in peppy wit when what the country really needs is earnest debate and commentary smirks of shameless self-promotion of the “tune in tomorrow to hear my next outrageous piping” sort, which can be perceived as lacking in genuine patriotism.

I won’t even try to put forth an aire of being politically aware, or even well-informed - but I don’t recall any great witicisms pouring forth from the speaking parts of Rush when the controversy of the Gravina Island, Alaska bridge broke in the news, either in 2008 or back in 2006.

The Gravina Island Bridge, by the way, is commonly known as “the bridge to nowhere,” or at least as the defining bridge to nowhere - a $398 million proposed project on the scale of the Golden Gate Bridge (which carries approximately 118,000 vehicles per day) to replace a successful ferry system which runs every 20 minutes and carried 350,000 passengers in all of 2006. The Gravina Island Ferry also services Ketchikan International Airport, which accommodates 200,000 passengers per year, compared to 51,245,000 for Denver International. (Gravina is a political mess you’d best read the Wiki of…)

Granted, trusting anyone on The Hill farther than you can throw the person is risky business these days - you’re dealing with mostly overweight older folks who so lack muscle tone they can’t even tense up enough to give you a good grip for curling.

But, Rush, where were you and all your cronies? Which monkey were you - the unhearing one, the unseeing one, or the one who wouldn’t say “shit” if you had a mouthful of it?

And how far are you willing to go in the goal of self-promotion? Lou Dobbs recently risked a hernia showing off by hoisting the ARRA around his CNN set for all to see how fat it is.

Not that he bothered himself mentioning anything factual about it.

Throughout high school my elective courses were centered on journalism and photography and I had a wonderful, very old school advisor. Before I dropped out of college my major was journalism with a minor in electronic media.

During that time, I worked as a photographer and reporter for an amazingly sarcastic man who built from scratch a thriving newspaper in a small town in a northwestern state. The paper was a regular provider of stories and photos from that region to national and international wire services, and I have had copy and photos published.

My high school advisor and my editor both expected the same things: responsible reporting done with the skill required to make the story - not its presentation or dressing - valuable and intriguing.

Neither Limbaugh nor Dobbs would have lasted five minutes with either of these very influential people in my life. My editor would have thrown either out of his office amidst a hail of phrases like “lying candy ass” and “lawsuit waiting to happen” and “newsworthless” - one of his fave made up words. My advisor, a stellar woman by the name of Bert Reynolds, had the habit of muttering under her breath things which still aren’t printable even by today’s standards.

What leaves me in dismay is that both of these men could be truly valuable and dependable sources of information and opinion, if they would take the time to temper their oh-so-sharp tongues, do a bit of first-person research, and aspire to something greater than market share.

Expressing one’s opinion is one thing; selling it to the highest bidder is quite another.

~ pagemonkey