Truthman Slips Up in His Rush to Judgment

“I’m not making this up, folks.” --Rush Limbaugh

Bawling with Bubba, and the Adventures of Truthman.

The nation was naturally wading in tears--tears of laughter--after President Clinton’s “poor-me” protest that he has no way of countering relentless pounding by influential TV and radio commentator Rush Limbaugh.

Clinton issued his sad-sack lament Friday at a gathering of radio talk-show hosts in St. Louis. In doing so, he conveniently ignored his own network of public opinion spinners and the other communications levers he controls, including the capacity, as President, to command the media’s attention any time he wishes.

“And there’s no truth detector,” Clinton pouted about Limbaugh.

Fortunately for the President, his act was soon eclipsed by an even bigger farce. The source was Mr. Dittohead himself, for more comical even than Clinton was Limbaugh’s own thunderous reply to the presidential hooey in St. Louie: “There is no need for a truth detector. I am the truth detector.”

Yes, yes. Now into the straitjacket, Rushie. . . .

On Monday, Limbaugh wore his Truthman disguise throughout his three-hour call-in radio show (on KFI), vowing to continue his “relentless pursuit” of fact, not illusion. How relentless? This relentless.

Commenting on the Simpson-Goldman murder case, Limbaugh reported that both F. Lee Bailey and Alan M. Dershowitz, members of O.J. Simpson’s defense team, said that “there will be no insanity plea.” Actually, only Bailey said that.

Saying at one point in his show that “nothing we’ve heard about (the Simpson-Goldman case) is the truth,” Limbaugh later contradicted himself, chiding O.J. Simpson supporters for ignoring “the appearance of evidence” against him.

To support his standard line about the media being in Clinton’s hip pocket, meanwhile, Limbaugh recalled a 1993 after-dinner speech in which the President made Limbaugh the punch line of an ugly joke. Noting that Limbaugh had defended Atty. Gen. Janet Reno against harsh criticism from Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), who is black, Clinton had quipped that Limbaugh had come to Reno’s defense only “because she was attacked by a black guy.” A nasty dig.

Limbaugh charged Monday that the incident had “never been reported” by the media. On the contrary, it was reported by at least one newspaper, the Los Angeles Times.

Was Truthman merely having a rare bad day at the office?

Not according to Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. The Washington-based media watchdog today is releasing a list of a few dozen Limbaugh “whoppers” that it says it compiled from several weeks of his TV show, his radio show, his two best-selling books and other “published evaluations.”

The list is significant because, as Clinton’s public protests affirmed, Limbaugh is significant. More than just another entertainer aiming topical shtick at his millions of partisans (nicknamed dittoheads), he is taken seriously as a right-wing Republican VIP; witness his guest shots on such mainline news programs as NBC’s “Meet the Press” and ABC’s “Nightline.” As such, with books, videos, audiotapes and ideas to sell, he has become his own sprawling cottage industry, a highly effective self-promoter whose half-truths, semi-truths and untruths seep into the public consciousness and thicken there like waxy yellow buildup.

Because its political perspective is far leftward of Limbaugh’s conservatism, FAIR is no neutral observer. Yet its report on Limbaugh’s “chronic inaccuracy” speaks largely for itself.

According to FAIR, here are samples of Limbaugh.

* On Rodney G. King jurors: “The videotape of the Rodney King beating played absolutely no role in the conviction of two of the four officers. It was pure emotion that was responsible for the guilty verdict.”

As FAIR notes, though, the foreman of the jury in the King federal civil rights trial told the Los Angeles Times that the videotape was “crucial” in the panel’s conviction of Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officer Laurence M. Powell.

* On contractor C.C. Myers completing repairs 74 days early on the earthquake-damaged Santa Monica Freeway: “The governor of California declared the (freeway) a disaster area and by so doing eliminated the need for competitive bids. . . . Government got the hell out of the way.” A few days later, Limbaugh added about Myers, “They gave this guy the job without having to go through the rigmarole of giving 25% of the job to a minority-owned business and 25% to a woman.”

Uh, wrong. As FAIR notes and the Los Angeles Times reported, there was competitive bidding, with Myers winning over four other contractors. Also, as The Times said, the project’s goal was to draw 40% of subcontractors from minority- or woman-owned companies.

* On females: “Women were doing quite well in this country before feminism came along.” This depends on how you define “quite well.” As FAIR notes, prior to “feminism,” U.S. women did not have the right to vote.

* On Anita Hill: “(She) followed Clarence Thomas everywhere. Wherever he went, she wanted to be right by his side. She wanted to work with him, she wanted to continue to date him. . . .”

FAIR: “Hill could not have continued to date Thomas, since they never dated.”

* On the Persian Gulf War: “Everybody in the world was aligned with the United States except who? The United States Congress.”

FAIR: “Both houses of Congress voted to authorize the U.S. to use force against Iraq.”

* On Bosnia: “For the first time in military history, the U.S. military personnel are not under the command of United States generals.”

Wrong again, says FAIR. Quoting a Pentagon spokesman, it lists several foreign commanders of U.S. troops, including France’s Marshall Foch in World War I.

* On President James Madison: Limbaugh quoted him as saying, “We have staked the future . . . upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

FAIR quotes an associate editor of “The Madison Papers” as saying this is “entirely inconsistent with everything we know about Madison’s views on religion and government.”

* On Native Americans: “There are more American Indians alive today than there were when Columbus arrived or at any other time in history. Does this sound like a record of genocide?”

No. But FAIR cites a U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs official’s estimate of a pre-Columbus Native American population of between 5 million and 15 million in what is now the United States, compared with about 2 million today.

Giving him his due, Truthman appears to be factually right at least as often as he’s wrong. Hitting 50% or 60% of your shots makes you a star in basketball. However, that’s unacceptable for a self-defined oracle whose trustworthiness is taken for granted by a hefty number of Americans.