Pew study finds Rush Limbaugh least trustworthy news source

A new survey from Pew Research finds that Rush Limbaugh is America’s least-trusted news source. And who does America trust most?

CNN.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents to the Pew poll say they don’t trust Limbaugh, a bombastic conservative radio voice. Fox News follows closely with 37 percent saying they don’t trust the network. Glenn Beck ranks third, with 24 percent of respondents saying they distrust Beck.

The Pew survey was conducted March 19-April 29.

The five major news networks top the trust spectrum, with 54 percent of respondents saying they trust CNN, 50 percent saying they trust ABC and NBC, 46 percent saying they trust CBS and 44 percent saying they trust Fox News.

Forty-four percent of respondents say they get their news from CNN.

PunditFact is tracking the accuracy of claims made on the five major networks using our network scorecards. By that measure, 61 percent of the claims fact-checked on Fox News have been rated Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire, the most among any of the major networks.

As for the rest:

• 45 percent of the claims made on NBC and MSNBC rate Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire;
• 38 percent of the claims made on CBS rate Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire;
• 36 percent of the claims made on ABC rate Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire;
• 22 percent of the claims made on CNN rate Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire.

For the record, 82 percent of the claims we've checked from Limbaugh have been rated Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire.

More from the Pew survey:

Right Wing Media & Politicians Now Have Blood On Their Hands

I didn’t want to have to write about guns again any time soon as the subject had been beaten to death, but here we go again with more right-wing wackjobs deciding that the federal government is tyrannical and that killing police officers and shooting up a Wal-Mart somehow will trigger a “revolution.” “Revolution,” “oppressive government,” “tyranny” and “FEMA death camps” are common buzz words tossed about on almost any conservative or gun forum, website or Facebook page without the realization that if they did indeed live under a dictatorship, they would have been marched to a ditch and shot en masse.

To say that all conservatives or gun owners subscribe to this hysterical rhetoric is of course, completely false. Yet, many of them tolerate it or look the other way, afraid to speak out against the lunatics that have taken over the asylum. They operate under the assumption that by attempting to squelch the voices of bat shit crazy on their side, that action would somehow be aiding in a “victory” for the political opposition. Any criticism, any pleas to tone down the rhetoric and think in a reasonable, rational manner is being painted as treason, as handing ammunition to the other side and that’s a huge problem our conservative friends are dealing with right now.

Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ron Paul and some other right-wing political pundits and politicians fan the flames of paranoia and mistrust for a living. Seriously, this is how they make their money, by keeping their followers angry, agitated and living in fear that any moment now President Obama is coming for their guns and their way of life. One of the Las Vegas shooters’ Facebook posts looking for a gun shows just how angry and convinced that the government is a tyrannical oppressor some of these more unhinged individuals are. I have blurred out his name as other media outlets have reported it and I do not believe in giving them the attention they may have sought.

As Paul Waldman points out in the “Plum Line” at the Washington Post, some of the blame laid at the feet of conservative pundits and politicians for whipping up these mentally disturbed individuals is indeed justified

The most obvious component is the fetishization of firearms and the constant warnings that government will soon be coming to take your guns. But that’s only part of it. Just as meaningful is the conspiracy theorizing that became utterly mainstream once Barack Obama took office. If you tuned into one of many national television and radio programs on the right, you heard over and over that Obama was imposing a totalitarian state upon us. You might hear that FEMA was building secret concentration camps (Glenn Beck, the propagator of that theory, later recanted it, though he has a long history of violent rhetoric), or that Obama is seeding the government with agents of the Muslim Brotherhood. You grandfather probably got an email offering proof that Obama is literally the antichrist.

Meanwhile, conservatives have become prone to taking the political disagreements of the moment and couching them in apocalyptic terms, encouraging people to think that if Democrats have their way on any given debate, that our country, or at the very least our liberty, might literally be destroyed. (Source)

This right-wing media conspiracy nonsense isn’t just in response to the United States electing its first black president, the fears of UN commandos swooping in with Blackhawk helicopters and establishing a One World Order have been a mainstay of the paranoid fringe for decades now. However, it seems that it has become an acceptable, inflammatory piece of the more mainstream conservative dialogue each time a Democrat is elected to the White House. Those elections bring those hallucinating, paranoid individuals and the media personalities that cater to their every crazy idea to the forefront. There’s seemingly an Alex Jones or Michael Savage for every part of the conspiracy nut market. Believe that the president is somehow a shape-shifting, time-traveling alien from another dimension? There’s someone there to tell you that’s true and sell you videos or books to reaffirm your delusion, crank up the paranoia for further profit and then hide behind the 1st Amendment when one of their followers finally snaps and starts blowing away cops and bystanders like the recent shooting in Nevada.

It is so far out of control now that the NRA is afraid to stand up to “Call of Duty” armchair warriors who tote AR-15s into the baby aisle at Target, and their only response to one mass shooting after another is “we need more guns.” The right-wing hate and paranoia machine is cranked so far up now that I am afraid that further such incidents aren’t a question of if, but when. People like Alex Jones and others who control the volume could plead for people to calm down and attempt to back the lunatics away from the edge of the cliff, but they won’t. They won’t because they risk losing their fan base and that’s there’s someone else out there that these lunatics will spend their time, money and votes on instead. Condemning these acts of domestic terrorism and attempting to restore some order is what the right-wing media and politicians should do, but they won’t. To them, money and power are more important than the lives of innocent people.

Media Matters Reveals Rush Limbaugh’s Ratings Are in A Death Spiral!

Things are really looking down for Rush Limbaugh. Not only is he a sad, repulsive individual–but his ratings now match his bottom-of-the barrel personality and ideas.

In January, Limbaugh moved to his new station, KEIB in Los Angeles. Now, KEIB’s ratings are…well, awful. According to MediaMatters, KEIB came in 37th place in the second-largest radio market in America in March.

How tiny is that, MediaMatters explains:

How small is KEIB’s audience? So small that eleven non-English radio stations have larger audiences in Los Angeles. And so small that KEIB actually trails four college-run, non-commercial stations in the market. This, for a man who makes $40 million a year to attract big radio audiences? As for KFI, the station Limbaugh left and which switched to an all-local news and talk format, its ratings remain healthy in the talker’s absence. A top ten station, KFI boasts an audience six times larger than KEIB’s.

The ratings news is almost as bad up the California coast in San Francisco. There, as in Los Angeles, Clear Channel moved Limbaugh on the AM dial, from KKSF to KNEW, and dubbed the station “The Patriot.”

“Rush Limbaugh has built the ratings and revenue of hundreds of America’s most successful radio stations and is looking forward to doing the same at these new Clear Channel homes,” Brian Glicklich, a Limbaugh spokesman crowed last December.

So far however, Limbaugh’s arrival at KNEW hasn’t budged the minuscule ratings, according to Nielsen: January: .8, February: .8, and March: .7. (Those ratings are flat compared to last year, prior to Limbaugh’s arrival.)

On the East Coast–where he once reigned–Limbaugh is now ranked 22nd, trailing four non-English stations and one classical music station

Right Wing Goes Nuts Over Obama’s Executive Orders, But Guess What?

Perpetually faced with a do-nothing Congress willing to obstruct a bill that cures cancer (cancer is good for small business), President Obama swore in his State of the Union address that he would pass certain bills through executive order. Friends of the GOP, who suddenly forgot all the executive orders from President George W. Bush, freaked out.  The fact remains that President Obama has issued fewer executive orders than most presidents. Oddly enough, the GOP is always shouting how Obama never shows leadership, yet they scoff when the Anti-Christ does.

Hear Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin rant about Obama’s executive orders.

Here’s the video with right-wing pundits Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin ranting about Obama’s supposed ‘coup’ via executive orders.

Jesus Rebranded

Jesus Rebranded from MarkFiore on Vimeo.

Because if there is one of Jesus' lessons that has gone woefully unaddressed, it is His message of the holy virtues of capitalism. Just in time for Christmas, Mark Fiore brings us a video of Jesus Rebranded. Press the Messiah's sacred heart and hear words of divine inspiration such as:

Capitalism is the reason for the season!

You can serve both God and money.  Go forth and profit!

Go, sell your possessions, and use the money to . . . start a growing, profitable business! Come, follow me.

Cumulus Media Dropping Sean Hannity And Rush Limbaugh

Cumulus Media, the nation's second-largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations, will not be renewing the contracts of hyper-conservative pundits Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. According to Politico, the decision comes after a breakdown of negotiations between Cumulus and Clear Channel "over the cost of the distribution rights," and supposedly has nothing to do with any comment made by either of the hosts. While this is not the first time that Cumulus and Clear Channel have had disagreements, Politico'c source, who was apparently close to the negotiations and who declined to be identified, told the news publication that "Cumulus is known to drive a hard bargain on costs, and Clear Channel is known to seek top dollar for big names...Clear Channel was unlikely to reduce the cost for distribution rights to a level that would satisfy Cumulus." As of this morning, neither company has issued a comment.

According to industry insiders, however, Cumulus has already started reaching out to other conservative personalities to potentially fill these upcoming vacancies. Others predict that Cumulus will likely use one of their existing talents to fill such slots, such as Mike Huckabee, Mark Levin, or Michael Savage, Meanwhile, Hannity and Limbaugh will likely migrate over to Premiere. It is not yet clear if either host will suffer from decreased syndication as a result.

Limbaugh and Cumulus were already at odds earlier this year, when Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey blamed Limbaugh's tasteless comments about Sandra Fluke for their "$2.4 million first-quarter decline in revenue related to talk programming." Neither host has issued any sort of comment about their negotiations with Cumulus since then.

Rush Limbaugh is an Idiot

Rush Limbaugh has been a poison on America for a couple decades now. Since his horrible attacks on women last week, Limbaugh has suffered the loss of over 40 sponsors and has received criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, although the Republicans haven’t condemned him nearly as much. Many advertisers and radio stations still support this man. So just in case they haven’t been listening to the crap Limbaugh says on his pathetic show, here are 10 sexist, racist, hateful, and stupid quotes uttered by the merchant of hate and de facto leader of the GOP himself, Rush Limbaugh.

1. “Women should not be allowed on juries where the accused is a stud.”
~Rush Limbaugh, 1994 List of 35 Undeniable Truths

2. “If you feed them, if you feed the children, three square meals a day during the school year, how can you expect them to feed themselves in the summer? Wanton little waifs and serfs dependent on the State. Pure and simple.”
~Rush Limbaugh, The Rush Limbaugh Show, December 2011

3. “Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women access to the mainstream of society.”
~Rush Limbaugh, The Rush Limbaugh Show, August 12, 2005

4. “Let’s say we discover the gene that says the kid’s gonna be gay. How many parents, if they knew before the kid was gonna be born, [that he] was gonna be gay, they would take the pregnancy to term? Well, you don’t know but let’s say half of them said, “Oh, no, I don’t wanna do that to a kid.” [Then the] gay community finds out about this. The gay community would do the fastest 180 and become pro-life faster than anybody you’ve ever seen. … They’d be so against abortion if it was discovered that you could abort what you knew were gonna be gay babies.”
~Rush Limbaugh, offending homosexuals, women, parents, etc…, January 2003

5. “The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and left out there. It’s natural. It’s as natural as the ocean water is.” –Rush Limbaugh, on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and refuting science, May 3, 2010

6. “Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?”
~Rush Limbaugh, while holding up a photograph of 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton on his 1993 television show

7. “They’re out there protesting what they actually wish would happen to them sometimes.”
~Rush Limbaugh, on women who protest against sexual harassment, The Rush Limbaugh Show, April 26, 2004

8. “Exercise freaks … are the ones putting stress on the health care system.” ~Rush Limbaugh, accusing people who exercise of being the reason why health care costs are so high, June 12, 2009

9. “What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic] who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex — what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.”
~Rush Limbaugh, referring to Sandra Fluke, a student at Georgetown Law School who was denied the right to speak at a congressional hearing on contraception hearing, in which she planned to discuss a friend of hers who needed contraception to prevent the growth of cysts, February 29, 2012

10. “A Georgetown coed told Nancy Pelosi’s hearing that the women in her law school program are having so much sex they’re going broke, so you and I should have to pay for their birth control. So what would you call that? I called it what it is. So, I’m offering a compromise today: I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want. … So Miss Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”
~Rush Limbaugh, The Rush Limbaugh Show, March 1, 2012

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/08/35-hateful-and-stupid-rush-limbaugh-quotes/#ixzz2YN5yEai1

Rush Limbaugh: Gay Marriage Supporters 'Don't Give A Damn About Rule Of Law Or Decency'

Rush Limbaugh took time out of his radio program yesterday to tear into supporters of same-sex marriage and praise the dissenting arguments presented by Justice Scalia in the DOMA case. Mediaite reports:

Limbaugh read Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's dissent in the case against the Defense of Marriage Act and praised him for identifying insults in the majority opinion directed at DOMA supporters. "It proves that we are up against people who don't give a damn about the rule of law, or about decency, or about decorum," he said.

"The Supreme Court has now demonized supporters of traditional marriage as it has been understood for thousands of years. The Supreme Court majority in its ruling actually uses language that insults and demonizes the people who support marriage as it has been since the beginning of time," he said.

He goes on to complain about how the "left is intolerant and fully invested in the low art of personal destruction through smear tactics," which is ironic considering Limbaugh's body of work.

Must Wipe Mental Image! Must Wipe Mental Image!

Bad News For Limbaugh!

There were lots of headlines about Rush Limbaugh this week.The majority had nothing positive to say about the hate-speaking radio host or his parent company, Clear Channel, run by Bob Pittman and John Sykes. Not a good week for the Rushbo, at all. One headline referred to Limbaugh as a right-wing welfare bum, because he’s having to take  money/gifts/payola from right-wing groups. Given that 95% of Cumulus radio network advertisers want no part of Limbaugh, it makes sense he would need to have other sources to subsidize his smut.

Payola, is indeed, taking place. Heritage Foundation and FreedomWorks (linked to the Tea Party/Koch Bros.) have been paying Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, according to Dick Armey, former FreedomWorks Chairman. Limbaugh and Beck are  taking money to talk up the right-wing agendas unbeknownst to their audiences. Pretty seedy – and it maybe illegal.

Some decades ago there was a shake-up in the music industry. Record execs were using payola to push their music/agendas. A law was passed making it illegal. FCC has specific rules against payola in the broadcast industry. Apparently, Rush Limbaugh’s show is being overlooked. With the new FCC Chairman coming in, maybe the government agency will take a good, long, and hard look into the goings on at Clear Channel.

An FCC rule states:

Any broadcast station employee who has accepted or agreed to accept payment for the airing of program material, and the person making or promising to make the payment, must disclose this information to the station prior to the airing of the program.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the FCC rule turns out to be the ticket for Limbaugh’s demise? And isn’t it ironic? Conservatives are always preaching “Free Market.” Once again, right-wing hypocrisy rears its ugly head.

To help finish the job and get  Rush Limbaugh off public radio: 
Sign: Petition To Clear Channel and 40 Limbaugh Sponsors
Join Boycott-Rush-Limbaughs-Sponsors-to-SHUT-HIM-DOWN
Visit: The StopRush Database