Scarborough repeated Limbaugh's defense of "phony soldiers" comment without noting its holes

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200710020009?f=h_topic

Summary: On MSNBC's Morning Joe, contributor Willie Geist stated that he had gone "back and looked at the full transcript" of Rush Limbaugh's recent description of soldiers who support withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq as "phony soldiers" and asserted that Limbaugh had been "talking about a specific soldier, this guy Jesse MacBeth," who falsely claimed to be an injured Iraq war veteran. Joe Scarborough agreed that Limbaugh's remark has "been blown out of context." However, the transcript and audio included in the original Media Matters item documenting Limbaugh's comments makes clear that he referred to "phony soldiers," plural.

On the October 2 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough and contributor Willie Geist discussed Rush Limbaugh's recent description of soldiers who support withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq as "phony soldiers," as Media Matters for America documented. After stating that he had gone "back and looked at the full transcript," Geist asserted that Limbaugh had been "talking about a specific soldier, this guy Jesse MacBeth," an anti-war activist who pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the Department of Veterans Affairs for falsely claiming to be an injured Iraq war veteran. Geist added that Limbaugh "was actually talking about a person who actually was a phony soldier." Scarborough responded, "Yeah, so it's been blown out of context."

But while Geist claimed that Limbaugh had been referring to a "specific soldier," the transcript and audio included in the original Media Matters item documenting Limbaugh's comments make clear that he referred to "phony soldiers," plural. Responding to a caller's statement that supporters of withdrawal "like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media," Limbaugh said, "The phony soldiers" . Moreover, Limbaugh made no reference to MacBeth until 1 minute and 50 seconds after his "phony soldiers" comment. As Media Matters documented, Limbaugh subsequently cropped the audio clip of his show to falsely suggest that his reference to MacBeth almost immediately followed his "phony soldiers" comment.

Geist's assertions that Limbaugh had been referring to a specific soldier echo Limbaugh's own misrepresentations of his original remark. On his September 28 program, Limbaugh claimed that he was "talking about one soldier with that 'phony soldier' comment, Jesse MacBeth" -- until a caller pointed out that he had used the plural.

[AlCzervik]

1. Scarborough is friends with Limbaugh so his defense of him is no surprise.

[walldude]

2. Rewriting history. Funny that the people defending Rush

fail to mention that Rush felt the need to doctor the tapes. If he didn't say anything wrong, if he truly was talking about MacBeth then why the need to doctor the tapes?

[Junkdrawer]

3. Here's how I read this whole incident: There's more discontent in the ranks...

of the military than we know - and it's scaring the shit out of the NeoCons.

Their solution: try desperately to make the disgruntled military feel they're in the minority. Limbaugh, as the MAIN talk host on AFR, is leading this charge and is being protected as much as possible.

[Disturbed]

4. This is typical RWing Spin.

In defense, they keep lying. They think that repeated lies will eventually become the truth. Sometimes it works for them.

[Junkdrawer]

10. RWing Spin (aka Propaganda) ALWAYS has as it's primary thrust...

the notion that dissent is confined to a small minority of the mentally unhinged. Always.

[movonne]

12. It works because of scarborough and the like of him

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. Good point, people talk about voting the R's out or impeaching Bush or throwing him out of office by

a pitchfork/torch wielding mob as being the only way to break his power, but there is one other, scary, possibility: If these bozos leaned on the active duty troops too hard and you started to see wholesale breaks in discipline and insubordination. This would remove any remaining authority or credibility of the Bush government overnight, and I suspect the thought has them more than a little nervous, especially given how hard they HAVE been leaning on the U.S. military to prop them up, both militarily and politically.

[Junkdrawer]

9. Here's what Chomsky said a while back (about Vietnam):

...

What happened was, the army started falling apart. One of the reasons that the army was withdrawn was because the top military wanted it out of there. They were afraid they were not going to have an army anymore. Soldiers were fragging officers. The whole thing was falling apart. They were on drugs.

...

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/15/1448219&mode=thread&tid=25

[eShirl]

5. Of course he did. He's yet another dishonest Republican.

At the risk of being redundant.

[annabanana]

7. Jeez Scarborough... Give KO a call wouldja?

Geist, if he looked at a transcript at all, did NOT look at what was actually broadcast. (I understand that the edited version may have been the one that they played on army radio)

Frick lies and frack swears to it.

[chelsea0011]

8. They are all afraid of offending this guy. Cowards all.

[Supersedeas]

11. the GOP shills are all on the same page -- Willie Geist is now exposed

[vireo]

13. Well, at least Joe cut John Kerry some slack over his "botched joke"

Oh, no, I guess he didn't.

SCARBOROUGH: You know, I think his theme song should be "Sorry seems to be the Hardest Word," because back in 1971 he made some statements before the Senate, and most people were suggesting early on he should've just said he was sorry, that he maybe overstepped the bounds. And the same thing happened here. Immediately, people said, you know, Kerry ought to just apologize. Why is it so hard for John Kerry to say: "Hey, I'm sorry, I screwed up?"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200611020005