Rush Limbaugh Smear Letter Hits $56k on eBay

[califbob]

Rush Limbaugh Smear Letter on eBay

In case you have not heard, the Rush Limbaugh smear letter, signed by 41-Democratic Senators, has skyrocketed to $56,000 - 126 bids - with a couple of days left on it.

Who Signed?
Harry Reid, Hillary Rodham Clinton , Blanche Lincoln, Richard Durbin, Kent Conrad, Bob Menendez, Charles Schumer, Christopher Dodd, Barbara Mikulski, Patty Murray, Byron Dorgan, Bill Nelson, Daniel Akaka, Dianne Feinstein, Barack Obama, Max Baucus, Tom Harkin, Jack Reed, Joseph Biden, Daniel Inouye, Jay Rockefeller, Barbara Boxer, Edward M. Kennedy, Ken Salazar, Sherrod Brown, John Kerry, Bernie Sanders, Robert Byrd, Amy Klobuchar, Debbie Stabenow , Benjamin Cardin, Mary Landrieu, Jon Tester, Tom Carper, Frank Lautenberg, Jim Webb, Bob Casey, Patrick Leahy, Sheldon Whitehouse, Carl Levin, and Ron Wyden.
Check out the auction for more information.

 

[Van]

So was this letter basically a letter of why they hated Limbaugh? or did I not understand it right?

 

[MenInTights]

Rush was talking about some guy that pretended to be a soldier and was also a war protester. Then a call came in that asked where do they find these soldiers who are war protesters since the caller has never met a soldier who was against the war. Rush made the comment that they are phony soldiers. Harry Reid ran with the comment and got a bunch of Senators to sign a letter condemning his comments.

All of that is really not the issue. This is what is really happening. There used to be a law called the fairness doctrine that stated there could not be political views expressed on public airwaves unless there equal time given to the other side. Needless to say, the Democrat party would love to have this law reinstated coming into the elections. If they can pass the fairness doctrine, it would put most of talk radio out of business. This is what Imus was about. You're going to see this fake outrage a lot in the coming months.

 

[Mirage]

Nice post Spence. I wasn't aware of the fairness doctrine. Do you think there is a good chance it will be reinstated? It seems like a useless law to me. That's like telling a newspaper what is can and can't run. Sure these talk shows are using public airwaves, BUT, they are paying for their shows and have an audience to keep. If the democrats want good democratic talk radio then that's their problem. I say they should go for it.

As for the fairness doctrine being reinstated, I think too many people listen to Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O'Reilly for that to happen. Do you know if there is an active movement to get it reinstated again?

 

[MenInTights]

There are powerful people that desperately want it reinstated:
YouTube - KERRY FOR FAIRNESS DOCTRINE; CORRECT 'IMBALANCE'

If the Executive and Legislative branches are owned by Democrats, I am 100% sure it will go through. The Supreme Court would eventually strike it, but that would take at least a year.
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Reading wiki, it is amazing to see that powerful people of the past realized what a big deal the fairness doctrine is:

The fairness doctrine has been used by various administrations to harass political opponents on the radio. Bill Ruder, Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the Kennedy administration, acknowledged that "Our massive strategy [in the early 1960s] was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters and hope that the challenges would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue." [6] Former Kennedy FCC staffer Martin Firestone wrote a memo to the Democratic National Committee on strategies to combat small rural radio stations unfriendly to Democrats:

The right-wingers operate on a strictly cash basis and it is for this reason that they are carried by so many small stations. Were our efforts to be continued on a year-round basis, we would find that many of these stations would consider the broadcasts of these programs bothersome and burdensome (especially if they are ultimately required to give us free time) and would start dropping the programs from their broadcast schedule. [7]
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In the end, its a long shot to reinstate it before the 2008 election. But, these guys figure if they can stir anger at Limbaugh and others, maybe they can get the public to demand it. Unfortunately for them, more people listen to Limbaugh than what some Senators say.

 

[Mirage]

I would hate to see this go through. Not just for the fact that it's unfair, but, mostly for the precedent it sets. Next will TV shows and newspapers have to cater to every bias out there?

It seems to me that the Democrats are simply proving that they are full of it by having to force talk show hosts to allow equal time for all sides of the arguments. Last I checked if somebody didn't like what they heard on the radio they could simply change stations... I haven't listened to the radio in a while though. Maybe now they've moved on to mind control and hypnosis through radio waves. Who would have suspected..

:rant:

 

[Doc]

Don't candidates have to have equal time? What's the big deal with the guy having his own opinion? Sure, it's not a great one, but it's still his.

 

[MenInTights]

I think the auction has been hijacked. The bid is up to $500K. I think this will go for around $200K. $500K just seems like hoaxsters have worked their way in. I heard that Rush is going to match the winning bid as a donation to the charity.

but, who knows, maybe these bids are legit.

 

[Mirage]

I'd say it's probably hijacked for sure...

Current high bid: US $2,100,100.00

But who knows with this type of auction.. Even so, he can just sell to the highest legit bidder. Although this is very unfair, because if the highest legit bidder is say $50,000, and somebody pranked at $51,000+, then the bidding way at the end would never happen and the bids wouldn't have a chance to go higher than $50,000 legitimately.

This is just another example of how eBay doesn't even care about the big guys... let alone the little guys. Such a shame.

 

[MenInTights]

its real.

The winning bidder has already been announced. Long time listener to Rush and philanthropist.

2.1M + a 2.1M match by Limbaugh. good for him.