The Distortionist

Rush Limbaugh compares the President of the United States to Adolf Hitler and the media establishment yawns. And why not, what with the ongoing adventures of Jon and Kate, and Paula Abdul possibly leaving American Idol? The media must keep up with these breaking stories, right?

But I wonder if the establishment would have yawned if Keith Olberman had compared George W. Bush to Hitler? Would Limbaugh have let that pass? How about Michael Savage? Bill O’Reilly? Ann Coulter?

No, the right-wing yakkers would have gone totally apeshit and demanded Olberman’s head; they would have declared that the left-wing media was depraved and dangerous, a threat to the nation; the story would have bounced in the echo chamber for days on end, picked up and pushed by Matt Lauer and Diane Sawyer and the editors of the Wall Street Journal.

If Rush Limbaugh is the de facto leader of the Republican Party, hasn’t the GOP slandered the President of the United States?

Where’s the outrage? OK, forget outrage. What about accountability? Why aren’t Limbaugh’s corporate sponsors dropping him and running for the aisles? Why does Limbaugh get a pass to say such outlandish, untrue, stupid things?

It’s money, of course. Audience and advertising revenue.

Look, I despised George W. Bush. I believe that Bush was an illegitimate president, and that he was one of the dumbest, if not the dumbest, men to ever occupy the White House, but I can’t remember comparing him with Adolf Hitler. Despising a political figure is one thing, complete ignorance of history is another.

Rush Limbaugh and others of his ilk are symptoms of a more serious malady that is deep inside our body politic. We saw it during the financial crisis and see it today in the war of misinformation over health insurance. Sense doesn’t matter, logic doesn’t matter and accuracy doesn’t matter; only volume and repetition matter. Limbaugh distorts, obfuscates, lies, exaggerates, misconstrues and maligns to advance his political agenda. From the safe distance of his studio, where few, if any, competing voices are allowed entry, Limbaugh bludgeons those he disagrees with. It’s not reasoned discourse that aims to find the truth or some middle ground that reasonable people can agree on -- it’s polarizing and divisive, designed to inflame an audience made up largely of people who cannot think critically or independently.

It’s propaganda, in other words, designed to play to people’s fears and prejudices.

I don’t know how our imperfect democracy can survive when our public discourse is as degraded as it is today. Except on rare occasions, common ground seems impossible to find.