Remember how On The Record host Greta Van Susteren was so upset when Politico asked, “Is (Rick) Perry dumb?” When Tucker Carlson merely reported on disgusting comments by Mike Tyson about Sarah Palin? So where was Van Susteren’s challenge to Rush Limbaugh when he accused President Obama of having a “chip on his shoulder” toward America? Surely, Van Susteren knows that that has a particularly racial connotation. But she didn’t even ask Limbaugh to back up such an inflammatory statement, much less object to it.
Let’s take a little walk down On The Record memory lane.
In September, Van Susteren had an epic confrontation with Carlson over his Tyson/Palin report.
In August, Van Susteren complained about Politico: “Is name calling journalism… What’s up with that? …The power of the media… can really destroy a candidate unfairly… (It’s) even cruel to say, ‘Is Perry Dumb?’ …It’s open season on these candidates. It’s not good journalism."
So I’d love to know how she could justify Rush Limbaugh’s hate mongering right there on her own show.
In fact, Van Susteren cozied up to Limbaugh from the start. “We love being here,” Van Susteren announced at the beginning of the nearly hour-long interview. Don’t tell me she doesn’t know Limbaugh’s record.
Limbaugh announced, at about 3:45 into the video below,
I have often – always suspected that Obama has a chip on his shoulder about the country, that he doesn’t think of it as great, he doesn’t think of it as exceptional. He thinks of it as criminal in many ways, as guilty in many ways… He believes the multi-cultural garbage that we came here to kick the Indians off the land and brought with us racism, sexism, bigotry, homophobia, slavery and all that and I think that Obama wants the people of this country to find out what it’s like to live the way he thinks we have forced other people around the world to live.
Limbaugh skated around making his comments explicitly racial. But Limbaugh has a long history of making racial attacks on Obama. If Van Susteren didn’t know, she darned well should have.
Instead of challenging Limbaugh, Van Susteren’s next question was, “Is (Obama) in your mind a bad guy or is it different ideology?”