Tony Harnden has an excellent column that appears in the Telegraph on the effort to smear Rush Limbaugh. Even for the Left, this is quite extraordinary. It’s not simply a matter of taking quotes out of context; it’s a matter of making up quotes out of whole cloth to cast Limbaugh as a racist — and then placing those quotes on Wikipedia, considered the gospel truth, and spreading them on the Internet and various television news outlets.

This behavior needs to be criticized in the strongest possible terms — including, and maybe even especially, by Limbaugh critics. If people want to take on Limbaugh on the merits, that is one thing; but to engage in libel is quite another. For Limbaugh’s critics to have to resort to this calumny is evidence, I think, of how fearful the Left is of Limbaugh and how much they want to destroy him. It is a consuming hatred.

It won’t work, of course. Rush has proved quite able to defend himself over the years and prosper even amid attacks. But the deeper point is that the truth is under assault — and that, in the Internet age, anyone can be a target. That’s why people should speak up now rather than take joy in the slander.

The media figures who spread these false charges owe Limbaugh a clarification and an apology. And the rest of us should take note of the tactics employed. It’s ugly now — and as the Left loses power, it will get uglier still.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 2:27 PM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.