Some time last week, Rush Limbaugh joined a group bidding for ownership of the St. Louis Rams. In response, the Left circulated made-up quotes that purport him to be racist. Rick Sanchez of CNN picked it up and ran with it. Rush’s supporters gallantly defended him and went on the attack, demanding of the Left proof of this quote. Of course there’s no such proof; the quotes regarding his supposed racism do not actually exist. What they have created is the appearance of racism. In their apologies they state such unapologetic ideas to the effect of “well, the quote wasn’t true, we’re sorry, but man he’s quite the racist anyway and you have to look at what he says. RACIST!”

The Left, with its massive television and print media network, is well aware of its ability to affect the cultural gestalt and uses it to no end. They float the appearance of impropriety and use it to prime the expectations of their audience. This tactic was particularly blatant (and ridiculously obvious) in 2004 when Dan Rather reported on fake memos about Bush. Rather was busted by the web at large. Mary Mapes defended him by calling the memos “fake but accurate.”

As with Bush, so they did with Limbaugh. By making up false quotes “proving” his racism, the Leftist media aims to create an expectation of racism such that when people read through his transcripts, or listen to him, they expect him to say something racist, or they imagine him saying something racist.

The Leftist media has become the inquisitorial court of public opinion. They accuse, and it is up to their targets to prove their innocence. The media can’t stop themselves; they can’t resist abusing the power of which they’re aware. They act like some dude who’s aware he’s God’s gift to women and goes out and bangs every woman he can charm. As with the promiscuous man, so does the media not realize that acting recklessly comes with consequences. This is Rick Sanchez’s non-apology on Twitter, verbatim:

i’ve know rush. in person,i like him. his rhetoric,however is inexcusably divisive. he’s right tho. we didn’t confirm quote. our bad.

Having compromised his own integrity, Sanchez tries to distract people from his faults by highlighting (screenshot) what he considers proof of Rush’s “divisiveness.” Herein lies the bait and switch: Sanchez catches the attention by accusing Rush of racism, gets exposed as a sham faux reporter, and then maintains the attention by changing the accusation to this what he calls Rush’s “divisive” nature.

What I have recapped and commented on here is the Leftist media’s favorite means of character assassination. When Conservatives dig up actual facts and present them in context, when we hang the words and deeds of Leftists around their necks for the world to see, we’re engaging in smears. Apparently, Conservatives are smearing Van Jones for his Communist perspectives, Kevin Jennings for his flippant reaction to an act of pederasty, and Anita Dunn’s worship of Chairman Mao, all of which are simple matters of record. The Leftist media fabricates whole lies out of fine-spun cloth and declares it to be “truth.”

The Leftist media did this not out of some love for an instution under attack. The NFL is a private entity with its own decision-making bodies and is more than able to turn Rush away on their own. Rush’s chances at being a minority NFL team were almost non-existent in the first place, but by turning this into a personal crusade, they have made Rush our Conservative martyr. We now know, as we have known in their treatment of Joe The Plumber, that no private citizen is safe. They have gone after Rush’s dreams of owning an NFL team for no other reason than their hatred of him. Limbaugh had no intention of turning the Rams into an avenue for his political views. In so doing, they have placed regular Americans on high alert.

Rush’s dream of owning a football team is as American as an immigrant’s dream of putting together a small business to support their family. It’s as American as someone whose success motivates them to employ others and improve their lives. It’s as American as freely giving the surplusses of one’s profits to charity. The freedom to do what one wants with the money they have earned in earnest is the most American of dreams. The Leftist media, in going after him, has made itself arbiter of this dream, and the dreams of so many others. It is not a power that they sjhould be left to usurp for themselves. By declaring war on private citizens, the media has proven itself a willing arm of the government, a co-conspirator in its attempts to curtail our freedom. This, this is more tinder for the firestorm to come.