A Perfectly Incorrect Statement

Normally, Rush Limbaugh does not deserve a mention on this blog. He blows a lot of hot air, there may be people who listen to him, I don't care. What he says is uninteresting and does not further problem-solving in either direction, as far as I can tell. He delivers daily monologues to losers.

But I have to comment on this latest one. He may have set a new standard of irony. Here's what he said yesterday:

(CNN) – Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is dismissing Democratic campaigns to paint him as the man steering the Republican Party, and media frenzies over his most controversial comments.

"The media didn't make me, and they can't break me," he said in a portion of an NBC interview that aired Monday. Limbaugh: 'The media didn't make me, and they can't break me'

That statement is so wrong.

What does Rush Limbaugh do for a living? Does he decide policy? Raise funds or invest in the markets? Does he work on cars, work in a factory, a store? Does he sell things, make things, fix things?

No -- he is a voice on the radio, a face on television, and nothing more. His one talent is appearing on TV and radio. How would you like to "appear" for a living? Without the media to magnify him he is just another opinionated junkie.

The media did make him, there is nothing to him but media promotion.

The media didn't make me, and they can't break me. It's such a perfectly incorrect statement, it's like the sky claiming not to be blue. It is a magnificently incorrect statement, it is transcendentally incorrect, it is as if he is saying to the minds of the world "Testing. Testing. Is this thing on?" and they are shouting back, "We can't hear you!" It has come down to the sound of his voice, the tone of it, the content of his speech has finally become empty in a perfect way. Rush Limbaugh's words are a self-devouring Oroboros, a tautology, they are solipsistic, he speaks to a world that consists of nothing but himself, reflected.

Remember when Karl Rove used to talk about gearing the presidential campaign to audiences watching TV with the sound turned down? Rush Limbaugh is like listening to the radio with the sound turned down. Well, there is sound, but it is white noise modulated to approximate the nattering of a human voice. Pitch, timbre, and amplitude fluctuate in a charming but incoherent babble. Listeners, no matter how closely they pay attention, have lost the ability to detect the fact that there is no content to what he says. Even CNN reports this as if it were not a joke: Limbaugh: 'The media didn't make me, and they can't break me'. Some quotes, a picture, there you have it: news. It's got to be true, the media didn't make him, they said it right there on CNN.

"The media" is a phrase we use to refer to broadcasts and publications that report on the events of the times. Often the media report on real events -- an earthquake or battle, a speech by a famous person or expert, a scientific finding or musical performance -- but often these days the media simply report on the media. When they put somebody like Russ Limbaugh in the "news," it is nothing more than one hand signing what the other hand is doing. This is equally true when they report on liberal media personalities, as well, say Rachel Maddow or Jon Stewart, it has nothing to do with him being a Republican or conservative.

But I don't think you will ever catch Rachel Maddow or Jon Stewart saying, "The media didn't make me." They understand the media made them, that's all there is to it; without the media, these people would not have careers, they would have to sell things or make things or fix things like the rest of us. Rush Limbaugh apparently thinks he is famous for ... doing something?