The Misquote

I am a regular listener to Rush and Beck. I am also a regular reader of Media Matters and The Cincinnati Beacon. I watch MSN and Fox News.

We all know that good ratings equal extreme rhetoric. Both ends of the political spectrum hold very different views on every issue. It seems that there are enough sound bites that could be taken in context to illustrate a point.

Lately, it has been the norm to take sound bites out of context and use them to create public outrage. Rush used the word retard on his show last week. In context he was taking a poke at Rahm Emanuel using the word retard. Surrounding the comment he joked that it would become a sound bite that would result in him getting in "trouble" with the media. He was correct.

With technological capabilities there is no longer an excuse to misquote someone. There is no longer an excuse to take things out of context in error. Today misquoting is deliberate and malicious.

Some sites are based entirely of sound bites and misquotes. Media Matters is an excellent example of this practice. I read several articles about Rush's retard statement- along with the string of comments posted in response. I also heard the live broadcast of the actual statement in question. The disparity in facts was almost alarming.

It is time for us as intelligent Americans to take responsibility for the "news" that we are ingesting. The resources are readily available to check sources and the context of statements. If we are not doing some quick research we are just being lazy and contributing to the problem.