Shockingly Rush is given a fair shake and ample space to explain himself.
Take a look:
The second thing that the media doesn't understand — and I think it's because talk radio is outside the Beltway. It's a phenomenon that attracts what I call the people who make the country work. I don't think politicians and elected officials and bureaucrats and even the media are responsible for the greatness of the country. I think it's individual Americans laboring in anonymity, not seeking fame, just trying to get by, play by the rules, work hard, ordinary people doing extraordinary things. And those are the people that listen to talk radio. And the media thinks that they're all hayseeds and hicks without minds of their own. When in fact, they are totally independent thinkers. And most of my audience is there not because I have Pied Pipered them to where they believe. They already believed what they believe — I just came along and validated it. When I started in '88, there was CNN, the three networks, your magazine and Newsweek and US News and the newspapers. That was it. I started in '88 and I was the first so-called national voice espousing conservatism and people glommed onto it because finally, "Somebody who agrees with me!"
So the assumption is that people who listen to talk radio are idiots, or mindless robots, or victims of slick marketing and packaging. So there's sort of a condescending view of the audience of talk radio, people are sometimes held in contempt by some people. It's just totally wrong. It's 180 degrees out of phase.
