http://mediamatters.org/items/200501240007 WILLIAMS: I do listen to Rush. I listen to it from a radio in my office, or depending on my day, if I'm in the car, I will listen to Rush. And he will tell you I've been listening for years. I think it's my duty to listen to Rush. I think Rush has actually yet to get the credit he is due, because his audience for so many years felt they were in the wilderness of this country. No one was talking to them.
<...>
Rush said to millions of Americans, you have a home. Come with me. For three hours a day you can listen and hear the like-minded calling in from across the country, and I'll read to you things perhaps you didn't see that are out there. I think Rush gave birth to the FOX News Channel. I think Rush helped to give birth to a movement. I think he played his part in the Contract with America. So I hope he gets his due as a broadcaster.
Here are some examples of Limbaugh's commentary, for which Williams apparently thinks Limbaugh has "yet to get the credit he is due." He has:
compared U.S. guards' torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison to a fraternity prank, saying the guards were "having a good time," "blow
some steam off" ;
claimed that women "actually wish" for sexual harassment, and said he "laughed self to tears" when Media Matters for America documented that remark and other sexist remarks he has made ;
said: "Hugo, Cesar -- whatever. A Chavez is a Chavez. We've always had problems with them." ;
stated, when African American Reverend Jesse Jackson joined Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign: "The Kerry campaign has finally gotten a chocolate chip"; University of Maryland political science professor Ronald Walters described Limbaugh's comment as a "backhanded racist remark" ;
said: "John Kerry really doesn't think 3,000 Americans dead in one day is that big a deal" ; and
said Democrats believe "the more deaths in Iraq the better" .
Before his promotion, Williams hosted several other NBC news programs, including The News with Brian Williams on MSNBC and CNBC, where Limbaugh was a frequent guest. On September 24, 2002, Williams introduced a News segment on a speech made by former Vice President Al Gore by observing: "ur friend Rush Limbaugh told his radio listeners he almost stayed home from work, not due to any health reasons, but because he was so livid at the speech given yesterday by former Vice President Al Gore criticizing the Bush administration's apparent march to war in Iraq." Williams asked, "Is it un-American to speak out against the Bush plan to take on Iraq? Is it democratic to ridicule and threaten those who do?"
(more) ...good reading, with links.
NOW I KNOW BRIAN WILLIAMS IS A JERK - A BRAINLESS JERK! HE'S NO BETTER THAN A BARBARA WALTERS!