Fri, Nov 20 2009
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Published November 04, 2009 03:37 pm - So I was watching a couple of video shorts the other day from Laurel and Hardy that date to the 1930s. Why Rush Limbaugh is like Laurel and Hardy A ROBERT LEBZELTER column Star Beacon So I was watching a couple of video shorts the other day from Laurel and Hardy that date to the 1930s. One of them, “Busy Bodies” had them operating a saw mill with dangerous and disastrous results. The second was “Hog Wild,” in which they were putting up a radio antennae to dangerous and disastrous results. Now were Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy that inept in real life? No. It was an act. It was Hollywood. But it was fun to watch then and it is fun to watch now. Today, there are more “acts” than ever, in TV, in the movies. But those aren't the only places we have acts. Take Rush Limbaugh and the array of other right-wing talk show hosts. Now maybe they have some convictions, some beliefs, but the goal is to be as outspoken and outrageous enough that you score a big audience and land a cushy contract and make lots of money. Limbaugh, speaking in the safe haven of FOX News from his Palm Beach, Fla., home, said a week ago the country had “never seen this kind of radical leadership at such a high level of power” in referring to President Barack Obama. He said the administration is bent on destroying the private sector on purpose, amounting to “a denial of liberty, an attack on freedom.” He called Obama a “man-child president.” Now Limbaugh's comments are pretty outrageous, but it is easy to see why he said it. He stands to make as much as $400 million over the next eight years. All he has to do is attract the most gullible listeners as possible and keep the radio affiliates happy. If you think what I'm saying isn't fair or true and Limbaugh is merely voicing his core beliefs, check out what else he said on FOX. “I'm out to get the highest ratings I can get every day. I'm going to attract the largest audience I can every week, regardless of the news. It's my — it's my talent that draws the crowd. The news is incidental to it,” Limbaugh said. As far as his contract, Limbaugh said, “I'm a - guy who earns a percentage of what I generate every year. There are some guarantees, but the $400 million is not guaranteed. I have to earn that. So far…I'm ahead of schedule, in fact.” He earns that amount with an act, making outrageous statements. I'm certain Laurel and Hardy made decent money for their time. I know Charlie Chaplin did. But they didn't earn it sitting around acting civil and normal. That is boring. They got knocked in the head. They fell off roofs. They were almost decapitated in a saw mill. At one point, it looks like Chaplin in one film almost had his head whacked off with an ax. (Until modern technology allowed archivists to look more closely at some footage and learned the scene was performed backward, with the ax going up from his head. It was then reversed for the film.) Trouble is, nobody thought Laurel and Hardy were really trying to put up an antennae. They knew it was an act. Limbaugh's act has gullible people believing him, even though Limbaugh’s so-called beliefs service people in his financial class far, far more than the average person. Take for example, his comments that Obama may have the most radical administration ever. 
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