Rush Limbaugh 'Doubled Ratings' Lie Gets Leg Up From Chris Matthews

Over the weekend, I reported that the Washington Post's claim that Rush Limbaugh's ratings had doubled was, in fact, not true. I contacted the WaPo source, Talkers Magazine's Michael Harrison, who confirmed that the figures he gave to the Post were not "ratings," nor would he characterize them as equivalent to ratings.

Redstate also contacted Harrison, and he told them, regarding the figures he gave WaPo:

"If I didn't believe that they were an accurate estimate of whatever the elusive truth about radio listenership actually is, I wouldn't publish them"

Of course, in this case, he didn't publish them, not directly:

Here's how strong Harrison's "research" is: His own magazine wouldn't cite it without sourcing the quote to Kurtz's article! He's the publisher of "Talkers" magazine, but they didn't publish the "research," instead quoting their own publisher from another publication.

All of this hasn't stopped the lie from spreading, and crawling all the way up the leg of NBC's Chris Matthews:



Luckily, Clarence Page is there to disabuse Chris of the notionthat a ratings bump for Limbaugh, even a fake one, means a win for GOP politics. Even Newt Gingrich is wising up to that.

It doesn't matter, of course. The right has already moved on to their next brilliant strategy to counter the Democrats' Operation: Rush. Now, they're trying to make Rush a victim. Good luck with that.

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