RUSH LIMBAUGH ON COLORING THE NEWS

RUSH LIMBAUGH, Host: Do you remember us discussing a book back in May of 2001, two years ago - a book by William McGowan called Coloring the News: How Crusading for Diversity has Corrupted American Journalism. Among many of the things in this book, McGowan highlights the clumsy, bureaucratic instruments that some news organizations have institutionalized for monitoring racial, ethnic, and sexual fairness. One of McGowan's case histories shows how executives of the Gannett chain of newspapers, USA Today, have used a system for evaluating their editors and reporters according to how many minority faces appeared in photographs and how many minority voices were quoted in news stories. 

LIMBAUGH:  He also examines the climate of righteous denial and moral preening that discourages the journalistic establishment from needed self-criticism. So we're not making anything up here. William McGowan has actually done -- and this came out at the same time Bernie Goldberg's was. I think it was in the same general area. And Bernie Goldberg's book on liberal bias was getting a lot of attention, and this book sort of snuck up on everybody. He had done a lot of research at Gannett and USA Today, and he found that if you wanted to be promoted as a reporter, a photographer or an editor, you better focus on minority stories, minority quotes, minority subject matter, minority photos.

LIMBAUGH:  The book is Coloring the News: How Crusading for Diversity has Corrupted American Journalism. Voila! We've come to the Jayson Blair story or saga at the New York Times.  I'm not just pulling this stuff out of thin air and saying, I wonder how people will react to this if I say this. There is a basis in fact for this.

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LIMBAUGH:  Just to wrap this up here.  Jayson Blair of the New York Times: there's no question in my mind that he was allowed to survive as a reporter- even though he engaged in all the plagiarism and all of the lies and all of the inventions- precisely because of diversity programs, affirmative action, you name it. It's a quintessential, liberal example of utter failure of what they would consider to be a well-intentioned program. How many of you have raised objections: Rush, how can you say that race or minority status has anything to do with this?  Well, because of facts. William McGowan's Coloring the News, a book two years ago on this very nature of how diversity in the newsroom is utilized to promote.  It is mandatory by editors that focus on minority matters is done. That's how you, as a reporter or photographer, get promoted.

LIMBAUGH:  But, I mean, beyond all that, you don't need that. That just provides the foundation.  If you know liberals, you know there's no other explanation for this. It's liberals that are always talking about what makes America great is diversity, not excellence. Diversity and the makeup of a workforce; its color.  The same thing with the country; it's our color that makes us great.  That's so bogus.    It is content; it is excellence; it's freedom, if you want to talk about what makes the country great.  But liberals - many of you understand their definition of affirmation action.  Affirmative action is needed because people aren't any good.  People are incompetent. People can't get there without liberals' assistance.  And so it goes.

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