NEWSWEEK'S FAIR AND BALANCED LIMBAUGH COVERAGE
Newsweek, responding to a story by the leader in investigative journalism, the National Enquirer, covers Rush Limbaugh this week. And it is far from fair and balanced. A sampler:

Rush Limbaugh has always had far more followers than friends

That's the first sentence, and it is true of absolutely every single celebrity. But Newsweek made its point, Rush has no friends!

But the mockery was instantaneous. Liberal mouth Al Franken (author of “Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot”) hit the airwaves to relish Limbaugh’s greatest hits of hypocrisy.

Are "greatest hits of hypocrisy" Newsweek's words or Franken's? Probably Newsweek's.

and virtually every newspaper dredged up this 1995 quote from Rush: “Too many whites are getting away with drug use. The answer is to ... find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them, and send them up the river.”

But the media's been telling me that Rush is racist!

The fall of a moralist is always a great American spectacle. The Elmer Gantry story—the righteous preacher who turns out to be a letch and a boozer—has a special resonance in a nation that postures as morally superior but enjoys sin. Nothing entertains (or instructs in the essentials of human nature) like hypocrisy on a grand scale. When Bill Bennett, best-selling author of “The Book of Virtues,” was outed as a compulsive gambler, and evangelist Jim Bakker was caught embezzling from his Praise the Lord empire, the lamentations of the true believers were drowned out by the snickers of the knowing.

And what about the self-righteous feminist and champion of women's issues, hero of NOW, and womanizer Bill Clinton?

The man behind the curtain is not the God of Family Values but a childless, twice-divorced, thrice-married schlub whose idea of a good time is to lie on his couch and watch football endlessly.

Schlub?

Granted, Limbaugh’s act has won over, or fooled, a lot of people.

Or fooled? Is that how Newsweek describes leftists?

he is the darling of Red State, Fly-Over America.

Is that the stench of elitism? Can't be. Newsweek then psychoanalyzes Rush by quoting Maureen Dowd. Really, I'm not making this up.

“You need to make an outline. You need some data to support your assertions,” [Rush's college communications professor] told young Limbaugh. “Frankly, he wouldn’t do those things.”

Implication is obvious, and supports the liberal view about conservative ideology.

and briefly on the dole, a detail Limbaugh overlooks when he rants against welfare

Way to simplify a complex issue. Brilliant. Especially since Limbaugh used welfare to pull himself up, not as politicians hope it will be used, to create a permanent underclass that is beholden to government generosity.

Limbaugh had a lighter, more satiric touch, though his gibes at the helpless could be a little crude. (He once suggested staging a “Homeless Olympics” with events like “the 10-meter shopping-cart relay, the Dumpster dig and the hop, skip and trip.”)

Good one, Rush.

Despite his fervent moralizing, he smoked a little pot and watched a little porn (as he has publicly admitted).

So, perfection is required?

His self-absorption made dating difficult.

Source, former girlfriends. He's been maried to Marta since 1994. Ask her.

(despite his on-air bombast, Limbaugh is known for his politeness, even gentleness at times)

Well, that was nice.

According to his ex-housekeeper Wilma Cline, Limbaugh was bullying her into providing ever-larger supplies of painkiller pills at the time.

So, Newsweek, where did Wilma get the pills? Did you ask?

had suggested that the NFL had been pushing Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb because of his race, not his talent

Wrong, he suggested that the media overrated McNabb because of his race. Did you see yesterday's Dallas-Philadelphia game?

Limbaugh has given himself 30 days at a treatment center; medical experts say that truly freeing himself from addiction could take much longer

Could.

"From a moral standpoint, there’s a difference between people who go out and seek a high and get addicted and the millions of Americans dealing with pain who inadvertently get addicted,” Bauer told NEWSWEEK.

Buried, at the end.

Limbaugh’s long-running act as a paragon of virtue is over. Now the question is whether he can make a virtue out of honesty.

Paragon of virtue? I don't remember that. Can he make a virtue of honesty? He has for years. And I thought Evan Thomas did better work than this.