Randi Rhodes is officially batshit stoopid

Again via Hot Air, this comes from Ian Schwartz:

Randi Rhodes went on an extremely bizarre rant (even for her standards) during her Air America show this afternoon. Rhodes actually thinks Blackwater played a significant role in the wildfires started by arsonists.

Here is the audio.


My take? Screw you, Randi. You have the luxury of sitting in your New York studio and spewing that garbage without worrying about how irresponsible your comments are.


I have a great idea. Why don't you come out to San Diego for a visit and repeat those comments in front of a community that has just lost homes and lives, you gutless hack?


Or why don't you go "walk your dog" again?


Fortunately nobody in San Diego was able to hear her comments live...

The tools at Talking Radio explain how they blew the Randi Rhodes "mugging" story (updated)

Well, I guess this is what passes for being "accountable" in the liberal world:

The right-wing noise machine has been having a field day with Randi-gate. Once, they smelled blood in the water they attacked Talking Radio and other liberal blogs (here and here) like a school of piranhas going after fresh meat. They shouted with glee over the apparent discrepancy between what actually happened to liberal talk radio host (which we still don't know) and how it was initially reported.


Talking Radio was responsible for those initial reports. Not the New York Times, the Washington Post or CNN. Not Keith Olbermann, Wolf Blitzer, or Chris Matthews. Just this "tiny little blog" as Brian Maloney AKA the Radioequalizer has smugly reported.

Well, thanks for finally taking responsibility. In the liberal world, that is very rare. In fact it's been three days since the initial story was denied by Rhodes' own lawyer...not that we should have believed him either. And though Rhodes clearly was not mugged, Talking Radio has yet to say that.

Wanna read something funny? Check out this statement:

Now right wingers love to be righteous. They love to catch the "liberal media" f—king up." Liberals don’t really get all worked up when conservatives mess up.

Well...isn't that a hoot?!? Anyone remember this guy?





Talking Radio goes on to whine about the alleged distortions from the "right"...chiefly, the assertion that Rhodes may have been drunk when she fell:

Gawker.com reports that Randi had imbibed 14 Ketel bloody-Marys before plunging to side walk. This was also reported in the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post. (If I drank four Bloody-Marys I'd be flat on my back.)

Well gee...that sure sounds a lot closer to the actual story Rhodes is now telling us than the original claims. Let's review:

From Talking Radio: "Randi Rhodes is the Victim of a Violent Attack!"

From the New York Daily News: Rhodes' lawyer Robert Gaulin told the Daily News she was injured in a fall while walking her dog, but she wasn't sure exactly what happened.

Those are both a far cry from: I was watching football in an Irish pub. I went out to smoke a cigarette, and the next thing I knew I was down on the cement, face down, bleeding.

The funniest thing might be the fight that Talking Radio is trying to pick with The Radio Equalizer's Brian Maloney. Apparently, they are offended that they were described as a "tiny little blog."

But our favorite was the Maloney’s feeble attempt to gain some attention at the expense of Rhodes’ misfortune. In his latest post on the matter, Maloney said "in this exclusive, Radio Equalizer- created video, listen as Randi digs a deep hole for herself."

As of 12 midnight PDT, Maloney’s "huge blog" had 1 post, that’s 1,402 less than our "tiny blog."

Newsflash for the fools at Talking Radio. Brian Maloney doesn't need attention or blog hits. He is a frequent guest on both CNN and Fox News. He's had his own radio show and been featured in Time Magazine. Hell...he has his own Wikipedia entry...something Talking Radio may have shortly as the blog that screwed up the Randi Rhodes story.


Maloney's blog has had almost 2.5 million hits...without using a bogus story to get linked to the Drudgereport. Compared to the Radio Equalizer, Talking Radio is a mite imbedded in the ass of an elephant.

Talking Radio is so busy self-gratifying themselves, that they neglect to mention that the majority of their 1400 comments were either (unfortunately) sarcastic comments about Rhodes, or commenters trying to get their attention to correct the story.

By the way, Talking Radio has had their latest post up for two hours now. Check out how many comments they have now:

(Update) Three hours after their latest post, the HUGE blog Talking Radio finally has a comment:

ubercheesehead said...

I know you are just thrilled at all the traffic you are getting right now. Your gushing about your four-digit thread counts is positively endearing. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the overwhelming majority of us are not bookmarking your site and will not be coming back once the Irish Pub debacle plays out. We've already pretty well moved on past this, what with Harry Reid's smear letter fetching $2.1M on the ebay auction and all. But next time one of the Airhead America whackjobs does something funny enough to attract the attention of more than the 57 people who listen to AAR we will be happy to come back and ridicule your insane rantings some more.

7:31 PM

Who's sick of the Randi Rhodes "mugging" story?

Yeah...me too.

So here's a little Friday diversion:

Radio Equalizer has MORE questions

Brian Maloney at the Radio Equalizer caught the entire open of the Randi Rhodes show yesterday:



I am still fixated on wondering what happened to Simon? You know, the dog Rhodes was supposed to have been walking when she was mugged er...attacked er...shoved er...tripped er...lost her balance?

Brian Maloney has more questions:

Blaming everyone but herself for the events that transpired, with special venom reserved for the press, Rhodes only deepened the confusion surrounding her accident. Here are questions we'd like answered:

Why did she send an email to Air America staffers claiming to have been mugged if there was no indication one had occurred?

Why has host Jon Elliot been forced to apologize for simply relaying Randi's note to network listeners? Is he the fall guy for her dishonesty?

Since there was never any evidence to support an attack claim, why did she even suggest this possibility in a way she knew would reach the press?

Why won't she tell us how much she'd had to drink before she'd stepped out of the Irish pub?

And perhaps most importantly, why doesn't it bother her that the phony mugging story was quickly turned into a chance to beat up on conservatives, who were actually blamed for the incident?

And one more from me. Why has Talking Radio suddenly become mum on this when they gleefully exploited this incident for exposure? Why do they continue to call this a "mugging"? They sure loved all the publicity when they were linked to Drudge and "even the NY Times!"

Of course accountability is not a liberal value. So I'll give them a little help:

Randi Rhodes: "I fall down, go boom..."

So...what happened to the dog her attorney says she was walking?:



H/T: Bore America

It's not like we are ever going to get the full story on this. If Rhodes had been pushed, attacked, mugged or viciously beaten as Talking Radio still insists, then why did she or her attorney never bother to file a police report?

And outside of a busy pub, wouldn't there have been at least one witness to corroborate that story?

But she had to have been pushed, right? Because nobody has ever fallen down on their own outside of a pub, right?

It doesn't matter. Rhodes claims she is "done with this". We here at This Goes to 11 wish Rhodes a full and speedy recovery.

And Talking Radio? Still waiting for them to correct their original post that Rhodes was attacked:

I have something in common with Randi Rhodes

We're both freakin' clumsy...

I wasn't mugged either, but I am sporting a few nasty bruises and a swollen ankle from a fall in the shower. Perhaps I should sue the hotel I was staying in for having scalding hot water and not having a non-stick bath mat.

I mean, isn't that what I'm supposed to do?

I also got a speeding ticket in the middle of the California desert. My excuse...I was groovin' to the tunes on my MP3 player. The song that had me going 87 miles an hour:

"Talking Radio" still hoping Rhodes incident was an attack? (Updated: John Gibson checks in)

Congrats to "Talking Radio". They got their 15 minutes of fame. Of course, they are still calling the Randi Rhodes incident a "mugging" :

First of all, we would like to thank the 1,100 plus people who took the time to the post a comment on the Randi Rhodes mugging story. We especially appreciate the hundreds of right-wingers that discovered this blog for the first time. We hope you come back and visit us on regular basis.

Also, we would like to thank all conservative bloggers including such big players as the Drudge Report, Michelle Malkin, the American Spectator and Little Green Footballs for linking their stories on the Rhodes incident to our blog.

Uh...so when is Talking Radio going to mention that Randi Rhodes WAS NOT MUGGED? Well, not yet, Talking Radio is still busy in self-gratification:

Oh yes, and then one final shout-out -- to conservative talk radio blogger Brian Maloney who for the first time mentioned Talking Radio in his "no-spin zone." Well, Maloney didn’t actually mention Talking Radio by name, but he did say that the Randi Rhodes mugging story was started by "a tiny blog whose author has been a frequent critic of [his] site."

Tiny! When’s the last time that your blog recorded over a thousand comments?

Hmm...there it is again. Still calling the incident a "mugging story". And though Maloney didn't have to, he DID mention Talking Radio by name (he just didn't link to it). And nobody had ever heard of Talking Radio before yesterday, Brian Maloney has been on Fox News and CNN. But Talking Radio is boasting about it's over 1,100 comments...all of course mined from the links from Drudgereport and Kos.

But Talking Radio isn't apologetic about getting the story wrong...in fact they still haven't admitted it yet, though they are still patting themselves on the back:

However, while we are appreciative of the response we received in the MSM and blogosphere. (We even got linked to an article in the New York Times!) we regret that the accuracy of some of the information that we presented in our post last night has come into question.

So when will Talking Radio correct the record? Wait, not yet...they have to put all of this in context, you know:

When 41 members of the U.S. Senate and members of the anti-Iraq war veterans group votevets.org expressed outrage over Rush Limbaugh’s "phony soldier" remark, the right-wing talk show host said that his critics didn’t consider the "context" in which his remark was made.

Well, we too have a "context" issue. Our coverage of the alleged attack on Randi Rhodes was presented in the "context" of several very real politically motivated attacks against liberal stations and talk hosts...

We still believe that more answers are needed before we can say what
happened to Randi Rhodes. The truth is not served when the media only reports part of the story.

The Truth? How about this? We are 2/3rds of the way through Talking Radio's "correction"...and the truth still has not been mentioned! Talking Radio is STILL calling the Rhodes incident an "attack".

Which goes back to the point I made yesterday...liberals don't care about the truth, but they love what they believe to be "truthiness".

As far as answers...Air America and Rhodes' own attorney now say there was no attack. Nobody seems to be sure what made Rhodes fall, including Rhodes herself:

A police source said Rhodes never filed a report and never claimed to be the victim of a mugging.

Rhodes' lawyer Robert Gaulin told the Daily News she was injured in a fall while walking her dog, but she wasn't sure exactly what happened.

For Talking Radio, this is enough for them to float the possibility that Rhodes was attacked. This is the closest thing to a retraction to yesterday's inflammatory post they are willing to give. It is on the LAST line of this morning's blog post:

Since our coverage of the alleged Randi Rhodes mugging was largely based on Elliott’s comments, we have decided that we cannot support the claims that were made and that we will withhold judgement on the matter until all the facts become known.

Well, if Talking Radio is going to "withhold judgement", then so will we. The clock goes back up:



(Update) Thanks to Johnny Dollar, John Gibson checks in:

Hey Talking Radio...we're waiting! (updated: Finally?)

(Update): Talking Radio finally updates its site...more later.

(Update): Not really.

I guess the truth just doesn't matter. Throw up a story where your source is Air America, get it put on Drudgereport, picked up by the Kosbots and liberal blogs everywhere...

But when you're story turns out to be wrong, do you jump to correct the record?

Of course not! Because when you are a liberal, all that matters is a story's "truthiness." I mean, a rabid neo-con COULD have attacked a liberal talk-show host...heck, it happens all the time!

Well, anyway...how long until Talking Radio crawls out from under their rock and corrects their post?




(Update) Ace is assaulted and severely injured by Al Franken! (Uh...allegedly)

Randi Rhodes Attacked While Walking Dog...Update: Rhodes WASN'T mugged! Update: Talking Radio still spreading the lie!

Nigel (11:03am): Update again...Talking Radio, which enjoyed the fruits of thousands of Drudgereport hits this morning, is still posting that Rhodes was attacked:

Of course Talking Radio had this to say before the truth emerged:

Apparently, some right-wing critics of lib talk aren’t happy that conservative talk only accounts for 90% of the programming on talk radio. These whack jobs appear determined to whatever it takes to silence the opposing point of view.

Any guess on how long it will take for Talking Radio to correct the record? Perhaps issue an apology? Maybe even criticize Air America for suggesting that an angry, rabid neocon attacked Rhodes?

Tick...tick...

Nigel (10:45am): UPDATE!: Turns out the tools at Air America made the whole thing up! H/T: Michelle Malkin. Rhodes was just a little clumsy...

A police source said Rhodes never filed a report and never claimed to be the victim of a mugging. Cops from Manhattan's 17th Precinct called her attorney, who told them Rhodes was not a victim of a crime, the source said.

Rhodes' lawyer told the Daily News she was injured in a fall while walking her dog. He said she's not sure what happened, and only knows that she fell down and is in a lot of pain.

Personally, I wish Randi a speedy recovery and return to the air. Because I can't wait to hear her explain this one...

Hot Air has more...

Now back to the original post:

No! Not that Randy...


This Randi...


Yikes!


According to Scare America, their top-rated "talking talent" was attacked while walking her dog somewhere near her apartment in New York City. Police have called it a random mugging, but, fellow Scare America cronies are already hypothetically hyperventilating that there is more to it. Being that we're talking about The Randi Rhodes, and Scare America, this story would be missing something if there wasn't a little conspiracy theory thrown in for good measure. Get a load of this.

"Is this an attempt by the right wing hate machine to silence one of our own?," he asked. "Are we threatening them? Are they afraid that we're winning? Are they trying to silence intimidate us?"

Lucky for Randi, she didn't sustain any injuries that required a hospital stay; she was said to be resting at home, in her apartment.

I doubt that someone from the VRWC (Vast Rightwing Conspiracy) performed some premeditated, calculated attack on Ms. Rhodes. Afterall, this happened in New York City. That city has to pull out a blacklight and neon to find a conservative there. But, the left always has an easy boogeyman to go to when explaining violent crime in their safe, liberal environment.

(Intrusive comment by Nigel: Of course if Randi had been packing heat like this guy. Just sayin'...)