Anatomy of An Urban Legend

Everyone knows that Rush Limbaugh is a hateful bigot who stooped so low that he called a 13 year old Chelsea Clinton the White House Dog, right? People don't make cartoons like those above unless the thing happened in the first place, do they? Just google Chelsea Rush Dog and you'll find umpteen links, all telling the same story:

In 1993, when Chelsea was still in braces, Rush Limbaugh took this shot: "Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat," said Limbaugh. "Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?" And he held up a picture of Chelsea.

This has become the CANON.

Even "fair.org" repeats the same exact lie, as told by Molly Ivins. Fair my ass.

Now please note the nature of the story as it has been reported for many years now - as early as 1993 the report was that he had "called her The White House Dog", but it's very hard to tell when the bit about Socks and his holding up the pictures was added. The whole thing went basically like a game of Telephone, with bits being distorted and made more juicy (and flat-out changing into falsehoods) as time went by, until the actual incident bore no resemblance to the tall tale that has come to be accepted by a public willingly duped. There are people who swear they SAW IT HAPPEN - I'm one of them. But because I saw it happen I know what actually happened, and it wasn't this. So what really did happen? Let's have a look at the transcript.

Copyright 1992 Multimedia Entertainment, Inc. RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW: RUSH LIMBAUGH (9:00 PM ET) November 6, 1992, Friday 11:15 AM LIMBAUGH: Thank you. This show's era of dominant influence is just beginning. We are now the sole voice of sanity, the sole voice of reason. We are the sole voice of opposition on all television. This is the only place you can tune to to get the truth of the opposition of the one-party dictatorial government that now will soon run America. Oh, I mean, we are only beginning to enjoy dominance and prosperity. Most of these things on the in-out list are not even funny, but a couple of them--one of them in particular is. David Hinckley of--of the New York Daily News wrote this, and what he has--he's got--it's very strange. He says, In: A cute kid in the White House. Out: Cute dog in the White House.' Could--could we see the cute kid? Let's take a look at--see who is the cute kid in the White House. (A picture is shown of Millie the dog) LIMBAUGH: (Voiceover) No, no, no. That's not the kid. (Picture shown of Chelsea Clinton) LIMBAUGH: (Voiceover) That's--that's the kid. We're trying to...

The person responsible for the picture mixup was fired. Even so, the worst you can accuse Limbaugh of based on THE FACTS is that he called Millie a "cute kid", since he never said the word "dog" when Chelsea Clinton was on screen.

Important facts include that the fictions that developed later, about him "holding up" a picture of "Socks the cat" make no sense for a variety of reasons. Socks was not known to the public (nor was Chelsea, much)and was certainly not in the white house on November 6 1992 (days after the election.) Socks and Chelsea could not be part of an In/Out segment about the changing of administrations, because they were both Clintons, both on their way in. Millie, on the other hand, was known to every American, was always a clip on the humorous bits of the news, and there wasn't any chance that the audience would see Millie and not know who she was. It was obvious immediately that it was Millie up on the screen, and not just some random dog; which is why everyone knew it was a mistake with the pictures.

You could argue that he did it on purpose but that's a hell of a long way to go for a very vague non-joke that has no really clear meaning, especially in the context of a known dog and the subject of "in/out".

That is how it occurred, however. If one had listened to the radio show the next day, and the following days, and heard the media gleefully pouncing on this error, they began to proclaim that "I bet he did that on purpose, you know. I BET he was implying that Chelsea is a dog somehow," and so began the Telephone game, each lie getting a little worse, until it became just "true" that it had happened in a way completely different from what actually happened. Of course, to tell you the truth I wouldn't give a shit if he had called her a dog; but the principle of the thing is that he didn't, and that the story is false.

This is how he gets a far worse reputation than he ever deserved - the things he says tongue-in-cheek are taken as serious, the things he doesn't say are spread with stupid embellishments like these, the things he apologizes for continue being spread as though he had not apologized for them.

And now the leftist groups are spreading around a petition (Obi-wan gave them the word when he mentioned Limbaugh in an entirely inappropriate and irrelevant context, during a meeting, and they've gone full-bore into a concerted Limbaugh-attack mode - not sure if that means we're gonna try for the Fairness Doctrine or not) against him; last time the Senate sent Rush a petition, he sold it on ebay for millions of dollars, matched the funds, and sent the money to a cause that helps children orphaned by the war to college. (Then Harry Reid actually tried to take CREDIT for it! The media was silent on the matter until the auction was over.) Here's hoping you double that money this time, Rush!

What does it tell you that this lie could not only proliferate, but grow and change over the intervening 17 YEARS into a complete whopper?

Status: False

Mystery solved: Basil at IMAO wondered

Nobody ever explained to me how nearly 2-million people could get into Washington, DC, in freezing weather in one day, when 200,000 couldn’t get out of New Orleans at 80 degrees with four days notice?

"It’s obvious, isn’t it? They got on the buses this time." The truth.

"Don’t you know that nobody could get out of New Orleans because when Bush summoned Katrina with his WEATHER MACHINE OV DOOM, he also put up a force field around all the exits to the city? He obviously wanted the black people all wiped out so that he could drill for oil under their houses!" - FOR THE WIN!