Rush Limbaugh and Code Pink

Today on his radio program, Rush Limbaugh said this:

State-Run AP Bans Term “Ground Zero Mosque”

RUSH: We just about missed this advisory from the Associated Press.  I saw it yesterday.  “AP Standards Center issues staff advisory on covering New York City mosque.” This is AP sending out a memo to all of its employees as how to cover the New York City mosque story.  “Associated Press Deputy Managing Editor for Standards and Production Tom Kent sent the following note to the staff about covering the New York City mosque story and then discussed the guidance and reaction in a Facebook entry headlined ‘Behind the News: Describing the proposed NYC mosque.'”  The advisory went out on August 19th.

Colleagues,
Here is some guidance on covering the NYC mosque story, with assists from Chad Roedemeier in the NYC bureau and Terry Hunt in Washington:

1. We should continue to avoid the phrase “ground zero mosque” or “mosque at ground zero” on all platforms. (We’ve very rarely used this wording, except in slugs, though we sometimes see other news sources using the term.) The site of the proposed Islamic center and mosque is not at ground zero, but two blocks away in a busy commercial area. We should continue to say it’s “near” ground zero, or two blocks away.

Now, the building site is less than two football fields from where the World Trade Center once stood.  Landing gear and part of the fuselage of the terrorists’ hijacked United Flight 175 crashed through the roof of this building, which is why the current buyers were able to snatch it up for $4 million when its pre-9/11 price was $18 million.  By any reasonable definition it is part of Ground Zero, but the AP stylebook, essentially, their advisory says it can no longer be called or will not be called the Ground Zero mosque or the mosque at Ground Zero.  It is to be called the New York City Islamic center and mosque.

Now, let’s put the question this way.  We’re polling people on the mosque at Ground Zero.  What if the question were this:  “Do Muslims have the right to rub our faces in 9/11?”  Of course, under our Constitution they do.  Under the terms of our Constitution they have the right to rub our noses and faces in it, but is rubbing our nose and face in 9/11 the sensitive thing to do, the bridge-building thing to do?  Of course not.  Now, there’s this guy out there named Fred Phelps.  Fred Phelps protests at military funerals.  He’s the guy with the God-hates-fags sign, runs around with that sign.  His family and lawyer friends protest military funerals.  They run the Westboro Baptist Church.  Now, we know that Phelps and his Westboro gang have the right to free speech.  But does Obama believe that they should hold up signs celebrating the death of soldiers at the soldiers’ funeral?  They have the right to.  But would Obama or Bloomberg support that?  Of course the ACLU’s going to defend the right of the Moslems to build a mosque there, and the ACLU defends the right of Fred Phelps and his gang to hold up signs celebrating the death of soldiers.  But would Mr. Obama?  Would Nancy Pelosi?  Would Mayor Bloomberg?

We know that Jodie Evans, Code Pink said to a mother of a son that was killed in Iraq, “Your son deserved to die for being stupid enough to go,” and she’s headlining a fundraiser for Jerry Brown.  Jodie Evans is a major bundler of campaign donations for Obama.  Now, certainly she’s got the right to say that, but is it the right thing to do?  Would Obama support — I mean he takes money from Jodie Evans at Code Pink.  Would Obama think that it’s wise to support Jodie Evans in saying to the parents of fallen heroes in Iraq, “Your kid deserved to die, stupid enough to go to Iraq.”

So maybe it’s the wording here, and maybe for those of you in the media, maybe for you to better understand how Americans feel, they think building a mosque is essentially having their face rubbed in it.  Our Constitution grants them the right to rub our face in it, but is that something that our government wants to support?  The position here of the anti-mosque people is not unreasonable.  It’s, in fact, totally understandable.  But look at how it’s being portrayed.  The wife of the imam, what’s her name, Daisy Khan, is saying that this reaction, the opposition to the mosque goes beyond Islamophobia.