http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/08/12/robin_williams_and_the_pop_culture_mediaRobin Williams and the Pop Culture Media
August 12, 2014
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RUSH: This is Mark in Des Plaines, Illinois. Welcome to the program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. You are such a great guy. I have a question for you about the news about Robin Williams --
RUSH: Before you get to that. Mark, I have never really known and I'm gonna ask. Is it Des Plaines, or Des Plaines?
CALLER: Well, it's Des Plaines.
RUSH: Des Plaines. Okay.
CALLER: English kind of way to say it.
RUSH: Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you for that.
CALLER: Yeah. My pleasure. You know, I don't want to sound insensitive, and Robin Williams was absolutely a wonderful talent. But, you know, it used to be that the media would sort of downplay celebrity suicide, which I think was actually a good and right thing. I just feel like they're making a huge deal about this when there's so much other news like Iraq, Israel, Missouri, et cetera, that they should be focusing on. My question is, what do you think the political reason for their doing this is?
RUSH: Well, interesting question. You know, I'm the guy that says there's politics in everything and you've gotta be able to spot it, and you're right, there is here. This is really is an example of the dedication the media has to pop culture events and how important it is in the eyes of their audience. Whereas in Washington, the media thinks the world is on fire because of what's happening in the Middle East, your average TMZ viewer thinks the world doesn't make any sense anymore because Robin Williams committed suicide.
The thing I worry about, I really do, they're making such heroism out of this that I hope it doesn't inspire a lot of copycats by people seeking the same kind of fame. And that's been one of my big concerns with social media from the get-go. I saw all these people just giving up every bit of information about themselves, just this desire to have everybody know everything about them, and we know that one of the allures of pop culture media is this desire to be famous and have pop culture media talk about you. And this is one way to do it, obviously. To kill yourself is one way to get the media to spend a lot of time talking about you, if you want to be talked about. I hope it doesn't spawn a bunch of copycats.
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RUSH: So our last caller from Des Plaines, Illinois, wanted to know, "What is the politics in the coverage of the suicide of Robin Williams?" Well, I believe there is some. But I don't think that the politics is driving it. I think there was, on the part of media and Hollywood, genuine affection for the guy that is driving it, but there is politics. If you notice the coverage is focused on how much he had, but it wasn't enough.
"He had everything, everything that you would think would make you happy. But it didn't." Now, what is the left's worldview in general? What is it? If you had to attach not a philosophy but an attitude to a leftist worldview, it's one of pessimism and darkness, sadness. They're never happy, are they? They're always angry about something. No matter what they get, they're always angry.
They are animated in large part by the false promises of America, because the promises of America are not for everyone, as we see each and every day. I mean, right here there's a story Fox News website. Do you know, it says right here, that the real reasons that Robin Williams killed himself are he was embarrassed at having to take television roles after a sterling movie career.
He had to take movie roles that were beneath him, sequels and so forth, and he finally had to do television just to get a paycheck because he was in so much financial distress. He'd had some divorces that ripped up his net worth, and he had a big ranch in Napa that he couldn't afford any longer and had to put up for sale, and a house in Tiburon that he couldn't afford anymore. This is all what's in the Fox News story.
He had it all, but he had nothing. He made everybody else laugh but was miserable inside. I mean, it fits a certain picture, or a certain image that the left has. Talk about low expectations and general unhappiness and so forth. Right here it says that one the contributing factors to Robin Williams deciding to kill himself was "survivor's guilt." It's in the headline.
I read that and I thought, "Survivor's guilt? What? What survivor's guilt? What?" So I read it, and it turns out that three of his closest friends, the story says -- Christopher Reeve, John Belushi, and Andy Kaufman... The source, unnamed in the story, said that Robin Williams felt guilty that he was still alive while his three friends had died young and much earlier than he had.
He could never get over the guilt that they died and he didn't.
Well, that is a constant measurement that is made by political leftists in judging the country. It's outcome-based education: 2 + 2 = 5. "That's fine until the student learns it's 4. We're not gonna humiliate the student by pointing out that he's wrong. If he figures it out, cool. We're gonna take the fast learners and we're gonna slow them down so that they don't humiliate the kids that don't learn as fast as they do. It's just not fair."
So the bottom line is here is it's reported that he died, which is true, but he actually committed suicide. I just really hope that this coverage does not spawn copycats, because the coverage is fawning and glorious, and positive. You have so many people on social media who so desperately want fame. You know it and I know it.
People are voluntarily telling everybody every detail about themselves, casting every aspect of their privacy aside just because they want fame. They want to be noticed. They all want to be on TV. There's a lot of fame and the media's doing every story about this is a story of greatness -- unparalleled, unequaled, unique greatness.
I mean, everybody would love to be spoken of the way the media's speaking of Robin Williams today and last night, and I really hope -- 'cause there's some very fragile people out there -- people don't try to emulate or get this kind of notoriety for themselves by doing the same thing.
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