Rush Misrepresents Kerry's Statement The Attacks Him for It... Here Rush Limbaugh completely misrepresents what Kerry actually said and then proceeds to launch an attack and proves his ignorance in the process. 4/13 : BEGIN TRANSCRIPT "Don't stand up for white music, associate yourself with rap. Can you just see old J.F. Kerry and Teresa [Heinz, his wife] riding around in the Range Rover or whatever . . . tuning into hip-hop? What CD is in the player right now? It's one thing to say you like it. But to try to pass this off as something that you've intellectually examined and have assigned value to? END TRANSCRIPT Here is what acutally happened. Kerry appeared on MTV and Gideon Yago asked Kerry, "Are there any trends out there in music, or even in popular music in general, that have piqued your interest?" To which Kerry replied, "Oh, sure. I follow, and I'm interested," Kerry replied. "I don't always like, but I'm interested. I mean, I never was into heavy metal. I didn't really like it. I'm fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think there's a lot of poetry in it. There's a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you'd better listen to it pretty carefully, 'cause it's important." There is nothing wrong with stating that rap is important to young people. Clearly it is. Rap is a dominant force on radios, cable music channels, in advertisments and in record stores everywhere. The influence of rap on rock music is well established. Kerry also has had several kids. It is no surprise that he would be exposed to rap and hip-hop. The influence of rap and hip-hop goes beyond just the young viewers on MTV. Elements from rap have made their way into our lexicon. In Rush's zeal to attack Kerry, he is demonstrating just how little he understands about modern culture. He also made yet another racial stereotype in his angry attack. Rap and hip-hop isn't "black music". The biggest consumer group of rap CD's are white kids. Rush excoriates Kerry for not "associating himself with white music. Again, Rush just doesn't know what he is talking about and is using race to base an attack.
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