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Limbaugh relied on inaccurate Army
recruitment numbers from NY Post op-ed
Media Matters
August 26,
On August 26, nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh again wrongly
claimed that the Army is surpassing its yearly recruiting goals. Limbaugh
previously made this claim based on inaccurate military recruitment numbers
from an August 23 New York Post op-ed. Limbaugh presumably referred to this
same op-ed on his August 26 broadcast, asking his listeners: "Did you hear the
story earlier this week?" -- even though the New York Post issued a correction
to the op-ed days earlier.
On the August 26 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, Limbaugh attacked The
Washington Post for "lying through their teeth" in reporting on August 26 that
the Army will fail to meet its recruitment goal for fiscal 2005, which ends
September 30. On the August 24 broadcast of his show, Limbaugh had referred to
New York Post columnist Ralph Peters's August 23 op-ed, saying, "Recruitment
levels are way above what expectations are in every branch, including the
reserves. This is a big myth that the media has put out there that people
aren't signing up." Limbaugh apparently referred to the op-ed's erroneous
statistics again on August 26, stating, "Recruitment goals in all branches of
the service are in excess of projections."
But as Media Matters for America noted, Peters used inaccurate first-time
recruitment numbers to erroneously claim that "the U.S. Army is exceeding its
re-enlistment and first-time enlistment goals." After widespread recognition of
his error, Peters drafted a correction that was printed in the August 24
edition of the Post and appears at the bottom of the online version of the
op-ed. In his correction, Peters acknowledged his "substantial error" and
wrote: "The new-enlistment rates I cited were wrong. The Army is still falling
short on new enlistments."
From the August 26 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: Washington Post again. Boy, they're loaded for bear,
lying through their teeth today. Did you hear the story earlier this week?
Recruitment goals in all branches of the service are in excess of projections,
including the reserves. Have you heard this? The media's been lying about this
for as long as they can. They've been trying to say that recruitment levels are
down. They are in excess of projection. They are over 100 percent of what they
need. Headline, Washington Post today: "Army Likely to Meet August's, But Not
Year's, Recruiting Goal: Expanding Force in Coming Months Expected to be
Difficult. The Army's expected to meet or exceed its monthly recruiting goal
for August but is likely to miss its annual goal for the fiscal year that ends
next month amid one of the most difficult recruiting environments since it
became all-volunteer, the Army's chief of staff said yesterday." How do they
get -- how do they create this? How do they create this? They ignore the
re-enlistments. The recruitment and the re-enlistments combine to put them
above recruitment levels. The Washington Post ignores the re-enlistments. They
totally -- they don't ignore it, but they bury it way back in the story. The
story is written by Josh White. "By the end of July, the Army was on pace to
miss its annual goal by more than 10 percent. It raised the target in fiscal
2005 as part of a long-term effort to expand the force by 30,000 troops to a
total of 512,000." Washington Post once again craps all over the United States
military.
— S.S.M.
Posted to the web on Wednesday August 31, 2005 at 2:55 PM EST
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