Audio By Carbonatix
By Ray Stern
Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh got suckered in last week by an erroneous report about political correctness at the Arizona Supreme Court, forcing a lengthy correction column on Limbaugh’s Web site.
Limbaugh blathered on November 10 about the outrageous ban in the Arizona judicial system on perceived derogatory terms referring to immigrants. Problem was, no such ban had been decreed.
The bad info received by Limbaugh came from Judicial Watch, a national legal group with a mission to advance conservative causes. The group had worked itself into a lather over a letter by Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor to a Hispanic lawyers association, Los Abogados, about the use of phrases like “illegal alien” and “illegals” in written court opinions. Click here for the letter from McGregor and the Los Abogados letter to which she was replying.
When news happens, Phoenix New Times is there —
Your support strengthens our coverage.
We’re aiming to raise $30,000 by December 31, so we can continue covering what matters most to you. If New Times matters to you, please take action and contribute today, so when news happens, our reporters can be there.
In a November 6 blog post, Judicial Watch claims that McGregor (pictured at right) agrees to enforce the ban on the phrases and words in her October 2 letter. But the letter clearly doesn’t say that. McGregor merely writes that she is passing along the concerns to judges.
Although Limbaugh has figured out this “ban” story is a turkey, but not the folks at the Maricopa County Attorney’s office who run a taxpayer-funded right-wing Web site about illegal immigration.
On Tuesday evening, the county attorney’s site was still linking to an evangelical news Web site story about the supposed ban.
