The last time we checked, Rush Limbaugh had the greatest reach and frequency of any commentator in the country.  He needs no defense from us regarding the contrived controversy over his talk show use last week of the phrase "phony soldiers."  In fact, he has been returning fire with both aplomb and delight since the leftists at Media Matters turned on their spigot of disinformation last week.

Anyone who says that Limbaugh intended to denigrate soldiers who have served or are serving with honor, regardless of their political views, is either ignorant, a moron or cynically perceives some advantage from the attack.  Those three possibilities, along with several others more crude, are not, as they say, mutually exclusive.

For those who may be confused or have missed the background, Byron York at National Review Online characteristically has the most coherent and accurate account of the remarks, in context, that Media Matters misrepresented in the latest round of distractive balderdash to dominate national discussion.

Media Matters exists to bash conservative opinion leaders.  Period.  The organization's mission statement says it seeks to correct "conservative misinformation in the U.S. media."  The reality is that it plants misinformation, cultivates it and spreads it.  Only weeks before going after Limbaugh, the group had accused Bill O'Reilly of racist remarks, using another sentence stripped from its context, successfully having the accusation repeated ad infinitum on cable TV shows, in the left-wing blogosphere and by columnists. 

That O'Reilly was making observations similar to those of black comedian Bill Cosby and black journalist Juan Williams went unnoted until Williams, with whom the O'Reilly conversation had taken place, set the record straight and denounced the attacks.

Media Matters is well-funded by well-heeled liberals and has strong ties to Hillary Clinton (who has publicly said she helped start it) other liberal organizations and other liberal politicians.  According to Wikipedia, "[Media Matters] employees have previously worked for the presidential campaigns of Democrats Al Gore, Sen. John Edwards, and Gen. Wesley Clark, the National Organization for Women, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, the Alliance for Justice, and Greenpeace."  That is a context of Media Matters ignored by those in the media who treasure it as a source and make no effort to check its claims before airing them. 

Media Matters is able to do what it does because a lazy, lemming-like, mostly electronic media feeds off of controversy and competition.  When MSNBC and CNN, fed by Media Matters, go after Bill O'Reilly, it is not untoward to question whether Mr. O'Reilly's market share dominance is as motivational in story selection as the issue itself.

Contrived controversies regarding Rush Limbaugh are temporarily good for media ratings and readership, no good at all for the public's ever-declining appraisal of media credibility, responsibility and duty.  No adequate journalist who actually reviewed the context of the "phony soldiers" discussion could have derived the story line fostered by Media Matters.  No adequate journalist who reviewed Limbaugh's long support for those in the military should have gone with the story without first at least attempting to discuss it with Limbaugh directly.

Perhaps a much more useful discussion, one legitimately in the national interest and buttressed by a compendium of fact, could center on phony journalism.

As dismaying as the display of journalistic complicity or irresponsibility in the "phony soldiers" flap is, it pales in comparison to the statements and actions of numerous liberals in Congress seeking to distract from their own travails and, for good measure, take yet another swipe at reducing Limbaugh's power.

Never mind the utter futility of that or the spectacle of dysfunctional ideology run amok.  Perhaps a much more useful discussion, one legitimately in the national interest and buttressed by a compendium of fact, could center on phony, foolish, flailing politicians.