The New York Times has just laid virtually all of talk radio’s top conservative punditry naked to their enemies by revealing a coordinated effort, between them and top DC politicians, to “tamp-down” opposition to comprehensive immigration reform, and “gaslight” the national republican audience. A brutal expose’…

We already knew the aspect of Fox News via Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly meeting with Chuck Schumer, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio capturing promises to deliver favorable opinion for immigration reform. – Outlined HERE – We also knew, and wrote about how Fox Executives manipulated program content (including the blacklisting of amnesty critics) to support the collective agenda.

However, we did not know how far the scope of the influence was extended, nor did we know Rush Limbaugh was a direct participant. We also did not know that Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin were lobbied to participate.

How would we know? How would anyone know? They never told their audience.

None of the aforementioned pundits ever disclosed the nature or content of the lobbying, nor their own independent determination whether to go along with the agenda, or remain willfully blind thereby benefitting the legislative agenda by omission.

In hindsight we can only accept silence as willful blindness.

However, now we do know, many things make a lot more sense about how reactionary all the “conservative” pundits were, notably the Fox Group, when candidate Donald Trump announced his immigration platform to include a border wall, deportation and strict enforcement of immigration law. Now we know why most pundits reacted with such disdain.

Their opposition, heck, their knee jerk attacks upon Trump for proposing immigration enforcement, seemed stunning in June/July 2015; but now takes on an entirely new light.

Via New York Times […] The dinner at News Corporation headquarters — which has not been previously reported — and the subsequent outreach to Mr. Limbaugh illustrate the degree to which Mr. Rubio served as the chief envoy to the conservative media for the group supporting the legislation. The bill would have provided a pathway to American citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants along with measures to secure the borders and ensure that foreigners left the United States upon the expiration of their visas. […] Details of the dinner, and a previous one in 2011, were provided to The New York Times by an attendee of one of the meetings and two people with knowledge of what was discussed at both get-togethers. None of the attendees agreed to be identified for this article because the conversations were supposed to be confidential. […] As early as March 9, 2011, Mr. Schumer joined Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and another eventual member of the Gang of Eight, at the Palm restaurant in Manhattan, where they made their case to Mr. Murdoch, Mr. Ailes and Mr. Limbaugh in a private room. The senators argued how damaging the word “amnesty” was to their efforts, and walked Mr. Limbaugh through their vision for an immigration overhaul. […] Mr. Rubio also reached out to other conservative power brokers, including the radio hosts Mark Levin and Laura Ingraham, telling them that the legislation did not amount to amnesty. The Fox anchors Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly became more supportive. At the time, The Washington Post reported that Mr. Rubio’s advisers were monitoring to the minute how much time the hosts devoted to immigration, and that “they are heartened that the volume is much diminished.” Mr. Rubio publicly and privately worked to assuage the fears of Mr. Limbaugh, who on air called him a “thoroughbred conservative” and assured one wary listener that “Marco Rubio is not out to hurt this country or change it the way the liberals are.” (read full article)