Rush Limbaugh selection in children’s book competition causes a stir
(CNN) - Rush Limbaugh - radio host, conservative firebrand and... children's book author of the year?
The Children’s Book Council and its Every Child a Reader program released on Thursday their author-of-the-year finalists for their annual Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards.
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Limbaugh is one of the four finalists, and his nomination has prompted outrage on social media, given the host’s often-incendiary nature.
Limbaugh's book is titled, "Rush Revere and The Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans" – a time-traveling tale of colonial America and the latest of two books in the "Rush Revere Series" published last year by Simon & Schuster.
Limbaugh, an outspoken figure in the political world, often expresses controversial sentiments on his radio program. Recently, Limbaugh blasted Pope Francis' economic views as "pure Marxism," and, in 2012, he called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" and "prostitute" for her support of women's access to birth control.
The Children’s Book Council issued a public letter, posted to its website and Facebook page, defending its finalist selection process following the uproar online and insisting that the author of the year finalists "are determined solely based on titles’ performances on the bestseller lists."
"Some of you have voiced concerns over the selection of finalists from bestseller lists, which you feel are potentially-manipulable indications of the success of a title. We can take this into consideration going forward, but cannot change our procedure for selecting finalists after the fact," the organization said in the letter.
The CBC letter goes on to say the kids, who will start voting next week, ultimately decide which author wins in each of the six categories, including best author. The letter goes on to assure that the organization has a procedure in place to protect against fraud and adult's voting in the contest.
"This program has never been about CBC or ECAR endorsing finalists," the letter says.
Limbaugh touted the apparent success of his book series on his radio program on Thursday.
"We just found out last night that on the New York Times Best-Seller List of March the 30th, ‘Rush Revere and the First Patriots’ will open at number one, and ‘Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims’ moves up to number four," said, according to a transcript of the audio.
Limbaugh’s book landed at the number-5 spot on the New York Times best seller’s list for the week of March 23.
CNN's Dana Davidsen contributed to this report.
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Ms Freedom – We should organize locally to pull these books from their shelves (by force if necessary) and then publicly burn them in the street. That will stand as a little lesson to any school, teacher or school administrator that allows this Nazi propaganda in their door.
I hope you recognise the delicious irony of your comment. That or you have absolutely no knowledge of history and who is behaving like a Nazi now.
Congratulations Rush!. Way to take things out of context CNN!!!
@Rudy in NY – The three largest publishers of textbooks are Pearson (based out of London), McGraw-Hill (New York), and Mifflin Harcourt (Boston). Certainly, Texas holds more power over the content of textbooks than most states due to their size and buying power, but so does California and New York. Texas used to pay for the development of a lot of textbooks in past, but has not in some time. The average textbook in the US has a definite left bias, as the larger municipalities, who have the largest orders, tend to slant that way.
Mark
Congratulations Rush on your fine accomplishment. The left can make ugly comments about the time in your live when you became hooked on prescription drugs while I haven't heard any of them criticize Whitney Houston, or Obama for the same problem that they had faced with respect to drugs. The mind of a leftist is full of mush.
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When Rush was indulging in his drug addiction, he was also working for ESPN where he made a racially controversial remark, which got him kicked off of the air. His stint in rehab began a short time later.
Dear Ms. Freedom
What you are advocating is strikingly similar to Krystalnacht. And who is the Nazi?
Have all the burn the books critics even read this book? I doubt it. I'm not a Limbaugh fan ut just saying. Free people don't say burn books when they disagree with content. Ignorant people say burn books they haven't even read.
After reading a ton of posting on this topic, it is clear that those who have read Limbaugh's books like them, and those who are upset about this have not read them. My family owns both, and I was really surprised at the high quality of them. They discuss history that I was not taught in either the public schools I attended or college history classes covering the same time period. Because of this, my kids and I have done a lot of research, and found Rush's accounts not only accurate, but helping to put to bed some of the questions I have had for many years. For instance, why did the Mayflower Compact seem to be at odds with the kind of government that would eventually get established? Really a lot of factual material told in a way that is entertaining to kids and parents.
Not to worry, lefties. It will be "seen to" that Rush doesn't win.
If you're lucky, you can get all conservative speech banned.
Rudy NYC
No, Rush promoted his book on air, and told people to go out buy it because they'll love it
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And, they do love it. It is a good book. I would suggest reading it before knocking it.
Only in your liberal bubble is this causing a stir. They are fantastic books and even provide a High AR score, which shocked me. Figured the teachers would have the books thrown off by now. Cant have anything to go against their propaganda.
Shame on Rush Limbaugh for daring to write, not one but two, history books for children. He had the effrontery to write using facts instead of progressive feelings and logic. Shame, shame, shame. It's a hell of a thing when the most popular books are the ones written by a conservative and the ones which are the most historically accurate.
The book was a hugely successful seller last year. If they did try to ignore it, their entire awards system would be as valid as the Nobel Peace Prize and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism is today.
Shame on Rush Limbaugh for daring to write, not one but two, history books for children. He had the effrontery to write using facts instead of progressive feelings and logic. Shame, shame, shame. It's a heck of a thing when the most popular books are the ones written by a conservative and the ones which are the most historically accurate.
@ Rudy –
"racially controversial remark"? You mean when he said that Donovan McNabb was not as good a QB as the media made him out to be, and that the reason that the media inflated McNabb's ability was because they wanted a black QB to be successful? Here is the rub with Rush. He was right, and history vindicated him on the point. That always seems to elude folks on the Left. He said nothing bad about McNabb. He did not call him a bad QB. He made no racist remark. He simply commented on the way that the media was reporting on McNabb. For this, he was fired and branded a racist.
I am glad that you show such compassion. Dr. Oz has written that as many as 10% of Americans are addicted to drugs, with prescription pain medication being the largest driver. It is a real problem, and Rush was one of millions of folks that struggled with it. People do not ask for it, get no pleasure from it, and it usually happens, like it did with Rush, when a person get addicted to the medication given to them by their doctor for a real injury. I hate to say it, but people like you, who stigmatize people who come forward to get treated, make it so that people hide their addictions instead of getting them treated. You have said that the man's entire life and body of work are meaningless due to his past addiction. That is a bit over the top.
It is amazing how intolerant the loony lefties are. They will scream loudly about their 1st amendment rights while denying the same right to any conservative. That being said, we must not decry their right to be wrong. The more that they squeal, the more they condemn themselves for their own bigotry. It is not surprising that those who proclaim that anyone who opposes them is promoting hate when they are projecting their own hatred on conservatives.
I'm going out and buy all of his womerful books thanks rush
The first teacher that allows these "books" into their classroom will find that those will be the very last "books" that they will ever allow into their classroom.
Lefties complaining about Rush... again?!? This time regarding his children's book? Not surprising...
I have yet to meet a single Rush hater who has actually listened to even one complete radio broadcast of his. They choose to believe the out-of-context clips taken from his show and the much-abused spin of the lamestream media. As Rush says, "I live rent-free in the minds of liberals."
got to be frying libs and dems that Rush's book is a top seller, and cleaning the clock with a patriotic book that children love, are buying, reading and telling others about.
The dogs bark and the caravan moves on.
as Rush said today, he gets great joy out of the fact that just by waking up every day, he ruins the daily lives of millions of libby libs every day, rock on
In my vast educational experience with the public education system, I had never even heard of William Bradford. It was not until reading the first book "Rush Revere, and the Brave Pilgrams" that I was introduced. I know first hand Mr. Limbaugh's politics, and they are not in the book. If anything the book is a factual story with a little science fiction (time travel) to make history (what most kids think is a dry subject) palatable, and an enjoyable read.
Read it before knocking it, regardless of your political ideology it is a fun adventure.
The thing about Rush that I think most aggravates the left is that he is talented enough to draw a paying audience, a talent thus far lacked by the left. Even more aggravating, he has done so by telling the truth – which of course is much easier than rewriting history to fit a leftist script or make the term of an abject failure as President (e.g., Jimmy Carter or Barack Obama) seem a success.
Glad to see censorship is not complete yet. There is no justification for excluding a finalist based upon personal taste. I hope you win the whole thing Rush. 🙂