Rush Limbaugh's hurricane diatribe highlights just how dangerous right-wing news has become

Rush Limbaugh isn't a meteorologist—which he made clear right off the bat when he advised people not to believe warnings about Hurricane Irma.

Of course, that doesn't stop him.

"I am not a climatologist or meteorologist. All I do is analyze the data that they publish. Just as I am the go-to tech guy in my family and here on the staff, when it comes to a hurricane bearing down on south Florida, I’m the go-to guy," he recently said on his radio show on Tuesday.

There, in one sweet nugget, is the explicit explanation of what has become implicit in right-wing media. Experts are wrong. They're either lying to you or stupid or probably both, as Limbaugh goes on to say. Only Limbaugh, the "go-to guy" is going to tell it to you straight.

Meanwhile, the forecasts from these experts have proven to be spot on in predicting this storm, which at this point is already historic for its intensity. This is no longer a question of if Irma is one of the worst storms in recorded history. The only question remains is just how much damage it will do.

Confronting that reality would require Limbaugh and his fans to accept that not only were the experts right, but that reporters and politicians have been responding appropriately.

How to square all of this with the reality at hand? Just blame it on a climate change conspiracy.

"I can’t tell you the number of media people and elected officials all talking about this hurricane, Hurricane Irma, it’s no doubt due to climate change. And it never ends, it just never ends," Limbaugh wrote.

Such is life in a world where anything and everything can be fake news and distrust of authority is the status quo.

Limbaugh is, of course, far from alone. There's plenty of news outlets catering to conservatives, most of which embrace this kind of know-nothingism to some extent. Most have covered Irma in their own way. Infowars has a variety of posts from "CNN's hurricane insanity goes full libtard!" to "Deranged leftists think Trump is creating 'racist' hurricanes." The Blaze, as of Wednesday afternoon, had little on its front page other than a straight write-up of Limbaugh's comments. Breitbart's homepage on Wednesday afternoon focused on DACA news, though one of its running stories provided good, incremental updates on Irma. Even Gateway Pundit has numerous stories that don't try to connect the hurricane to Pizzagate or the Illuminati. The bar is low.

It's notable that older, more established conservative media was covering the storm aggressively. The homepage of Fox News has a variety of news hits. Drudge Report has had Irma stories front and center.

Others ... not so much. The Daily Caller trumpeted a story that claimed the U.S. Virgin Islands was going to allow the seizure of guns that then turned into a Conservative Post story claiming the National Guard had been ordered guns and ammo to be confiscated.

None, however, can touch Limbaugh. In using climate denial to delegitimize any and all coverage and analysis of Irma, he's putting his listeners in very real danger for no other reason than to maintain the charade that has made him hundreds of millions of dollars. There's simply no other reason for Limbaugh, who is based in Palm Beach, Florida, to say what he said. He's under no expectation or obligation to make hurricane predictions. It was simply an opportunity to reinforce his narrative.

And that's all anything is for much of right-wing media these days. Irma is another chance to scare people into believing the government is coming for their guns or that CNN is biased. That's bad when it's about serious issues—but it's downright scary when it's about a massive storm that could take lives.