Also read: Rush Limbaugh, Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize, gay marriage, Ask the White Guy, Glenn Beck

UPDATE: What did Rush Limbaugh do now? On Friday, he fell for a hoax saying that President Obama "dissed" the Constitution in his thesis at Columbia University. Although he quickly found out this wasn't true, he is not apologizing.

"So I shout from the mountaintops: 'It was satire!' But we know he thinks it. Good comedy, to be comedy, must contain an element of truth, and we know how he feels about distribution of wealth," Limbaugh said on his web site of Obama. "So we stand by the fabricated quote because we know Obama thinks it anyway. That's how it works in the media today."

The fake thesis—originally posted by a blogger named Michael Leeden—credited Time magazine reporter Joe Klein for its discovery. Leeden has since apologized for his satirical post. Klein issued the following statement on his time.com blog, Swampland: "A report is circulating among the wingnuts that I had a peek at Barack Obama's senior thesis. It is completely false. I've never seen Obama's thesis. I have no idea where this report comes from—but I can assure you that it's complete nonsense."

As of today, the headline and transcript from Limbaugh's statement last week remains on the homepage of his site: "Obama's Disdain for Constitution: We Know He Thinks It, Don't We? When we discover a hoax, we correct it immediately."

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Judging the Miss America pageant and bidding for the St. Louis Rams "is the mainstreaming of Rush Limbaugh from off this far-right fringe [where the media has] tried to put me. I just keep tiptoeing into the mainstream," claims Rush Limbaugh on the "Today" show.

Is Limbaugh mainstream? And is the media preventing this conservative from being portrayed as mainstream? Here's what he says and here are the facts, with the sources cited and links providing the actual information:

Obama Winning the Nobel Peace Prize

Limbaugh said this: "He's not only the first post-racial president; he's also the nation's first post-accomplishment president. He has risen above incompetence. He's now judged on wishful thinking. Gore, Carter, Obama. Can you imagine how ticked off Bill Clinton had to be today? The first gut reaction, when he found out that this little man-child in Chicago has not done diddly-squat got the Peace Prize."

Gallup Poll found this: "Barack Obama's job approval rating, which had slipped to as low as 50 percent last week, now stands at 56 percent, getting a slight bounce after the announcement of Obama's Nobel Peace Prize win on Friday."

H1N1 Vaccine

Limbaugh said this: "I am not anti-vaccine. I am not anti-good health. I'm standing up for freedom and liberty, and I am not one of these people that thinks people in the government are infallible, that they never make mistakes and all they ever want to do is help us and protect us. What they really are are people who think we are incapable of taking care of ourselves or little nannies who want to control every aspect of all of our lives, and I'm not in that game.”

Pew Research Center reported this: "Almost two-thirds of Americans say they are very or somewhat confident in the government's ability to deal with the swine flu."

Sonia Sotomayor's Nomination

Limbaugh said this: "She makes a brazen racist comment about tens of millions of American citizens while she's a judge, and she's been rewarded for it with a nomination of the Supreme Court."

Gallup Poll found this: "Americans' reactions to Obama's nomination of Sotomayor skewed on the positive side, with 47 percent rating the nomination as 'excellent' or 'good,' 20 percent rating it 'only fair.'"

Gay Rights

Limbaugh said this: "[Gay-rights advocates are] going to keep it up until they wear you out. They're going to keep it up until you say, 'I don't care. OK. All right. Go get married. Just leave me alone' … Don't let 'em intimidate you this way."

Pew Research Center reported this: "A clear majority of Americans (57 percent) favors allowing gay and lesbian couples to enter into legal agreements with each other that would give them many of the same rights as married couples … 39 percent of Americans favor legalizing same-sex marriage."

Government's Mortgage-Relief Efforts

Limbaugh said this: "We can't pay everybody's mortgage forever. Besides, we're deepening the problem because we're delaying the market correction that will happen automatically if we just get out of the way and let it. But these are central planners. They know better than you."

The U.S. Treasury found this: The mortgage-relief effort has helped 500,000 homeowners, and it is on track to help up to 4 million homeowners within three years.

In each point cited in this article, independent research shows that the majority of Americans do not concur with Limbaugh's opinions. He is, therefore, not mainstream—and his opinions are far outside those of mainstream America.

For in-depth research on inclusive internal and external organizational communications, visit www.DiversityIncBestPractices.com.