Talk-radio icon Rush Limbaugh on Monday questioned whether the Russians had hacked the Oscars, because of the Academy Awards' huge mistake in announcing the winner of its biggest award of the year, best picture, as "La La Land" instead of "Moonlight."
"I would like to be the first to call for an investigation and an independent special prosecutor to look – they had millions of people around the world watching last night. Can you imagine if you are a 'La La Land' fan, can you imagine what they did to you last night?" Limbaugh asked.
"You had everything invested in 'La La Land' winning. It was gonna dominate your spirit and feelings of Hollywood and entertainment for the next year. And the cast shows up almost like Hillary showing up to do her acceptance speech and then somebody from an accountant firm pops up and says Warren Beatty blew it."
Somehow Beatty was given the announcement for the best actress award instead of best picture. The embarrassing episode played out on live television:
PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the global accounting firm that oversaw the Academy voting and handled the award envelopes, issued an apology Monday morning "for the error that was made during the award announcement for best picture.”
“We sincerely apologize to ‘Moonlight,’ ‘La La Land,’ Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for best picture,” said PwC, which has overseen the Academy’s ballot-counting for 83 years.
“The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred. We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation,” the statement said.
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Limbaugh said he wasn't originally going to address the issue, since he didn't bother watching the Oscars.
"Then I decided there's some aspects of this that I just can't in good conscience ignore."
Limbaugh wondered: "So did the Russians hack the Oscars? Should there be an investigation in the House? Something so ridiculous, so unacceptable, so un-Hollywood-like. Did the moguls of Hollywood have the courage to get out of bed today after such a major."
The Democrats have been pressing for a special prosecutor to look into President Trump's campaign and whether anyone had any illegal interaction with Russia since Nov. 8 when he left political commentators and network news anchors with their jaws agape by beating Hillary Clinton's presidential election machine.
Limbaugh parodied their concerns with his own comments about the Oscars.
"So was the Oscar election stolen last night? I mean, really, who won? How do we really know? I mean, with so much fake out there now, and you can't count on polling data, and you can't count on election results. I mean, just listen to what the Democrats say. I mean, they told us first that 'La La Land' won, and then they said, no, no, 'Moonlight' won. And there's rampant confusion everywhere," he explained.
"So both candidates in effect were on stage as both were announced has having won the Best Picture Oscar. Were they hugging each other? I mean, as the 'La La Land' crew, the actors and producers, after having that Oscar taken away from them on live TV, did they smile about it? Was there good cheer?
"Was there understanding? Was there tolerance? And did they welcome the 'Moonlight' crew to the stage? Did they stand up there together, or was it a cluster?" he asked. "You saw it. I didn’t. Nobody in [his studio] there saw it? Oh, we're all flying blind here."
He did explain he'd seen pictures of emcee Jimmy Kimmel "looking clueless, but that's not unusual."
He pointed out the criticism last year that the Oscars were "all-white."
"So Hollywood had to make it good last night. So they went for a twofer. They had a movie about a gay black guy. So what they did there, taking no chances whatsoever after the grief they got last year, they went for the twofer, two protected groups in one movie.
"Folks, this is great. It's a circus. Hollywood could not have scripted a more ironic ending. After lecturing us all night on who should be president, after telling us all night how to run the country, after lecturing their number one fan base, middle America, which is where the vast majority of people are, after impugning them, making fun of them and laughing at 'em by making fun of the things they believe, these geniuses couldn't even get their big moment done right, and that's the award for the best movie of the year.
"Will there be any recounts? Will any heads roll at Pricewaterhouse whatever the new name of that firm is?"
He continued: "What an ironic turn of events from the people telling us how to live and how to feel and how to think and who should win and who shouldn't be elected, and telling us that there's never any fraud in elections. And then they got tripped up by their own system. I think … I don't know. I don't know what long-term impact if any this has on Hollywood because I think Hollywood's in big trouble."
He also pointed out: "You know, I was just looking here at the nominations voting process, at Oscars.org. You know what? These people do not have any voter ID laws. There are no voter ID laws for the Oscars. Anybody could vote. 'Final Balloting Process. Finals voting is also conducted via online and paper ballots.' Hell, the Russians could hack either one of those, easily."