Rush Limbaugh falls for Wikipedia hoax

Judge Roger Vinson is expected to allow a Florida lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of health care legislation to proceed. Rush Limbaugh got that part correct.

However, the New York Times reports that the conservative talk-radio host (and health care reform critic) wasn't right on a few personal details about Vinson, who is a senior judge on the Federal District Court in Pensacola. Contrary to what Limbaugh said on air, the paper notes that Vinson isn't an "avid hunter and amateur taxidermist who once killed three brown bears and mounted their heads over his courtroom door to 'instill the fear of God into the accused.' "

[Photos: Rush Limbaugh's swanky fourth wedding]

Those were a few of the details added to — and since removed from — Vinson's Wikipedia page. The Wikipedia user "Pensacolian" included the bear-killing anecdote earlier this week and attributed the bogus information to the Pensacola News Journal.

"I've never killed a bear, and I'm not Davy Crockett," Vinson said Wednesday.

It's true that Vinson's interested in nature. But as president of the American Camellia Society, he's more likely to be looking closely at flowers than shooting wild animals and using their heads as a means of courtroom intimidation.

Ellen Vinson, the judge's wife, said she was "offended" by the broadcast, adding that she doesn't "think you should be able to broadcast something nationally if you can't verify it."

A Limbaugh spokesman claims that a staff researcher found the Vinson information on the Pensacola paper's website. And yet the Pensacola paper's managing editor says they never printed any such details.

Still, this isn't Limbaugh's worst run-in with the collaborative, online encyclopedia. Limbaugh was pronounced dead on Wikipedia last year after being hospitalized.

(Photo: AP/Burt Herman)

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