Opponents bring war against Rush Limbaugh to Georgia
On one hand, comic Bill Maher has an op-ed in today’s New York Times calling for an end to the clichéd cycle of insult and apology:
Let’s have an amnesty — from the left and the right — on every made-up, fake, totally insincere, playacted hurt, insult, slight and affront. Let’s make this Sunday the National Day of No Outrage. One day a year when you will not find some tiny thing someone did or said and pretend you can barely continue functioning until they apologize.
On the other, Rush Limbaugh’s critics have stepped up their war on his radio program. Note that Macon is a targeted city. From the Associated Press:
NEW YORK — Rush Limbaugh’s opponents are starting a radio campaign against him Thursday, seizing upon the radio star’s attack of a Georgetown law student as a “slut” to make a long-term effort aimed at weakening his business.
The liberal Media Matters for America is using a past campaign against Glenn Beck as a template. In Limbaugh, however, they’re going after bigger game. He’s already fighting back and the group’s stance has provoked concerns that an effort to silence someone for objectionable talk is in itself objectionable.
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh. AP/Chris Carlson
Media Matters is spending at least $100,000 for two advertisements that will run in eight cities.
The ads use Limbaugh’s own words about student Sandra Fluke, who testified at a congressional hearing that contraception should be paid for in health plans. Limbaugh, on his radio programs, suggested Fluke wanted to be paid to have sex, which made her a “slut” and a “prostitute.” In return for the money, he said Fluke should post videos of herself having sex. Under sharp criticism, Limbaugh later apologized.
In one of the anti-Limbaugh ads, listeners are urged to call the local station that carries Limbaugh to say “we don’t talk to women like that” in our city.
Ad time was purchased in Boston; Chicago; Detroit; Seattle; Milwaukee; St. Louis; Macon, Ga.; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The cities were selected to support active local campaigns against Limbaugh or because of perceptions Limbaugh may be vulnerable in that market, said Angelo Carusone of Media Matters.
“What we’re really looking for is a way to demonstrate the persistence of the effort and the fact that it is on a wide scale,” Carusone said.
A spokeswoman for Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates Limbaugh’s show to more than 600 radio stations nationally, said Media Matters has gone beyond criticism of Limbaugh’s words to an attempt to silence him and intimidate advertisers.
“This is not about women,” said Rachel Nelson, Premiere spokeswoman. “It’s not about ethics and it’s not about the nature of our public discourse. It’s a direct attack on America’s guaranteed First Amendment right to free speech. It’s essentially a call for censorship masquerading as high-minded indignation.”
Limbaugh, on his radio show Wednesday, said he’s being targeted in an attack that was long-planned — not mentioning it was his words that lit the fuse.
“They’re not even really offended by what happened,” he said. “This is just an opportunity to execute a plan they’ve had in their drawer since 2009.”
Determining how much of a financial impact the Fluke comments have already had on Limbaugh is murky business.
Radio stations in Hawaii and Massachusetts have dropped his show. Media Matters claims that 58 companies have specifically asked that their ads be excluded from Limbaugh’s show. Radio-Info.com’s TRI Newsletter said Premiere has circulated a list of 98 advertisers who want to avoid “environments likely to stir negative sentiments,” essentially all politically pointed talk shows.
There’s more. TRI also said a group with several stations that air Limbaugh sent out a list of 31 advertisers who don’t want to be on Limbaugh’s show.
Premiere notes that a list is sent out four times a year reminding stations of advertisers who don’t want to be part of controversial programming, and suggests a reported exodus is exaggerated. The company offered no list of its own, or a comparison that could show advertisers resistant to Limbaugh or other controversial shows that predated the Fluke comments.
Some companies said not to want to advertise within Limbaugh’s program — JC Penney, NAPA Auto Parts, Chapstick, Gold Bond, Green Mountain Coffee — did not respond to requests to clarify their policies. One company listed, NBC-TV, said the network was unaware of any policy or past efforts to advertise with Limbaugh.
Valerie Geller, a veteran radio consultant who worked at Limbaugh’s WABC flagship in New York, said it appears that advertising money coming into Limbaugh’s show is slowing down. “I think it’s a very big wakeup call,” she said.
Whether the advertisers return is another question. Limbaugh has a daily audience estimated at between 2 million and 3 million people, according to Talkers magazine.
“I suspect some people will permanently stay away,” said Tom Taylor, executive editor at Radio-Info.com. “I suspect some people will drift back to Rush. What you won’t see is a press release of someone saying, ‘Hey, we’re back with Rush!’”
While a law student, Carusone was active in a campaign to reach Beck’s advertiser that began after the commentator said in July 2009 that President Barack Obama had “a deep-seated hatred for white people.” Eventually, more than 400 advertisers said they didn’t want to be part of Beck’s show and, for Fox, the ad revenue was nowhere near what would be expected for a TV show as popular as Beck’s. When Beck left Fox in June 2011 to take his show to the Web, the parting was mutual.
The idea with Limbaugh is similar: take advertisers away so rates go down, Carusone said. Couple that with the need to keep track of ever-changing lists of who will advertise with Limbaugh and who won’t, and Media Matters hopes that station managers, market by market, may someday conclude that it’s just not worth the trouble.
Conveniently, many stations will soon have a choice. Former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is launching his own syndicated radio show in April that will air at the same time as Limbaugh’s, and Huckabee’s backers are touting the show as a more civilized alternative.
Beyond the First Amendment concerns, industry experts like Talkers magazine publisher Michael Harrision are concerned that Media Matters’ effort will simpy take some advertisers out of radio altogether when they have different options.
Carusone said Limbaugh has a chilling effect of his own. “There are plenty of people who self-censor out of fear that Mr. Limbaugh will smear them,” he said.
The means of protest puts Media Matters and the conservative Media Research Center in the unlikely position of agreeing with each other. Brent Bozell, founder of the conservative media watchdog, said his group also informs advertisers of things it considers objectionable.
“We all have free speech,” Bozell said.
That’s where the agreement stops. Bozell this week called on MSNBC chief Phil Griffin to resign, citing objectionable things said in the past by Ed Schultz and Al Sharpton, both MSNBC show hosts. It’s in part retaliation for attacks on Limbaugh, he said. The Fluke story was covered extensively by MSNBC.
“There’s a great sense of selective outrage that is going on here,” he said.
***
On a related note, the AJC’s Politifact Georgia has this look at whether comic Bill Maher measures up as the liberal equivalent of Rush Limbaugh when it comes to attacks on women.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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328 comments Add your comment
Ol' Timer
March 22nd, 2012
9:58 am
Rush is an entertainer and has made a gazillion dollars being provocative. But the disgusting thing it that so many find his tripe entertaining. I guess it says more about the public than it does him.
Jeff
March 22nd, 2012
10:01 am
Health Insurance cost are high enough now, If the insurance companies are forced to include birth control pills or other means then that is just more cost added to the bottom line.
The left seems to think that insurance is some magic pot of money that a big greedy company does not want to spend. That shows how foolish these people are. Insurance is a pool were we shift a small amount of risk (premium) to be pooled with millions of others in a similar class to form the pool. When too much money comes out of the pool the rates must go up. The insurance company is resposible and obligated to keep the pool as solvent as possible to protect the millions of policy holders it has in the class. I for one do not want my rates to go up to pay for someones birthcontrol cost, it is that simple. When the left screams it is for the health and welfare of women that is a lie. They just want something else to be paid for by others.
Becky
March 22nd, 2012
10:03 am
Jeff-hun, you do understand that birth control theoretically prevents pregnancy and therefore one’s insurance coverage does not pay for pregancy and birth?
Buck Hayek
March 22nd, 2012
10:04 am
Birth control pills cost an insurer a lot less than a birth and baby do. You won’t see an insurance actuary complaining about the “cost” of birth control.
Oh, and Fat Rush is a bigot too. He has the Archie Bunker thing down perfectly.
AtlJack
March 22nd, 2012
10:05 am
In a televised interview, Limbaugh admitted he had been fired seven times in seven year. He simply wanted to get an audience so he could keep a job.
He chose to appeal to the lowest part of the market: mean, ignorant, angry, full of hate, bigoted.
Others like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Neal Boortz saw this strategy and simply followed it (toning it down to fit their markets).
Boortz has become very wealthy dividing the nation convincing small minds to hate other Americans.
Look at the posts from his admirers. Small minded. Full of hate. Ignorant.
Don't Tread
March 22nd, 2012
10:06 am
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are hoping no one listens to Bill Maher – they’d become irrelevant overnight.
The left is always looking for ways to silence those who don’t agree with them. Anyone remember Obama attempting to shut Fox News out of the press pool? Then there was the discussion about non-renewal of Fox’s FCC license. I’m sure the OWS crowd will begin gathering around the conservative talk radio station buildings with torches and pitchforks any day now.
DannyX
March 22nd, 2012
10:07 am
“As my right, I boycott sponsors of Bill Maher.”
Which sponsors are those JB?
Buck Hayek
March 22nd, 2012
10:08 am
Jeff is a conservative. Like Santorum his real objection is to recreational sex.
‘Sex is for procreatin’ only’ —- saith the Holy Scraps of Paper.
john k
March 22nd, 2012
10:08 am
Jeff, you’re correct. It’s silly to think that health insurance should pay for health care.
bronco
March 22nd, 2012
10:08 am
The man was just telling it like it was…The law student was on spring break in California last week, that cost a lot of money, who paid for that. Maybe you people, who hate Rush, would like to pay for her trip too so she can have more fun and sleep around
findog
March 22nd, 2012
10:08 am
Randy, I don’t follow your logic.
You don’t like a liberal’s statements then start a boycott of the advertisers for his program. Where is the double standard? I hear Fox News slamming inappropriate liberal speech just as harshly as MSNBC does inappropriate conservative speech.
Liberal’s pushed Imus off the air. Advertisers brought him back. Free speech and free enterprise working simultaneously. What’s the problem?
timbo
March 22nd, 2012
10:09 am
Again, the right HAS NOT waged a war on women. This whole game was created by the left and their willing accomplices in the media. They do not want to talk about Obama’s record, so they have created this fake ‘war on women’. The left and the media absolutely know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they can’t win in November on Obama’s record, so they have created this fake outrage. Look how the left treated Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones, Kathleen Wiley and others. The left is getting nervous about November, and they are getting more and more desperate. For proof, cruise on over to Jay Bookman’s blog. Those folks over there are just down right delusional.
gm
March 22nd, 2012
10:09 am
Sean Hannity 3 times college drop out, Rush Limbaugh high school drop out, former DJ have made billions off the low self esteem losers on the far right promoting hate and putting fear in the minds of the public.
If you asked half of the dem who the hell is Bill Maher they would have no clue, that is the difference between the two.
Becky
March 22nd, 2012
10:11 am
Why is it the talk radio hosts the most filled with hate are the ugliest? Why can’t they look like Johnny Depp if we have to look at their pictures as evidenced by the photo of the bloated one on this blog? The saying “has a face for radio” is just so true.
DannyX
March 22nd, 2012
10:12 am
“Anyone remember Obama attempting to shut Fox News out of the press pool?”
Obama gave Fox News a permanent front row seat in the White House press room.
I do remember Governor Deal (Republican) kicking out a Fox 5 news reporter and photographer from an event.
markie mark
March 22nd, 2012
10:12 am
For all of you so offended by what Limbaugh said, where were you when Ed Schultz (of MSNBC) call Laura Ingraham a right wing slut? Where was the outrage then? Where were you when the “women” of THE VIEW laughed at it?
You want to know the REAL difference? When Ed Schultz apologized, Ms. Ingraham was adult enough to accept it…..what about Ms.Fluke? …hardly….
WHAT? You didnt hear about it? Maybe because no left wing outlet (and yes, that includes ABC, CBS, NBC, et al ran MAJOR news stories on it….
for those who missed it….
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/when-i-was-called-slut-barbara-walters-just-laughed-laura-ingraham-slams-the-view-on-double-standard/
Becky
March 22nd, 2012
10:12 am
timbo-sugar. Women in this country remember and we outnumber you ignorant a$$e$.
Atlantan
March 22nd, 2012
10:12 am
Someone ask that hissy fit prone David Brock about his attack on Anita Hill. Media Matters is astroturf as the come. If they really cared they’d also being go after rap stars for their misogynistic music. Once again this has been educational how the left has selected manufactured outrage and is a movement based hypocrisy.
Where were you Limbaugh attackers defending Paula Jones, Linda Tripp & Sarah Palin?
markie mark
March 22nd, 2012
10:13 am
Becky, I have watched your posts on this issue…why dont you comment on Ed Schultz doing the same thing? And Ingraham accepting his apology?
gm
March 22nd, 2012
10:14 am
Don’t Tread
Name one event or one cause Rush the scum has got up behind his mic and went to the streets and took up a cause? I am still waiting
Al Sharpton dont just talk he goes out and take a stand, Rush uses low self esteem whites (tea party) to do the work while he collects millions you people loved being pimped
Becky
March 22nd, 2012
10:15 am
I recall Ed Schultz was suspended. Next!
Bruce Benedict
March 22nd, 2012
10:15 am
Unlike the prissy effeminate individual currently occupying the white house or any other powerful people in DC, Rush does not pose a threat to anyone’s freedom or liberty. The left in this country would prefer that any opposing voices be shut down because they want to control the information, and ultimately the people in this country. Well you know what? It’s not going to happen. Freedom loving Americans will overcome and beat back the powers of marxism, and it will start in November. All you pathetic liberal whiny losers are going to have to step aside and let real men run the country again.
WOW
March 22nd, 2012
10:16 am
@ findog
You are exactly right! This is free speech and free enterprise interesecting. If Media Matters wants to put pressure on Limbaugh’s advertisers then let them go ahead. I seem to remember Bill O’Reilly getting Pepsi to drop Ludacris a few years back. Its the same thing. If Bozell and his crew want to go after Maher then let them.
What is the problem?
Becky
March 22nd, 2012
10:17 am
Well Brucie-you are in for a big surprise. And poor you with that unfortunate name your momma gave you. LOL!
Highlands
March 22nd, 2012
10:17 am
Becky, me refusing to pay for your birth control pills does NOT deny you access to birth control; you still can purchase as much as you would like (you just have to pay for it yourself). That, quite simply, is why Sandra Fluke is a liar and the media are nothing but ministers of propaganda. She also claimed her pills cost $1000/year…um, can she only take them with Beluga caviar? Lies, lies, and more lies make you a LIAR.
dawgfan
March 22nd, 2012
10:17 am
One of these days when the United States is no longer the most powerful and prosperous nation in the world and everyone is trying to figure out why all they have to do is come and read blogs like this.
That’s all I’ve got to say about that.
timbo
March 22nd, 2012
10:17 am
Becky,
You are delusional. The women who are ‘offended’ by Rush, or anyone on the right, were NEVER going to vote for a Republican. The smart women who vote Republican see through this BS, and they also vote.
Phil McGroin
March 22nd, 2012
10:17 am
Sad how libtards act like an angry mob. I will boycott any company that boycotts Limbaugh.
WOW
March 22nd, 2012
10:18 am
@ Markie Mark
Mr. Schultz’s remarks about Ms. Ingraham were said once, he appologized, was suspended, and has not repeated them. I think Rush ranted about Ms. Fluke for a couple of days…
Listen up!
March 22nd, 2012
10:18 am
@Timbo, so all of the legislation that has been put in place to make changes to women’s reproductive rights…are you saying that the democrats made the republicans introduce all this? The Blunt-Rubio bill? Are the democrats now ventriliquist or puppetmasters making the republicans write all these bills?
Phil McGroin
March 22nd, 2012
10:19 am
Only libtards can call people offensive names.
jj
March 22nd, 2012
10:19 am
I find it interesting that those people I know that troll the internet and jump on the boycott bandwagon are predominately those that have no jobs, have no disposable income, have not and most likely will not be a customer of any of the companies that they pressure into removing their advertisements from various shows. One day the companies will realize this and the boycott from the vocal no buyers will do nothing… until then, I don’t complain, just stop buying from the chickens that pull adverstising.
DannyX
March 22nd, 2012
10:19 am
“All you pathetic liberal whiny losers are going to have to step aside and let real men run the country again.”
Exactly, we want our leaders to wear sweater vests and eat cheesy grits!!!!!
Kococo Brothar
March 22nd, 2012
10:21 am
Need I say Bill Maher!! He rountinely calls women $%%@!!!!, right wing white males $##@!!!, conservative black women #@@@!!!!!, and Media matters is sponsered by George Soros a convicted felon and anti-American, Capitalist nut. Bill Maher also critizes those that profess their belief in God and call them ^#@! minded!!! UY@@!@##@!!!! on his show HBO.
Where is the consistancy of liberals, they say nothing about their left lunny toons
timbo
March 22nd, 2012
10:21 am
@ Listen Up
Monica Lewinsky
Paula Jones
Kathleen Wiley
‘Nuff said.
Becky
March 22nd, 2012
10:22 am
I am so embarrassed for you all.
Phil McGroin
March 22nd, 2012
10:22 am
Can we conservatives just have the pacific Northwest and Alaska and the libtards have everything else and we form two seperate countries? I mean its obvios that libtards will not rest until we ar elike Europe….grey, sterile looking and Godless
Pete
March 22nd, 2012
10:22 am
Rush has a First Amendment right to free speech. His advertisers also have a right to pull the plug on their ads if they don’t like what he says. He can continue to say his trash, exaggerations, and lies all he wants, but they don’t have to support it. Will all these protests do any good? Probably not. Rush, scarily, has too big of a following for him to be taken off the air
don
March 22nd, 2012
10:23 am
What did Limbaugh say about Fluke that, though offensive in the eyes of the politically correct Nazis, wasn’t true?
Phil McGroin
March 22nd, 2012
10:24 am
@Kococo….only the left can name call. The right must keep queit or else the SS libtards will raise such a stink that we will do whatever they want just to get the smell away from us.
Conservatives use thick skins and intelligent arguements to get their points accross. Libtards use stinky loud hippies to occupy govt buildings (Wisconsin) and public areas.
timbo
March 22nd, 2012
10:25 am
Becky,
You have been played by the leftist media and your liberal leaders. That really is sad. Maybe one day you will wake up and see it, but probably not.
Pete
March 22nd, 2012
10:25 am
Highlands, if you want to deny women birth control through their insurance, then you and I as men should not have our Viagra covered either.
Phil McGroin
March 22nd, 2012
10:25 am
@Pete…his spnsors have a right to pull the ads and I have a right to pull my business for them doing so.
Pete the Dog
March 22nd, 2012
10:25 am
Correction to the above article: It was not a congressional hearing. It was a glorified press conference set up by the Democrats made to look like a congressional hearing. Rush apologized for his remark. All these left wing hacks can do is ask for civility. No apology from anyone of them
Phil McGroin
March 22nd, 2012
10:26 am
Pete….I agree with you. Lets take birth control and Viagra off the table and pay for it ourselves.
Pete
March 22nd, 2012
10:27 am
And when bith control is no longer covered, we will have more accidental pregnancies, more abortions, more kids on welfare, more high school dropouts, more fatherless kids, more crime, etc. etc., etc.
Phil McGroin
March 22nd, 2012
10:28 am
This libtard who said she needed 3 grand to cover her rubbers is an advocate for insurance covering sex changes too. This lady is a leftist libtard with an agenda. She has “friends” who need the pill for health reasons.
timbo
March 22nd, 2012
10:28 am
Funny that liberals want the government out of their bedrooms, but expect the government to pay for what goes on in their bedrooms.
kerryb
March 22nd, 2012
10:30 am
I live in Macon and Media Matters can kiss my a**.
Phil McGroin
March 22nd, 2012
10:31 am
Hey Pete….I have a better way of stopping “accidental pregnancies” then having everyone pay for rubbers through insurabce….get rid of entitlements to people having babies they cannot afford.
The argument of abortions and welfare babies is not solved by pill coverage.. its solved bu entitlement reform.