What a Rush . . .

It was twenty-five years ago today that one Rush Hudson Limbaugh III began his syndicated talk radio show from New York, calling himself "just an entertainer" while positioning himself as a conservative political commentator.  He was neither.  He was - and remains - a nasty, intolerant bigot spewing out hatred against women, people of color, liberals, and the poor, which is hardly a form of entertainment.  As for his political commentary, well . . ..  The late William F. Buckley was a conservative commentator whose views I rarely if ever agreed with, but he at least knew his stuff, as he was quite erudite and serious.  Limbaugh doesn't know bunk. He throws out outlandish opinions about politics, the media, and everything else and backs them up with "facts" that he's either made up or concocted based on a misunderstanding of the facts.

Among the "facts" he's insisted that he doesn't make up . . ..  In 1993, after being accused of being anti-Semitic, he said that no one ever accused Louis Farrakhan of being anti-Semitic.  A Lexis-Nexis computer search then found thousands of such accusations against the Nation of Islam reader.  In 1994, after complaining about American troops being placed under foreign commanders in a NATO operation, he said this was the first time such a thing ever happened.  Actually, the first time occurred in 1777, when Americans first served under Lafayette in the Revolution.  And there had been several other instances of American servicemen under foreign commanders before the mid-nineties.  He even once insisted that the continental United States had as much forest land in 1993 as it had when the Constitution was written, a comment that doesn't have to be fact-checked because it defies common sense.

I could go on with such examples, and the ones I've already mentioned are admittedly rather benign, but I don't have all day. Suffice to say that Limbaugh's show in the past quarter century has done as much damage to the political discourse in this country as MTV (which premiered on this day in 1981) has done to popular music.  Limbaugh is a force to be reckoned with because he'd honed his skills as a communicator and as a master of the art of persuasion long before he went national as a talk radio host.  Starting out as a radio announcer in his home state of Missouri - in his dad's radio station - he went on to work as a music radio DJ under the name Jeff Christie, and he went on to become a right-wing commentator in several small radio markets before hitting the big time.

Yes, that's "Jeff Christie" himself, circa 1972, while at KQV-AM in Pittsburgh, when it was a Top 40 station.  The child with him is a victim of a disease - probably muscular dystrophy - that KQV-AM was doing a telethon for (a common occurrence at that station, I understand).   

In an ideal world, Limbaugh would be a backbench congressman from Missouri - or better yet, a backbench state representative in Jefferson City - and no one outside his own district would pay any attention to him.  Instead, he is taken seriously as a political force.  Republicans at every level follow his lead, and they pursue the most inhumane policies based on his rhetoric (among other things). Any Republican that challenges him on anything can count on a public dressing-down, and Democrats who take him on are likely to be subjected to far worse.

But maybe not for much longer.  Although Limbaugh's syndication contract expires in 2017, advertisers left and right (no political pun intended) are leaving him in droves, tired of his racist, misogynistic, hateful rhetoric.  Cumulus Radio is dropping Limbaugh - and Limbaugh disciple Sean Hannity - for the same reason.  It's not that Limbaugh's rhetoric has gotten worse.  It's that the folks who run radio conglomerates in These States are finally beginning to hear what hes' saying.  Talk radio consultant Holland Cooke once noted that radio stations will subscribe to the feed of the noted Oxycontin abuser's show, program it to go on at the appointed time, and let it run without actually listening to what comes out.  Well, they're obviously listening now.  So we might not have to wait until 2017 to see him go.

Thanks to Cumulus for taking Rush off the air.  Now, about FM rock radio . . . we need a real rock station in New York so we can more of this Rush on the air! 

Sorry, I couldn't resist. :-D