Posted on 03/21/2012 7:24:12 AM PDT by pabianice
The financial model that fueled Rush Limbaugh’s radio show seems to have disintegrated in recent weeks, with at least 100 advertisers reportedly abandoning his radio program.
For more than two decades, “The Rush Limbaugh Show” has promoted his brand of misogyny, racism and general intolerance to an audience of more than 15 million people on as many as 600 radio stations. He has accused actor Michael J. Fox of “exaggerating the effects” of Parkinson’s disease; called the National Organization for Women “nags” who “are a bunch of whores to liberalism”; and just last week referred to a Washington Post reporter as a synonym for a female dog.
Limbaugh’s recent attack on Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke was as irresponsible as it was abhorrent. His words were not simply a glancing blow or an accidental slip of the tongue. They encompassed three days of his program, more than six full hours.
While Rush, already under duress from advertisers, apologized for calling Fluke a “prostitute” and a “slut,” his diatribe went further. To this date, he has shown no contrition for saying Fluke wanted “taxpayers to pay her to have sex” or that she should post sex “videos online so we can all watch.”
Unlike his attacks on NOW or Fox, Fluke is a private citizen. Her only sin was to attempt to discharge her right to petition her government. While Rush’s attacks on public figures, most notably women, have been offensive, to levy these attacks against someone without any public means of defense is bullying.
At Media Matters for America, we have monitored “The Rush Limbaugh Show” every day since our founding in 2004. There is no example we can recall in which Limbaugh, or any other media figure, levied attacks of the tone and duration of those leveled against Fluke.
It is for that reason that Media Matters, along with numerous other groups, have begun to educate advertisers about the damage their financial support of Limbaugh’s program can do to their brands.
There is a myth that advertiser actions, like those now targeted at Limbaugh, impinge on his constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech. The truth is just the opposite: They are a demonstration of the power of the First Amendment.
We are not a government entity attempting to stifle Limbaugh’s speech. Instead, we are using our right of free assembly to join together and raise our voices against Limbaugh. We are, in fact, engaging in the marketplace of ideas, one in which people, examining all of the facts, can choose whether it is in their financial interest to support hate radio.
We are confident, seeing the reaction over the previous two weeks, that sponsors will take their dollars elsewhere.
It’s ironic that Limbaugh would accuse others of trying to silence him, when his own actions were designed to prevent them from speaking out. What Limbaugh clearly hoped to accomplish in his more than six hours of attacks on Fluke was to exact a price for her willingness to speak her mind on a controversial issue, to send a message to other women that if they speak out, they too will be attacked.
Twenty years ago, in one of my most regrettable episodes in the conservative media, I used similar words to attack Anita Hill, calling her “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty.” Reading those words today, I cannot comprehend the level of disrespect toward women I presented. Beyond the sexism, there was the clear message sent to women: Stand up and you will be attacked.
Unfortunately, it is a message the right has sent over and over — and not just to women. Five years ago, Limbaugh assaulted then-12-year-old Graeme Frost, whose crime was delivering a Democratic radio address laying out the case that the Children’s Health Insurance Program saved his life.
The right savaged his family members, digging through their personal finances and publicly humiliating them for the crime of speaking out.
Our democracy is dependent on a vigorous public square where left and right openly debate the issues of the day. For 20 years, Limbaugh’s program has not added to this debate. By attacking public figures in the most hateful terms and working to silence brave citizens who speak up, he has, instead, diminished it.
David Brock is the founder of Media Matters for America and the author of the new book “The Fox Effect.”
Brock’s brain is liquifying from syphilis.
I wonder when Media Matters will get a visit from the IRS.
Crickets.
David Brock is a two way loser suffering mental illness as a liberal and a homo!
What a load of horses&$t....does this guy even know what fact check is?
That's why you keep trying to shut one side up, David.
Rush has more listeners than ever. Listeners who have money to spend. Advertisers look for venues where they reach the most listeners with money to spend.
Any questions.
Maybe it is time to start calling advertisers of “Politico” demanding Brock be fired and then begin tweeting how over 100 advertisers have left the liberal politico for their hypocritical look the other way while like minded liberals call conservative women the “-unt” word and denigrate them as “twits” and conservative protesters as “tea baggers.”
The knife cuts both ways!
You forgot the Barf Alert.
Brock can KMA.
Oh, Brock says they have monitored Rush since 2004 and
nothing has reached the level of slut.
Pretty clear record as far as I’m concerned, Go Rush!
Politico are part of Brock’s handlers, need to come out of the closet.
i'm fairly certain there is an alaskan family that would laugh at that assertion.
and the youngest is still waiting on a call from der leader to apologize and 'feel her pain' over being portrayed as a whore on national television. of course, her mother has long stopped waiting for a similar call over the threats of gang rape and assorted vile name calling
Rush needs to tell these people to shove it
Brock probably wants to be mentioned on Rush’s show again as it gets his name in front of more people than the few who read his crap. His writting reads like the gossip column in my high school newspaper back in the 60’s.
If I knew or ever heard of this guy I might just listen to what he has to say. But in the meantime STFU! Make a name for yourself first before sticking your foot up your A$$ or giving unsolicited comments. Geez, everyone’s looking for their 15 minutes.
The truth is that Rush Limbaugh turns down far more potential advertisers than the number of those that have left.
Isn’t EIB a private company? How did Brock get his hands on sensitive proprietary information? Or is he just making it up.
The following describes him to a T:
27* And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28* And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29* Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30* Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31* Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32* Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:27-32)
From Wikipedia (yes, I know the warnings, but this is a direct quote from Fox):
In Lucky Man, Fox wrote that he did not take his medication prior to his testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in 1998;"I had made a deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication. It seemed to me that this occasion demanded that my testimony about the effects of the disease, and the urgency we as a community were feeling, be seen as well as heard. For people who had never observed me in this kind of shape, the transformation must have been startling"
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