Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Limbaugh Is Back on the Air, With Fans and Foes All Ears [NY Times: 3 to 4 times its normal size]
www.nytimes.com ^ | November 17, 2003 | JACQUES STEINBERG [New York Times]

Posted on 11/16/2003 7:00:14 PM PST by RonDog

Limbaugh Is Back on the Air, With Fans and Foes All Ears

By JACQUES STEINBERG

Published: November 17, 2003


Associated Press
Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk show host, addressing the National Association of Broadcasters on Oct. 2 in Philadelphia.

More than five weeks after he entered a residential treatment center for what he described as an addiction to prescription pain medication, Rush Limbaugh is to return to the airwaves today.

While his voice will be beamed into an atmosphere swirling with questions — not the least of which center on whether he acquired some of those drugs illegally — one point seems assured: Mr. Limbaugh, by far the biggest star in talk radio, is poised to draw one of the biggest audiences in his 15-year career in syndication.

Of those tuning into the program, which will be broadcast live on the East Coast beginning at noon, the most vocal are likely to be split into two camps. Some will be loyalists, many of them conservatives, who have expressed a willingness in recent weeks to forgive Mr. Limbaugh his transgressions.

Others, however, may be less familiar with his show — many of them the "feminazis" and other liberals Mr. Limbaugh says he loves to hate — who wonder how he might reconcile his own behavior with his past statements recommending jail time for drug users.

"I would expect that Limbaugh's listenership will be three to four times its normal size when he comes on the air," said Michael Harrison, the editor and publisher of Talkers magazine, a trade journal, which estimates Mr. Limbaugh's weekly audience at more than 14.5 million.

"Personally, he might be in the worst trench he's ever been in. But people are curious to hear what Rush's going to say, which puts him, professionally, at the peak of his career."

Mr. Limbaugh, who is heard on WABC-AM in New York and counts his audience as closer to 20 million, has done nothing to dampen that anticipation. A spokesman, Allan Mayer, said on Friday that Mr. Limbaugh was giving no interviews and would not even say whether he was planning to broadcast from his studios in Manhattan or those in West Palm Beach, Fla., near where he has a home.

Before he went silent, Mr. Limbaugh was the subject of news reports in The National Enquirer and other publications that he had bought drugs like OxyContin, a powerful painkiller, without a prescription. Other reports suggested that law enforcement officials were investigating the matter, and Mr. Limbaugh told his listeners that he would not discuss any details "until this investigation is complete."

Asked what Mr. Limbaugh might say today, Mr. Mayer said: "The only people he's going to be speaking to publicly are his own listeners, through his own microphone. They are going to get it from the horse's mouth, as it were, the first comments he has to make about his own situation and his view of the world."

In many ways, how people view Mr. Limbaugh's prospects for recovery — personally, as well as professionally — depends on their political affiliations. Mr. Limbaugh had been a hero of the right, particularly after he helped galvanize those who seized Congress for the Republicans in 1994.

William J. Bennett, a conservative who served as the so-called drug czar during the first Bush administration, said in an interview that Mr. Limbaugh was at the center of "a human drama about a guy who's having huge success, takes a huge step down, and is now trying to get himself in shape."

That Mr. Limbaugh, with his advocacy of stiff punishment for drug offenders, would himself admit to a long-term addiction was evocative of the situation that Mr. Bennett was in earlier this year. One of the nation's pre-eminent moral crusaders, Mr. Bennett acknowledged that he had set a poor example by "too much gambling."

Nonetheless, Mr. Bennett sought in the interview to distinguish his own shortcomings from the conduct of Mr. Limbaugh, a close friend who has dined at his home, once with Justice Clarence Thomas. "Not an addiction," Mr. Bennett said of his own actions, as if ticking off a list of talking points, "not a problem, no therapy, gambling too much, stopped it."

And yet Mr. Bennett said that Mr. Limbaugh deserved to be judged less severely than former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat and perennial Limbaugh target, who was impeached in 1999 over his deceptions regarding an affair with a White House intern. "He's not president of the United States," Mr. Bennett said of Mr. Limbaugh. "He's not blaming his accusers. He's not lying. He's not lying under oath."

"He was manly," Mr. Bennett added of Mr. Limbaugh. "He was straightforward."



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: hughhewitt; limbaugh; lovablefuzzball; mediabias; pilingon; rush; talkradio; welcomeback
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-73 next last
To: RonDog
Hard to say, but it would be a historical event if it happened. :O)
21 posted on 11/16/2003 8:07:29 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham ("...the right of THE PEOPLE to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: RonDog
Tomorrow is a day of celebration.

Not only do we get Rush back, the odds are that in the course of 3 hours, he will gain hundreds of thousands of new listeners, of which a healthy percentage will become Conservative after hearing somethings that they have never heard anywhere else in media.

22 posted on 11/16/2003 8:10:08 PM PST by Pukin Dog (Sans Reproache)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: elfman2
I've heard him use the phrase "formerly nicotine stained fingers" in the last couple or so months. And I listen only occasionally, as I can't get his show live (1 hour delay) and really lot of static, so it's hard to listen too for long.
23 posted on 11/16/2003 8:10:15 PM PST by First Amendment
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Republic
I hope he speaks to the filibuster, hitlery's big adventure, teddy's neanderthal comment, coupling it with hillary's lemon comment and mary landrieus hateful directive to Judge Brown.

Yes, etc.

BTW, there'e no way that the Senate Dims could Filibuster Rush's return, is there?

24 posted on 11/16/2003 8:10:38 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham ("...the right of THE PEOPLE to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: RonDog
[NY Times: 3 to 4 times its normal size]

A hundred mil? Must drive the RATS nuts. I'm all for it...

25 posted on 11/16/2003 8:11:08 PM PST by Libloather (That thing got a hemi? Sweet...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: PGalt
Thanks for your links.
You're welcome!
I swiped 'em from www.rushlimbaugh.com :o)
I see that THEIR link to The Blonde One's commentary is broken, though, so HERE is the FR version:
With half his brain tied behind his back - Ann Coulter
      Posted by kattracks
On 10/16/2003 12:32 AM PDT with 23 comments


townhall.com ^ | 10/16/03 | Ann Coulter
     
 
With half his brain tied behind his back [Ann Coulter]
      Posted by perfect stranger
On 10/15/2003 4:36 PM PDT with 139 comments


WND.com ^ | Oct 15, 2003 | Ann Coulter

26 posted on 11/16/2003 8:11:42 PM PST by RonDog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: RonDog
Rush bump!
27 posted on 11/16/2003 8:15:48 PM PST by SeeRushToldU_So (Libs want to take my money, my guns, and my land....then sodimize me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RonDog
"Not an addiction," Mr. Bennett said of his own actions, as if ticking off a list of talking points, "not a problem, no therapy, gambling too much, stopped it."

"Denial" isn't just a river in Egypt, Mr. Bennett.

28 posted on 11/16/2003 8:17:44 PM PST by Imal (It is better to go to war than to have it come to you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RonDog
The passion of Mr. Limbaugh's loyal listeners, who refer to themselves as dittoheads,

I'm definitely a loyal listener (1981) but have never once referred to myself as a "dittohead." Damn these amateur news organizations ...
29 posted on 11/16/2003 8:18:55 PM PST by hemogoblin (The few, the proud, the 537.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Imal
Scuse me, but why do you say Bennett is in denial? Did he have an addiction because he gambled within his own finicial means? Or did he gamble too much money in your own subjective view?
30 posted on 11/16/2003 8:20:29 PM PST by Conservababe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: b4its2late; Recovering_Democrat; Alissa; Pan_Yans Wife; LADY J; mathluv; browardchad; cardinal4; ...

31 posted on 11/16/2003 8:21:30 PM PST by Born Conservative ("Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names" - John F. Kennedy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hemogoblin
oops, loyal since 1991. Damn these amateur ... whatever.
32 posted on 11/16/2003 8:22:06 PM PST by hemogoblin (The few, the proud, the 537.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: First Amendment
" I've heard him use the phrase "formerly nicotine stained fingers" in the last couple or so months"

Really? I don’t think that’s too good.

I think that Rush’s addiction shows that drugs can overpower the best of us. And I think there’s something inherently unjust about mandatory sentences for crack, and rehab for Rush. I hope that he makes an adjustment.

33 posted on 11/16/2003 8:26:31 PM PST by elfman2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Imal
How can you be certain that Mr. Bennett's disclosure was not entirely truthful and accurate? It seems to me to be a little arrogant to suggest otherwise without specific information to the contrary, don't you think?
34 posted on 11/16/2003 8:27:00 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham ("...the right of THE PEOPLE to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
"Rush Limbaugh has only 20 million people listening to him every day. I suspect there is a Democratic plot out there keeping him from the rest of the American people. Fifteen more years and there will be a Radio Limbaugh in Baghdad."

William F. Buckley Jr.

LMAO!!!

35 posted on 11/16/2003 8:27:32 PM PST by wingster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: RonDog
Rush Limbaugh--America's Most Important Natural Resource!!!
36 posted on 11/16/2003 8:37:32 PM PST by Captainpaintball (Rush Limbaugh--The REAL "King Of All Media!!!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RonDog
"William J. Bennett, a conservative who served as the so-called drug czar during the first Bush administration, said in an interview........"

Has Bennett ever refused an interview?
37 posted on 11/16/2003 8:48:00 PM PST by Finalapproach29er ("Don't shoot Mongo, you'll only make him mad.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: elfman2
".....I don’t think that I’ve heard him use the phrase, “formally nicotine stained fingers” for several years. That was a kind of in your face shot at those who lacked the will power to quit smoking as he bragged that he did his first attempt. Now I know why…"

I believe you are mistaken. I have heard Rush use that phrase many times in the past year.

Is a person who smokes cigars not smoking? So why would a smoker criticize smokers? Sorry, but I don't understand your reasoning.
38 posted on 11/16/2003 8:51:51 PM PST by pizzalady
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: elfman2
I think anybody that is asscoiated withe ELF as you are should be placed on crack.
39 posted on 11/16/2003 8:58:15 PM PST by dts32041 (Is it time to practice decimation with our representatives?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: dts32041
"I think anybody that is asscoiated withe ELF as you are should be placed on crack."

I don’t have a freak’n clue what you’re referring to, but have a nice dream.

40 posted on 11/16/2003 9:04:45 PM PST by elfman2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-73 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson