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 PressRush Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk show host, addressing the National Association of Broadcasters on Oct. 2 in Philadelphia.
ore 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."
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.
Yes, etc.
BTW, there'e no way that the Senate Dims could Filibuster Rush's return, is there?
A hundred mil? Must drive the RATS nuts. I'm all for it...
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 CoulterWith 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
"Denial" isn't just a river in Egypt, Mr. Bennett.
Really? I dont think thats too good.
I think that Rushs addiction shows that drugs can overpower the best of us. And I think theres something inherently unjust about mandatory sentences for crack, and rehab for Rush. I hope that he makes an adjustment.
William F. Buckley Jr.
LMAO!!!
I dont have a freakn clue what youre referring to, but have a nice dream.
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