Posted on 07/30/2008 8:52:08 AM PDT by Reagan Man
I distinctly remember when my phone at my Washington hotel room rang at 1 AM during the spring of 1996. A distraught President Clinton was calling. “We’re getting killed on radio,” he blurted into the phone as soon as I picked it up.
“What do you mean?” I answered blearily trying to get a grip on what he was talking about.
“Hillary’s mothe r just drove here from Pennsylvania and all during the trip she heard them saying the most awful things about me on radio,” the president explained.
“On whose show?” I probed.
“Rush Limbaugh,” Clinton replied.
“He’s been on your case for years,” I answered.
“Yeah, but its getting serious,” he insisted.
The next morning, I got in touch with Terry McAuliffe at the Democratic National Committee to discuss setting up a war room to feed talking points to liberal talk show hosts to counter the pernicious influence of Rush!
Now that the wind blows at my back – no longer in my face – Rush sure comes in handy when its time to put the liberals in their place. There is, quite simply, nobody like him.
After all, before there was talk radio, there was Rush.
And before there was Fox News, there was Rush.
And before there was NewsMax, there was Rush.
And before their was Sean Hannity or Neil Boortz or Michael Medved or Dennis Prager or Mike Gallagher, there was Rush.
No other modern political commentator can lay claim to founding a branch of political discourse.
Honoring Rush for his contributions to America is not an empty exercise. At this moment, the liberal forces that hope to come to power with Barack Obama are set on a course to destroy the very institution that Rush founded – talk radio. Through a rigid application of the so-called fairness doctrine, they threaten to drive talk radio off the air and onto the Internet. Who knows if the listeners and the advertisers will follow?
Their goal is not to assure that liberals will be heard on the airwaves, but to guarantee that conservatives will not. The liberals know that left wing talk radio does not attract an audience and is a financial black hole. The collapse of Air America attests to that fact. NPR, black radio, Hispanic stations, and radio aimed at young people creams off the bulk of the would-be audience for liberal talk radio. So if stations can only air Rush or Sean or Neil if they also air the likes of Al Franken, they’ll probably cancel all talk radio and play music instead.
In our new book Fleeced, my wife Eileen McGann and I also raise the prospect that the left will seek to enforce sections of the FCC law which require “community participation” in the “ownership and management” of radio stations. As the National Review has pointed out, this can be a cover for infiltrating boards of directors and programming departments with liberals – an effort to hijack talk radio.
The liberals wouldn’t be trying to destroy talk radio if it weren’t working. And it was Rush who founded it and Rush who still leads the parade. Having attempted to discredit him, imprison him, silence him, or cow him, they have failed miserably. And, as a result, Rush still rules….and rocks!
I'm insulting Savage... You know, the guy that makes fun of these guys - Rush, Sean, Levin, Ingram, O'Reilly- on a daily basis... So... what were you saying again??? Do you REALLY want to go down there???
By the way, outside of Levin, NONE of these folks stoop down to the disgusting level that Weiner does... NONE of them criticize Weiner.
Wow, did you guys ping each other? All of the Weinerites are here...
“Fixed it. Grant was on the air in 1970 doing conservative talk radio.”
As was Barry Farber!
That wouldn’t be “awesome” it would be awful for conservativism in general. The libs want to shut him down because he is effective, and while you may not agree with him 100%, he is still a powerful voice from the conservative side and not your enemy (unless you are really a closet liberal).
Further, shutting him down with the fairness doctrine or other leftist controls would not spank his ego, it would reinforce it. He wouldn’t be shut down because he was ineffective, but because he is too effective. They just kill his voice, not his ego and his voice is what is valuable to us.
Exactly! Thank you for articulating it better than I.
He should sell his yacht.
To you, you want the party to be CONSERVATIVE - I want the PARTY to be FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE and SOCIALLY LIBERTARIAN!
I could care less about the fairness doctrine.
I'd just enjoy seeing Limbaugh taken down a peg.
Fishtank will love an Obama appointed Justice. Fishtank is a LIBERAL.
Oops....ya let the cat out.
Are you Jealous?? He COULD have been?? Excuse me - but he is the #1 talk show of all time. How could you do better??
He aided and abetted the destruction of American conservatism during the very liberal, internationalist Bush presidency.
Do you ever listen to Rush? I believe the station you been listening to was airing AirKommunist (fka: Air America). You better see your doctor about BDS, fishtank!! You need a cure fore it.
I believe he been smoking it while listening to AirKommunists (fka:AirAmerica) and he thought he was listening to Rush!
Mike Weiner is a person in need of PROZAC. The only time I enjoy listening to him is when he talks about his boat or cooking. He is a LIBERAL in CONSERVATIVE CLOTHES.
Another Liberal who is a member of FR. Jim Robinson should get rid of these losers!!
Isn’t it disgusting?
Yep, loser. Ought to be tossed.
Believe it or not, there are folks in the world who have no use for radio.
Every show, when he’s not groveling for putting his foot in his mouth (spent 3 whole shows trying to spin the fact that he said 99% of all autism cases are frauds), he’s begging for money, saying it’s protecting-—get this-— our 1st amendment rights... What a looney jacka$$.
Taken down a peg? How does removing him from the airwaves, depriving 15 million Americans of his conservative voice, "take him down a peg"?
And you don't have any use of your BRAIN CELLS, either!!
You are the troublemaker who HARASS my son (RightWingTeen) on here? You need to go back to KOS and DU.
Some people are JEALOUS of Rush.
Some people are...I guess!!
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.