Posted on 03/12/2012 8:24:27 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Rush Limbaugh fights to hang onto his advertisers – by being tough.
He refuses to let Sacramento-based retailer Sleep Train come back, and the story shows his strategy. The Sacramento Bee says “Limbaugh and Sleep Train chief executive Dale Carlsen have known each other since the 1980s, when Sleep Train was a small company” and Limbaugh was polishing his act at Sacramento’s news/talk KFBK (1530). So Rush must’ve hated last week’s statement from Sleep Train – “As a diverse company, Sleep Train does not condone such negative comments directed toward any person.” The company left itself wiggle room by saying “we have currently pulled our ads.” But here’s Limbaugh’s response, from outside crisis management specialist Brian Glicklich – “Rush received your requests personally. Unfortunately, your public comments were not well received by our audience, and did not accurately portray either Rush Limbaugh’s character or the intent of his remarks. Thus, we regret to inform you that Rush will be unable to endorse Sleep Train in the future.” Some strategists call that playing “takeaway.”
Meanwhile, Regal Assets CEO Tyler Gallagher, a former advertiser, has his own get-tough statement – “The attacks on Sandra Fluke were unwarranted and, we believe, intentionally inflammatory…we do not see Rush as a bad or evil person, but as someone who misjudged his own destructive power.” Gallagher goes further – “we do not believe any company should support the type of slanderous, defaming attacks that came from Limbaugh.”
• NBC-TV’s “Saturday Night Live” opened with “Rush Limbaugh” displaying bravado about advertisers. SNL’s Taran Killam masqueraded as Limbaugh, broadcasting from an EIB-looking studio, and said his show’s had no problem replacing the cancelled sponsors. Some of the alleged new clients – the Syria Tourism Board, the Mosquito Breeders of America, and “Shroder’s Fake Rape Whistles – Help is not on the way.” Check out the show-opening sketch here.
• One traffic [radio scheduling of ads, Public Service, etc.] director tells TRI “frankly, we don’t pay much attention” to Premiere memos about keeping spots away from controversial content. The traffic director explains how this plays out, in the back room – “First, they send out the exact same letter several times throughout the year, so that email last week is nothing new. Although they don’t usually send out the list of advertisers.” Friday’s TRI told you that this particular advisory said advertisers – 98 of them - had “specifically asked that you schedule their commercials in dayparts or programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial.” Here’s why the traffic director says things can get muddled – “Premiere automatically sends us the schedule and spots, and they are there when we come in next morning, to place on the logs. So if they send us a schedule with one of these advertisers that don’t want to be aired during certain programs, and it shows up during that time…well, that’s not my fault. We’ve been taken out of the loop on all this.” Another syndication pro tells TRI that (again in the real world) “With so much automation and lack of attention, it's probable that some advertisers will get dropped into a show that violates their directive. They have no way of knowing without asking for a post-audit or unless crowds gather in the parking lot.”
• Feminist voices Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda and Robin Morgan say Limbaugh practices “hate speech”, and that airing him isn’t broadcasting “in the public interest.” Their weekend op-ed piece on CNN.com cites instances of Limbaugh’s past alleged misogyny, like calling female cabinet members “sex-rateries” and saying the National Organization for Women is “a bunch of whores to liberalism.” The co-founders of the Women’s Media Center say that Rush “promotes language that deliberately dehumanizes his targets.” With this controversy about Sandra Fluke, they say “if Clear Channel won't clean up its airways, then surely it's time for the public to ask the FCC a basic question: Are the stations carrying Limbaugh's show in fact using their licenses ‘in the public interest?’” The women say complaints about dehumanizing speech are considered by the FCC at license renewal time. But – that’s not how it works. The FCC doesn’t get into content.
>>The FCC doesn’t get into content.
Indeed. Maybe in Canada, etc. but not here. Someone I know who promotes rock bands is a big liberal and has been known to send letters to stations like Boston conservative talker WRKO, complaining about offensive content by their hosts, etc. These letters (which he also posts online as “open letters” or via emails) do wind up in their FCC-mandated
Public Files but if, say, someone is upset that Howie Carr
is playing a horn (”La Cucaracha”) while talking about
Spanish-surnames on arrest records (”...and not possessing a valid driver’s license), chances are the FCC won’t do
much about it. But who knows.
If anything sponsor pressure can work, though...some hosts have been canned due to it. (By management. Not the FCC!) So far Rush has been dropped
by, what, 2 stations out of 600? In Hilo, HI and Pittsfield, People’s Republic of Mass.
Where were steinam and the feminazi's when maher and letterman were making vile jokes about Palin and her family?
I've listened to Rush for a lot of years and cringed many times when he's said (usually because while I get the satirical intent I just know it will be thrown back at me or other conservatives as a serious example of how "we" all think) but I've never heard him say anything like this. Did I miss it?
As I’ve said the Fairness Doctrine is really censorship—and I pointed out on radio boards, “OK, you have liberal content on taxpayer-funded public radio. If you want this allegedly ‘fair’ law, then NPR should have 50 per cent conservative content. Fair is fair.” Would NPR run a talk show run by the Tea Party? No. (Occupy...yes.)
Exactly about Maher and Lettermam and the jokes about Palin, etc. Conservatives don’t matter to them. It’s a double standard and selective outrage.
Left wing misogyny
Ed Schultz calls Laura Ingraham a slut.
Alan Grayson: L. Robertson a K-Street whore.
Chuck Schumer calls flight attendant bitch.
Letterman: Palin’s 14yr daughter knocked up.
Maher: Michelle Malkin named vibrator Obama.
Maher: Sarah Palin a dumb twat.
Maher: Palin & Michelle Bachmann 2 bimbos.
I’ve neve heard him call NOW “a bunch of whores to liberalism”. But I have heard him call them NAGs.
My money stays on Rush and let it ride.
But I have heard him call them NAGs
and NAGs is for National Association of Gals
Add:
How about Louis C.K. who called Sarah Palin “retard making c*nt” to headline Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner.
Just reported that he’s now bowing out (read: forced out) because of Greta Van Sustern’s proclaimations.
Go Greta!
They have a point. Whores charge for their services, but NOW does it gratus.
They are "SLUTS".
I believe Rush’s loss of a long term relationship with Sleep Train is a foreshadowing of many lost relationships and loyalties after the Election of 2012.
I agree- I’ve listened to RL a lot and never heard these two things cited.
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