has an aptitude for the microphone. If you aren't following his writings, you are missing a treat! Contact jazusamo to join the ping list.formatting note, I will no longer align photos of great conservatives on the left!
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.”
Ain’t cuttin’ it, Brock.
Math is not your friend.
Guess not much else is either.
Keep doing what you do best....
While Rush keeps his listeners, his sponsors, and his money.
Heh!
Good Lord, you pillow-biting pansy, don't you even occasionally get in the same time-zone as a fact? Or is your life 100% fact-free?
You just posted this, too .... about Media Matters wanting a fight but unable to take a punch:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2861842/posts
and this is what REALLY is going on .... Rush is tootling along just fine & Media Matters/Brock is sucking air. Rush just got on Twitter - he needs to get all his folks to retweet the Media Matters story in this link.
Even if you agreed with him for some reason, there was absolutely nothing in that article that was insightful or illuminating. Nothing encouraged you to think about something in a new way or look at the issue from a different perspective. No originality in thought or presentation.
Dry white toast.
has an aptitude for the microphone. If you aren't following his writings, you are missing a treat! Contact jazusamo to join the ping list.formatting note, I will no longer align photos of great conservatives on the left!
Instead of Joseph Goebbels, brock’s nickname should be Joseph Gerbils.
“Brock’s sexual orientation is not the issue. Making fun of it just lowers us to the level of the Left’s personal attack strategy. We can do better.”
You must have read my comment too briskly.
I didn’t make fun of Brock’s sexual orientation; I made fun of his penchant for gerbils.
If you’re categorizing “gerbil love” as a sexual orientation, then your objection stands.
That is Brock? He looks like a nice little Nazi, doesn't he?
Media Matters is a criminal front group.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/20/mark-levin-dares-media-matters-to-take-legal-action-against-him/
Party pooper.
;)
David Brock is as always delusional. The poor orphan was never loved by his adoptive parents, so he’s a vicious homosexual who has evolved into a psychotic sociopath who can not tell truth from fiction.
With his talent and intellect, Brock should be writing with spray paint.
You mean like Joe the Plumber? I'll bet Media Matters was part of that pile on and had no compunction about digging through his personal finances and publicly humiliating him for the crime of asking Obama a question.
ooooh, he lost Pittsfield, Mass and Hilo. EIB is teetering on the brink! /sarc
Right. There is utterly no need to mention that he is a giggling little donut-puncher, or a skipping lavender-scented pillow-biter. We do not need to mention that Brock is a pearl-necklace adorned tumblebunny, nor do we need to say he is a limp-wristed prancing knob-jockey.
Never will it cross my keyboard to mention that Brock is a petal-covered swishing basket-burglar, and you will have to wait a long time to see me say that Brock is a effeminate queenie-baby genuflecting chicken licker.
No, you will never see me post that Brock is a loafer-lightening grass-tickling pounder of fudge. NEVER! No, sir, you will not see me calling Brock a stool-pushed jolly-ranching graduate of the Assmasters school of backseat driving.
Nosir. We are better than that.
I thought blunt-force trauma to the lower GI.
Which, appropriately for this simile, is called "spinning."
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