Newsweek on Rush Limbaugh: "I Am Addicted to Prescription Pain Medication"

Newsweek October 20th Issue ^ | October 20, 2003 | Evan Thomas et al [to include Eleanor Clift]

[SlickWillard]

 
‘I Am Addicted to Prescription Pain Medication’
By Evan Thomas

With Arian Campo-Flores and Catharine Skipp in West Palm Beach; Martha Brant, Mark Hosenball, Debra Rosenberg and Eleanor Clift in Washington; Kevin Peraino, Suzanne Smalley, Susannah Meadows, Peg Tyre and Rebecca Sinderbrand in New York

<EXCERPTS>

...But it’s hard to find many people who really know him. He was a lonely object of mass adulation, socially ill at ease, at least occasionally depressed and, for the past several years, living in a private hell of pain and compulsion...

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd spent a revealing dinner date with Limbaugh in 1993... “ ‘What’s your idea of an ideal day?’ ‘I don’t have an ideal day,’ he replied, glumly. ‘Well, what if a good friend came into town one Saturday, what would you do?’ ‘When I have someone coming into town for the weekend, I get stressed out on Tuesday thinking about it’.” Limbaugh went on to say that he hates walking, hates window-shopping and likes New York mainly because you can order in...

His second wife, Michelle, told Vanity Fair that Limbaugh’s father never quite approved of his career path, and that Rush would be depressed and deflated every time he got off the phone with his dad...

In 1994, Limbaugh married his current spouse, Marta Fitzgerald, a former aerobics instructor who is nine years younger (they met through a computer bulletin-board service)... “What’s interesting,” one of these friends told NEWSWEEK, “is that he apparently hid the pills from his wife...”

He drew a very sympathetic response two years ago when he announced that he had suddenly gone deaf—the result of some kind of autoimmune illness, he said at the time. Much of his hearing was restored by an electronic device implanted in his ear, although his partial deafness has added to his dislike of social gatherings, says a friend. Suspicion has now turned to his drug habit: repeated large doses of hydrocodone, a painkiller sold under the brand name Vicodin, can cause severe hearing impairment.

</EXCERPTS>

[SlickWillard]

Despite the fact that this is supposed to be a hatchet job, Rush comes off as a surprisingly sympathetic figure.

[mewzilla]

Probably only because the Left knows how many addicts they've got waiting to be outed.

[SlickWillard]

Bump.

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[Blue Screen of Death]

You have to wonder, for a group that hates to listen to him, how they know so much about him.

I would much rather live on a planet with Rush's world view than one imagined by Elenor Clift.

[dsc]

I think it is true that there is a moral difference between someone who sets out to use drugs for fun and someone who inadvertently becomes addicted as a result of medical procedures.

There, but for the Grace of God goes, I think, any one of us.

[Rightone]

Another excerpt from this wonderful piece of non-biased journalism:

But Limbaugh’s story owes more to the “Wizard of Oz” than “The Scarlet Letter.” The man behind the curtain is not the God of Family Values but a childless, twice-divorced, thrice-married schlub whose idea of a good time is to lie on his couch and watch football endlessly. When Rush Limbaugh declared to his radio audience that he was “your epitome of morality of virtue, a man you could totally trust with your wife, your daughter, and even your son in a Motel 6 overnight,” he was acting.

[dr_who_2]

Yeah, go after Marta next. Smart move. They'll never be rid of Rush.

[Thebaddog]

Newsweek impartial? This is a political hit piece. Rush will persevere, I hope, and bury Newsweek.

[friendly]

Blatant character assassination by the liberal left: rush will be the only pain medicine dependent person in all of history these lying socialist scum will ever have a problem with!!!

[Dane]

With Arian Campo-Flores and Catharine Skipp in West Palm Beach; Martha Brant, Mark Hosenball, Debra Rosenberg and Eleanor Clift in Washington; Kevin Peraino, Suzanne Smalley, Susannah Meadows, Peg Tyre and Rebecca Sinderbrand in New York

Whew, 11 different writers for one story. Talk about a pent up sentiment to pile on.

[Rocko]

The Alter piece that accompanies it is expecially barf-worthy.

[GWB00]

Is this what Drudge said about more dirt on Rush coming out over the weekend?

[MissouriForBush]

I don't see this story as any different from New York Times coverage of Rush. Both the NYT and Newsweek attempt to portray Rush as a somewhat sleazy weird-oh with marginal abilities who functions on the fringes of "normal" society. And you can be sure their reporters and editors think his loyal listeners fall into the same dimwit category.

This story was a classic hatchet job done with an oh-so-subtle but snide touch with all those "telling" details. But what else can one expect from the loyal Liberal Newsweek and NYT?

[Pukin Dog]

Nothing new, nothing insightful, just another piece of so-what garbage destined for the trash bin. The only people who care are those who have been out for Rush's hide since the beginning. If this is all they have, then Rush has nothing to worry about. They start by saying he has few friends, then QUOTE those FEW friends, as if their opinions are instructive. Grasping at straws from the beginning, I say Rush will be made stronger from these attacks.

[Cedric]

Look, while I agree with almost every philosophy Rush espouses, he blew it BIG TIME! He's been a target for years. He knew it. So did we. Can you really blame his political enemies for gloating? I actually think, so far, their being more reserved than we'd be were the details reversed.

[Bubba_Leroy]

I would have to say that a "news" article that refers to the subject as "a childless, twice-divorced, thrice-married schlub whose idea of a good time is to lie on his couch and watch football endlessly" can only accurately be described as a hatchet job.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Is this what Drudge said about more dirt on Rush coming out over the weekend?

I guess this is what they mean by "finishing him off".

Good to see the left has learned nothing from the LA Slimes backlash.

[MissouriForBush]

Sorry, but I just don't place an addiction to prescription painkillers after grueling surgical procedures in the same category as other sins.

I haven't detected any of the "reserved" attitude by the media that you mention. If anything, the Liberal media can barely disguise their glee over getting him for something that is tame in comparison to the book of sins committed by the Clintons and other Libs.

[dr_who_2]

This sounds like the media's attempt to create a "suicide watch". They're fantasizing that Rush is some kind of manic depressive who would snuff himself out if they push him far enough.

That "right wing" media bias never ceases to amaze.