Rush Limbaugh today

[Perd Hapley]

Do you really think he would be on the air for the last 20 years if his ratings were great?  He didn't get ratings because his Dad bought all the advertisers.  

By the way, which radio station are you talking about? 

From a Human Events piece by (brother) David Limbaugh:

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27814

As far back as I can remember, he was a self-motivated student of the art of broadcasting, fascinated with radio and television broadcasters, observing their styles with rapt fascination. He began to emulate them, albeit with his own twists, by turning the volume down on the television and announcing Cardinal baseball games.

Later, our parents bought him a Remco Caravelle, a sophisticated toy at that time, on which he could broadcast over the AM airways inside our home. He would broadcast games from upstairs, where our bedroom was, and we would listen over the radio downstairs. His precociousness was already apparent.

Rush was also an avid listener of AM radio and particularly the great disc jockeys we could hear in our area, like WLS’s Larry Lujack and KXOK’s Nick Charles. While he loved music, he was more attuned to the broadcasters themselves and how they excelled in their trade.

When he was 15, on his own initiative, he attended a broadcast school in Dallas over the summer to obtain his first class radio license. Upon returning he began broadcasting as a DJ on KGMO, a local radio station in which our father had a minor ownership interest. His success was immediate, and I think, predictable.

Of course, if you wanted to take a realistic view of Limbaugh's success, you would take into account that he was fired from many radio jobs after that, dropped out of the business for a while, then eventually found success in Sacramento, CA. You would also conclude that his current level of popularity, fame and success couldn't possibly be the result of a little nepotism, but that should be obvious.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

kgmo

[gunsmith]

even if he did exploit a family connection sometime last century to get a spot on the dial, he still the King of talk, if he wasn't the bucks wouldn't be there for him.

In Reno there is some dim witted writer that has a column in the local librag- he
used his connections to try liberal talk radio , only it sank like a ton of bricks.
He then whined about it in his weekly editorial, never understanding that its a free market-no one wanted to listen to him so he didn't get paid.

I don't listen to Rush right now because I'm so rural that I do not get radio unless its satt radio, & I don't have that. When I do have a radio I do listen to Rush/Beck/Laura Ingram etc, much more interesting than rock where you hear "it feels like the first time" over and over and over and over.

Kinda like when we talk about the Joooos controlling the banks.

We all know the Fed is owned by the juice!

[MechAg94]

yeah, that argument for Nepotism is a bit weak.  I was looking at his Wiki stuff and it wasn't mentioned.  However, It seems his "success" was erratic up until the Sacramento job and EIB later.  He wasn't doing talk radio back then.

As mentioned, there are a lot of people who would have gotten Rush off the air years ago if he didn't have the ratings to show his advertisers and a track record of advertisers who benefited from advertising on his show. 

That said, there are lots of options out there for Conservative radio if you don't like Rush. 

[Monkeyleg]

You may not like Rush, but it's hard to argue that he's very good at what he does. His talent has really struck me as I've listened to other big names in talk radio: Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram, Mark Levin, Michael Medved, G. Gordon Liddy, and so on.

As good as these folks may be, none are on the same level as he is. He is to talk radio what Oprah is to, well, whatever it is she does on TV. They both make a lot of money because people like what they do, same as athletes, actors, etc.

He (and others like him) also make the kind of money they do because they've worked hard, and they've sacrificed things in their lives that most of us won't: family, friends, stability, and more. It's the price of success.

This is going off-topic, but it serves as an example of what I'm saying. Weeks ago I was curious about how often the Rolling Stones performed in concert. I found a website that listed all of the shows they've done since the early 1960's. It's incredible. It's almost a show every other night, in a different country every week, and they've kept that pace even up until last year, and they may be starting another world tour this year as they all approach age 70.

That's the kind of sacrifice required. I don't want to sacrifice like that to make that kind of money, so here I am.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

you think rush could gotten on the air at 17 without daddy owning part of the station?  heres a hint he tried several stations and look to see when daddy bought in to the one that gave him his shot.

heres a non fan with some links to some facts that rush would like to deny


his draft "deferment" is a hoot    money talks

http://rainbowsendpress.com/exposed/limbaugh.html

rush is a dilemma for me.  on some issues i hold similar views s he does and that makes me want to question my beliefs in much the same way i would find david duke agreeing with me unattractive.

his hypocrisy vis a vis drugs crime addicts and his own behavior did nothin to improve his standing with me.  i gotta give him credit hes learned how to make a great niche hes got folks who listen cause they love him and other cause they hate him or hold his positions in contempt

[grampster]

One of the things that has alway bothered me about people who bash Rush about his addiction to prescription pain killers is that most people who are indignant about other people's faults/failures/foibles in my experience have more than enough character flaws of their own.  Hypocricy seems to be a team sport.

I can probably hazzard a guess that there are not too many of us who have taken negative positions on things that haven't run afoul of the same foible now and then.  I certainly know many folks who would like to throw folks in jail and be flogged for blowing an .05 BA who have pulled into their own garage covering one eye and giving thanks for getting home safe.

Jesus once asked the officials of the synagogue who demanded a woman be stoned because she was caught flagrant de lecto with a married man.  If you recall He addressed the crowd and mentioned that whoever was without sin cast the first stone.  Iirc, they slunk off.

One might not always agree with Rush, but he certainly aroused the Sleeping Giant which had a major influence in having people to begin to think a bit about things, understand that their votes actually mean something, and took away the death grip the MSM had with respect to what folks heard or saw or read.

[gunsmith]

I was going to say what grampster said, but being he said it better/more eloquently than I could so I will simply bump his ratings

[roo_ster]

rush is a dilemma for me.  on some issues i hold similar views s he does and that makes me want to question my beliefs in much the same way i would find david duke agreeing with me unattractive.

Then you have a serious, serious problem with judgement.

[Perd Hapley]

heres a non fan with some links to some facts that rush would like to deny

his draft "deferment" is a hoot    money talks

http://rainbowsendpress.com/exposed/limbaugh.html

Dude, even if I agreed with you about Limbaugh, I'd advise you to get better sources.

Rush was always quick to deride former President Clinton for getting deferrments [sic] to avoid service in Viet Nam. Yet had any other Democrat/liberal public figure been deferred for the same reason that Rush was deferred, Limbaugh would have made that politician the butt of a crude joke (pun intended).

This guy links to a Snopes article that exonerates Rush for being legitimately disqualified for medical reasons, even though Snopes calls Clinton a draft-dodger in no uncertain terms. He either didn't read his own sources, or is pulling a fast one. Thanks for the entertainment, though. It was a hoot.

http://www.snopes.com/military/limbaugh.asp
http://www.snopes.com/politics/clintons/felon.asp

you think rush could gotten on the air at 17 without daddy owning part of the station?  heres a hint he tried several stations and look to see when daddy bought in to the one that gave him his shot.

So he may not have been eagerly received as a teen prodigy by some radio station, and may have needed Daddy's help getting his first radio job. This proves nothing about his ultimate success. Even your crack pot "source" agrees with everybody else that he failed, even when his Daddy (presumably) tried to help him. Like I told you already, and as your source said, as Limbaugh frequently recounts, he was fired from many radio jobs. He even quit the business for five years, to work for the Kansas City Royals. I guess his dad couldn't make him a success after all.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

did you read the whole snopes piece?

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

bolding mine


One of the things that has alway bothered me about people who bash Rush about his addiction to prescription pain killers is that most people who are indignant about other people's faults/failures/foibles in my experience have more than enough character flaws of their own.  Hypocricy seems to be a team sport.




in that vein

"We're going to let you destroy your life. We're going to make it easy and then all of us who accept the responsibilities of life and don't destroy our lives on drugs, we'll pay for whatever messes you get into."
-- Rush Limbaugh show, Dec. 9, 1993

"I'm appalled at people who simply want to look at all this abhorrent behavior and say people are going to do drugs anyway let's legalize it. It's a dumb idea. It's a rotten idea and those who are for it are purely 100 percent selfish."
-- Rush Limbaugh show, Dec 9, 1993

"If (Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders) wants to legalize drugs, send the people who want to do drugs to London and Zurich, and let's be rid of them.
-- Rush Limbaugh show, Dec 9, 1993

"There's nothing good about drug use. We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up.

"What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too."
-- Rush Limbaugh show, Oct. 5, 1995

(Source: Conspiracy Planet)

http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/03/10/ana03004.html


http://www.bradleyreport.net/commentary/StonedRush.htm



30,000 pills?  and skate when caught?  money does indeed walk

[TommyGunn]

So, basically, because Rush became addicted to a pain killer that was prescription and rails against the illegal use of recreational drugs used for mind-altering purposes, that's enough reason to despise him as a hypocrit?  Sorry ....maybe I'm picky, but I don't see the hypocrisy. 
Bombast, maybe, but they are really different subjects.
And I suppose since he obtained legal counsel and had through that resource caused the state to prove its case (a legal right we all enjoy) that makes him hypocritical -- in your opinion.  Since he obviously railed against providing O. J. Simpson and numerous other supposed malefactors with legal counsel -- Oh, wait, he didn't.    Maybe you think O.J. Simpson ought not have had a lawyer, or that Rush ought to have not have legal representation to accomplish exactly what we expect lawyers to do -- make the state prove its case; that all the "evidence" was properly obtained.  
Hypocrisy isn't a "team sport,"  ... but it is "the tribute virtue pays to vice,"   as a lot of posts  in this thread has proven.

[Perd Hapley]

did you read the whole snopes piece?

Which one? I read most of the Limbaugh piece, and skimmed the Clinton article. Why?


We've hashed out the drug issue before, with Limbaugh, and you guys haven't got anything. He screwed up. He was wrong. He admitted it. He quit. He's back, and he's still fighting the good fight, despite nay-saying nobodies on the internet.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a hypocrite, out there cheating on his wife.

Thomas Jefferson was a hypocrite, owning slaves while glossing about freedom and equality.

These things are true, even of great men, and Limbaugh is much greater than you or I are ever likely to be. He's made a difference. He's made your country better. Now thank him and get over your hang-ups.

Note the contrast between the Obama and the Limbaugh. Obama is on the right side of history just one time, and we must all be very respectful; Limbaugh has one major goof, in years of arguing for liberty and sanity in government, and he must be forever scorned.  

30,000 pills?  and skate when caught?  money does indeed walk

Yeah, rich people have good lawyers, so they don't get rail-roaded. He also had the ACLU on his side, so...

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

how many of those 30 k pills you imagine were actually prescribed?

[Perd Hapley]

how many of those 30 k pills you imagine were actually prescribed?

Why? The state was never able to come up with evidence that he did anything illegal (or at least they couldn't get it legally).

What's your point? Are you trying to say that Rush broke the law? Wow, what a shocker. Everybody knows he broke the law, but it can't be proved in court. So he walks, just like anybody else ought to.

What's your point?

[TommyGunn]

I said it was a prescription drug.  I wasn't counting how many pills Rush used.  
See any difference there?  
Your question is non germaine.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

"Mr. Limbaugh and I have maintained from the start that there was no doctor shopping, and we continue to hold this position," Black said in an e-mailed statement.

Prosecutors began investigating Limbaugh in 2003 after a tabloid newspaper reported that his housekeeper said he had used her to illegally buy painkillers. He soon took a five-week leave from his radio show to enter a rehabilitation program.

Prosecutors seized Limbaugh's records after learning that he received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, at a pharmacy near his Palm Beach mansion. They contended that Limbaugh engaged in "doctor shopping," or illegally deceived multiple doctors to receive overlapping prescriptions.

Limbaugh acknowledged he became addicted to pain medication, blaming it on severe back pain.

According to Black, Limbaugh also has agreed to make a $30,000 payment to the state to defray the public cost of the investigation. The agreement also provides that he must refrain from violating the law during this 18 months, must pay $30 per month for the cost of supervision and comply with other similar provisions of the agreement.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-04-28-limbaugh_x.htm

[Perd Hapley]

What does that add to the discussion?

The medical records they seized were deemed inadmissible, yes? I recall the ACLU taking his side on that one, and winning.

[MicroBalrog]

You're always free to try to get a DJ job at a radio station

can i get mine the same way rush got his first job??  get my daddy to buy a radio station?

Given how Rush's first radio station fired him, I doubt very much it was owned by his father.

[MechAg94]

CS&D, please enlighten us about your own perfect life so we can all bask in the glory of perfection and with no mistakes, no hypocrisy, and no lying of any kind.  If 3 hours a day or more of your life were out there for public quotation and all your medical records were made public, what sort of person would you look like?  On 2nd thought, I don't want to know about your life. 

Do you really think we or anyone else is out there worshiping the man?  His faults are well known and none of your mud slinging changes anyone's opinion.  It only reflects back on you.

I listen to Rush because he is a good entertainer and has most always maintained a pretty good base of conservatism on his show.  That is good enough for me.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

What does that add to the discussion?

The medical records they seized were deemed inadmissible, yes? I recall the ACLU taking his side on that one, and winning.

its a legal first  an innocent man agreeing to pay for the investigation
and agreeing to be supervised
and be on good behavior for 18 months

and that was the best deal he could buy


seen many similar agreements   they were all part of plea bargaining

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Given how Rush's first radio station fired him, I doubt very much it was owned by his father.

Fortunately for Rush, his parents owned a share in the town's radio station KGMO ("Welcome to Cape Girardeau: Rush Town"). At age 16 he took an after-school job at the radio station. It became his life. "He was a fine student until this point; once he got the job, he quit all extracurricular activities. He worked every day after school and on Saturdays and Sundays" (Millie Limbaugh A&E). This marked the onset of Rush III's radio career and the beginning of his separation from the fixed expectations his father had for his oldest son.

http://www6.semo.edu/universitypress/bigmuddy/NF/Political_Socialization_of_an_American_Icon.htm

if you look you can find an explanation/avoidance of his draft status/actions. in his own words.
kinda a family tradition the "ailment" his dad had it as well.

[MechAg94]

its a legal first  an innocent man agreeing to pay for the investigation
and agreeing to be supervised
and be on good behavior for 18 months

and that was the best deal he could buy


seen many similar agreements   they were all part of plea bargaining

And if this sort of thing happened to you, you would agree to quite a bit to make it go away also.

[MechAg94]

Fortunately for Rush, his parents owned a share in the town's radio station KGMO ("Welcome to Cape Girardeau: Rush Town"). At age 16 he took an after-school job at the radio station. It became his life. "He was a fine student until this point; once he got the job, he quit all extracurricular activities. He worked every day after school and on Saturdays and Sundays" (Millie Limbaugh A&E). This marked the onset of Rush III's radio career and the beginning of his separation from the fixed expectations his father had for his oldest son.

http://www6.semo.edu/universitypress/bigmuddy/NF/Political_Socialization_of_an_American_Icon.htm

if you look you can find an explanation/avoidance of his draft status/actions. in his own words.
kinda a family tradition the "ailment" his dad had it as well.

Wiki also mentions that his draft number was high enough that he never came up for the draft anyway. 

Do you run attack sites in your spare time?  You seem to enjoy attacking public figures.