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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMEDIA MATTERS: Limbaugh Is FINISHED: "The Damage Has Been Done"
For Rush Limbaugh, The Damage Is Done
Blog 4 hours and 11 minutes ago ERIC BOEHLERT
One week after it was first reported that talk radio giant Cumulus Media might cut ties with Rush Limbaugh and pull his show from 40 of its stations nationwide, the end result of the contractual showdown remains unclear. But we do know this: The damage has been done to Limbaugh and his reputation inside the world of AM radio as an untouchable star.
By opting to publicly negotiate its contract and making it clear the broadcast company is willing to walk away from his program, Cumulus has delivered a once unthinkable blow to Limbaugh's industry prestige. (Cumulus is also threatening to drop Sean Hannity's syndicated radio show.)
Even if Limbaugh wins in the end, he loses. Even if Limbaugh manages to stay on Cumulus' enviable rosters of major market talk stations, Limbaugh comes out of the tussle tarnished and somewhat diminished.
Recall that one year after Limbaugh ignited the most severe crisis of his career by insulting law student Sandra Fluke for three days on the air, attacking her as a "slut," the talker's team announced the host was unhappy with Cumulus. Angry that its CEO had been noting in the press how many advertisers Limbaugh had lost over the Fluke firestorm (losses that continue to accumulate), an anonymous Limbaugh source told Politico the host was so angry he might walk away from Cumulus when his contract expired at the end of the year.
.....................
Just look at what would likely happen to Limbaugh in New York City, the largest radio market in America. He's currently heard on WABC-AM, which has broadcast Limbaugh for decades and has served as his unofficial flagship station in America. But Cumulus owns the station and it's one that Limbaugh would get yanked off if the two sides can't come to an agreement. Where would Limbaugh likely end up in New York? On WOR-AM, a talk station that Clear Channel purchased last year, many observers believed, as a way to make sure Limbaugh would have a New York home if his deal ended at WABC-AM.
So what's wrong with Limbaugh moving to WOR-AM? Only the fact that the station's currently a ratings doormat, ranked 25th in that market with less than half the audience of WABC-AM. Yes, it's likely Limbaugh would improve that station's ratings if he moved over there. But at this stage in his career for Limbaugh to have to start over in the most important radio market in the country and do it on such a low-rated station? If you don't think that kind of demotion would sting, you don't understand the oversized egos that fuel talk radio in America.
the rest:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/05/for-rush-limbaugh-the-damage-is-done/195228
Aristus
(66,462 posts)He and the people who support him will always find a way to keep him blathering.
We won't be rid of him until he's frying in his own lard down in Hell...
LordGlenconner
(1,348 posts)I remember the hearing problem he had, and thought that would be the end.
Then the revelation that he was a degenerate pill popper.
Neither of them made a dent.
Hopefully things are different this time, but the man is not unlike a roach in his ability to survive.
calimary
(81,466 posts)Glad you're here!
That big bloviating chickenhawk asshole certainly brings out the most creative insults from some of our finest DU minds! Inspiration is EVERYWHERE!!!
The only thing that makes me hesitate about him leaving the air is the "better the devil you know" thing - what would the bad guys be able to replace him with? Because what we really need to do - is cripple their ability to propagandize. And we always have to be on our guard, watching over the horizon for whatever alternatives the enemy might think up that we have to head off.
It's gonna be a constant struggle but one we can't abandon or give up on. The Dems have rolled over and gone to sleep after they think they've won - and then we get a shiv up the ass - or, for us women, an ultrasound stick forced up into our vaginas.
Remember what Mad-Eye Moody always warned Harry Potter: "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!!!!!"
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)I far prefer something more delicate like "festering anal cyst."
Whiskeytide
(4,462 posts)... have insulted both Rancid pusbags and festering anal cysts. Now they need a support group.
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)LOL!
BlueManFan
(256 posts)I'll just have to console myself with the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from snickering about a thrice married pederast who reigns as the right wing's family values spokesman. And a hillbilly heroin abuser who is the GOP's moral compass. God Bless America!
LongTomH
(8,636 posts)Divine Discontent
(21,056 posts)UTUSN
(70,740 posts)Progressive radio at least as much, since advertisers have opted out of ALL controversial political shows, and that he has no info on what the wingnuts have lost in advertising, but that he is sure Progressive shows like his have been hurt.
Common Sense Party
(14,139 posts)Limbaugh has created the far-right, whackjob version of the Republican Party that exists today. Michelle Bachman and Ted Cruz wouldn't exist if the Limbaugh Party didn't exist.
iandhr
(6,852 posts)Every time he opens his mouth is good for a few million fundraising dollars.
Dustin DeWinde
(193 posts)And in any case, Limbaugh's constant stream of racism misogyny and xenophobia is bad for America.
Nay
(12,051 posts)the gullible for 25 years. Look around you -- the damage is enormous, and his influence has made the Dem Party move right over the same 25 years.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)I have had, what I thought good discussions almost turn violent. Limbaugh listeners are like rabid dogs.
LittleGirl
(8,291 posts)My sister and one of my brothers listens to that dipship every day and they are as far right wing as they come. And they call themselves Catholics too. It's disgusting what his hate speech has done to my siblings. We haven't spoken in years in my sister's case and my brother quit speaking to my Mother (who like me and another brother voted for Obama) since last November. Weird because we never discussed politics at family gatherings.
TheCowsCameHome
(40,168 posts)and everything he stands for.
The next time I hear about him I want it to be his obituary.
7962
(11,841 posts)And he gets it. Call someone a "slut" and you're on the news for days.
I wouldnt start baking that celebratory cake yet; I doubt his ratings will change after the move.
Common Sense Party
(14,139 posts)He's the main reason I am no longer a Republican.
Being outrageous and shocking gets him attention in the press and backlash from progressives, which gets him more listeners, which gives him higher ratings, which gives him more advertising money. It's all about the money.
KharmaTrain
(31,706 posts)...Rushbo's rise happened with the rise of radio "deregulation" that enabled corporates like Clear Channel and Cumulus to devour thousands of radio stations; many that were previously locally owned. They replaced live and local programming with cheap right wing satellite-delivered bile. For a while it made a little money but many stations that carry these shows are old, failing operations that have become big loss leaders for corporates who overspent to monopolize the airwaves. The internet and satellite have drawn many listeners away (especially those under 40) and left only old, white males still hanging on to their AM radios and their rushbos and bile spewers.
Hate radio's affect on the rushpublican party and on the nation overall has been devestating. They've been the tail that wags the dog and in their zeal for popularity and purity have drive that party off the political abyss. Last year's election may have proved a watershed for a dying industry. Not only wasn't rushbo able to find a right wing alternative to Willard to rally around, many of the far right candidates he's they supported...Aiken, Murdoch...went down to big defeats. Add to this the billions in debt Clear Channel and Cumulus have accumulated in the past decade and you're looking at an industry that's in serious financial distress with rushbo as their poster boy...
DontTreadOnMe
(2,442 posts)I don't think they really had a profitable model at all. They were propped up in the beginning by right-leaning organizations, and then it became a stock-based ponzi scheme to keep the money flowing.. 20 years later and ALL of the radio markets - as well as newspapers -- are all having trouble making a profit. The internet killed the radio and the newspapers.
The giant corporations and stockholders all got caught holding the big bag of worthless shit.
Bezos just bought the Washington Post Sinkhole. It will never make a profit. Same thing with the Boston Globe.
I asked my daughter, who is a senior in college... "What was the last newspaper you purchased?" She paused for a minute, then replied.. "I don't think I have ever bought a newspaper... ever"
The internet is easier and faster.
Initech
(100,102 posts)He's sooner or later got to realize that the game is up. Hate no longer sells the way it used to. And the party he supports is no longer the party of Reagan. OK it is in that it's run by racists and ideologues whose only job it is to toy the line for the evil bidding of the upper 1%. But the simple fact is: he has become officially irrelevant, and that's a good thing!
mindwalker_i
(4,407 posts)Nobody!
csziggy
(34,137 posts)If so, would that mean that if Cumulus drops Limbaugh (and Beck!) that he would be OFF American Forces Network?
LTR
(13,227 posts)Premiere Radio Networks handles distribution.
Stargazer09
(2,132 posts)If Cumulus drops him, he's going to (eventually) be seen as not "important" enough to be on AFN.
Whether or not that occurs in our lifetimes is yet to be seen, but I have hope that it will happen someday.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)He'll hog up space that will keep the "next Limbaugh" from getting a foothold. And at this stage few take him very seriously.
I don't want to see him disappear into the sunset. I want his sorry and increasingly desperate ass on display every single day.
Righties, you created this monster, You live with it now.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)and make all rightwing hate talk toxic for corporate America.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)It is much better to have that gasbag still on the air in crippled form than for him to drop out, creating an opportunity to somebody just as vile who hasn't yet accumulated Limbaugh's baggage and reputation.
valerief
(53,235 posts)totodeinhere
(13,059 posts)talk radio as well.
Hartmann also indicated that the dispute between Premier Networks and Cumulus is more a business matter than anything else.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=136818
malaise
(269,157 posts)The racist woman hater is history. He lasted way longer than expected
Sheepshank
(12,504 posts)i think the inevitable will eventually happen, but those particular death throes do tend to go on a bit.
burnodo
(2,017 posts)and never will be
Even assuming he loses his radio job, he'll have another outlet in short order. Republicans think of this guy as a king, and he'll be on a throne until his last day.
Bake
(21,977 posts)His last one, that is.
Bake
I hadn't heard that
He will live to a ripe old age, as most evil demagogue rancid pus bags do. I don't wish evil upon him, of course, but if it wer to happen, I wouldn't mourn his passing ...
Bake
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Beacool
(30,251 posts)He has millions of listeners, someone else will pick up his show.
Atman
(31,464 posts)The main point of the article is not that Limbaugh's show is actually going to be cancelled. They're speaking in abstracts, about his reputation (such that it is). Their point is that even after he negotiates a new contract at a reduced rate (which, admit it, he obviously will), he'll be damaged good. Damaged to whom, exactly? The assholes who agree with the hate he spews aren't going to suddenly change their minds. They'll still be haters, tuning in to hate and fear every day, and happily rolling in it like a Labrador rolling in turds at the dog park. But Rush will get a new contract. And because of his rejection, he'll likely emerge and even angrier, more hateful specimen. But he ain't going away.
Mr. David
(535 posts)Hilarious! Wish you could continue it, especially with Obamacare on the way...
Atman
(31,464 posts)Thanks. I agree...the timing seems ripe to get it going again. I'm working on stuff for a couple of upcoming art shows right now, but I've often envisioned doing some new HOO Cares! strips. Maybe your post was the kick I needed!
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)"Damaged to whom, exactly?"
Sponsors. Hence, market share. Thus, profits...
DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)WLTW-FM 7.2 7.0 6.8 6.6 AC Clear Channel Communications Inc.
WCBS-FM 6.2 6.1 6.7 6.3 Classic Hits CBS Radio Stations Inc
WBLS-FM 5.6 5.9 6.2 6.0 Urban AC ICBC Broadcast Holdings
WHTZ-FM 6.0 5.9 5.5 5.5 CHR Clear Channel Communications Inc.
WSKQ-FM 4.1 4.2 4.2 5.1 Tropical WSKQ Licensing Inc.
WKTU-FM 4.1 4.3 4.4 4.6 Hot AC Clear Channel Communications Inc.
WAXQ-FM 4.3 4.6 4.5 4.5 Classic Rock Clear Channel Communications Inc.
WINS-AM 4.7 4.5 4.3 3.9 All News CBS Radio Inc
WCBS-AM 3.6 3.7 3.6 3.6 All News CBS Radio Stations Inc.
WXNY-FM 3.8 3.6 3.5 3.5 Spanish CHR WADO-AM License Corp.
WWPR-FM 3.2 2.8 2.9 3.2 Urban Clear Channel Communications Inc.
WQHT-FM 2.8 2.7 2.6 3.1 Rhythmic CHR Emmis Communications
WWFS-FM 3.1 3.1 3.1 3.0 Hot AC CBS Radio
WFAN-FM 2.7 2.8 3.0 2.9 Sports CBS Radio
WPLJ-FM 3.0 3.2 3.1 2.9 Hot AC Cumulus Media
WABC-AM 2.6 2.7 2.6 2.5 News/Talk Cumulus Media RANKED 16TH IN NY MARKET, BEATEN BY WPLJ, WITH SOME OF THE OLDEST JOCKS THIS SIDE OF CBS-FM
Gothmog
(145,554 posts)Clear Channel is the company that agreed to pay Limbaugh $400 million for a contract that runs through 2016. If Cumulus is able to reduce the price it pays for Limbaugh programming, that reduction comes out of Clear Channel's pockets and not Limbaugh's pocket. One way to determine if the boycott is having an effect is to look at Clear Channel's operating results. Clear Channel has been losing money for a while and the Limbaugh boycott is having an effect.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)...one with a full bladder. Other than that, the world's got enough liars.
Ian David
(69,059 posts)... he's still amassed enough wealth to place generations of his progeny beyond the reach of market forces.
KharmaTrain
(31,706 posts)...I'm betting a lot of his money has and is going to the various ex's he's left along the way...
Safetykitten
(5,162 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)markiv
(1,489 posts)somehow, he's have to get by on his tens or even hundreds of millions in retirement, along with book and speech revenue
sounds rough
although these big egos do suffer, i remember conan obrian on 60 minutes in raw self pity because they brought back leno and paid conan a fortune to go away and do nothing
the average worker, if approached by their employer and told 'we dont like you anymore, here's a fortune of millions to go away', it would be the happiest day of their life
but that's how the little people think, being influenced by years of trying to get by, they dont understand the important things in life
Hydra
(14,459 posts)And they'll keep him on the air as long as he's still willing to do the dirty work.
One day though, he'll just disappear...and we'll wonder at the silence.
pam4water
(2,916 posts)US wakes up to his BS. Seem like he just going down gettign the screw put to him by a big corporation. It not poetic enough.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)That'll learn 'em!
Blaspherian
(94 posts)had a funny take on Limbaugh, check it on youtube
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Mosaic
(1,451 posts)Always with me. I never took him seriously. I am not afraid of his stupid show. I hate him, but not enough to really care. I don't care about him, he is meaningless except to the people he touches their nerves. To me he's a gnat, that is all, period.
agent46
(1,262 posts)Fortunately, his message is about to become nostalgia radio.
The markets have decided.
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)Lugal Zaggesi
(366 posts)It never matters what Lush Rimjob does, his listeners have the attention spans of toddlers.
"Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. ... 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."
-- Limbaugh, on his short-lived television show on Oct. 5, 1995.
CBS/AP/ March 5, 2009, 11:35 AM
Rush Limbaugh Detained With Viagra
Rush Limbaugh could see a deal with prosecutors in a long-running prescription fraud case collapse after authorities found a bottle of Viagra in his bag at Palm Beach International Airport. The prescription was not in his name.
Limbaugh was detained for more than three hours Monday at the airport after returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic. Customs officials found the Viagra in his luggage but his name was not on the prescription, said Paul Miller, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Under the deal reached last month with prosecutors, Limbaugh was not to be arrested for any infraction for 18 months in exchange for authorities deferring a charge of "doctor shopping." Prosecutors had alleged the conservative talk-show host illegally deceived multiple physicians to receive overlapping painkiller prescriptions.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-1753947.html
Since this horror of a human being is so concerned with prositution and slutty behavior, perhaps he could be persuaded to discuss himself a bit more. Four wives, no children, four EX wives who won't talk to the press, bottles of Viagra with no prescription brought on a trip to the Dominican Republic (a notorious sex-trade location, particularly well known for young boys), a trip he took with four men friends.
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/this-is-a-good-time-to-revisit-rush-limbaughs-viagra-fueled-sex-tourism-to-the-dominican-republic/question-2495335/
KharmaTrain
(31,706 posts)...is at the heart of what's going on here. Clear Channel & Cumulus are two of the last sharks left in the radio waters and are attempting to knock one another out. Both companies are laden with massive debts from overpaying for radio properties...then attempting to leverage their stock prices. When the markets crashed, so did the industry with both corporates taking on even greater debts to stay afloat. Advertising revenues also plummeted...especially in the recession...where many stations are earning about 20% of what they were ten years ago. The companies have let go of thousands of very talented and dedicated employees and gutted what was once a vibrant industry. Today most radio stations are run by hard drives and satellites and fed with cheap programming. The big money advertisers that once filled the airwaves have moved to more economical venues such as internet/social media and cable TV...radio killed off its local advertising base and now its national one.
Hate radio's impact on the 2012 election was a pretty dismal one. They supported many of the "flavors of the day" in the primaries and the candidate they didn't want won the nomination. Then almost every teabagger in a competitive race, along with Rmoney...who hate radio embraced only cause he wasn't President Obama...believed their own press clippings, thought the election was won with disastrous results. The toxicity of rushbo and his ilk have finally taken a toll on what remains of the big money radio advertisers (many had bailed before Sandra Fluke...but the controversy made sure they're gonna stay away). Unfortunately as "collateral damage"...it's hurt the very fragile Progressive Talk radio market as well (as our friends in Portland, Seattle and Detroit unfortunately know).
There ware now rumors saying that both companies will find some kind of "accommodation"...a good chance that if rushbo stays on those stations, it'll be at a far reduced compensation deal...money that will have to come out of Clear Channel's pocket. Other companies may demand the same deal, too. Rushbo is turning into Clear Channel's A-Roid...too expensive to bench...
dothemath
(345 posts)Limbaugh could move to Gilberton, PA, stand in his front yard with a bullhorn and God knows how many wingnut batshit crazies would show up and throw money at him. He's not worried. Personally, I am rooting for an LDL reading of not less than 1000, Type 1 - and 2 youknowwhat, angina, myocardial infarction, scleroses of every kind known to man, renal issues, AIDS from his trips to the Dominican Republic to show how much he loves little boys, and so on like that.
polynomial
(750 posts)Rush Limbaugh is the head of the beast. Not necessarily the leader of the Republican Party. From my view Limbaugh is the core principle in the communication values of the Republican Party of today. Republicans of today know when to cut their losing streak, and Limbaugh is in a downward spiral, so out with this loser.
This is a political arm that is influenced a lot by foreign money tied to hate which is a fundamental core of Al Qaeda induced hatred. Americans are considered infidels by the basic Arab community. For those who have not figure it out yet Limbaugh for decades played this game of hate. Playing with the key media cable news people, both sides via the Bush Cheney machine. Arabs hate Jews, Jews defend themselves but dont necessarily hate Arabs, both side supported by America political mainstream media profiteering through commercials for decades. All supported by the secret federal reserve. Good reason they never want to be audited.
However for years Limbaugh played the game of hate drawing on the real basic resource of religious and ethnic bias. Serving the new political team which has been exposed in that the Tea Party, Republican Party and Limbaugh are one of the same. The hate closely tied to the foreign Persian influence known all the time by our one percent mainstream media exploited grossly profiteered via the industrial military complex, delivered ongoing war, thus on going national secrets. All this is that so called too big to fail phenomena relentlessly tapping the American electorate taxes via national secret privatized enterprises.
All the good reason to let Limbaugh talk freely about hate. Eventually, the one percenters see Limbaugh the monster they created expose the very nature of their big picture. A grossly ugly, immoral, criminal profit motivated governance for as long as they can no matter how they can.
President Obama has flushed them out. Difficult as it is to be restrained so as not to start a real black white racial hatred show in America, my view is Obama holds the line to keep the Republicans from unleashing a racial phenomenon that would get out of control. The Zimmerman stuff definitely exposing the media complicity to trigger outrage that can explode. God help us
The Wizard
(12,547 posts)will continue to fund the bloated Nazi propagandist until they see the point of diminishing returns.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)I am sure he could use the "N" word and still manage to keep his radio show broadcasting... he is the most despicable human being on the planet.
smallcat88
(426 posts)Any demotion for the arrogant, ignorant blowhard is welcome. He knows damn well that everything out of his mouth is offensive. he counts on it. He's playing to a very specific crowd. The same idiots who would like to take us all backward in time - to the Dark Ages.
joeglow3
(6,228 posts)They claim that if he goes to a new station, he has to "start over." That is complete bull shit in the hopes of giving some ignorant person a warm fuzzy feeling. This is like saying the SEC football conference would have to start over if their contract with CBS ended and they went to NBC. All in all, I am not holding my breath and can only assume it was a slow day at media matters and they wanted to give people something to be happy about.