Rush Limbaugh has passed

May he R.I.P.
Rush was the poster-child of the Fairness Doctrine, whether you agree with it or oppose it in principle.

His rise to prominence coincided with the ending of the Fairness Doctrine and other media deregulation that began under Reagan and continued into the Clinton Administrations.
He was the first and likely most influential in the growth of opinionated talk-radio. He was certainly one of the most successful.
He brought the divisiveness, name-calling, and confrontational aspects of media, with no regard of fact, truth nor objectiveness, for the sake of ratings (profit) to the forefront and it has had a lasting impact. He is *almost* single-handedly responsible for the polarization we see across the board in today's media (regardless of ideology).
Profits and free speech winning the day.

I purposely quit listening to him sometime in 1992. I thought his claim to have God's talent on loan was arrogant and sacrilegious.
I hope he finds the peace in passing that he seemingly never found in life.

rjs330 said:

We lost THE great pioneer of conservative talk radio. Rush pretty much single handedly saved AM radio. He was the voice of conservatism.

Rush was also a man. Which meant he had faults and failures like the rest of humanity.

But his analysis was so spot on in so many ways. Particularly where it came to politics and right vs left thinking.

I dmired him and his abilities on loan from God. God decided that it was time for his talent to return home.

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But his analysis wasn’t spot on. Even from a conservative perspective, his analysis was shallow, dim-witted, often factually wrong, and driven by the need to juice his audience with manufactured outrage. There are loads of other conservative commentators more worth listening to than him.

iluvatar5150 said:

But his analysis wasn’t spot on. Even from a conservative perspective, his analysis was shallow, dim-witted, often factually wrong, and driven by the need to juice his audience with manufactured outrage. There are loads of other conservative commentators more worth listening to than him.

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Millions of listeners disagree with you. His analysis was deep, wise and filled with truth. He was documented right 98% of the time or more.

His insight into what was really going on was so accurate it was incredible.

It was one reason the left couldn't stand him.

FenderTL5 said:

May he R.I.P.
Rush was the poster-child of the Fairness Doctrine, whether you agree with it or oppose it in principle.

His rise to prominence coincided with the ending of the Fairness Doctrine and other media deregulation that began under Reagan and continued into the Clinton Administrations.
He was the first and likely most influential in the growth of opinionated talk-radio. He was certainly one of the most successful.
He brought the divisiveness, name-calling, and confrontational aspects of media, with no regard of fact, truth nor objectiveness, for the sake of ratings (profit) to the forefront and it has had a lasting impact. He is *almost* single-handedly responsible for the polarization we see across the board in today's media (regardless of ideology).
Profits and free speech winning the day.

I purposely quit listening to him sometime in 1992. I thought his claim to have God's talent on loan was arrogant and sacrilegious.
I hope he finds the peace in passing that he seemingly never found in life.

Click to expand...

Rush was equal time for all the crap shoveled into our living rooms by the mainstream media. They are all primarily leftists who shovel misinformation and disinformation 24/7. Rush was equal time for all that junk.

We conservatives felt totally left out until Rush came along. Suddenly we had a voice. With his humor and wit he tweeked the left like nobody's business. Divisiveness was the poriority, and still is, the goal of the left. Rush brought us conservatives together and gave us a voice of togetherness to combat the divisiveness of the left.

iluvatar5150 said:

But his analysis wasn’t spot on. Even from a conservative perspective, his analysis was shallow, dim-witted, often factually wrong, and driven by the need to juice his audience with manufactured outrage. There are loads of other conservative commentators more worth listening to than him.

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As a conservative, I agree with you. I usually don't speak ill of the dead, but I'll make an exception in this case. Personally speaking, I couldn't stand Rush. I thought he was obnoxious and full of himself.

rjs330 said:

We lost THE great pioneer of conservative talk radio. Rush pretty much single handedly saved AM radio. He was the voice of conservatism.

Rush was also a man. Which meant he had faults and failures like the rest of humanity.

But his analysis was so spot on in so many ways. Particularly where it came to politics and right vs left thinking.

I dmired him and his abilities on loan from God. God decided that it was time for his talent to return home.

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I don't know that I'd agree with that.

I think there are better voices out there for conservatism, that are more reliable and not nearly as abrasive.

For instance, I like to listen to multiple people on both sides of the political fence. Podcasts are the way to go these days, and as far as people who I respect more on the right.
- Ben Shapiro
- Dave Rubin
- Matt Walsh
- Andrew Klavan (my favorite from that side of the fence)

Klavan can still staunchly defend his conservative position and "own the libs" (as people on the right like to say) in a debate, but still carries himself in a manner that's not nearly as hostile as Limbaugh.

And all 4 can still make strong cases for conservative viewpoints (and more factually accurate) without resorting confrontational viewpoints like "Michael J Fox is faking it to drum up support for stem cell research" and "we should rename AIDS to Rock Hudson's disease" and telling a black person in a debate "take the bone out of your nose so I can understand you"...I can't imagine any of the 4 I mentioned above stooping to that level.

As far as "saving AM radio"...okay, I guess I'd be inclined to say that he drew more listeners to the platform, but I don't know that giving a dying platform a little additional time is something all that impressive.

It'd be like if someone just now released a new game for Playstation 3 that was a great game...okay, kudos for making a good game, but Playstation 4 & 5 are still better and where the market is moving.

rjs330 said:

Millions of listeners disagree with you.
His analysis was deep, wise and filled with truth. He was documented right 98% of the time or more.

His insight into what was really going on was so accurate it was incredible.

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Millions of people also think Cracker Barrel is fine dining, broadcast sitcoms are funny, and the moon landing was faked. I didn't argue that he wasn't popular. I argued that he wasn't as insightful as people seem to think he was. There's a reason his popularity was highest in areas that were largely non-urban, blue collar, and less-educated: his show was a convenient listen for a block of people who didn't know any better. It did much more poorly in areas where people 1.) had office jobs where they couldn't listen to the radio in the middle of the day and 2.) had a sufficient diversity of experience (including, but not limited to, access to higher quality political discourse) to see through his vacuous bluster.

It was one reason the left couldn't stand him.

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No, they couldn't stand him because he was a pompous jerk who spouted half-truths and poisoned the public discourse. Plenty of other conservatives managed to be not hated by the left by being decent, honest people.

Guinan said:

As a conservative, I agree with you. I usually don't speak ill of the dead, but I'll make an exception in this case. Personally speaking, I couldn't stand Rush. I thought he was obnoxious and full of himself.

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There was definitely that, but even aside from that, his analysis was just dumb. I'm not a conservative, but I'll listen to Yuval Levin and George Will all day, every day because they're smart, intelligent, insightful, and nuanced. David French often, too. If my nonsense filter is tuned up, I'll listen to Newt Gingrich and most of W's cabinet. I'd even listen to Steve Bannon on some topics. And there are probably loads of conservative economists and business/trade analysts I'd happily listen to.

But the whole Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck crew... They're like Daniel Day Lewis in the last scene of There Will Be Blood except that instead of oil or milkshakes, they're drilling into my skull, sucking out brain cells until there's nothing left.

Sorry for his family, losing a loved one is always tough. Not going to pretend to be sad about him personally though, he was a horrible human being who played a major part in turning America into the viciously divided mess it is today.

Kentonio said:

Sorry for his family, losing a loved one is always tough. Not going to pretend to be sad about him personally though, he was a horrible human being who played a major part in turning America into the viciously divided mess it is today.

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My parents would’ve been in their 107th & 106th years in 2021...they (and their generation) survived The Great Depression AND World War II but “it did things” to them and my generation, the Baby Boomers, have been nearly sociopathic in their politics, becoming close to what our parents fought against!

To illustrate what I mean when I say that Limbaugh's analysis was dumb, contrast it with this, the next-to-latest episode of The Weeds:
Megaphone: A Modern Podcasting Platform

The Weeds is a political podcast from Vox, hosted by one of Vox's founders (though he's no longer officially with the company). The folks typically skew left and they're certainly no fans of Trump, but they're not hyperpartisan and they criticize Dems all the time. They're more wonkish than anything. Their speech patterns are so annoying that I avoided listening to the show for years, but the content itself is good. They cover similar ground as Rush - policy and political machinations - but in a way that's considerably more detailed, analytical, and thoughtful. They don't spend the bulk of their time boasting about themselves or shouting about how bad the other guys are.

This episode isn't particularly amazing or notable or anything - it's merely the one that I listened to most recently. Despite all of those caveats, it is so far beyond anything I ever heard on Rush's show that it's kind of hard to compare the two. If these were restaurants, The Weeds wouldn't be a 3-Michelin star establishment, but it would have at least a couple James Beard nominations, while Rush would be some old diner that hasn't changed their fryer oil in a week, but that the locals swear serves "good eats".

Rush Limbaugh Obituary - Conservative Talk Radio Host Dead at 70

The doctrine of nil nisi bonum is not often subjected to the kind of stress test that it now will undergo with the death of Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday. I have gone all around Robin Hood’s barn trying to find anything to say about him that is simply neutral, let alone complimentary. I have given up and decided to stand with Voltaire: "to the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth."

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The truth is that Limbaugh was a titan of American broadcasting who saw the potential of deregulated talk-radio as a profit center and conservative vandalism as a hyper-sellable product. That’s it. That’s all of it. Outside of those things, he was a blight, responsible more than any other non-politician for the spread of the prion disease from movement conservatism to the Republican Party, and the index patient for Trumpism before any of us even knew what it was. He ranks with Father Coughlin, Joe McCarthy, and very few others among the country’s most destructive demagogues. American politics would have been infinitely better off if he’d stuck to promoting baseball.

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rjs330 said:

Rush was equal time for all the crap shoveled into our living rooms by the mainstream media. They are all primarily leftists who shovel misinformation and disinformation 24/7. Rush was equal time for all that junk.

We conservatives felt totally left out until Rush came along. Suddenly we had a voice. With his humor and wit he tweeked the left like nobody's business. Divisiveness was the poriority, and still is, the goal of the left. Rush brought us conservatives together and gave us a voice of togetherness to combat the divisiveness of the left.

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Yes, Rush's constant attacks of the left was a symbol for unity. /sarcasm

Your admiration of Rush speaks volumes, and puts your posts further into context.

Kentonio said:

Sorry for his family, losing a loved one is always tough. Not going to pretend to be sad about him personally though, he was a horrible human being who played a major part in turning America into the viciously divided mess it is today.

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This is how I feel. I've prayed for his family. But I'm sorry, I just don't understand how any Christian was devoted to what he said or even liked the guy's show. A neighbor mom used to pick their child and me up from school and I had to ride home listening to his show. Even in 4th or 5th grade with no faith at all, I thought it was just gross things to say. The neighbor mom was nice to me and her kids, but later in life she herself said and did hateful things that were just parroting the sort of stuff she filled her head with all those years. It changed some people, not for the better.

He changed what it meant to be a conservative Republican, from those who followed the ideas of Reagan and Goldwater to those who followed the ideas of Bannon and Trump.

rjs330 said:

We lost THE great pioneer of conservative talk radio. Rush pretty much single handedly saved AM radio. He was the voice of conservatism.

Rush was also a man. Which meant he had faults and failures like the rest of humanity.

But his analysis was so spot on in so many ways. Particularly where it came to politics and right vs left thinking.

I dmired him and his abilities on loan from God. God decided that it was time for his talent to return home.

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God loaned us Jesus. He did not loan us any other human being.

mark46 said:

He changed what it meant to be a conservative Republican, from those who followed the ideas of Reagan and Goldwater to those who followed the ideas of Bannon and Trump.

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Rush was an entertainer. It wasn’t until the last few years he started to take himself too seriously.

But fear not. His old shows will be on the airways for years to come. Those Rush fans that choose to can continue living in the 1980’s.

plain jayne said:

Over the many years, there were some things he said that I liked and things he said that I didn't like.

C'est la vie.

I've been praying for him since his announcement of being sick and i will continue to pray for his widow, family, and friends.

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Not a lot of resson to listen to someone who just says
what you like or agree with!

rjs330 said:

Millions of listeners disagree with you.

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Millions of people can still be totally wrong.

cow451 said:

Those Rush fans that choose to can continue living in the 1980’s.

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Wasn't that the whole point of listening to the show? "Living in the 80's" is one of the modern right's founding principles.

rjs330 said:

His analysis was deep, wise and filled with truth.

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His analysis was divisive, hate filled, and filled his listeners with fabricated grievances.