For Rush Limbaugh, The Damage Is Done

 ERIC BOEHLERT/Media Matters For America:

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.

Well, last week Cumulus called Limbaugh's bluff, plain and simple. And now the talker's side appears to be scrambling to make sure his show remains with Cumulus. But again, the damage is done. If Limbaugh really were an all-powerful source in AM radio, he would walk away from Cumulus. But he's not, and he can't.

Cumulus is reportedly driving a hard bargain and wants to reduce the costs associated with carrying Limbaugh's show, especially since he's unable to attract the same advertisers he used to. If in the end a deal is struck and Limbaugh stays with Cumulus for a reduced rate, what happens when the talker's contract expires with another large AM station group? Of course they're going to demand the same deal Cumulus got in exchange for keeping Limbaugh's show, or they'll threaten to drop the talker, too. And then on and on the process will repeat itself as broadcasters realize that maybe they can get Limbaugh on the cheap.

By the way, this is the exact opposite of how Limbaugh renewals used to be handled. Year ago, owners and general managers at Limbaugh's host stations lived in fear of getting a phone call from Limbaugh's syndicator, Clear Channel-owned Premier Networks, informing them the host was moving across town to a competitor when his contract was up. But today, Cumulus negotiates its Limbaugh contract via the press, apparently without the slightest concern about ending its association with him.

Of course, Limbaugh and Clear Channel could hold their ground, refuse to budge on Cumulus' demands and walk away from the radio giant with AM stations from coast to coast. That is an option, but it's also an unpleasant one in terms of what it would mean to Limbaugh's once unvarnished reputation as the AM talk gold standard.

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 25^th 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 move to lowly WOR-AM would also call into question why debt-ridden Clear Channel opted to boost Limbaugh's salary by an astounding 40 percent in 2009, assuring him a $400 million payday over a ten-year contract.  

Then again, Limbaugh is no stranger to sagging ratings, especially in New York City. Back in his prime a decade ago, Limbaugh helped power WABC-AM to become the number five-rated station in all of New York. Today, with Limbaugh still its marquee draw, the station has fallen to number 15 in the ratings, which may explain why Cumulus is willing to negotiate his departure.

Other cities would also pose a post-Cumulus problem. In Chicago for instance, Limbaugh would get dropped from WLS (which has also seen declining ratings in recent months), and without a Clear Channel-owned talk station in the market to pick him up, Limbaugh would have to find a new AM home. But based on the current radio landscape in Chicago, there would appear to be very few logical takers.  (The city's top-rated AM information stations lean heavy on news and local talk; less on right-wing syndicated hosts like Limbaugh.)

Appearing on CNN's Reliable Sources on Sunday, Talkers editor Michael Harrison insisted, "Rush is going to be around as long as he wants." He added, "He'll be 90 years old and still have a show." Harrison may be right. But last week's public shaming by Cumulus will likely be remembered for years as a turning point in Limbaugh's broadcast trajectory.

Rush Limbaugh: Detroit Went Bankrupt Because Blacks Drove Out Whites

BY IGOR VOLSKY AND ALAN PYKE/THINK pROGRESS

Economists are attributing Detroit’s recent bankruptcy filing to problems facing the entire Rust Belt region: a shrinking tax base, high health and pension costs, sprawl, and general dysfunction. But on Tuesday, Rush Limbaugh added another cause to the long list of factors that have contributed to the city’s downfall: black people.

During an appearance on Fox News’ On The Record with Greta Van Susteren on Tuesday, Limbaugh claimed that “unchecked” Democratic rule “since the last Republican mayor [in] 1957″ created a lazy and bloated culture of out-of-control spending and corruption.

“You’ve had that — that town has been a petri dish of everything the Democrat Party stands for, everything the Democrat Party loves — massive unions, massive pensions, pay people pensions and health care long after they’ve stopped working,” he said, before arguing that the city’s first black mayor exacerbated the city’s spending and sparked racial riots that chased white people into the suburbs:

LIMBAUGH: You have massive welfare states where citizens are given things left and right in order to buy their votes. You have no opposition whatsoever.

And in the case of the — you throw race into the mix and you bring on Mayor Coleman Young who causes riots in 1967 in Detroit and Mayor Young caused a white flight to suburbia, and Detroit is left with nothing but liberal Democrats running it. It is what it is. And you — any place in this country that has similar circumstances, the same fate is going to happen to them.

First, Coleman Young, who Limbaugh claims caused the riots, wasn’t elected to the mayor’s office until six years after violence broke out, in 1973. The New York Times noted in his obituary that by that point, “Detroit had already been reeling from high unemployment in the automobile industry, a high crime rate and deteriorating housing.” Young also wasn’t a proponent of the kind of welfare policies and “massive pensions,” that Limbaugh attributes to Democrats. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he was actually credited with keeping Detroit financially afloat “by persuading city workers to accept cuts in salaries and fringe benefits and voters to approve a $96 million increase in income taxes.” In the late 1990s, the city, still under Democratic rule, even experienced a small revitalization. Household incomes rose, child poverty dropped “by a stunning 13 percentage points,” and homeownership grew.

As for the 1967 riots, they occurred in the aftermath of the Civil Rights movement, when African Americans across the country were, as a study commissioned by President Lyndon Johnson put it, systematically excluded from the benefits of economic progress and faced “Pervasive discrimination and segregation in employment, education and housing.” The report, which focused on the causes of the violence, found that “white racism,” not Coleman Young, “is essentially responsible for the explosive mixture which has been accumulating in our cities since the end of World War II.”

The riots of the late 1960s set off “a chain reaction in neighboring communities.” The violence first started in Newark, New Jersey in July of 1967 and later spread to Detroit. “What the rioters appeared to be seeking was fuller participation in the social order and the material benefits enjoyed by the majority of American citizens,” the 1967 National Advisory Committee on Civil Disorders concluded. “Rather than rejecting the American system, they were anxious to obtain a place for themselves in it.”

Limbaugh is right that white people did leave Detroit in large numbers in the aftermath of the 1967 violence, but that exodus followed a trend of whites abandoning cities as black people moved in and a slowdown in the auto industry. Before the riots, the vast majority of white population growth was already occurring “in suburban portions of metropolitan areas” and white population within the city of Detroit had declined by 1.3 million between 1960 and 1967.

REPORT: Nation’s Second Largest Radio Broadcaster Planning To Drop Rush Limbaugh

BY JUDD LEGUM/Think Progress

Cumulus Media, the second-biggest operator of radio stations in the nation, is planning to drop Rush Limbaugh, according to a report from POLITICO.

Last year, over 140 advertisers severed their relationship with the Limbaugh program after the host launched a series of sexist attacks on women’s health advocate Sandra Fluke. Cumulus carries Limbaugh on over 40 stations, including WABC in New York, the nation’s largest market. Losing the New York market could damage Limbaugh’s ability to sell national advertising at all, according to some experts.

Cumulus, according the POLITICO report, will also drop Sean Hannity. In 2012, nearly 100 advertisers also dropped the Hannity show, which features a similar brand of caustic right-wing talk.

Limbaugh recently acknowledged difficulty selling ads, complaining ad buyers are “are young women fresh out of college, liberal feminists who hate conservatism“:

In May, the CEO of Cumulus publicly attributed a major decline in revenue this year to lost advertising following Limbaugh’s comments on Fluke.

Limbaugh,Hannity and O'Reilly change the conversation on race

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Limbaugh: I can use the word ‘nigga’ now because ‘it’s not racist’

By David Ferguson/Raw Story

In an especially unhinged racist rant on Tuesday, conservative entertainer Rush Limbaugh said that because of Zimmerman trial witness Rachel Jeantel’s post-trial CNN interview, he will now take it upon himself to use the “n-word,” but with an ‘a’ at the end because “it’s not racist.”

Limbaugh said that Trayvon “called Rachel and told her that he was being followed by a ‘creepy-ass cracka.’ We have now learned that that is a person acting like they are a police. Who like a security guard.” [sic]

He went on to play a segment from Jeantel’s interview with Piers Morgan, in which Jeantel said she wished she hadn’t said the word “nigga” on the stand.

“People, the whole world says that it’s a racist word,” she explained, but the term “nigga” is now used as a term of affection between young African-Americans, a way of defusing the power of the epithet “nigger,” which has been used by whites as the ultimate insult against people of color for generations.

Limbaugh declared that therefore it’s okay for him to use the word “nigga,” too.

“So, ‘nigga’ with an ‘a’ on the end,” he said. “Well, I think I can now. Isn’t that the point? Cos it’s not racist. That’s the point. I could be talking about a male. A Chinese male, the guy at the laundromat. I could be talking about a man. That’s what she said it means.”

Watch the video, embedded below via Media Matters:

Limbaugh Accuses DOJ "Peacemakers" Of Organizing Anti-Zimmerman Protests

JUSTIN BERRIER/Media Matters For America

Rush Limbaugh seized on a report that government officials attended rallies related to George Zimmerman to accuse the Department of Justice of "instigating race riots" when in fact, the officials acted as peacekeepers to "defuse community anger."

On his radio show, Limbaugh read from a Judicial Watch post which claimed that a DOJ unit called the Community Relations Service (CRS) "deployed to Sanford, FL to organize and manage rallies against Zimmerman." The post highlighted documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests which detailed spending on activities such as providing "technical assistance for the preparation of possible marches and rallies related to the fatal shooting of a 17 year old African American male."

Limbaugh claimed the documents proved that the DOJ was "organizing anti-Zimmerman rallies," going on to say that "the United States government has been converted by Obama and [Eric] Holder into a community organizing agitator bunch." Limbaugh concluded that "this regime saw an opportunity to turn something into a profoundly racial case for the express purpose of ripping the country apart":

But the documents do not show the CRS organizing rallies against Zimmerman, only providing support andtechnical assistance for them. In fact, as the Miami Herald reported, the unit worked to "defuse community anger hardening along the fault lines of race, color and national origin":

[I]n the weeks after the Feb. 26, 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a city representative picked up the phone and called Thomas Battles, a quiet force who has worked almost three decades mending racially damaged communities.

The federal mediator works for the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service (CRS), a stealth federal operation that works to defuse community anger hardening along the fault lines of race, color and national origin.

The mediators are called the peacemakers.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that the unit "reached out to the city's spiritual and civic leaders to help cool headed emotions" and brokered "deals between the city officials and residents to help prevent violence and lay the groundwork for peace":

When racial tensions flared in Sanford, a league of secretive peacemakers reached out to the city's spiritual and civic leaders to help cool heated emotions after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in February.

When civil-rights organizers wanted to demonstrate, these federal workers taught them how to peacefully manage crowds.

They even arranged a police escort for college students to ensure safe passage for their 40-mile march from Daytona Beach to Sanford to demand justice.

As national figures and sign-waving protesters grabbed the spotlight after Trayvon's death, federal workers from a little-known branch of the Department of Justice labored away behind the scenes, quietly brokering deals between the city officials and residents to help prevent violence and lay the groundwork for peace.

According to the CRS website, the services they performed in Sanford are precisely what the unit is intended to do, and officials are only deployed "when requested or accepted by the parties":

The Community Relations Service is the Department's "peacemaker" for community conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color, and national origin. Created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, CRS is the only Federal agency dedicated to assist State and local units of government, private and public organizations, and community groups with preventing and resolving racial and ethnic tensions, incidents, and civil disorders, and in restoring racial stability and harmony.

[...]

For more than 45 years, CRS has been asked to provide its experienced mediators to help local communities resolve conflicts and disturbances relating to race, color, or national origin. Each year CRS' highly skilled conciliators bring hundreds of community-wide conflicts to peaceful closure across America and its territories.

Limbaugh: Being Unemployed "Is Not What It Used To Be" Because They Have "Flat-Screens And Food"

From the July 8 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:

 

 

 

 

 

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The GOP "Rebrand" Never Had A Chance

 SIMON MALOY/Media Matters For America

MSNBC political reporter Benjy Sarlin has written a sharp deconstructionof the Republican Party's evolving attitude towards Latino voters. The shock of Mitt Romney's 2012 loss and the resulting calls for Latino outreach from conservatives have given way to old habits: namely, consolidating the white vote and keep hoping that's enough to propel the GOP to electoral victory. Fox News' Sean Hannity, who memorably claimed the day after the election that he'd "evolved" on immigration reform, now rejects reform and the idea that Republicans need Latinos to win.

This shift in attitudes comes just a few months after the Republican National Committee (RNC) unveiled its surprisingly harsh 2012 post-mortem, which endorsed comprehensive immigration reform as a way to expand the party's appeal. "If we want ethnic minority voters to support Republicans, we have to engage them, and show our sincerity," the report counseled. As I wrote at the time, the RNC's ambition for party rebranding, whatever its merits, faced a daunting obstacle: Rush Limbaugh and the coterie of lesser radio hosts who form the rigid spine of the conservative media apparatus. And by all indications, Limbaugh is prevailing.

Even as Hannity and other conservatives (temporarily) fell prey to post-election demography panic, Limbaughnever budged. "I don't know that there's any stopping this," Limbaugh said of immigration reform shortly after Obama's reinauguration. "It's up to me and Fox News, and I don't think Fox News is that invested in this." Funnily enough, Limbaugh was on Fox News just this morning to talk politics, and afterward he disclosed on the radio that he "told the people at Fox that I wanted to talk about" immigration and the GOP, "and they wouldn't do it. They were not interested in bringing this subject up."

The schism among conservatives on how to approach immigration reform and Latino voters in general isn't going away, but the biggest guns are and always have been on the side of the status quo: do nothing policy-wise and continue stoking fears over "illegal immigration" to try and drive sufficient numbers of resentful white voters to the polls. It's worked for Republicans in the past and a big reason behind its success has been the enthusiastic efforts of Rush Limbaugh and right-wing radio. As Sarlin notes, the anti-immigration groups working to kill the reform legislation have the ears of talk radio hosts and are successfully promulgating the message that the Republican Party does not need Latino voters.

It's precisely the sort of closed off, self-reinforcing ideological loop the RNC warned against in its report: "We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue." But so long as anti-immigrant demagoguery keeps people tuning in to the AM radio dial, any attempt at Republican "rebranding" won't stand much of a chance.

Limbaugh costing radio cash

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Rush Limbaugh upset over criticism that his attacks on Sandra Fluke cost Cumulus millions in lost revenue

By Anomaly/Freak Out Nation:

Advertisers are fleeing from the acidic right wing host Rush Limbaugh’s show, and nothing displays that more than the Conservative host, in retaliation, consideration to ditch Cumulus after CEO Lew Dickey’s recent charge that his company has lost millions in lost ad sales since Rush’s attack on Sandra Fluke. It wasn’t unexpected that Limbaugh attacked a college co-ed, since historically he has targeted women and children, among others, but his hate speech in this instance lasted weeks, non stop.

Cumulus runs a network of approximately 40 stations, and in 2012 the CEO blamed Limbaugh for nearly one third of lost revenue. What’s telling is that the right wing host can’t take criticism, even though he dishes it out on a daily basis with his followers purporting his vitriol to be a freedom of speech issue, thereby disregarding common decency.

the Daily News reports:

Limbaugh’s contract with WABC expires at the end of the year.
Lew Dickey, the CEO of WABC parent company Cumulus, has said Limbaugh’s controversial comments have diminished ad revenue for the past year — and the slump remains a “residual hangover” for the station.

The tipping point occurred over the weekend when a source close to Limbaugh told the Daily News: “Lew needs someone to blame, (so) he’s pointing fingers instead of fixing his own sales problem.”

But, Dickey told analysts that the fallout from the Sandra Fluke controversy cost Cumulus “a couple of million” in the first quarter of 2012 and “a couple of million” in the second quarter.

Limbaugh needs to learn that there are consequences for his actions.

AmericaBlog has a post on this too.

What Republicans really think of Rush

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Rush Limbaugh Compares Suspected Boston Bomber To Trayvon Martin

By Adam Peck/Think Progress

Conservative radio prognosticator Rush Limbaugh used his nationally syndicated show on Tuesday to try and tie Dzhakar Tsarnaev, the captured suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings last week, to murdered teenager Trayvon Martin.

Last March, weeks after 17-year-old Martin was shot and killed, Limbaugh and the rest of the conservative echo chamber spent a considerable amount of time attacking Martin’s character and pushing back against a widely circulated photograph of the teen, claiming that the media was trying to gin up sympathy for the murdered boy.

On Tuesday, Limbaugh compared the media’s portrayal of Trayvon to the treatment of the captured Tsarnaev, citing the media’s use of slightly outdated photographs in both instances:

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called out a variety of media outlets on Tuesday for trying to [do] “to Dzhokhar [Tsarnaev] what they did to Trayvon Martin.” He said that showing images of Tsarnaev at 14-years-old is an effort to humanize him and frame him as a “normal” or “mixed-up kid,” rather than an accused murder[er] and terrorist.

‘The news media are doing to Dzhokhar what they did to Trayvon Martin,”Limbaugh observed. “They’re regularly showing a photo of Dzhokhar that was taken when he was about 14. Soft, angelic, nice little boy. Harmless. Cute. Big, loveable eyes.”

“Not at all what he looks like today,” Limbaugh added. “The way, when we’re shown Osama bin Laden, it’s in his shepherd pose with his walking stick, walking through the mountains or whatever.”

The implication, subtly made, is that the liberal media is somehow supportive of Tsarnaev, who is responsible for the murders of three people and the injuries of more than 170 others. In reality, the outdated photograph of the younger Tsarnaev brother is one of several photographs in constant rotation on every news network since he was first identified late last week.

The comparison is also deeply offensive for Trayvon Martin and his family. Martin was a victim of gun violence in a state that remains lenient towards gun owners who turn their weapons on other Floridians.

Limbaugh: Scalia’s ‘well-endowed intellect’ should be ‘honored’ to be compared to me

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Rush Limbaugh says that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia should be “honored” to be compared to be compared to him over the justice’s recent suggestion that voting rights were a “racial entitlement.”

During oral arguments about the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act last week, Scalia hadpointed out that the law had enjoyed multiple nearly-unanimous reauthorizations because lawmakers were scared to be seen voting against discrimination, calling it “a phenomenon that is called perpetuation of racial entitlement.”

Several media outlets — like Mother Jones and Salon — noted that Scalia’s argument was not unlike something that would have been expected from Limbaugh. And MSNBC’s Al Sharptonobserved that the Supreme Court justice had a history of taking cues from Fox News and conservative radio hosts.

On Monday, Limbaugh declared that he would be “honored” to be compared to himself and so Scalia should be too.

“Imagine that!” Limbaugh exclaimed. “Arguably one of the most well-endowed intellects in court’s history, Antonin Scalia, was accused of sounding like me. And I’m sure it’s a big day for him too!”

“This is one of those things that goes both ways. I know if I were Antonin Scalia, I would be honored. Just like I am honored to be compared to him.”

Listen to this audio from the Rush Limbaugh Show, broadcast March 4, 2013.

Rush Limbaugh Still Toxic For Advertisers One Year After Fluke Attacks

ANGELO CARUSONE/Media Matters for America

It's been one year since Rush Limbaugh's invective-filled tirade against then-Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke. With hundreds of advertisers and millions of dollars lost, the business of right-wing radio is suffering, but Rush Limbaugh continues to act as if it were business as usual, which is why Limbaugh is still bad for business.

On February 29, 2012, Rush Limbaugh initiated a three-day smear campaign against Sandra Fluke, launching 46 personal attacks against her. This moment and Limbaugh's subsequent refusal to apologize for, or even acknowledge, all but two of those attacks put the spotlight on the right-wing talk business model that Limbaugh helped construct.

During the following weeks, headlines tracked in near real-time the names of advertisers exiting Limbaugh's show as pundits and natterers speculated about Limbaugh's future. As so often happens, the buzz faded and the news cycle rolled on. But the consequences didn't fade, they intensified. This is due in large part to scores of independent organizers, like theFlush Rush and the #StopRush community.

Rush Limbaugh's recklessness damaged the radio industry and the business of conservative talk.

When advertisers began fleeing from his program, Limbaugh dismissed the losses as akin to losing a "couple of French fries" and insisted that "nobody is losing any money here." This position seemed less tenable after Limbaugh employed the services of a crisis manager to handle the fallout, and the right-wing talker's protestations were proven false once financial reports started rolling in.

For example, Cumulus Media, a radio company that carries Limbaugh's show in 38 markets, reported millions of dollars in lost revenue and attributed the losses in part to the Limbaugh advertiser fallout. Dial Global, a radio syndication company, reported roughly $100 million in losses for 2012 and publicly cited Limbaugh as a significant contributing factor.

Owing to the structure of radio advertising, the losses Limbaugh felt rippled outward, intensifying their effect. Reports indicate that 70 percent of advertisers didn't know their ads were running during Limbaugh's show. From my own extensive conversations with advertisers, I would say that more than half were not aware that their ads were running during Limbaugh's show. That may seem unlikely, but it's quite possible after you consider how the ads got there in the first place.

Advertisers pay media buyers to negotiate rates and coordinate ad buys with radio companies. Typically they're just buying a certain number of commercials during a defined period of time. Consequently, the advertiser is often several steps removed from the actual ad placement. Once notified that their ads are running during his program, advertisers often immediately recognize that they shouldn't be supporting Limbaugh. They contact their buyer to request that the ads be removed and instruct them to exclude Limbaugh from future ad buys. After a few of their clients request the same thing, savvy buyers get the message. They start proactively excluding clients from Limbaugh's show. Many go a step further and exclude their clients' ads from programming similar to Limbaugh's, which amplifies the negative impact on right-wing radio.

Radio companies are still not equipped to respond to these kinds of client requests, which creates additional problems. The increased frequency of ads being run in error frustrates advertisers and strains relationships with the buying agencies. The Limbaugh advertiser problem is so significant that it has even spilled over into the business of online radio streams, according to Erica Farber, who is CEO of the Radio Association of Broadcasters.

At a Talkers forum last year, Norm Pattiz, CEO of Courtside Entertainment, summed up the destructive effect Limbaugh has had on the entire industry, noting that a "tremendous chunk of advertising revenue was wiped out in terms of support for national talk radio programs." Pattiz added that "the movement in talk radio to some degree is moving away from conservative talk radio and into other genres."

Despite continued rebukes by advertisers, and seemingly without regard for the damage he is causing, Rush Limbaugh adds to the problem by proceeding as if it were business as usual.

Every day, Rush Limbaugh reminds advertisers why they should be wary about associating with right-wing radio by filling his airtime with the same kinds of bigotry, deceit, and chicanery that have come to define his brand.

Last July, Limbaugh argued that feminism is "ruining women" and assertedthat feminism was established so that "unattractive women" could have "easier access to the mainstream." In September, Limbaugh warned that men's penises are shrinking and blamed "feminazis" and "chickification."

Last month, Limbaugh inexplicably claimed "African-Americans today can be convinced that they are still slaves." He also launched a series ofslavery-based attacks on Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, wondering if Jackson Lee had "outlived her usefulness on the plantation."

In December, he asked a caller: "You're a woman and you like the Super Bowl? Or, is that when your husband beats you?" Last month, he told another caller: "You know how to stop abortion? Require that each one occur with a gun."

Limbaugh has argued that there is "scholarly research" to support his contention that Mexicans are lazy in comparison to Cubans.

I could go on (and there are plenty more examples), but my point is to illustrate that Limbaugh is just as risky today as he was when he made the Fluke comments. Advertisers don't want to associate with this kind of vitriol, and they know that since Limbaugh hasn't changed, it's only a matter of time before he causes another Fluke-like stir. And they don't want to be on the hook when that happens.

Rush Limbaugh is still bad for business.

The clearest indication that Rush Limbaugh is still bad for business is the fact that advertisers continue to flee his program. There are signs that the radio industry is internalizing that notion and adapting accordingly.

In some ways, the adaptation is taking place on branding and marketing grounds. When Philadelphia's WPHTreplaced Rush Limbaugh with Michael Smerconish, promotional material for Smerconish that was sent to advertisers declared the era of "angry is over." In the same vein, right-wing extremist Glenn Beck was replacedon twelve stations with moderate conservative Geraldo Rivera. Perhaps the era of angry is indeed over?

Mike Huckabee is trying to stake out a similar position. One radio company executive reportedlycharacterized the marketing of his show, saying: "They are positioning Huckabee as the safe, non-dangerous alternative to Rush." It's debatable whether Huckabee actually is a "safer" alternative to Rush, but the key takeaway here is that some in the radio industry are trying to draw a red line between themselves and what Limbaugh represents.

Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks, Limbaugh's syndicator, had a difficult first quarter due to weak ad sales. They wouldn't offer additional information about this (and they don't have to because Clear Channel is a private company). But, given how much damage Limbaugh is causing to the broader industry, it's not much of a stretch to deduce that his home base is also experiencing some effect.

Last September, I attended the Radio Show, an industry event produced by the Radio Advertising Bureau and the National Association of Broadcasters. In every session that I attended, managing the negative impact of Limbaugh was addressed at some point - even in the sessions in which I didn't expect it to come up. Overall, I left with the impression that the industry is deeply aware that a problem exists and is in the process of adapting.

Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey signaled the toxicity of Limbaugh's business model as well as industry adaptation in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV, saying: "We're sort of seeing a shift in spoken-word radio from political-based talk over to sports." Sports radio is popular with advertisers, Dickey explained, and "people may be a bit tired of all the partisan bickering."

One year out from the attacks on Fluke, we see that Limbaugh's business model is not just bad for business, it's breaking talk radio.

And, onward we go...