Is Limbaugh committing "suicide by liberals"? If so it is brilliant.

[RadiationTherapy]

Really well done. It could be an interesting tactic with interesting results. He is savvy about his audience and media in general.

[mdmc]

1. true

any talk of rush is good for rush

[sadbear]

2. Whatever

as long as he's gone, he could commit "suicide by leprechaun" for all I care.

[RadiationTherapy]

4. You don't think it gives him a "liberals ran me off the air angle?"

Not that we should slow the assault in any way at all. I just think it could be strategic, somewhat, on his part.

[Sparkly]

5. I don't think he's that clever.

[calimary]

19. In the words of one dick cheney: "So?"

Don't care. The GREATER good comes from his being taken off the air. The whining he'll do trying to pass the blame around is irrelevant. And yes I realize he'll create a huge hole that some other rush-lite will be craving to fill. But it might also send them a message. Yeah, I realize also that the "send them a message!" blather is often just an empty statement - along the lines of all those voters who decide they simply MUST vote for a third-party candidate to "send them a message!" And they send a message alright, but not the one they thought they were sending, while effectively indulging in a political suicide pact that takes down or damages everything they've valued and fought for (example: nader).

But this is a unique moment. I think there's a momentum building here, which our side should exploit like gangbusters. First dr. laura. Then glenn beck. Now "jabber the hutt"? AT THE SAME TIME as the bad guys also lose andrew breitbart, the scheming susan g. komen partisans got their heads handed to them, the darrell issa "where are the women" hearing turned into a big red swollen oozing pustule, and bob mcdonnell had to capitulate on virginia's state-mandated vaginal probe bill (with the term "vaginal probe" now surgically attached to his name and reputation for as long as he'll draw breath - you think that won't wind up in the first paragraph of his obit whenever that eventually is written?). This is NOT a good season for the knuckle-draggers, and the more we can pile on, the more it'll hurt. And the farther back they'll fall, and the more ground they'll lose. This is an avalanche the likes of which we may not see again for a generation, and we can and should take full advantage of it. One doesn't often get a chance to push the pendulum back toward the truly "right" (as in CORRECT) direction: OURS.

On edit - sorry. I forgot to add THIS, my favorite link of the week:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002374653

How to fight back at the local radio level. WORTH IT!!!!

[geckosfeet]

3. Yes. His psychosis runs deep.

[csziggy]

6. Maybe he just wants out of his contract but doesn't want to pay the penalty?

I posted in another thread that he has 4 years left on his contract with Clear Channel:

Rush Limbaugh is one of the most popular and highly compensated radio talk show hosts in the world with a net worth estimated at $300 million and an annual salary north of $40 million.

That’s right folks, controversy pays. After stints in Pittsburgh (where he went by the name Jeff Christie), Kansas City and Sacramento, the big man went national in 1988. Today he is a majority owner of his radio show, which receives over 14 million listeners per week. That’s down a tad from the peak of 20 million listeners in 2003, but it was enough to get Limbaugh a $400 million 8-year contract with Clear Channel that began in 2008.
http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/rush-limbaugh-net-worth/

If he loses all his advertisers, Clear Channel may decide to remove him from the air. They would probably have to buy out his contract or continue paying him his $40 million per year.

If he just stopped his show, he'd be the one who'd have to cough up a lot of money.

[titaniumsalute]

8. No way he will walk away

I've worked with and have known radio personalities (and other media personalities) for years. They almost never walk away. Johnny Carson was one of the few who retired rather early and walked away into almost hiding.

Limbaugh's ego is gigantic. He refers to his listeners as ditto heads and calls himself "El Rushbo" and how he's the High Professor of Republican Studies. Blah blah blah. He ain't going anywhere.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

20. Then you know they get themselves fired on purpose

When Opie and Anthony couldn't afford to buy out their contract in Boston to go to Infinity in New York they just pulled an April Fool's prank announcing the death of the mayor of Boston. They were fired and on the air in New York a month later.

[randome]

16. I think you're right. He has to know what a lame apology he just gave.

He's making things more and more uncomfortable for his station sponsors.

If he makes a more 'sincere' (I know, that's sarcasm) apology on Monday, then maybe it's not deliberate.

[KharmaTrain]

18. Who Listens To AM Radio?

Rushbo is keeping a lot of dying AM stations on the air...appealing to one of the few audiences that still listen...older white males. Rushbo opened the door to the cheapening of radio as his show runs in middays and instead of paying a local talent in that time slot, just plug in rushbo. Thousands of people lost their jobs as corporates replaced local programs with satellite-delivered hate and no one dished out the hate like Rushbo. In many ways he was the loss-leader for these stations who now only offer local content in the mornings and cheap programming the rest of the time. While others have tried to knock rushbo off his perch (O'Reilly, Dreck), no one can generate the response and this is a major reason Cheap Channel will eat glass before they'll eat his contract.

There are a couple of wildcards here. Some of rushbo's biggest affiliates are now owned by Cumulus...a bitter rival of Cheap Channel. Will this be the justification to pull or suspend him on their stations that include the biggest markets? I'm watching to see what moves, if any, John Hogan at Cheap Channel and Lew Dickey at Cumulus make. They're the key players here...those two men alone could pull rushbo's empire down. But they're greedy and spineless...they'd rather fire another 1,500 people to save the money they throw at rushbo.

AM radio is in its death throes...pulling the plug on Rushbo would further erode the shrinking values of thousands of properties these companies paid top dollar for. Just like with the real estate bust, these properties have seen their values plummet in recent years and a big loss like this could be a financial disaster. Right now those corporates are thinking about the audience spike that's sure to happen tomorrow and then hope this latest rushbo flap fades away...

[ProSense]

7. I think

the overwhelming majority of Americans would love to see that blowhard given the boot!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002378764

In fact, it's likely that a significant number of Republicans are fed up with his shit!

[cbayer]

9. You make a good point.

He is indeed savvy about his audience and has repeatedly shown he can turn what would otherwise be a disaster to his advantage.

He has probably held on to most of his true fans and gathered a few more misogynists along the way through all of this.

[ProSense]

12. The problem

"He has probably held on to most of his true fans and gathered a few more misogynists along the way through all of this."

...with Limbaugh's fans is that he has conditioned them to think a certain way.

This is the reason he couldn't offer a sincere apology, but his idiotic followers still see it as capitulation. They are livid. You can see scattered comments among the protests of Rush indicating that he caved by apologizing. There are also the comments rejecting the advertisers for caving to pressure from the left.

Limbaugh stepped in it big time, and the money factor made it a real mess.

[cbayer]

13. I hope you are right.

but I don't trust him at all. He has a history of making s'mores out of shit and getting his followers to eat them.

However, if this takes him down for good, it's the best thing that could happen.

Now let's get Michael Savage and the rest of their ilk.

[ProSense]

14. OK,

"He has a history of making s'mores out of shit and getting his followers to eat them."

...that's just gross, accurate, but gross.

[cbayer]

15. Sorry, I am a little grouchy this am.

[11 Bravo]

17. Never apologize for brilliance. That was just perfect.

[underpants]

10. I don't know what that means but if you have listened to his show recently

you know that he is a rambling mess. More than ever. He counters himself repeatedly (aside from the out of this world irony of his statements) literally doubling back on himself within 5 minutes.

He actually catches himself from time to time like he stepped on a rake....and then continues.

[RadiationTherapy]

11. Interesting. I was comparing it to "suicide by police"...

Maybe he's fading.

[seattleblah]

21. He does that rambling thing because...

his show is three hours long! I just found that out on Wikipedia. According to wiki, he has been on national radio since 1988. That's 24 years of talking five days per week three hours per day. Only a complete moron would think they could have something interesting to day for over 18,000 hours. Seriously, what kind of complete idiot would wake-up one morning and decide to talk for eighteen thousand hours? It shows how stupid he is.