ARE WE SEEING THE “BEGINNING OF THE END” OF RUSH LIMBAUGH?

 

Even Time Magazine thinks Rushbo may be at the end of his conservative reign.

Many of us have been wanting to un-seat the real head of the Republican Party, i.e.: the radio blow-hard, Rush Limbaugh…and now there is real hope.

For 27 years, Limbaugh has been ruling the conservative radio air waves.  With the exception of his major loss of advertisers in 2012 after he insulted the then Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, or when he had to resign as an ESPN football commentator for attacking the black quarterback, Donovan McNabb, Limbaugh had ruled the conservative AM radio-roost.  (Regarding McNabb, the racist Limbaugh had said on the air that McNabb had received too much credit as an NFL player, only because the mainstream media wanted to see an African-American quarterback succeed.) 

 

Due to the massive protests, Limbaugh lost over 100 advertisers and his show has since been moved away from some of the more powerful mainstream radio stations.  Most of the folks following the protests know that the protest campaigns not only pressured advertisers back in 2012, they have continued to do so now for three years.

 

Today, due to some of the small-time Internet operations along with today's social media, Mr. Limbaugh’s overall reign is now on the wane.  Even mainstream media outlets such as Time Magazine agreed in a recent article by Brian Rosenwald that these changes in how the public can respond to Limbaugh’s “hate radio”, may be the beginning of the end of Limbaugh’s AM power.

 

Recently, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) national radio statistics were published.  The industry numbers showing Limbaugh’s steady decline confirmed that social media campaigns are winning the fight against the hateful racist Limbaugh.

Both the WSJ and Time are seeing that focused social media campaigns like StopRush, BoycottRush, and FlushRush have caused Rush Limbaugh to lose sponsors, radio stations, and radio market standings. And these groups are supported by larger social media news organization and blogs like Daily Kos, Media Matters, Liberals Unite, UniteWomen.org, Alternet, Addicting Info, Politico, and PoliticusUSA, who continue to cover and promote stories about the Limbaugh protest.

Despite all of Limbaugh's money and his best efforts to squelch the protest, the desire to rid us of Rushbo just keeps growing.

The Time Magazine article is actually part of Brian Rosenwald’s doctoral dissertation.  In his article he discusses how talk radio has changed politics and public policy and how the internet is now changing talk radio.

For decades, Limbaugh could perform disgusting activities such as when he made up sick songs about AIDS victims.  Back then, he could get away with it.  Rosenwald says it's very difficult to do that today.

Now, every word that Limbaugh says on his broadcast is archived. Those watchdog groups, such as Media Matters, will scrutinize every word, waiting to blast any potentially offensive or untrue statements out to the world.

The previous opinions of non-listeners had been irrelevant back when he started in 1988, and a boycott back then would have been hard to organize.  But someone who considered Limbaugh’s comments to be racist today can easily use social media to pressure advertisers to remove their ads from Limbaugh’s program.

For a couple of examples, Limbaugh thinks the current issue of rapes in colleges are all being trumpet up by the college coeds.  Limbaugh said on his program, that when he dropped out of college, as did Scott Walker, the GOP Governor of Wisconsin, Limbaugh would have said today, “I left college because I didn’t want to be accused of rape someday.”    In another case, Limbaugh had declared on the air that the actor Idris Elba could not play James Bond because Bond was written as being Scottish and white, and Elba was black and British.  Social media went ballistic on both of Limbaugh's statements, and as usual, Limbaugh and his listeners just became totally contemptuous. 

 

However, today, Limbaugh and his fans continuing to ignore online criticism, do so at their own peril.  The Internet audience is showing that the history of talk radio is in the process of being changed by these new technologies. 

Rosenwald’s article goes on to say Limbaugh's hateful and inflammatory words now go beyond the ears of his so called ”ditto-heads” and his fans or any casual listeners. His vitriol today can easily reach hundreds of thousands via social media campaigns. 

 

Today, any disgusting radio hosts’ words can easily reach many more non-listeners than they did 25 years ago via these watchdog social media operations.  A show’s actual audience need not be bothered by being asked for comments to cause a radio host trouble. Campaigns against any host can build over time, just as they have for Limbaugh, and social media makes it easier to pressure station management and advertisers.

Change is happening and it’s positive change.  It's all due to everyday Americans becoming more proactive in fighting this hateful extremism.

No longer do we have to mail  complaint letters to companies, and then wonder if anyone will read them. Now we can simply post our thoughts and complaints on the company's Facebook or Twitter pages with just a few clicks.  Today, corporations have learned that someone in the company will want to see them.  It has been shown that it behooves the organization to address the consumer's concerns and complaints.  They now understand that one bad customer experience can go viral on YouTube and that it can be totally devastating.

 

This may seem somewhat intimidating, but in reality, it's simply the beauty of today’s free market.  For once, the free market is finally to the advantage of the average American, not the corporations. This  now gives citizens the option to boycott or not buy from companies that support hate mongers like Limbaugh, or any highly abhorrent media such as Fox News.

Just last week, since the posting of several articles about Rush Limbaugh on social media, over 10,000 more people have signed the petition against Limbaugh.  This brings the anti-Limbaugh petition to a total of over 120,000 signatures. No more do protestors have to physically go door to door to ask folks to ask for signatures. This is about the public using social media to protest hate speech and hate media.

To join the massive and successful protest against hate radio, here are some easy things most anyone can do.

Sign: Boycott Rush Limbaugh Sponsors Petition, Visit/Like: BoycottRush Facebook Page, Join: The Fight To Flush Rush, Visit: StopRush.net for an extensive list of Limbaugh Sponsors, Tweet #StopRush and #FlushRush.

 

Finally, we have a real chance for silencing the blow-hard.

Copyright G.Ater  2015