LIMBAUGH IN TUCSON

Media Matters reports that on Friday, Fats had hardly any commercial ads. In Tucson on Clear Channel's KNST, it was a different matter. I didn't listen to the entire show, only a hour or so but here are the ads I heard:

HILLSDALE COLLEGE
LIFELOCK
GRASSHOPPER
CABCO - a local company
ADT SECURITY
PURPUREX - prevents bruising!
INSPERITY - business help
BUDGET BLINDS
BRIGHTER.COM - inexpensive dental work
EEGEE'S

THE WINGNUTS ARE LOSING BADLY

Doonesbury will have a perfect-pitch series next week about the new misogynist Texas law about abortion:

Here’s what’s in the strips:

Monday: Young woman arrives for her pre-termination sonogram, is told to take a seat in the shaming room, a middle-aged male state legislator will be right with her.
Tuesday: He asks her if this is her first visit to the center, she replies no, that she’s been using the contraceptive services for some time. He says, “I see. Do your parents know you’re a slut?”
Wednesday: A different male is reading to her about the transvaginal exam process.
Thursday: In the stirrups, she is telling a nurse that she doesn’t want a transvaginal exam. Doctor says “Sorry miss, you’re first trimester. The male Republicans who run Texas require that all abortion seekers be examined with a 10″ shaming wand.” She asks “Will it hurt?” Nurse says, “Well, it’s not comfortable, honey. But Texas feels you should have thought of that.” Doctor says, “By the authority invested in me by the GOP base, I thee rape.”
Friday: Doctor is explaining that the Texas GOP requires her to have an intimate encounter with her fetus. He begins describing it to her. Last panel, he says, “Shall I describe it’s hopes and dreams?” She replies, “If it wants to be the next Rick Perry, I’ve made up my mind.”
Saturday: Back in the reception area, she asks where she goes now for the actual abortion. Receptionist tells her there’s a 24-hour waiting period: “The Republican Party is hoping you get caught in a shame spiral and change your mind.” Last panel: She says, “A final indignity.” Receptionist replies, “Not quite. Here’s your bill.”

Coming during the Fats Limbaugh outrage, this is terrific but a couple of troglodute blogs, PJ Tatler and American Thinker, seem be be unaware of the real issues.

POSTED BECAUSE I LIKE THE QUOTE

Rage Against the Machine to Rush Limbaugh: 'Stop Using Our Music in Your Right-Wing Clown Show'
Tom Morello demands that radio host drop Rage tunes

By Matthew Perpetua
March 9, 2012 8:55 AM ET
ROLLING STONES

Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine is the latest rock star to demand that Rush Limbaugh stop using his music on the air. "Rush Limbaugh played "Sleep Now in the Fire" as a bumper on his show today," Morello told Rolling Stone last night. "Our response: 'Hey Jackass, stop using our music on your racist, misogynist, right wing clown show." (He later tweeted the same message.)

Peter Gabriel, Rush and the Fabulous Thunderbirds have made public statements asking for their music to be pulled from Limbaugh's syndicated talk show following the host's personal attack on Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, whom he called a "slut" and a "prostitute" for defending women's reproductive rights.

FATS IS STILL IN THE FRYING PAN!

I'm lukewarm about Allred but this time she's done something good by keeping Fats in the news. Notice also we are now getting into Palin territory with the number of comments, almost 3200 as of now. Editorial cartoonists are also going after Limbaugh and CNN published this:

I don't think the FCC should get involved because political speech, even this offensive, is covered by the 1st Amendment, but I am in favor of perhaps moving Fats out of his Noon-3PM slot to late night, perhaps after 10 PM.

PREMIERE NETWORKS IS FEELING THE HEAT

Premiere syndicates Fats, Hannity, Glenda and Cunningham and according to Tom Taylor of Radio-Info.com, it sent a warning message to its network:

It's not just Rush.

TRI hears that Premiere is circulating a list of 98 advertisers who want to avoid “environments likely to stir negative sentiments.” The list includes carmakers (Ford, GM, Toyota), insurance companies (Allstate, Geico, Prudential, State Farm) and restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway). As you’ll see in the note below, those “environments” go beyond the Rush Limbaugh show –

"To all Traffic Managers: The information below applies to your Premiere Radio Networks commercial inventory. More than 350 different advertisers sponsor the programs and services provided to your station on a barter basis. Like advertisers that purchase commercials on your radio station from your sales staff, our sponsors communicate specific rotations, day part preferences and advertising environments they prefer. . .They’ve specifically asked that you schedule their commercials in day parts or programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity). Those are defined as environments likely to stir negative sentiment from a very small percentage of the listening public." That's the question, isn't it? How small is that percentage, and how long will this uproar last? And is there a long-term impact on talk radio as it's currently practiced?

UPDATE: Memeo lists others who have reported on this announcement.

LIMBAUGH IS FINALLY A BIG HIT ON POLITICO

But not because he's done something praiseworthy...

COMPARING THE REACH OF FATS VS BILL MAHER

If my previous post about Fats having only 1.5 million listeners at a time, then Bill Maker isn't too far behind. I found some ratings for Real Time with Bill Maher from TVbytheNumbers. The larger number in BOLD is the size of the 18-49 audience in thousands.

March 5th, 2012
Real Time with Bill Maher HBOM 10:01 PM 1299 0.4

February 21st, 2012
Real Time with Bill Maher HBOM 10:01 PM 1101 0.3

February 6th, 2012
Real Time with Bill Maher HBOM 10:01 PM 1232 0.4

January 23rd, 2012
Real Time with Bill Maher HBOM 10:01 PM 1130 0.3

January 17th, 2012
Real Time with Bill Maher HBOM 10:01 PM 1106 0.4

EFFECTS OF ADVERTISER WITHDRAWAL?

Media Matters found dead air on the online broadcast today from WABC (NY) and that may be a result of Fats' show losing advertisers. In local Tucson news, KNST has been playing a lot more Kim Komando spots instead of ads, especially during the Glenda Beck show.

YOU KNOW THE OLD SAYING ABOUT CRIMINALS?

It went something like "it's a good thing most of them are stupid"?  Well, it's a good thing for liberals that someone like Fats is the "Big Voice on the Right" (h/t Memeo):

Rush Scrubs 'Slut' Comment, Demand for Fluke Sex Tapes
Elspeth Reeve 426 Views 9:19 AM ET
THE ATLANTIC WIRE

RushLimbaugh.com appears to have removed parts of his radio transcripts from February 29 and March 1 in which he called Sandra Fluke a "slut" and demanded a sex tape as a thank you to taxpayers for subsidizing her birth control. The links to "Butts Sisters Are Safe From Newt and Rick" and "Left Freaks Out Over My Fluke Remarks" now show blank stretches of white space.

Fats has altered transcripts before so this isn't a surprise to me.

FATS JUST CAN'T STOP...

(h/t Atrios)

These remarks came AFTER Fats maliciously attacked Ms. Fluke.

Limbaugh Says Female Wash. Post Writer Injected Her "B-I-Itchy Opinion" Into Her Reporting
5 hours and 45 minutes ago
From the March 8 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show

Rush On Female Author: "What Is It With All Of These Young, Single White Women? Overeducated Doesn't Mean Intelligent"
March 06, 2012 1:05 pm ET
From the March 6 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show

STAYIN' ALIVE

The more Fats Limbaugh is in the news, the better for liberals, so I'm glad this got some coverage:

Limbaugh about AshleyMadison.com: ‘We do not [accept] sponsor companies that help people cheat on their spouses’
By Dylan Stableford | The Cutline – 4 hrs ago
AOL NEWS

THE BREITBART "BIG" OBAMA VIDEO

Part of the agit-prop from Hannity and others about this nothingburger is that the mainstream media knew about but hide the video to protect Obama's chances for election in 2008.

Typical rhetoric and once again IT'S NOT TRUE:

1991 Obama video aired in 2008
By JOSEPH WILLIAMS |
3/7/12 4:23 PM EST
POLITICO

The “racially themed” video of President Barack Obama as a 29-year-old Harvard law student that’s gone viral on the Web was broadcast as part of a PBS documentary on the future president nearly four years ago.

On the eve of the groundbreaking 2008 presidential election, the Boston-based documentary program “Frontline” broadcast a program on Obama titled, “The Choice,” which featured a version of the same video: Obama introducing Derrick Bell, Harvard’s first African American tenured law professor, at a rally in solidarity with Bell and support of affirmative action in the law school’s admissions process. The video was part of an extended broadcast tracing Obama’s path from childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia to his election as the nation’s first black president.

Here's the link to the Frontline story.

DISABILITY & THE BOOMERS

I noted before the increase in the number of people on disability and attributed it to aging Boomers but I did not present any data.  The US Census has a breakdown of the total population by age for 1990, 2000 and 2010 in Excel and here are relevant numbers in thousands for the age group 50-54:

	50-54
1990	11,315
2000	17,586
2010	22,298

BILL MAHER AND THE WINGNUTS

The radio gasbags and others have tried to defend Fats Limbaugh by pointing out the terrible things Bill Maher has said about Sarah Palin.   This is a favorite tactic they use when someone they think is on their side does something inexcusable.  A variant used during the Iraq War when American troops did something inexcusable was to point out that Al Qaida fighters are horrible.  In both cases, the justification is something like "But Mikey did it too!" and is at the same moral level of a young child.

One thing I didn't hear or read from the wingers is that Bill Maher has defended Fats.

IT'S MORNING IN AMERICA! :-)

(That's the motto of Bill "Slots" Bennett's radio show)

Rush "Fats" Limbaugh has taken quite a few hits in the last week and as of now has lost at least 45 advertisers.  His show has gotten to be something of a joke because two sex sites,
Ashley Madison and SeekingArrangement, have publicly offered to place ads on his show.  This is one of the few times I can honestly be grateful to Old Mean White Fundie Wacko Pat Robertson:

Televangelist Pat Robertson on the 700 Club today attacked Sandra Fluke’s testimony at a Democratic hearing, after she was barred from speaking at a GOP-led committee, in support of making religiously-based institutions like universities cover contraception in their insurance plans.

I wonder if Fats appreciates the backup?

Some in the industry think Fats should take a few days off but others are pure wingnuts like this guy:

Then there's Jim Coursolle, owner of Heartland Communications. He tells Dial Global "I appreciate the fact that you are honoring your customer's wishes" - but says "I believe that the boycott of Mr. Limbaugh's programming by advertisers, or even programming providers, is a violation of the Bill of Rights." Coursolle says "we in the broadcasting industry must be extremely careful not to participate in any action that is contrary, or even perceived to be contrary, to the Bill of Rights and freedom of speech." The ad blackout covers “all paid units, makegoods and bonus weight” for AutoZone.

All this means is that Coursolle doesn't understand the Bill of Rights.

And here's a little dessert: The band RUSH and Peter Gabriele are demanding that Fats no longer use their music.

HAVE THE GUN NUTS GIVEN UP ON THE GOP?

That's one semi-plausible conclusion that's drawn in this McClatchy article:

Some say Obama re-election fears may be driving gun sales

By Anna M. Tinsley | The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Posted on Monday, March 5, 2012

FORT WORTH — Gun sales are booming.

Enthusiasts are stocking up on guns and ammunition, and some in the industry are wondering whether sales are spiking as they did after Democrat Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008.

That rush created a nationwide shortage.

"We're at the top of the roller coaster and we're about to plummet down the side," said DeWayne Irwin, owner of the Cheaper Than Dirt gun store in north Fort Worth, which set a sales record for the month of February. "It's fixing to happen again. I don't know if it will be to the same extent it was before, but I see it coming.

"Look who the Republicans are trying to put against Obama," he said. "It's the Keystone Kops and people are getting scared. People are terrified he's going to get re-elected and then he won't care about getting votes next time. He'll just pass whatever legislation he wants."

IS FATS LIMBAUGH'S INFLUENCE OVERBLOWN?

(h/t The Dish)

There are at least 3 questions in that title: (1) how large is Fats audience?;(2) how many of those listeners are true believers?; (3) how influential are those listeners?

A Media Matters investigative article had this interesting calculation:

As a radio trade reporter confirmed to MSNBC last week, common industry shorthand to determine the actual size of a radio audience at any given moment is to cut the cume figure down by a factor of 10, which would mean Limbaugh's 20 million becomes 2 million. Or, if you take the more modest cume number of 14 million, which some inside the industry have used to judge the talker's audience, Limbaugh's rating becomes 1.4 million, which is roughly the same size audience that Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann get each night on cable TV.

Talkers Magazine currently has Fats at 15 million, so the real number today would be about 1.5 million. That's respectable but a long way from the 20 million Fats has been claiming since 1993.

We know that Fats is disliked by many people, so perhaps Michael Harrison of Talkers Magazine is correct:

"The people who love him are a very small segment of the public," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, ...

Finally, how influential are these listeners? Matthew Dowd makes the case that they don't have that much clout:

This idea that he influences a large number of Republican voters is a complete myth. Keep in mind, Rush Limbaugh attacked Newt Gingrich before the South Carolina primary, and Newt Gingrich won South Carolina.

And then Rush Limbaugh attacked Mitt Romney before the Florida primary, and Mitt Romney wins Florida.

THEY ARE AFRAID OF SEX AND WOMEN

Yesterday on her radio show, War Whore Ingraham perpetuated the wingnut smear that Ms. Fluke is promiscuous and so did Mrs. InstaStupid (h/t Atrios).  I found a non-trivial percentage of similar thoughts on a POLITCO thread.
Cernunnos collected some of them:

the electrician: Mar. 2, 2012 - 1:47 PM EST

ms. fluke is the one who said she has so much sex that we should pay for her pills.

SharpShtik: Mar. 2, 2012 - 1:41 PM EST

She demands that taxpayers and rate/service (insurance premium) payers that they need to pay thousands of dollars annually for her expensive sex life

shooter377: Mar. 2, 2012 - 1:56 PM EST

Rush was correct. By definition, she is a slut, or a prostitute

onejn416: Mar. 2, 2012 - 1:51 PM EST

She lives the lifestyle of a slut

KATZ66: Mar. 2, 2012 - 2:11 PM EST

This slut wants to play while we pay.

Cid83: Mar. 2, 2012 - 2:11 PM EST

She testified before congress that she was a slut. She can never retract that testimony because it would be perjury.

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE

HuffPo reports that two radio stations have dropped Limbaugh, WBEC in Pittsfield, MA and KPUA in Hilo, HI.  

I USUALLY GO ON POLITICO TO SQUISH BAGGERS...

but sometimes I find an instructive post like this one by The RealKingMax:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/02/10/146662285/rules-requiring-contraceptive-coverage-have-been-in-force-for-years

http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/health/insurance-coverage-for-contraception-state-laws.aspx

http://reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/Catholic%20Charities%20v.%20Serio%20-%20NY%20Ct%20of%20Appeals%20Decision.pdf

http://reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/Supreme_Court_Opinion.pdf

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/214225-all-heat-and-no-light-the-contraception-kerfuffle

Here's the fundamental point:

Rules Requiring Contraceptive Coverage Have Been In Force For Years

FUNDIE BASHING FOR FUN

Fundie gasbags like to use catastrophes to blame people they don't like, as Falwell and Robertson did shortly after 9-11:

"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"

Since those remarks, I think it's fair game to blame catastrophes on the Fundies themselves and so does Mike Malloy. At Beck's The Blaze, they took exception to Mike's snark but they didn't count on Pat Robertson chiming in:

Pat Robertson Says People could have Stopped Deadly Tornadoes through Prayer
Submitted by Brian Tashman on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 12:55pm
Right Wing Watch

UPDATE: I found the Malloy clip at Mediaite.

I'M IMPRESSED

Fats has made a very lucrative career in part by lying about people who mostly can't defend themselves but this time he's gone too far and it's not just liberals who are upset according to this new PPP poll:

Our numbers suggest that Rush Limbaugh has seen significant erosion in his popularity with Republican voters over the last week. The last time we polled on him nationally he was at 80/12 with GOPers. But now we find him below 50% in all three of these states: he's at 45/28 in Ohio, 46/29 in Tennessee, and 44/30 in Georgia.

Republican women in particular have become very skeptical about Limbaugh in the states holding tomorrow's 2 most competitive contests. He's at only 39/28 with them in Ohio and 36/30 in Tennessee.

(This story also made POLITICO.)

This may help explain why at least 12 companies have decided to drop Fatso:

Sleep Number Beds
The Sleep Train
Legal Zoom
Quicken Loans
Citrix Systems/GoToMeeting
ProFlowers
Tax Resolution Services
AOL
Carbonite
Bonobos
Sears/Kmart
Allstate

Today, Don Imus did the right thing by denouncing Fats:

“A lame apology on his website, in which he says he didn’t mean to personally attack her,” Imus said, “is gutless.” Imus took issue with Limbaugh’s “sustained, vile, personal attack” on Fluke over three days, and said that if he’s going to apologize, you have to “go sit down with her” and apologize.

“He’s a fat, gutless loser,” Imus added, “and if I’m running a radio station, he’s not on it… until he does that.”

Also today, Sean Hannity couldn't muster the same moral courage but he did make of point of saying on his radio show "I'm not going to spend the entire show on this," which suggests that he wants to distance himself from Fats.

HAS FATS LOST THE FREEPERS?

qannabbos indica at DKOs has a nice selection of Freeper responses to the Great Big Apology. Here are a few of the better ones:

- The life boat was leaking water, and Rush threw us overboard, I wonder what Mark Levin has to say about this? Defending Rush, and then getting shafted, too. Limbaugh dosen't need me anymore.

- I think Mark is going to be really conflicted on this one. He is, I believe, a good friend of Rush. Mark will struggle to rationalize this betrayal, because Mark is a fan, too.

- Limbaugh is finished. Rush said nothing wrong in his original statement, and should have stood is ground. Now he is a pansy in the dust.

- Rush today lost untold numbers of long-time listeners, true believers, and loyal conservatives. There is no brilliance, there is no up-side. Churchill said never, never, never give up. Today, so that his check did not drop 5%, Rush gave up.

These folks are at the center of the movement conservative base and they seem to have given up on Fats and that's good news for America. I do wonder how Levin and Hannity will react to Fats throwing them overboard - can they afford not to disown Fats?

AND ED MORRISSEY OF HOT AIR IS NO BETTER

One nasty wingnut meme that has infected the conversation about contraception is that Ms. Fluke delved into her personal sex life in her testimony. This is a lie as you can verify for yourself by reading the transcript.

John Cole called out Ed Morrissey for propagating this smear and Morrisey simply refused to acknowledge that he was wrong.

UPDATE: Charles of LGF finds a great example of this ugliness from a female conservative, Pamela Geller.

BILLY CUNNINGHAM SUCKS

During the 2nd hour of his show, he falsely claimed that a leftist had recently sent Rush Limbaugh a package bomb.  Here's the truth:

Package at Rush Limbaugh's Home Not Harmful, Police Say
PALM BEACH, Fla. March 2, 2012 (AP)

Authorities say a suspicious package sent to Rush Limbaugh's South Florida home was not dangerous or hazardous.

Instead, police say the item investigated Thursday turned out to be an electronic plaque sent by a listener of the radio talk show host's program as a "business opportunity" for him. It concerned the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth.

AND PROFLOWERS MAKES 7

Fats Limbaugh is starting to circle the drain and I don't think he can blab his way out of this one. Here's part of the ProFlowers statement:

“At ProFlowers, our mission is to delight our customers with fresh and long lasting flowers, and that is our singular focus each and every day,” the company said in a statement. “We do not base our advertising decisions to align with any particular political view or opinion as our employees and customers are as diverse as the USA. Mr. Limbaugh’s recent comments went beyond political discourse to a personal attack and do not reflect our values as a company. As such, ProFlowers has suspended advertising on The Rush Limbaugh radio program.”

Today I tried to find some comments about Fats by wingnut radio hosts but most shows, including Fats, were repeats. Ben Ferguson did have a show that originally aired today but he didn't mention Fats, at least not in the segments I heard. Other news sources weren't at all shy. Paul Farhi of the WaPo thinks Fats should have followed the examples of Don Imus and Ed Shultz. George Will thinks that GOP politicians are too afraid of Fats to denounce his remarks:

“[House Speaker John] Boehner comes out and says Rush’s language was inappropriate. Using the salad fork for your entrée, that’s inappropriate. Not this stuff,” Will said. “And it was depressing because what it indicates is that the Republican leaders are afraid of Rush Limbaugh. They want to bomb Iran, but they’re afraid of Rush Limbaugh.”

On FOX News Sunday, Fetus Boy Santorum kept the contraception issue alive but Chris Wallace noted that FOX provides contraception coverage for its female employees.
Billy Cunningham did come to Fats' defense but he was pretty lame. First, he used that standard wingnut diversion tactic of "liberals do that too." Second, Billy falsely claimed that Fats immediately apologized when in fact he refused to do so for days. Third, he said there are much more important issues to discuss.

MORE ON SAINT ANDREW BREITBART

(h/t Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice)

Breitbart didn't restrain himself at all the day Ted Kennedy died. From Think Progress:

Early this morning, news broke that Sen. Ted Kennedy had passed away after serving in the U.S. Senate for nearly 50 years. Soon after, conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart began a sustained assault on Kennedy’s memory, tweeting “Rest in Chappaquiddick.”

Over the course of the next three hours, Breitbart unapologetically attacked Kennedy, calling him a “villain,” “a big ass motherf@#$er,” a “duplicitous bastard” and a “prick.” “I’ll shut my mouth for Carter. That’s just politics. Kennedy was a special pile of human excrement,” wrote Breitbart in one tweet.

I THINK RICKY JUST LOST OHIO

Forget his state filing problems, he's got a more serious problem with local talk radio hosts.  He lost his 1950s "cool" on two hosts at Cincinnati's  WLW-AM, Scott Sloan and Billy Cunningham.  Santorum just can't escape his reactionary attitude toward women and sexuality.

REMEMBER, THIS WACKO MADE GENERAL

(h/t Wonkette)

This guy has been krazy for years...

Boykin: US Gov't Practicing Sharia Through the AIG Bailout
Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thu, 03/01/2012 - 2:40pm

All week, Rick Joyner's "Prophetic Perspective on Current Events" program has been running episodes featuring Jerry Boykin and Kamal Saleem discussing the evils and dangers of Islam.

On yesterday's program, Boykin declared that the Muslim Brotherhood is running an "insurgency" in America to establish Sharia and stated that the government bailout of insurance giant AIG means that the government is now practicing Sharia because AIG offers some Sharia-compliant insurance policies: