Limbaugh's confession may not turn listeners away

[mac56]

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/6998576.htm

(snip)

Having long preached the mantra of personal responsibility and spoken out against drug use, Limbaugh now finds himself in an ironic position, said Steve Rendall, a senior analyst at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a liberal media watchdog.

"I do wonder if it's going to cause any softening in the way he perceives personal failings and weaknesses in others," said Rendall, who co-authored the book "The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error."

"He has been incredibly uncharitable. He has relentlessly exploited the personal weaknesses and failings of others. He has not extended the same understanding one suspects he would like to be getting right now," said Rendall, adding, "Some of his listeners are bound to be shaken by the fact that Rush has feet of clay."

(snip)

Overall the article indicates that true Rush believers probably won't be deterred by this, but that a dose of humility may actually help his image.

Discuss -

[qanda]

1. Not right away,

But give them a few months or years and they will turn away. They will find someone else who has yet to taint their standards of holiness.

[Democrats unite]

4. Actually for his type to be tainted seems to elevate their kind.

Just my thoughts.

[Warpy]

15. Agreed. It was carefully crafted

...to follow all those guidelines of taking personal responsibility he set for the rest of us. My guess is that he's going to come back either still addicted and a whole lot less able to convince the sheep of his cockeyed view of the world, or clean and spouting fire and brimstone at everybody who uses opiates, even those who are in serious pain and use them responsibly. Either way, his audience will gradually be turned off and lose interest, possibly in favor of the next gasbag to come along (and there always is one, you know, from Coughlin to Pyne to Downey to Lamebawl...).

He'll then retire to upscale watering holes and spend the rest of his life telling Rethuglicans what a bigshot he used to be.

[Drifter]

2. or course not ...

he will become a Martyr, except without all that pesky dieing.

Why is he not fired ?

Cheers
Drifter

[mac56]

Good point.

Another thread asked whether Rush has a morals clause in his contract. Most entertainers have one, I believe. Could this be true for him too?

[damnraddem]

19. No, morals clauses are for entertainers.

Morals clauses for rightwing ideologues would be contradictory to every thing they stand for.

[caledesi]

24. Well according to the talk show host Mike Malloy he's gone.

Malloy said that every radio personality signs a morals clause and even if there is an appearance of violating that (sex, drugs & rocknroll) s/he is out.

He said that the EIB will do a buy-out and get rid of Rush BECAUSE it they don't, all the others who were terminated for violating the morals clause will be suing the hell out of EIB.

FWIW

[CO Liberal]

3. Judging By What I've Heard......

....all the dittoheads have been calling in to talk radio making all kinds of excuses for El Gasbag. These people are so screwed up that Limbaugh could go out and blow up a bus full of nuns and they'd all say that the nuns deserved it.......

[Don_G]

5. I've Been Thinking That Lately

He can always blame his drug use on the "liberals" that made him do it. He will lose some listeners that will see it as hypocriosy, but will retain the hard-core central audience that are truly dead from the neck up.

[Sagan]

6. Of course it won't...

His audience has a decade or more of practice at self-delusion, hypocrisy and moral relativism.

[diamond14]

7. tough to accept that you've been listening to the delusional

and hallucinogenic ramblings of a nasty-ass heroin addict....

and they're all proud to call themselves "ditto-heads"....sad, real sad...

[rocktivity]

8. His CONVICTION might do the trick

He confessed because he got caught. And he went into rehab to avoid being questioned and/or arrested. A truly responsible person would have decided that being addicted wasn't worth losing his hearing and career over. And a truly remorseful person wouldn't be on the lam right now.


rocknation

[Individualist]

9. His supporters

want to hear only venomous hate and propoganda; they don't care what Liarbaugh does regarding his personal behavior.

[soupkitchen]

10. True Rush believers knew he was just saying the lies they wanted

to believe in the first place. They knew in his heart he was lying, just like they knew in their hearts they were lying when they pretended to have thought things through.
So, of course, the're going to "forgive" him. The only other option is to start dealing with the truth. Which is just way too messy for ditto-heads, requiring, as it does, a bit of candid self-criticism.

[rootvg]

14. I'm Fairly...

...conservative on some issues but I haven't been a Limbaugh fan for years, because you could sense something didn't add up. My gut doesn't normally lie to me and it didn't this time either.

I tend to gravitate toward local radio (what little is left) and maybe a smattering of syndicated stuff but it's all so generic and barely listenable.

What's more important now is finding a way to reinvigorate our two party system. Congress looks like the California legislature: heavily gerrymandered districts with the extremes of each party in charge and no hope of compromise to solve our problems. It wasn't always this way, and that's so sad.

[Bunny]

20. Welcome to DU

Rootvg! :hi:

[Cat Atomic]

11. Nope. He cannot do the show he's been doing AND

have a drug addiction. He just can't.

His whole schtick is based on picking apart the tiniest missteps or perceived flaws in other people and blowing them up to gargantuan size.

How can a man with drug addiction- a aman who got his drugs illegally and only came clean when he got CAUGHT- have any credibility doing what he did before? The answer is he can't.

His numbers are going to take a big hit. He may stay on the air in some way, but he'll be severely diminished.

[Terwilliger]

12. did anybody think it would?

He might lose some sponsorship, and some of the more skittish members of the Dittohead pool, but he'll be back deriding peeople he decides he doesn't like in no time.

[Skittles]

13. describing Rush as an honest person

now THAT is sickening

[Homer12]

16. A large percentage of Rush listeners

Will stay with him becuase they like their fears bolstered and like the feeling that Rush gives them that THEY are the only victims.

(Poor, poor conservatives, You control the Federal Government yet you are still victims).

If any of his listeners have principles, they will see him for being a big hypocrite, they will also eat Rush's spin that he has taken personal responsability on his own account and easily forgive him, and they will stay to listen, but with a more critical bent on what he says (which can be good).

No Rush is a showman, and will use his clout and skills, to try to get back on top. But he has competition vs. O'Reilly and Hannity.

He'll be back, but not as strong, yet he'll be more vicous and manipulative.

[Snellius]

17. Right! And Jimmy Swaggert is Billy Graham

Rush will never be the same. He committed the ultimate hyporcrisy: he violated his own teachings. Without the high, his edge is done. He'll end up like one of those burnt-out comics, like Dennis Miller, depressing and bitter when the cocaine-fueled wit finally runs out.

[damnraddem]

18. Two flies in the Rush ointment:

1. Why so much Oxycontin? Anyone else would have been arrested for
possession with intent to sell, whether or not they did, or intended
to, sell.
2. He better not fall back off the wagon after rehab, assuming he makes
it THROUGH rehab.

[maha]

21. If he gets off dope, will he still be Rush?

That's what I wonder. If the man is dead cold chemically un-enhanced, will he be able to project the same persona that we've all come to know and disrespect?

[RobertSeattle]

22. Anyone catch the "I will not criticize Rush Limbaugh" crap?

I've heard at least two RW radio talk show hosts blatantly say they will not criticize Rush because "without him I wouldn't have a career". What amazing bull and hypocrisy.

[opihimoimoi]

23. Since he played a large role in building the PUB Myth

and assisting the Pubs Victories, he will be seen as weakened and perhaps, not as influential. Bad news for the Pubs.