Send a "dont' let Rush back letter to Rush's sponsors

[Nashyra]

over at http://www.Democrats.com there is an article that takes you to Rush's web page encouraging his fans to send a letter of support. I just sent mine in telling them that I would boycott any of his sponsors and they sent a little message saying thanks that my letter would be sent to Rush's sponsors.

[msanger]

1. this 'freeping' works

I know, cause it happened to me at the "shop to drop bush" site. Many of the biggest name merchants I linked to dropped me - because they didn't want to deal with the angry freepers who e-bombed them.

Of course, I'd suspect that merchants who sponsor rush know who he is, so I wonder how effect our emails will be.

[Nashyra]

2. I think anything helps that's keeps this

viscious person off the air. This might not do it but chipping away eventually erodes anything or anybody. Remember the drip drip drip

[Silverhair]

3. Won't make any difference

Rush's sponsors long ago concluded that the market for their products was more likely to be a Rush listener than an NPR listener. They knew that Rush was highly controversial. They knew that the left may well target them for boycotts in an effort to silence Rush. So in deciding to advertise on Rush, they wrote off the left as buyers already. They are going to start wanting to reach their target audience again, and it ain't us. So they won't care about a liberal boycott.

On his show he loves to talk about liberal attempts to force him off the air. His audience laps it up.

Rush will be back, and the dittoheads will be back listening to him again. Nothing will have changed, except that Rush will probably be off of drugs. He has enough money to have 24/7/365-366 help. Since he doesn't hold any elective office he is immune to the type of pressure that forced Trent Lott to step down.

[DonP]

10. Agree with you on that

In the immortal words of Wavy Gravy: "For all of you folks that don't believe capitalism is all that weird ..."

I buy advertising space and time for a living and the only thing that counts for media people and advertisers are the numbers. How many listeners and their income levels is the main thing that matters when they pick a show or station and time slot.

When/if Rush comes back there will probably be a small blip up in the numbers as everyone here listens to him for a week or so to see if he starts babbling incoherently, well at least more than usual.

The majority of his listeners have already given him a pass on this because it was "prescription drugs" etc. If he does have his "treatment" followed by legal action, that might start to impact things.

On another note, FYI. E-mails are generally discredited by advertisers, politicians and corporations as too easy to send. One of my friends works as a senior staff aide for a major Democratic figure in Illinois and the rule of thumb is FWIW ...

1000 E-mails = one real letter

1 call = 25 real letters

1 face to face visit = 50 real letters

Don P.

[Silverhair]

4. Big name sponsors avoid controversy on both sides.

Rush's sponsors have already written off the left as a market for their stuff, or they wouldn't be his sponsor to begin with. You got hammered, not because your sponsors supported Rush, but because they didn't want to offend either side. Rush's sponsors don't care if the left is offended.

[William Seger]

5. Last night, I read Al Franken's chapter...

... entitled "'This Was Not a Memorial to Paul Wellstone', A Case Study in Right Wing Lies", which included some of Limbaugh's lying rants.

I know it isn't very Christian, but I really hope Limbaugh had a very bad night.

To the question, "Why is this country so violently polarized today, to the extent that civil discourse is completely impossible?" the short answer is "Rush Limbaugh, the demagoguery industry he spawned, and the anti-democracy forces that promoted it."

Calling Rush Limbaugh a "great American" should be an impeachable offense.

[DoraFan]

14. Impeachable

Calling Rush Limbaugh a "great American" should be an impeachable offense.


How about calling him a "distinguished American" as Al Gore did when debating Ross Perot on Larry King about NAFTA?

[William Seger]

22. Easy:

It was a dumb-assed thing to say. But:

1) To score a point on Perot, Gore gave a list of conservative Republicans who supported NAFTA, and to make the case stronger he used the term "distingushed Americans", presuming that Perot couldn't argue with that characterization.

2) If I had been advising him, I would certainly have advised him to leave Limbaugh off that list; but he didn't ask me.

3) "Distinguished" as in "prominent" falls far short of "great", and Limbaugh ass, if nothing else, was certainly prominent.

4) It was a debating tactic -- "You wanna argue with these guys, Ross?" -- whereas there is no doubt that Mr. Uniter-Not-a-Divider sincerely believes that Limbaugh is a "great American" for promoting hate and distrust, not just of liberalism, but of liberal people. In BushCo's case, there is ample supporting evidence that marginalizing any and all opposition is precisely how they intend to "unite" the country.

[spindoctor]

6. Naww, I miss Rush

Honest, I do. Plus that, he is a constant reminder of why we are doing what we are doing here. You think that will go away with Mr. Limbaugh? Nah again.
His hole would be plugged (don't quote me on that one), and his successor will be just as bad or worse.

Its like impeaching Bush only to end up with Cheney as President *shivers*.

Let him come back. He is a piece of cake compared to some others I can think of. Sure, there will be a million dittoheads nodding dutifully at the wheel again, but hey...we can't control the gene pool. Idiots deserve their place in society too. That's what democracy is all about.

Besides that, complaining to sponsors is so anti-democratic. Do "we" really want to resort to those tactics?

[Yupster]

21. First Art Bell.

then Rush.

[bryant69]

7. H.L. Mencken

"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." - H. L. Mencken

I guess the question one has to ask oneself is does one believe in the right of people you don't like to say things you don't like? Or to put it another way, what is the value of free speech if it allows Rush Limbuagh to say ugly things? Why not scrap it?

The price of letting me say whatever the hell I want is that one has to let Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter or so on say whatever the hell they want.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[spindoctor]

9. Or to say it in Voltaire's words

"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it."

[ArkDem]

8. Yes, I'm sure they will listen to us and

not money.

[KharmaTrain]

11. There's A Lot Of Rumbling In Radioland...

I will provide links in days to come but many Rush affiliates are beginning to get very uncomfortable with what's going on.

Two reasons. First, the "replacement" Rush's aren't drawing well; audience levels are down and this is not a good thing for stations that use Rush's numbers to prop up their value to advertisers and agencies ($$$) in the critical run-up to 4th quarter. The stations are nervous how long agencies will pay the special "Rush" rates without Rush and overall revenues and time sales with lower audience numbers. Expect this could be a real problem in about 60 days.

Problem Two: the confusion as to what really happened to Rush. Yes, we know he's a junkie and probably has been for years, but that hasn't really hit home with the "dittoheads" and their advertisers. This is one massive group denial we're watching, but it won't last...as we're starting to see with people like Gallagher sounding more and more like he wants to be the next Rush every day. Right now there's a void in HateRadio land...the 900 gorilla is gone and may never be the same...others are chomping at the chance to grab that golden ring. Bottom line: many of Rush's "friends" have their knives out and hoping Rush just fades away.

The radio biz is very nervous...and compromised right now, losing Rush is akin to the market going bust in hate radio land. Boycotting Rush stations (and other hate hosts) could have some very positive effects right now, if done factually and tactfully. A venomous anti-dittohead letter will get tossed.

[ArkDem]

13. Wow, sounds like

you really are radio active!

[Silverhair]

15. We will know soon.

You said, "The stations are nervous how long agencies will pay the special "Rush" rates without Rush and overall revenues and time sales with lower audience numbers. Expect this could be a real problem in about 60 days." Rush only went into rehab for 30 days, which are almost up. He will be back in a few days. If he still has the same bombast then the dittoheads return and nothing changes.

If Rush has changed and no longer functions at his former level, then he's gone.

[KharmaTrain]

16. Not THAT Soon...LOL

I expect he'll make a return sometime next month. It'll be trumpted all over the place as his next step in his "rehabilitation". We will then start to tell how this effects his program, his listeners, sponsors and affiliates.

Rush is gonna have to be so contrite while being ascerbic...showing he's recovered while trying to relight the dittohead fire. That's a tough order for the best performer...especially one who will have a lot of attention on him.

Right now affiliates will wait and can tap dance, but this won't be the case forever...look at the mess Dr. Laura created for herself with far less of a controversy.

Hate radio won't go away...but it is having its credibility tested.

[Silverhair]

18. Why does he have to be contrite?

Contrite? The liberal won't believe contrition from him and the dittoheads don't want him to be contrite. Rush & his listeners are not liberals (extreme understatement) and don't think like us and don't play by our rules. He can resume the bombast, the dittoheads listen like always, the advertisers look at the audience size, and we post grumbling posts about it here. Nothing changed.

[KharmaTrain]

19. Whose Grumbling?

The contrition is a token obligation to play into the martyr game that Rush started to play before Roy Black packed him off to rehab.

There's nothing this tub of chemicals has ever said or could say to impress me...other than his farewell from public view or the unbelievable possibility of some "liberal conversion" (sarcasm dripping).

This is not for you nor me...just the game Rush and his people will play to save his show...which feeds a mini industry to itself. I'm saying it's too soon to tell if the dittoheads will defect enough to cause stations to dump the Rush show...which will be purely determined on ratings...not ideology or guilt or even Rush being convicted. In fact, being a felon is a plus in hate radio: witness North and Liddy.

Rush's "success" was creating revenues for local stations in the dead midday dayparts...he has few national advertisers (most large corporations DO NOT advertise on controversial radio programs), and it's the local guys that make money for Rush, Premier (the REAL EIB) and the local stations. Right now the jury's out if these advertisers will want to stay indentified with a wounded Rush or throw their money at someone else.

Where I come from we say "Stay Tuned"

[THE_TRUTH_HURTS]

12. s

s

[eleny]

17. I would write to Clear Channel...

and ask them why they're a good stock investment risk when they obviously didn't drug test their biggest money making radio personality asset. I read somewhere that they may have failed to meet their feduciary responsibility to their investors by not testing Rush as all others are routinely tested.

Thanks for the link. I'll be happy to email the sponsors and then let Clear Channel know about it, too.

[Bandit]

20. Write your Congressman ~ Get him off Armed Forces Radio ~ NOW

He has no business politicizing the military. He can do his political show to the cows come home to the general public but not to the Military. This is a Golden Opportunity we have to get him away from our young people in the military. We need to push for this. I want him gone from Armed Forces Radio yesterday.

[Cat Atomic]

23. You know, I think we may be better off if Rush DOES go back to

doing his hate radio show.

Rush is a lame duck now. If he goes back to work, he may have enough fumes to sputter along in a Dennis Prager sort of limbo for years, but he's been de-fanged.

If he's gone, SOMEONE will fill his shoes.

I think we may be better off letting the damaged goods come back. And it'll only damage his cause more when he has a relapse. And he will have a relapse. This man didn't go to rehab because he wanted to quit drugs- he went because he wanted to avoid jail.