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More evidence #StopRush has failed

More evidence #StopRush has failed

I have covered the #StopRush and various affiliated boycott campaigns against Rush Limbaugh organized and run by Media Matters as extensively as anyone:

While the campaign to intimidate advertisers had some early successes, I always have been skeptical that the effect was that great.  The statistics put out by Media Matters and others always spoke in terms of advertisers who refused to advertise on Limbaugh’s show, but that’s a meaningless statistic.

One of the things I learned from my research was that prior to Limbaugh’s Fluke comments, a huge number of advertisers stayed away from political talk radio, be it conservative or liberal, precisely because of the types of intimidation campaigns run by anti-Limbaugh groups and others.  Media Matters and others effectively poisoned everyone’s well.

The true measure of damage would be how many advertisers who previously advertised on Limbaugh stopped advertising, and that number was a fraction of the total statistics put out.  There certainly were some high profile capitulations, like Carbonite which paid a heavy price in lost business when it stopped sponsoring the show.

So when, in early May 2013 , Cumulus executives tried to blame the Limbaugh boycott for Cumulus’s business problems, I was skeptical.  Cumulus has other problems with conservative radio which made questionable its attempt to blame Limbaugh.

The triumphant headlines about how a high percentage of large advertisers refused to advertise on Limbaugh was, once again, a meaningless statistic for the reasons state above.

[note — above tweets pertained to a post at Mediaite by another author, not Noah Rothman]

Politico reports today Distributor: Rush Limbaugh doing ‘very well’:

Rush Limbaugh’s distributor on Thursday said there is no denying the  conservative radio host’s controversial comments about Sandra Fluke hurt  advertising last year — but 2013 is apparently a whole different ballgame.

This year, Limbaugh is drawing new advertisers and recovering well after the  major boycott he faced in response to his broadcasts on Fluke, Premiere Radio  senior vice president and director of talk radio sales Dan Metter told the  Talkers New York 2013 conference.

There was certainly a dramatic impact on the advertising sales in the wake of  Limbaugh’s comments, Metter noted, but he said that just drove the company to  find new sources of ad revenues.

Metter, who repeatedly referred to the advertising boycott of Limbaugh as simply  “the challenge,” said Premiere, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Media, focused its  efforts on getting ads on air from entrepreneurial-based companies not handled  by major ad agencies, such as LifeLock and LegalZoom.

We recently covered the failed attempts to intimidate SodaStream into cancelling its new sponsorship, and I also have heard advertisements for a back up service which replaced Carbonite. Both sponsorships have Limbaugh reading the ads.

Don’t think the attempt to deprive Limbaugh of a platform is over. There still is a core group of people who spend their days tweeting advertisers and posting facebook comments, and their goal is nothing short of getting Limbaugh off the air.

After my early May post about SodaStream, I received an email from one of the Limbaugh boycott people as follows (emphasis mine):

I am one of those Stoprush/flushrush people you mentioned in your article. I am real and I listen to Rush daily in order to contact advertisers, from my kitchen table. My twitter is my real name too. I do not know anything about MediaMatters and am not associated with them or any other organization. The group (Join the Fight to Flush Rush) I am with started right after the Sandra Fluke issue-there were about 25 people in the group when I joined. All I want is Rush off the air-the end. I have never done anything like this in my life-I am a 66 yr old ordinary white woman. Most in our group had never done anything like this before in their lives either.

That’s all.

Linda

That tells you something. It’s not about winning the argument on the merits, it’s about shutting down your opponents’ platforms. It’s part of a tactic used by Media Matters, Color of Change, and other left-wing groups for years against conservative speakers.

It’s not about Limbaugh, it’s about people who are fundamentally anti-democratic.

It’s why I’m so glad that StopRush is losing.

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Comments

“Rush Limbaugh’s distributor on Thursday said there is no denying the conservative radio host’s controversial comments about Sandra Fluke hurt advertising last year…”

His comments didn’t hurt advertising, the coordinated media backlash did.

TrooperJohnSmith | June 6, 2013 at 4:51 pm

So, how can we get Media Matters 501(3)(c) revoked?

If I have EVER heard anyone enjoying themselves doing what God made them to do…

it is Rush Limbaugh.

That is a joy to behold.

Well, “Linda” is a sanctimonious fascist hell-bent on silencing the opposition as much as Obama is. She should take that attitude of hers and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.

Yet, I am surprised that she is still on the stop rush bandwagon, especially if she is listening to Rush everyday. Drones’ ideologies only can exist in a vacume. Must be the medicare and social security benefits that she is getting from her lockbox every month, aka taxpayers wallets.

    MTED in reply to heimdall. | June 6, 2013 at 6:36 pm

    I’m sure that Linda was equally indignant when Ed Schultz referred to Laura Ingraham by the same offensive term. Can you confirm, Linda?
    Linda?

MaggotAtBroadAndWall | June 6, 2013 at 5:50 pm

Rational people who don’t like what they hear respect the speaker’s right to speak and just turn the channel.

Not this “66 year old ordinary white woman”. No, she listens to Rush daily just so she can harass his sponsors and try to force him off the air. It’s a tyrannical impulse which is common to so many of the selfish, intolerant Baby Boomers who have perverted the word “liberal” by wrongly describing themselves that way. There’s nothing liberal or tolerant about using coercive bully tactics to intimidate sponsors.

I’ve read a few stories over the years about Baby Boomers being hated by the rest of us. I bet she wonders why.

Henry Hawkins | June 6, 2013 at 6:02 pm

When we think about Linda and 25 friends trying to push Rush off the air, let’s remember that there are also groups of people in America who respectively chase bigfoot, talk to aliens, worship garden gnomes, and think vampires are real.

    Not A Member of Any Organized Political in reply to Henry Hawkins. | June 6, 2013 at 6:30 pm

    Plus those groups are not mutually exclusive. I’m confident that “Lindy” belongs to several of them!

    Don’t forget the Loc Ness Monster Booster Group!

    Anchovy in reply to Henry Hawkins. | June 6, 2013 at 6:30 pm

    I always knew you wingnuts would be starting a War On Garden Gnomes if given a chance and a tax exempt organization.

Bruno Lesky | June 6, 2013 at 6:53 pm

WAJ: “It’s not about Limbaugh, it’s about people who are fundamentally anti-democratic.
It’s why I’m so glad that StopRush is losing.”

Agreed. And also because Rush is so brilliant and funny and real and decent to his callers and coherent and on fire and fearless — more reasons why I’m glad StopRush is losing.

I know the post topic is about lefty elements’ censorship tactics — the unwillingness and inability to win hearts and minds by reason and wit. As I believe it’s OK for us commenters to tack, I add my tack that should StopRush succeed, I would sorely miss the voice of Mr. Limbaugh.

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I’d be willing to bet that Linda is not a “66 year old ordinary white woman” (just what is that, anyway?). Also, I would bet she wants more than to get Rush off the air. I suspect her entire email is almost complete BS.

I’d interview her parents, and ask for a driver’s license, a passport and a birth certificate before I’d believe her real name is Linda, too.