Earlier this month Media Matters launched its most ferocious boycott effort ever to force Rush Limbaugh off the air by intimidating advertisers.
It always was a charade, as documented here many times. Media Matters coordinated with “independent” groups to make it appear that there was a grassroots movement, but it was astroturf.
The numbers of advertisers “dropping” Limbaugh as published by Media Matters were grossly inflated, as the stats included advertisers who never advertised or never intended to advertise. Relatively few high profile actual sponsors dropped the show.
But the mainstream media had you believe otherwise. But no more. Even The Washington Post reports that it is all but over:
The dark clouds hanging over Rush Limbaugh appear to be lifting.
Exactly one month after the conservative radio host sparked outrage by calling Georgetown law-school student Sandra Fluke “a slut” and “a prostitute” in a three-day diatribe, stations are standing by him, advertisers are trickling back to his program and the news media have moved on….
“The objective has been to show that there are real consequences when someone like Mr. Limbaugh or his company shows no accountability for his actions,” says Angelo Carusone, who has been leading the anti-Limbaugh efforts for Media Matters for America, a Washington organization. “That is continuing.”
At the same time, however, Carusone acknowledged that outrage is hard to sustain. “I think certainly the pressure has been reduced,” he said. “To a certain extent, that’s okay and acceptable. . . . Obviously, the intensity is gone, but the engagement remains high.” …
Limbaugh’s advertising losses may have been less than media accounts suggested. While more than 100 advertisers told Premiere that they didn’t want to be associated with “controversial” radio programs of any kind in the wake of the flap, some of these companies weren’t regular Limbaugh sponsors in the first place.
Carusone said most of the advertiser exodus over the past month appeared to be among companies whose ads aired only in regional or local markets, he said.
Even the hope of Mike Huckabee replacing Rush on Cumulus-owned stations has fizzled:
Expectations that a weakened Limbaugh could be bumped by a new program hosted by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) have also not materialized. None of Limbaugh’s many affiliates have said they’ll move him from his midday time slot in favor of Huckabee.
The Twitter and social media war launched by Media Matters in coordination with “independent” groups has been reduced to a few dead-enders going after small advertisers in small markets, hoping to find someone, anyone, they can bully.
They’re so desperate that they’re now firing at plumbers, roofers, fitness centers, car dealerships, tire stores, weight loss centers, and vision centers.
They understand that the opportunity of a lifetime has passed:
The biggest damage has been to Media Matters, which put its reputation for intimidating advertisers on the line, and failed.
Media Matters wasn’t defeated by Limbaugh. Media Matters was defeated by tens of thousands of conservatives who recognized that this was not about Limbaugh or what Limbaugh said.
Those of us who criticized the use of those two words were among the most vociferous defenders against Media Matters’ advertiser intimidation tactics, and the double-standard employed by advertisers such as Carbonite who pandered to the crowd.
The campaign to force Limbaugh off the air was but part of a larger war in which Media Matters and others liberal groups seek to force numerous conservative voices off of the one media outlet dominated by conservatives, talk radio.
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Comments
Thanks for your work on this, Professor. You got some well-deserved shout outs from Limbaugh, too.
Good work, Wm.
These people need to get a life. What kind of monster does it take to sustain hatred for 27 long years?
All you have to be is left-wing politically and convinced you are right and everybody who disagrees with you is wrong. And must be destroyed.
This kind of monster.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=42674
Conversely, America continues to make real market choices in the world of news and comment…
CNN bent itself double to rescue Prof. Bell’s Critical Race Theory after Breitbart outed Obama as a big exponent.
“Executives at CNN must be in shock at the catatrophic implosion of their morning lineup, as Starting Point With Soledad O’Brien (7-9 a.m. weekdays) recorded the cable network’s lowest ratings for that time slot in more than a decade. Fewer than 100,000 adults 25-54 tuned in to O’Brien’s program on an average day, according to the latest quarterly Nielsen numbers.
Inside Cable News called the CNN morning numbers “brutal,” and “an epic ratings collapse,” further adding: “CNN cannot continue to hemorrhage viewers like this much longer without taking drastic corrective action.” While industry observers were amazed by O’Brien’s uprecedented unpopularity, the outspoken liberal host’s historically low ratings were a cause for vengeful celebration by conservatives like the Daily Caller’s Jim Treacher:
Every day, @Soledad_OBrien‘s ratings are worse than the last. That means every time you see her, it’s the worst day of her life.
–From The Other McCain
You lose people when you pwn yourself, SoloDad…
I don’t know how anyone can stand to listen to her.
She oozes smarmy self-righteousness.
The market is most definitely reflecting that.
What’s even more delicious is Cumulus or Cirrus or whatever got stopped cold, too. You have to be really stupid to think you can replace Limbaugh with that bucket of slick smarm called Huckabee!
hahahaha!! That was laughable right from the get-go. That studio audience of 35 that pours in to watch “Huckabee” being taped isn’t going to replace Rushbo’s millions.
Only those who need a drug-free narcotic to fall asleep during the day would ever need to listen to Mike Huckabee…
“Take Huck-a-bex to-nite and sleep…safe and restful…sleep, sleep, sleep…”
Who exactly was hoping Huckleberry would replace Rush? People who oprganize their lives around when “Matlock” airs on TV? That will never happen.
Is this like the Battle of the Bulge and we just liberated Bastone?
WTF?
NO
-ferocious Shoq jock-itch
It would be interesting to see the impact if any of the pushback on the companies who dropped Rush
Breitbart is Here!
Greg in Denver
Rush Twitter followers now over 170,500.
Good work, media matters!
I have to laugh. My local talk radio station has a new advertisement out, it says something like Rush Limbaugh is #1, that ain’t no Fluke. Doesn’t seem as though many stations have been scared off.
While we spent time on a campaign to “Orotect Rush”, a man with a 15 million member audience (????), we lost the war with Romney. Newt has been marginalized, the only man in my lifetime or anyone’s lifetime who has ever meaningfully cut government growth. That is something not even RR managed to do.
4 more years of big government, huge deficits, out of control spending growth no matter who wins. If Romney does manage to win, he’ll destroy the party much like he did in Massachusetts. If we mange to make it through to the midterms in 2014 – assuming we haven’t ad a debt implosion by then, we’ll lose the house and the senate, and democrats will go in for the kill and destroy the republic in 2016 with Obama 2.
Absolutely agree.
iam, some of us can multi-task. It isn’t really an “either-or” kinda deal.
Not on the same time scale, but I’ve been voting against my congressman for the past 20 years. He’s still representing my district, and me included.
Perhaps someone should publish a primer on how to walk and chew gum at the same time.
All your walking and chewing apparently didn’t do anything for newt or rush.
imfine, look up the speach at CPAC by Grover Nordquist, it is fully reassuring for Mitt doubters, like me. To paraphrase, Mitt’s situation will be to sign what Paul Ryan sends to him on domestic/budget/economic mattters and then to concentrate on foreign policy, which I believe he will be tremendous at.
Finally, for Pete’s sake, we just need some elegance back in the Oval Office…
That is silly. If Mitt is President and the Head of the Party, he’s the one making the calls, not Ryan. Mitt will control all the party levers, and Ryan will have no choice but to fall in line or be the Ron Paul of the Senate. If you want me to have faith in Ryan, let him put his name up for nomination, I’ll vote for him in a second. But if Romney is on the ballot, I’ll evaluate him for who he is, based on what he has said and done. If my perspective, losing the presidency is not as bad as losing the house and senate. I’ld rather have 4 more years of republican consolidation in the congress and through the states hollowing out the dems, then 4 disastrous years of Romney.
Romney is creepy. Has no integrity, credibility, credentials.
Creepy.
I saw that speech too, and even though Norquist creeps me out, I agree with what he said.
Whatever the Congress sends Romney(assuming the Congress is now Republican) he will sign it.
Grover Norquist is a problem.
Research him.
I have. I know all about his support for muslims, as he’s married to one.
But when it comes to tax pledges and getting the Republicans to tow that “no tax” pledge, Norquist can’t be beat.
He’s a mean bastard.
Like I said earlier, he’s creepy. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t be right on the tax issue.
eesh, Ihope you’re not talkin’ more gold spray-painted styrofoam Grecian columns.
You so not fine it isn’t even funny. Dial in to http://www.getalife.com sometime to sneak up on a clue. The goal is and always has been, and always should be, to move He Who Must Not Be Middle-Named out of the People’s House, and replace him with anybody more conservative than he. Not the most conservative man who can win an election in Pennsylvania, not the most conservative man that the TEA Party whole-heartedly endorses. The most conservative politician who won’t scare the independents away. And, like it or don’t, that man is the Mittster. Not my first choice, but our only hope to end the destruction of the USA.
You’d better hope that Indies gained exceeds Conservatives Lost if Rombot is nominated. Gaining Indies doesn’t help if it costs you otherwise solid Con votes.
Where do Shoq Value and Media Matters go to get their reputation back?
27 effing years is a long time to wait for an effing epic fail.
They FURTHER pooed the screwch over the Trayvon photo/Drudge thingy.
I don’t go to Drudge anymore, but Media Mutters called him a “racist demagogue” while accusing him of having a false photo up.
Another thorough self-PWN.
I just applauded at your comment!
Hey, they want to be the arbiters of the “New Civility”? Maybe we should help them along… Good for the goose, and all that…
Mrs. Shoq Value had better have dinner ready, and the Shoq Value kids had better be quiet and behave themselves …
… or I fear Mr. Shoq Value, coming home after an effing bad day at the office, is going to beat the hell out of them.
Failure is frustrating. Failure after waiting 27 effing years? Really frustrating.
“Failure after waiting 27 effing years?”
LOL. I can’t help laughing.
As Crazy Uncle Joe would say…”This is a big f****n’ deal!”
I’m a believer in the 1st and 2nd amendments…and very much against Obama’s and Pelosi’s use of Fluke to float their agenda which is not just about contraception.
They want free abortions, free p*nis pumps, free se x enhancement drugs, free STD and AIDS treatment.
Obama has made the LBGTXYZ agenda his priority. He wants any and everything that promotes and maximizes pleasure in the alphabet of orientations agenda and lifestyles to be covered by nationalized health care – no matter the statistical actuarial risk or cost.
Problem is – AIDS treatment costs 600K per patient’s lifetime. Promiscuity is mentally and physically high-risk, high cost and unhealthy.
As Rush was trying to say in his ‘theatre of the absurd’ hyper-exaggerated way – it’s all about making the taxpayer pay for promiscuity and self-destruction.
Did he get carried away into overkill? Was he abusive and repugnant?
The Crawdad Hole thinks so: http://crayfisher.wordpress.com/just-for-the-record/
I think it’s better if we don’t play the liberals’ game, of accusations, name-calling or any game at all…just play it straight like I did above. I’m for Rush and protecting him against persecution and prosecution…but I wish he had handled it straight up – with statistics and science studies… but then he wouldn’t be as popular if he played it that way, would he?
I just wish he hadn’t apologized.
They’ll never get Rush. 🙂
Speaking of Twitter:
Wisconsin Democratic Party spokesman Zielinski says state GOP tweeted that women ‘should get paid less and not be able to make health care decisions’
Some excerpts from the aricle:
………………………………………………..
Here’s what Zielineski tweeted:
RT @WisGOP: Happy International Women’s Day! You ladies should get paid less and not be able to make health care decisions.
……………………………………………….
One little problem: The state GOP never tweeted it.
We asked Zielinski where the message came from.
His response: “It was me ‘Tweeting’ as them, since they voted to cut equal pay protections and put new roadblocks in between women and their doctors.”
Ok. That’s pretty simple. The tweet was fabricated to try and make a point.
………………………………………………..
It also appears the faked message violates the Twitter rules known as the “terms of service.”
“By accessing or using the Services you agree to be bound by these Terms,” Twitter says.
Here’s a key rule, listed first under “Content Boundaries and Use of Twitter”:
Impersonation: You may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others.
And here’s another:
Twitter users are not allowed to “in any way use the Services to send altered, deceptive or false source-identifying information.”
Gee, wonder what the chances are that Twitter would cancel the account of the chairman of the WI Democratic Party.
The most interesting and instructive thing is that liberals aren’t at all oriented towards engaging their ideological opponents in debate or the marketplace of ideas. No, anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their litany of beliefs must be silenced and destroyed. Nothing new about it though, Orwell of course had it right.
“27 f@#$ing years we have waited for Rush to finally push too far. If we don’t seize this moment, we’ll never seize any.”
There’s one thing left for me to say about this:
SUUUFFFEEEERRRRR!!!!!!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
[Sorry, guys! I just couldn’t resist! After all, he deserved it.]
Go Get ‘Em, Rush!
He did agree to the rules. He should be suspended.
When Rush is ready for another controversy, he should say something like “Ellen DeGeneres has thespian tendencies”. I bet Media Matters, et al, would go crazy with that.
Best post on this thread……:)
“Media Matters wasn’t defeated by Limbaugh. Media Matters was defeated by tens of thousands of conservatives who recognized that this was not about Limbaugh or what Limbaugh said.”
THIS!
From where I sit, the push-back from ordinary conservatives on Twitter was heartening – and fun – to see.
What was that thing Breitbart used to say again? Oh yes…
“…WAR.”
I would put that little snippet of Andrew saying, “War!” at the end of every video made to get the troops fired up. Now that sends a tingle up my leg!
Thank you Professor for shining the light of truth on this subject. You have taken the steam out of this project in the most adept way.
I am grateful as I have listened to Rush’s national program from Day One. I hope Rush has extended his thanks to you as well.
I think you’d like to read – and listen to – this:
“Rush Limbaugh Ratings Up 60% Since Fluke Controversy”
Once again, to Media Matters et.al.:
SUUUFFFEEEERRRRR!!!!!!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
I remember another Micky Mouse in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, flailing away on that enchanted broom…
Heh.
My eyes well with the tears of 1,000 tech-savvy Media Mutters “world policemen of the airwaves” who suddenly realize they are the modern, wireless equivalent of Deputy Barney Fife.
Without Barney’s competence.
[…] Prof Jacobson […]
I love this Breitbart tribute video by @MisfitPolitics, especially at around 2:21 with the various bloggers intoning “…WAR”.
Click: http://youtu.be/4Ld8tJdfVMc?t=2m21s
Well, I thought Fluke and her Democrat benefactors defined themselves. However, that was a negative defense. Congratulations, Professor Jacobson, for pursuing a positive offense and succeeding to preserve equal liberty.
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