The master of conservative talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, died last week at the age of 70!
While he wasn't the first in the game, he elevated the political talk radio format into the mainstream and spawned many imitators!
Limbaugh became a national household name in the late 80s going into the 90s. This was an era when the center-left had a near-monopoly of the media, and Fox News was not yet in existence. In fact, Roger Ailes was a producer of Limbaugh's short-lived TV show before starting Fox News under Rupert Murdoch in 1996. And don't forget, the Internet was in its infancy at the time and was a few years away from being mainstream.
Limbaugh was also a best-selling author with his books "The Way Things Ought to Be" and "See I Told You So".
While politics is a serious topic, Limbaugh was talented in making political discussions entertaining even if you didn't agree with him.
He did expose the hypocrisies of the Democrats and liberal activists. However, he was always a kiss-ass to the Republican Party, and never contradicted the main leaders of the party even when they flip-flopped in their positions.
The Left did claim that Limbaugh was a white supremacist, a misogynist, and a homophobe.
I don't believe Limbaugh was a white supremacist, though he could be tone-deaf at times. There's a difference between being a hardcore bigot vs being occasionally tone-deaf. I'll never encourage either, but Limbaugh was more in the tone-deaf category. In fact, as I mentioned in previous posts, Hawaii's former 98.5 Wake Up Crew was way more vulgar and bigoted than Limbaugh
(blog posts on 98.5 Wake Up Crew)
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2017/05/wake-up-with-brown-privilege.html
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/11/fire-985-wake-up-crew.html
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/12/bullies-get-dunked-on.html
In fact, Walter Williams was a guest host, and James Golden (aka Bo Snerdly) was a producer on his show. Both were African-Americans.
link to Bo Snerdly's interview after Limbaugh's death https://news.yahoo.com/rush-limbaugh-incredibly-great-human-150644012.html
Some of the alleged racist quotes attributed to Limbaugh were found to be unsubstantiated accorded to Snopes
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/rush-limbaugh-racist-quotes/
Last year, Limbaugh did call Charlamagne Tha God's Breakfast Club (a talk show that is popular among hip-hop audiences) and expressed his disgust towards the cops who killed George Floyd, but he also disagreed with the concept of "white privilege". While he did convince that he wasn't a hardcore bigot, it still comes across as tone-deaf.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y1vGD7bNEg
I did remember listening to Limbaugh's show when he made fun of the name of a Chinese pilot who crashed into a US spy-plane in the early 2000's. I remember being in the same room with a friend of Asian ancestry when we heard it, and we definitely cringed at that joke!
Limbaugh was also tone-deaf on gender issues. He mocked a liberal activist for being a "slut" for lobbying the government to subsidize birth control and mocked the appearance of Democrat women.
Some of Limbaugh's statements did go BEYOND mere tone-deafness and were truly deplorable & repulsive.
For example, in the early 90s, he had a segment mocking gay men who were dying of AIDS. Limbaugh later apologized.
https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-rush-limbaugh-mock-aids-death-radio-show-1570282
He also mocked Micheal J Fox's symptoms of Parkinson's Disease after he made an ad supporting Democrat candidates.
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/rush-limbaugh-death-michael-j-fox/
He also mocked Kurt Cobain after his suicide in 1994. However, later in life, just like Cobain, Limbaugh became addicted to drugs he started taking to ease his physical pains. Be careful what you make fun of, it might soon be you.
For these statements, many will never forgive Rush Limbaugh, and many celebrated his death on social media.
Being that I once listened to his show in the early 2000s and I did read his books, I knew there was a Rush Limbaugh beyond these cringe-worthy statements. I knew he had valuable insights on politics, economics & more.
However, as a public figure, you have to understand that once you make cringe-worthy statements, you lose the trust of millions, regardless of whatever good things you may have said. You claim "it's not fair" but so what? You can only push people around so much before they say "I'm done with you".
I say the new generation of radio/TV/podcast hosts can learn from Limbaugh's comedic talents without abusing such talents.
