It’s all about reality:
Capital One has recently aired advertisements on the Rush Limbaugh radio show. Today, ThinkProgress asked a representative of the company whether it is “taking steps to ensure that your ads will not run on Rush Limbaugh in the future.” Capital One responded: “Yes. We have reiterated our advertising choices to our media partners. If an ad did run, it was not authorized by us, and we do not want it to happen again.”
Separately, Downeast Energy announced they will also stop advertising on Rush Limbaugh. The total number of companies that have pulled their ads on the Rush Limbaugh show now stands at 32.
Censorship! Freedom of speech! Liberal media!
Bubblegum Tate
THIS IS JUST A BACK DOOR TO THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE!
[/wingnut]
patrick II
I had called Netflix earlier (I am a subscriber) today and they said any advertisements on Limbaugh were an accident and that I should no longer hear any ads on that show. The list at Media Matters showing Netflix withdrawing advertisements today.
schrodinger's cat
This is excellent news
John McCainMittens RMoneypragmatism
Bankster Bankster that’s what they’re yellin.
It’s all about the salary (and bonuses!) and not about reality.
c u n d gulag
Poor ‘Rushba the Hut!’
It looks like the “sluts,” and the men who love and respect them, are winning!
All that’s left are some gold & silver grifters, cures for restless nuts with restless leg syndrome, some minor league quicker-pecker-upper manufacturers (and useless nuts syndrome), maybe some dating sites for Conservatives who want to date, have a mate, but not have any sex, since that would be sinful.
I think I’ll start a new dating company and advertise on Rush’s show: u-Harmony.
It’ll be a dating service for the Conservative rugged individualists.
I’ll charge them a fortune to answer a whole bunch of questions, and then provide them with their perfect mate – themselves!
Onanism – A Party of One!
Too bad ProFlower dropped Rush and they can’t sent themselves some flowers after they’re done being with the one they love, and loving the one they’re with…
Ash Can
I’m glad these sponsors are all doing this now, and sorry they didn’t do it sooner (like years ago).
Brachiator
Wasn’t Rush bragging about how new advertisers would quickly rush in to replace any who left?
So, let’s see. Especially in this age of Twitter and Social Media, companies are hot to be associated with a jerk who calls women sluts?
Breitbart wept.
Rick Taylor
How bizarre. Rush has gotten away with being a pig for years. Then one day he goes two far, and it all comes crashing down all at once.
Redshift
@Ash Can:
I agree. However, we have to live with the fact that it’s not actually that they have a problem being associated with the offensive bile he’s poured out his entire career, it’s that they have a problem with people other than his listeners knowing about it.
dmsilev
@c u n d gulag:
Been done. Google, if you dare, ‘Hannidate’, the Sean Hannity-approved dating site.
Kane
It’s interesting that Breitbart has been suspiciously silent on this issue lately.
Mark S.
Did anyone listen to Rush today? Is the nervous breakdown starting?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Liberal advertisers!
Mnemosyne
@Ash Can:
Clear Channel does most of its advertising as blocks that run on all of their stations, so it’s quite likely that at least some of the sponsors didn’t know their ads were running on his show until they started getting complaints.
I’m sure that Clear Channel’s sales staff is getting run off their feet by advertisers’ demands that they make sure that none of their ads run on Limbaugh’s show. Serves ’em right.
Dave
Forgive my ignorance, as I’m not one of the twitterati, and I’m not much for facebook, but between this and the Komen debacle, have there ever been any US targets this big who have been taken out with social media before? I’m unsure if you could claim social media as the fulcrum for ACORN or Weiner.
Redshift
@Rick Taylor: It’s not quite that simple. He went too far against someone who wasn’t a public figure, on an issue that is getting a lot of attention because the GOP has seized on it at both the national and state level during a presidential campaign, and did it in an era when social media means that it’s easy for citizens not only to spread information about who his sponsors are, but easy to contact them through channels that they have set up to engage the public and help their marketing.
There’s still a strong dose of serendipity involved, but it really is a perfect storm.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
The crafty Kenyan is behind all this.
Him and his soshulist pentagram of death.
I can hear greater wingnuttia getting whiter by the minute.
Southern Beale
JC Penney just announced they’ve dropped Limbaugh too. I can’t keep track anymore.
Also, two AM radio stations have dropped his show. Can’t imagine he’s still worth that $400 million contract he got.
Linda Featheringill
@Kane:
LOL. Oh, no. You are soooooo bad!
The Other Chuck
A number of these advertisers never intended to advertise on the show, they simply bought blocks of radio time for certain markets. Even the advertising agencies who buy time on the station aren’t always aware, they simply buy generic blocks where you get X amount of plays between hours Y and Z. They figured as long as there’s a return on the investment and no one’s complaining, it’s all good.
Now that people are complaining, they’re actually calling up their advertising affiliates and saying “oh and make sure it never airs during Rush Limbaugh”. In a way, that’s an even stronger repudiation of Lardo McLoud, which warms my heart to think about.
When advertisers pulled out of Glenn Beck, he was gone within the year. ClearChannel is already bleeding cash, they’re not going to keep subsidizing this clown.
El Tiburon
@Mark S.:
I don’t know, but I bet his housekeeper is as jumpy as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Yet, conversely, I bet the hillbilly heroin dealers in his hood are jumping for joy cause’ theyz about to get paid.
capt
As if advertising on the Rush show was ever not hate filled invective with a strong dose of racism.
It is about time these companies concerned themselves with what their ad dollars are supporting.
It is never too late to do the right thing.
jl
Another side benefit of Rush going just far enough over the line he tries to push further out into foulness every day, is that I don’t think we will be hearing corporate news personalities dropping Rush’s name anymore as some one they listen to regularly, to keep in tough with what is going on in the U.S.
I think they (Williams comes to mind) were just saying PR crap, and I thought he was lying. But I bet Limbaugh won’t be getting credibility from that quarter again soon.
I suppose Williams and others who have said that think it will up their popularity scores with a prime marketing demographic, but I heard him say it and thought “Why, Zounds, I do believe that eminent corporate news reader gentlemen is lying in order to make be believe he is a ‘with it’ ‘hep cat’, as the youth nomenclature puts it”
Dave
@Redshift:
I was thinking it’s more likely that this is the first time they’ve actually had real-time response to a complaint. In the past, they’d get some phone calls, faxes, letters, etc., but never enough to absolutely overwhelm them to the point where it impacts their business. It’s like what might normally be a 3-month campaign has been compressed into 48 hours.
Brachiator
@c u n d gulag:
Here’s the thing. In part because of the bad economy, quite a number of advertisers on Rush and other radio stations are “call this number” companies.
But when their phone lines are tied up, either with Rush bashers or Rush defenders, they can’t do business.
And so, they do better by steering clear.
Poor LimpBaugh. Couldn’t happen to a douchier bag.
Linda Featheringill
@Dave:
Social networking:
It seems to be a recent phenomenon.
If we keep it up and practice a lot, maybe we can reach the level of proficiency of the young people in Egypt last year!
jibeaux
Fucking first amendment, how does it work?
David Koch
You liberals just love shredding the first amendment and freedom of speech, dontcha?
It’s a crime that a good Christian like Rush is being borked by the godless liberals.
The Ancient Randonneur
I just want to know if the Boston Red Sox (and many other pro sports franchises) are objectively pro-Rushbo? Many of the stations that carry their games also carry Rush. Doesn’t that make them objectively pro-Rush? Time to get on them!
El Tiburon
@Rick Taylor:
Perhaps the Komen effect – and maybe everyone, and I mean everyone, is sick and tired of the O’Keefe’s and Breitbarts and their relentless and malicious attacks on everyone who is NOT a white male (mostly).
Take the Republican Presidential clown car – please. They seem so dated with their juvenile and idiotic attacks on simply everything.
Maybe we are entering a new phase in discourse.
japa21
@Redshift: Or to put it another way, if they thought that continuing to advertise would not do significant damage to their bottom line, they wouldn’t be doing this. Many have described their actions as suspending their advertising. Perhaps they think the furor will die down. With Rush’s tendency to dig deeper holes for himself, I don’t see that happening in the foreseeable future.
Redshift
@Dave: Off the top of my head, I’d say they’re the biggest that have been taken out almost purely through social media. ACORN may have been stirred up through social media, but it was initiated by the well-funded O’Keefe doctored video and finished by congressional Republicans. Weiner was really just a garden-variety sex scandal that happened to involve Twitter; social media may have speeded it up, but I don’t think they were instrumental in the outcome.
By contrast, while prominent Democrats and media figures jumped in on the Komen debacle, they didn’t make it happen; spreading like wildfire through social media did. Similarly with this.
gaz
@Redshift: I totally agree there. I actually suffered through “The Way Things Ought to Be”, and with therapy, I’ve recovered. I haven’t felt the need to really pay attention to the bloated, gaping asshole since, but sometimes (like a nasty fart) he becomes impossible to ignore.
Adding, the *only* reason he was still on the air after defending a serial child killer as a good christian (joseph kony, LRA) is because americans know fuck all about the plight of the DRC/Congo.
This was too obvious though. His schtick was about as subtle as a lead pipe, and yeah – he attacked a specific private citizen, speaking about issues that directly effect 51% of our population. So there’s that.
At any rate, it’s been a good several days for non-fascist americans.
Southern Beale
In related news, Dana Loesch is dumber than a box of hammers.
Brachiator
@David Koch:
Hmmm. I wonder. Can anyone, anywhere, prove that Rush is a Christian of any kind?
japa21
@jl: I am not sure even CPAC will want to be associated with him.
Southern Beale
@El Tiburon:
Um, yeah, Komen and forced vaginal probes and the attacks on women’s access to contraception and every other thing. Christ on a cracker, it’s not just Limbaugh it’s EVERY FUCKING THING. Women have been under attack by right wing nutjobs for years but now they’re passing actual laws and I for one am SICK OF IT. Limbag is just another wave in an avalanche of woman-hate that’s been crashing down on us for years. No one noticed cuz, ya know, women’s issues and who cares.
Southern Beale
Still can’t believe Elton John sang at Rush’s last wedding. Hope he donated all that money to a pro-marriage equality cause.
gaz
@Southern Beale: In other news, water is wet and bill o’rielly explains tides. Film at 11
Redshift
@Brachiator: Oh, it’s easy to prove he’s the Prosperity Gospel kind. He has money, and thinks that God wants him to have it, QED.
Any other kind might be a bit trickier…
Southern Beale
Netflix just dumped Rush, too.
So that’s … 33? 34?
gaz
@Brachiator: There’s some compelling evidence to the contrary. He called Joseph Kony (vis a vis the LRA) a christian/christian organization.
GregB
Limbaugh is hurtling towards pariah status. He’s going to end his career like Walter Winchell…bitter and lonely.
Couldn’t happen to a bigger asshat.
gaz
@GregB: Pretty sure he’s already @ bitter and lonely.
Just sayin’
japa21
I would have to believe that Clear Channel’s revenue will suffer. If I was an ad company I would demand lower rates as the overall listenership will be lower with Rush out of the picture.
TK-421
@pragmatism:
“Teachers teach and do the world good”…or was your word choice just a coincidence?
Dave
@Redshift: That’s kind of what I thought as well. It’s kind of exciting, not so much that targets are being taken out (although that part’s wonderful), but seeing this technology turned into this weird Voltron weapon. I know it happened in the Middle East already, but occupation of physical spaces was a large part of that phenomenon.
R-Jud
@Southern Beale:
“You girls, always imagining things! Don’t be so angry about nothing! Are you on the rag or something?”
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@David Koch:
I am in awe. So many layers of delicious, mendacious irony in one sentence that it’s like a big pile of shit just went and made itself a shit Dagwood. Well played!
artem1s
@The Ancient Randonneur:
gotta agree. I hate tuning into the station in Cleveland that carry the Indians and Browns because they also carry the Lying Liar. And it burns me that kids who are listening to sports get exposed to his vile hatefulness. I’ve been considering giving them a call.
pragmatism
@TK-421: i was just referencing the song in the post title.
RalfW
Did anyone besides me listen to the utterly flaccid and useless final segment of Talk of the Nation on National Pointless Radio this afternoon? It was about Rush. And it was without merit, at least on the part of alternate host John Donvan. What a mealy-mouthed attempt to not get sullied.
Jon Stewart was right to don the hazmat hood. You gotta admit Rush is mucking utter bullshit, otherwise you’re just a hack, Mr. Donvan.
TK-421
@Rick Taylor:
Agreed, it is bizarre. But everyone has different thresholds, and “tipping points” or final straws are impossible to predict in advance.
Even now, I’m extremely skeptical that Rush is done. The continued airing of Glenn Beck on CNN Headline, despite the fact that his ratings were literally worse than the Headline News loop, showed us all that to editors and managers it’s not really about the viewership/profits. Broadcasting the conservative message is what matters, and the ratings and profits are mere justifications for it.
Kathy in St. Louis
It’s rather jarring to find out how many people who would love nothing better than to shut down the “liberal” media forever are now big spokespersons for the first amendment. I have been running into them all over the internet. They all have the same meme… Rush was just exercising his freedom of speech. None seem to know that there are liberal and slander laws which protect private citizens from the wrath of public figures such as the Fat Man. Certainly, he is a pig, but he does have the right to say really miserable things about public figures, but his rather mentally limited listeners and defenders don’t seem to get that this really is not the same thing.
God, I hate this guy, but I know this isn’t the end of his slimy on air career. There are, apparently, enough really disturbed haters out there to keep him going for a long time…but without so many sponsors.
TK-421
@pragmatism:
Oh, I have no idea what song the title is referencing, but I was referencing this song:
dedc79
Is it too much to ask that by the time an american graduates high school, he or she has been taught that the First Amendment is a protection against GOVERNMENT intrusion on free speech? I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve heard people describe corporate decisions as intrusions on freedom of speech.
dedc79
@TK-421: Elvis Costello’s Shipbuilding. It’s worth a listen.
RSA
@Redshift:
A perfect free-market storm.
pragmatism
@TK-421: now it all comes together. NWA was sampling BDP in Gangsta Gangsta–the post title inspiration song.
ETA: KRS One is wise, indeed.
New Yorker
Apparently Limbaugh’s brother invoked both jihad and Saul Alinsky when defending his poor, persecuted brother.
They must be desperate, since the wingnut defense brigade is starting to sound like an internet soundboard. “Saul Alinsky!” “Religious Freedom!” “Liberals!” “Censorship!” “Muslims!” “Bill Maher!”
None of it coheres to any point, needless to say.
New Yorker
@RSA:
That’s my favorite part. This is all the invisible hand acting. Does Brent Bozell think companies should spend money on things (like advertisements on Rush’s show) that aren’t in their best interest? That sounds like sociamulism to me.
I always knew, based on arguments about the deficit and government spending, that every right winger had flunked Econ 101 and Finance 101. It appears they’ve flunked Marketing 101 as well.
Privatize the Profits! Socialize the Costs!
“Good for Rush! Now we sane people are exercising ours!”
wasabi gasp
Prepared food becomes a challenge.
Carl Nyberg
What’s the deal with all these companies claiming that they have ads running on RL’s show, but they didn’t authorize them?
I have a hard time believing that radio stations are running a ton of advertisements they aren’t getting compensated for.
So, at some point the companies got invoiced for these ads, right?
muddy
@Brachiator:
Psh, even Jesus would spit.
Chris
@Kathy in St. Louis:
Sure he was.
Unfortunately for him, having a right to free does not mean you have a right to be free of the consequences of said speech (such as people calling you an asshole or dropping your show). It does not mean the media has an obligation to give you a platform from which to shoot your mouth off. And it does not mean you have a right to have donors.
“They” really aren’t very good at this “what is and isn’t a right” thing, are they? Something identical to the Limbaugh thing happened just a couple years ago at my alma mater, where the conservative columnist in the college paper wrote an article basically saying “it’s not rape if she’s drunk…” Had an enormous backlash that eventually led to his resignation, and a dozen or so defenders who kept whining “this is JUST LIKE COMMUNIST CHINA!!!! LIBRULS HATE FREE SPEECH!!” The minute Limbaugh started being in hot water over his “slut” comment, I knew we were in for a repeat of the same. They never learn…
gaz
@Carl Nyberg: *ahem*.
Say it with me now:
Clear Channel allocates advertising in BLOCKS. That means many companies are just finding out they’ve run on his show (now that there are complaints).
Sorry guy, but this has been covered ad nauseum already (even on this blog)
Southern Beale
A medley of Rush’s greatest hits from Time Magazine’s 2009 profile. Some real doozies here.
Rafer Janders
This is all making Andrew Sullivan very, very sad.
Southern Beale
@Rafer Janders:
LOL LOL LOL LOL
FlyingToaster
@Carl Nyberg: Agency buys.
Say that you’re a large, venerated department store chain that sells lots of appliances through its main retail outlet and lots of supplies through its secondary retail outlet.
You instruct the ad agency who you hired to do this, “hi, reach moms who would listen to terrestrial radio during their driving time.”
Ad agency buys space-available ads on stations in various demographics at 6-9am, 12-2pm, and 4-6pm, specifically shows aimed at women or at parents/homeowners (often includes sports, though that’s still more likely to be hardware stores). This system works pretty well.
Rush runs from 12-3, and normally doesn’t have space available, and isn’t aimed at women or parents. So large retailers’ ads rarely if ever turn up there — until now that there are gaping holes and the ClearChannel subsidiary who syndicates Rush and his national ads has space to fill.
Large retailer now has to instruct ad agency to more tightly target ads. And may have to pay more for such targeting.
So it goes.
Many of the advertisers who have been slotted in since last Friday were not advertising on his show, and now they’re having to instruct either their placement agencies or the CC subsidiary to quit slotting them in already. Sears and JCPenney are not alone.
Tonal Crow
@Rick Taylor:
The same thing happened to several dictators during the Arab Spring. The fear bubble inflates and inflates and inflates until the victims canna take it anymore and begin to revolt.
forked tongue
Looks like one company is chomping at the bit to get in on some of that sweet advertising-on-Rush action.
Tonal Crow
@Chris:
This “lib’rals are violating Rush’s rights” thing is propaganda from the Republican sheepmasters, but gospel to the Republican sheep. That is, the sheepmasters know full well it’s false, but they want to push the meme that boycotting conservatives violates their freedom of speech. The sheep, on the other hand, actually believe the propaganda.
This phenomenon has occurred so often, on so many topics, that the Republican base have become raving morons who think they’re geniuses. And they think so highly of themselves that they’re now rebelling at any attempt by the sheepmasters to control or direct them — hence the “Tea Party” and the extraordinary level of craziness in this year’s Republican primaries.
It’s alive. And it hates its creators. Get your popcorn and watch!
The Other John Cole
@Rick Taylor: Probably people were just looking for an excuse to bail. This instance is perfect as it’s pretty clear there is an innocent victim, the broader issue affects a lot of people, and Rush’s comment and the backlash can be construed as apolitical (though it had been all about killing ACA until the Bishops and rush took it too far). So, people can jump ship and not wrry too much about the wurlitzer coming for them.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Rick Taylor:
The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Over the years while Rush has been building his ‘base’ from the basest of the basest creatures out there, he has also been building a large group of people who just can’t stand his guts. His problem was that he couldn’t build his base without building an opposition group, the bigger one grew the bigger the other got. His supporters have enjoyed years of Rush smashing Democrats, weak Republicans and public discourse to pieces, cheering him all the way.
Rush built his ‘tower’ tall, taller than any other tower on the right. He became a tower that would not fall, no matter what the opposition did. It was inevitable that Rush one day would cross a line and say something that just went too far. That’s because Rush came to believe that he was unassailable, that he could say whatever he wanted to without consequence.
Rush took Rush down, his tower was undermined by none other than himself. He has nobody to blame but himself but he will never do that so this is how it ends for him.
Good.
SiubhanDuinne
@Redshift:
I’ll take it. An inch is as good as a mile.
The Pale Scot
@TK-421:
It is I believe “Gangsta Gangsta” by NWA,
Now if only Rush got put into the “county blues”
Anybody ever seen Barney the Dinosaur cover NWA’s “Staight out of Comptom”?
and check the creator’s “McCain tells the Teletubies to get off his lawn”.
Both are comedic genius.
JR in WV
Rush is such a perfect liar, that you can turn his stuff into the truth by reversing each sentence. If he accuses the Democrat [sic] Party of, well, anything, just substitute Repugnant Party and, by liberal magic, the sentence turns into the truth.
If you can bear to listen for just a few minutes, try it. It’s the only way it can be tolerable! But it’s perfect, every sentence he utters is so backwards a lie that every one turns into a truth if you point it at the other party.
What a despicable bag of dreck!
metricpenny
@RSA:
Hello!
Ruckus
@Mark S.:
How could you tell?
Ruckus
@Southern Beale:
Still?