THE DRUDGE REPORT SPLASHED THIS ON WEDNESDAY AROUND NOON:
It was the first official “siren” that Drudge has used in months. This time because the death of a conservative radio icon had occurred. Drudge also appeared as a guest host from time to time through the years on the “EIB” network…
The news has broken.. “El Rushbo” had finally succumbed to cancer.
In his final radio broadcast of 2020, Limbaugh thanked his listeners and supporters, revealing at the time that he had outlived his prognosis.
“I wasn’t expected to be alive today,” he said. “I wasn’t expected to make it to October, and then to November, and then to December. And yet, here I am, and today, got some problems, but I’m feeling pretty good today.”
He died Wednesday at the age of 70 after a battle with lung cancer, his family announced.Limbaugh’s wife, Kathryn, made the announcement on his radio show…
Former President Trump honored him with a medal of freedom during the 2020 State of the Union Speech, something that rallied the base but made the rest of America recoil.
Rush Limbaugh had been one of the most controversial figures in media and politics in a generation. His 1990s “AIDS update” featured gags in which he made jokes about gay people catching the virus. Many accused him of hatred .. Hillary Clinton accused him of being the head of the ‘vast right wing conspiracy’ that was trying to take her husband Bill Clinton out of the presidency. (And you thought our current time was divisive!)
The legacy of Rush can be written in two chapters. One would focus on the political rhetoric. The other would focus on his ascension to the great halls of radio.
There was always something magical about the Rush Limbaugh program on radio. He tried the same thing on syndication in the 1990s but it ended up failing, despite having a live audience and trying the same bits he used on his AM show.
We are students and lovers of radio. It is a dying art. The stars of yesterday are quickly leaving, or at least leaving radio. Rush Limabaugh among a very famous pack of people in the 1980s and 1990s keeping AM alive years longer than expected. You can platy it all day and keep every hour occupied. Howard Stern, Rush, Dr. Laura, and Art Bell to round out the night with alien life.. It was a grand heyday for terrestrial talk. Long form radio.
Rush had defenders and those offended. But during his prime, he was the “must listen” to show both the Newt Gingrich-led Congress and the Clinton White House. Rush Limbaugh often set the agenda or at least regurgitated the talking points in a different way that appealed to the “Dittoheads” that listened.
During his lifetime he rose in prominence from just a few stations to hundreds. He wrote two books.. he had a TV show. And he never stopped radio. He made Manheim Steamroller famous at Christmas. He had public bouts with painkillers.. he almost went deaf. And he clearly got a new set of choppers in the mean time. Rush had a life.
The aftermath of his death is predictable. People who love him are venerating him as a saint. While those who opposed are dancing on his body as it assumes room temperature. It is better to wait to comment on something these days than immediately react.. the herd mentality becomes a feeding frenzy of commentary. A tower of babble. Everyone is babbling.
The President himself had a response to the death of Rush Limbaugh that was communicated by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki:
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60 MINUTES did a piece of Rush Limbaugh in 1991.. it is fascinating to go back 30 years to hear of how Rush was proud to be called the most dangerous man in politics…