Most of the time, Limbaugh relished the ensuing outcries. She can breastfeed, she can clip her toenails, she can direct the House, all while kids are sitting on her lap at the same time." Then he adopted the tone of a Pelosi fan: "Look at Ms. "I wonder when she loses next, if she'll go back to the kitchen," Limbaugh mused on air when Nancy Pelosi became the first female speaker of the U.S. He often traded on decades-old stereotypes to offend women, Blacks, Latinos, gays and liberals. In so doing, he trampled the boundaries of acceptable political discourse. He also cast doubt on established facts, including global warming, and propelled conspiracy theories, such as the baseless claim that Joe Biden's address to the 2020 Democratic National Convention had to be stitched together from numerous takes.Īnd Limbaugh staked his claim for a vision of the United States that resurrected a more seemingly traditional, more conservative and whiter past. He promoted conservative priorities such as deregulation, lower taxes for the wealthy, and muscular military intervention in the Middle East. Instead, he read and responded to news articles with opinions and voices, pumping the program with satire and parody, puffing himself up while mocking himself thoroughly. Limbaugh riffed on the news, largely without guests to interview. The show ran for three hours every weekday. But radio proved to be Limbaugh's perfect medium. In the early-to-mid 1990s, Limbaugh hosted a TV show run by Roger Ailes, who went on to help Rupert Murdoch create and run the Fox News Channel. House and Senate for the first time in four decades. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his allies would give Limbaugh a huge amount of credit for the GOP's rise in 1994, when the party took over the U.S. And in his emergence on the national scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the man perfectly met the moment. He got his start at a station partly owned by his father, and his early years in radio were marked by clashes with bosses.īut after the Reagan administration set aside the Fairness Doctrine, which instructed broadcasters to present opposing views on controversial issues, Limbaugh unleashed his buoyant conservatism to great effect in Sacramento, Calif., and then New York City. His father was an attorney locally, while his mother was active in local Republican politics. Eisenhower his uncle was named a federal judge by President Ronald Reagan. His family maintained Republican ties: His grandfather had been an ambassador under President Dwight D. Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was born in 1951 in Cape Girardeau, Mo., where there is now an official Rush Limbaugh hometown tour. And he embodied a counterpunch to what many on the right contended was a liberal media establishment - even as he offended millions with his racist, sexist and homophobic routines and diatribes. Limbaugh was an influencer before the age of social media, a hot-take machine before people stopped pausing to think about what they were saying ahead of sending those words out into the world. Bush and Donald Trump, the latter a kindred spirit in many ways who awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address in February 2020. Limbaugh's clout in conservative circles was so great that he was wooed by three very different Republican presidents: George H.W. The benefit here is, I have the freedom to be entirely honest about my passions." "Every time I've said that, it's, 'Oh, he's just saying that! He doesn't care what he says! He's just trying to generate a big audience!' And that's not true. "I always say my real purpose is to attract the largest audience I can, and hold it for as long as I can, so I can charge confiscatory advertising rates," Limbaugh told NPR in a 2007 interview. His voice entertained millions of listeners, cheered conservatives hungry to see their beliefs reflected on the airwaves, and elevated long-shot Republicans to national prominence. Limbaugh's death Wednesday morning was confirmed by his wife, Kathryn, at the start of his radio program.īefore right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, before Fox News, there was Limbaugh. He had announced to listeners last year that he had stage four lung cancer. Conservative and controversial talk radio host Rush Limbaugh was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom during President Donald Trump's State of the Union address in February 2020.Ĭonservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh, who entertained millions and propelled waves of Republican politicians, has died at age 70.
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