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Limbaugh, how many listeners

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A Challenge to Rush: Prove Your Ratings [2]

Cenk Uygur
Host of The Young Turks 

How many listeners does Rush Limbaugh have? Well, in the press there are only two numbers you’ll ever see — 20 million or 15 million. Those are large numbers, so that is why Limbaugh is taken seriously and is believed to be influential.

I’ve got news for you — those numbers are a total fabrication. They’re made up out of whole cloth. You want to know where the 20 million number came from? It was first printed in Billboard magazine back in 1993. Here is the quote [3]:

“Limbaugh’s show is now heard on 610 stations and reaches approximately 20 million listeners, according to [Kit] Carson.”

So who is Kit Carson? A guy known as Rush Limbaugh’s “chief of staff.” In other words, Rush’s team simply made up the 20 million number and everyone believed it. He has never, ever presented any evidence to that effect.

The 15 million number comes from Michael Harrison of Talkers magazine. He is considered the leading expert on the talk radio industry. He is a good man and fights hard for his industry. You want to know where he came up with the number? Pretty much pulled it out of the sky. When Tommy Christopher of AOL News (at the time, he is now with Mediate [4]) asked him how he arrived at the figure, here is what Harrison said [5]: … Read More [2]

 

Repudiating Limbaugh: A Matter of Integrity, Not Politics [6]

By Menachem Rosensaft

As the father of a daughter, I found President Obama’s phone call to Sandra Fluke on Friday to be an act of singular grace and compassion. “He encouraged me and supported me and thanked me for speaking out about the concerns of American women,” she told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell minutes after their conversation. All politics aside, as a human being, President Obama is a class act.

As the grandfather of a granddaughter who I hope will one day study at a university or college — I realize that this probably makes me a “snob” in Rick Santorum’s eyes — I applaud Georgetown University President John DeGioia’s email to the Georgetown community [7]commending Ms. Fluke’s demeanor during her testimony on contraceptive coverage to members of Congress. “She was respectful, sincere, and spoke with conviction,” wrote President DeGioia. “She provided a model of civil discourse.”

As a husband, father and grandfather, I suspect I am far from alone in being deeply grateful to President Obama for telling Ms. Fluke that her parents should be proud of her, and to President DeGioia for slamming “Rush Limbaugh and commentators throughout the blogosphere and in various other media channels” for responding to Ms. Fluke’s testimony “with behavior that can only be described as misogynistic, vitriolic, and a misrepresentation of the position of our student.”

Parents who send their children to university or college hope that the institution in question will watch over them and protect them if need be. President DeGioia came through with flying colors.

Most Americans want our president to be on the side of the weak when they are attacked. This includes our wives, our daughters, our granddaughters, our sisters, and all women who are vilified by sexist bullies in the public arena. Here, too, President Obama made us proud.

Limbaugh’s belated and sham apology for calling Ms. Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” in no way ends this matter  … Read More [6]

 

 

The GOP Rush to Deny Coverage of Birth Control [8]

Carolyn Maloney

The Republican crusade to limit access to birth control for women across the country took an ugly turn last week. As our Republican colleagues continued their effort to extend the reach of the government into the bedroom, most of them stood silently by while one of their favorite radio personalities launched a despicable, sexually charged attack on a respectable young woman. If this is what passes for family values in Republican circles these days, things in the Grand Ol’ Party have indeed come to a sorry pass.

It is a certainty that their efforts, if successful, will have a damaging effect on women’s health. Make no mistake — though the headlines have been about birth control, the issue here is women’s health.

Birth control is directly and undeniably related to women’s health. Birth control protects women from the risk of bearing children before they are ready. Birth control helps to ensure that women do not bear too many children or bear children too soon after their last pregnancy. Birth control is used to relieve symptoms of endometriosis, regulate a cycle, reduce acne, relieve symptoms of depression, reduce migraines, treat polycystic ovary condition, alleviate anemia, and even reduce the risk of some cancers.

And despite misleading Republican talking points about not wanting to subsidize birth control, studies have shown that it may be less expensive in the long run for employers to provide employees with no co-pay coverage of birth control than to deny such coverage altogether. … Read More [8]