Rush Limbaugh got punked by a caller Wednesday while he was celebrating his opportunity to hate Hillary Clinton harder because of an OIG report that's being spun as some terrible thing in spite of the fact that it's not.
Rush took Mike Stark's call, expecting a sympathetic question. But he got his own surprise.
Speaking of ways to handle investigations, Stark said, "The cheapest thing to do is to just say nothing.
He added, "I mean this is kind of like you not announcing the price of your next contract is a tacit admission that Flush Rush got you bad. man."
El Rushbo pivoted to some argle-bargle about tort reform and the like, while ducking the comment entirely.
And yes, they did "get him bad." Last week, Politico reported that there's a possibility he's in trouble. Not a possibility, actually. He is.
In recent years, Limbaugh has been dropped by several of his long-time affiliates, including some very powerful ones: He’s gone from WABC in New York, WRKO in Boston and KFI in Los Angeles, for example, and has in many cases been moved onto smaller stations with much weaker signals that cover smaller areas.
Why? Because four years after Limbaugh called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” on air, spurring a major boycott movement, reams of advertisers still won’t touch him. He suffers from what talk radio consultant Holland Cooke calls a “scarlet letter among national brand advertisers.” And for someone who has said that “confiscatory ad rates” are a key pillar of his business, that spells trouble. (Limbaugh ignored multiple interview requests.)
Limbaugh’s extremely lucrative eight-year contract—estimated to be worth roughly $38 million a year—is up this summer. What will happen to “America’s Anchorman,” as Limbaugh quasi-ironically refers to himself, once the contract is up, is anybody’s guess. Because as he is learning, political power does not necessarily a stellar business make.
Now his Big Contract is up, iHeart Radio is circling the drain, and Rush may finally be flushed.
Awwww.
