Rush Limbaugh Sponsor Exodus Hits 34 as Sandra Fluke Fallout Continues

[Teh One Who Knocks]

by Jordan Zakarin - The Hollywood Reporter


http://i.imgur.com/t76JB.jpg

Rush Limbaugh can't stop the bleeding.

The conservative firebrand lost another round of advertisers for his syndicated program, The Rush Limbaugh Show, by Tuesday morning, putting at 33 the number of sponsors retreating following his high-profile attacks last week on Georgetown student Sandra Fluke.

Teleconferencing company Polycom, home-improvement company Service Magic, life insurance site AccuQuote, Hadeed Carpet and clothing company Bonobos announced that they had requested their ads pulled from the program. On Tuesday, insurance company Geico, tractor manufacturer John Deere, St. Vincent's Medical Center and Stamps.com requested their sponsorship be terminated. As the day wore on, nine more sponsors pulled their spots: Bethesda Sedation Dentistry, Cascades Dental, Philadelphia Orchestra, Goodwill Industries, Heart & Body Extract, Netflix, Downeast Energy, Capitol One, and JCPenney. Matrix Direct jumped ship later in the day.

Those companies joined such high-profile companies as AOL, Sears, LegalZoom and ProFlowers in removing their spots from the show.

Limbaugh spent three days berating Fluke, a student who had sought to testify before Congress on behalf of insurance coverage for birth control, calling her a "slut" and a "prostitute" and insisting that, if she wanted birth control coverage, she post videos of herself having sex.

He apologized for his choice of words on Saturday, a mea culpa that fell short in the eyes of many critics. As a result of public outrage, two stations, in Pittsfield, Mass. and Hilo, Hawaii, removed Limbaugh from their schedules. Musician Peter Gabriel, whose song "Sledghammer" was played during Limbaugh's rant, moved to have his music taken off of Limbaugh's program.

"Peter was appalled to learn that his music was linked to Rush Limbaugh's extraordinary attack on Sandra Fluke," his reps said. "It is obvious from anyone that knows Peter's work that he would never approve such a use. He has asked his representatives to make sure his music is withdrawn and especially from these unfair aggressive and ignorant comments."

Despite the loss in revenue, Premiere Networks, the syndication arm of Limbaugh's bosses at Clear Channel, stands by the host.

They are "committed to providing its listeners with access to a broad range of opinion and commentary without condoning or agreeing with the opinions, comments or attempts at humor expressed by on-air talent," the company said, according to the Wall Street Journal. "We respect the right of Mr. Limbaugh, as well as the rights of those who disagree with him, to express those opinions."

[Muddy]

Hmm.. Bigmouth finally caught up to him...

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Good for him

[FBD]

Boy, when a liberal calls a lady a slut, even the ladies on the view joke about it and say they call each other sluts - but fucking rush limbaugh, and in some sort of context? :rolleyes: Thank god we dont have any double standards here, there, or anywhere else for that matter.



BARBARA WALTERS: I would like to say that Joy Behar, on this program, has called me a slut.

(Laughter)

GOLDBERG: Joy Behar has called many people a slut on this program. Did you hear from this woman's organization? Ever?

JOY BEHAR: Why Barbara, when I call her a slut, the truth is an ultimate defense. That's all I have to say.


Looks like it was a good call for Carbonite :lol:
http://nation.foxnews.com/sites/nation.foxnews.com/files/styles/dv1/public/36_carb.gif


and it looks like Bill Marhereer doesnt want Obama to give back his million bucks
http://static01.mediaite.com/med/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/maher-limbaugh-defense-650x216.png

[perrhaps]

FBD:

If I don't like somebody, isn't it my right to not patronize his business or services? How is a sponsor cancelling its advertisements with Rush any different than him calling someone a slut or Maher calling sarah palin a c***?
Seems to me that all of these things are just exercising one's First Amendment rights.

[FBD]

They are - but look at how its applied. If companies did this in a remotely evenhanded fashion, I would have no problem with it. The companies still have their right to pull their advertising. And people still have their right to say "ya know what, screw you guys, I'm not giving my money to somebody that kneejerks their way through life and panders to crybabies at the drop of a hat." As evidenced by carbonite's stock dropping 12% in the days after they announced their withdrawal. Carbonite still sponsors Ed Schultz, and cripes, when he called Laura Ingraham a slut, using those exact words "Ingraham..yeah, that right wing slut" and not a damned thing happened to him! NBC or whoever his employer is suspended him for a week and that's it, the View joked about it, sponsors said ahhh no biggie.

Fuck that. I hate double standards. Especially since it was done with context and there was 3rd person relating of the concept....rush didnt say "sandra, you are a slut" it was "normally we call people that want to be paid to have sex sluts or prostitutes."

Who was it humpty dumpty that said my narrative means whatever the heck I want it to mean and nothing more, nor do I need to give you any indication what my narrative will be for it to mean what I want it to.

[perrhaps]

They are - but look at how its applied. If companies did this in a remotely evenhanded fashion, I would have no problem with it. The companies still have their right to pull their advertising. And people still have their right to say "ya know what, screw you guys, I'm not giving my money to somebody that kneejerks their way through life and panders to crybabies at the drop of a hat." As evidenced by carbonite's stock dropping 12% in the days after they announced their withdrawal. Carbonite still sponsors Ed Schultz, and cripes, when he called Laura Ingraham a slut, using those exact words "Ingraham..yeah, that right wing slut" and not a damned thing happened to him! NBC or whoever his employer is suspended him for a week and that's it, the View joked about it, sponsors said ahhh no biggie.

Fuck that. I hate double standards. Especially since it was done with context and there was 3rd person relating of the concept....rush didnt say "sandra, you are a slut" it was "normally we call people that want to be paid to have sex sluts or prostitutes."

Who was it humpty dumpty that said my narrative means whatever the heck I want it to mean and nothing more, nor do I need to give you any indication what my narrative will be for it to mean what I want it to.

Ah, but it's a slippery slope when you start complaining about how people, or in this case companies, legally exercise those First Amendment rights. Nothing in the Amendment requires it to be exercised "even-handedly".

When you look back at the history of political commentators , it seems as though they pretty much all eventually crash and burn. Whether or not this turns out to be Rush's denouement remains to be seen, but it's starting to appear that way.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Ah, but it's a slippery slope when you start complaining about how people, or in this case companies, legally exercise those First Amendment rights. Nothing in the Amendment requires it to be exercised "even-handedly".

When you look back at the history of political commentators , it seems as though they pretty much all eventually crash and burn. Whether or not this turns out to be Rush's denouement remains to be seen, but it's starting to appear that way.

:+1:

And it's not like things like this happen only to people on the republican/conservative side of the aisle. Look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks when their lead singer Natalie Maines opened up her big mouth to insult President Bush. At the time, they were arguably the biggest group in country music and one of the biggest in the whole music scene. Once she put her foot in her mouth, it effectively ended their careers because people exercised their First Amendment rights of not buying their music or going to their concerts anymore. And in many markets, radio stations pulled their music completely off the air.

[FBD]

yeah, and look what happened to Keith Olbermann...Bill Maher...Ed Schultz...*insert just about any liberal radio host here*...

oh wait, jack shit happened...

and then if you look at the real story about "Rush's advertisers" you see that there's roughly

















18,000 advertisers that advertise on affiliate stations that are not "direct" Rush sponsors, so it was about...28, 30, out of...18,000 that said "please dont air our ads while Rush is on" :lol: And any of Rush's actual sponsors, look at Carbonite and they took a direct stock hit...now some that said they'd drop him are begging to be let back :lol:

You guys can try all you want to find examples to say there's no double standard, but you are simply being dishonest by asserting such a thing. :razz:

[perrhaps]

Aren't you forgetting that Rush himself apologized. Either even he knows he went too far, or he's issued a dishonest apology because he's all about the $$$.


Reminds me of the old joke:

Q. What's the difference between the Hindenberg and Rush Limbaugh?

A. One's a flaming Nazi gasbag, and the other's just a blimp.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

yeah, and look what happened to Keith Olbermann...Bill Maher...Ed Schultz...*insert just about any liberal radio host here*...

oh wait, jack shit happened...

You certainly seem to have a selective memory when it comes to things liberal and conservative. Bill Maher got his show canceled (I believe it was on ABC back then, but I don't know for sure because I never watched it and I have never found him to be funny/entertaining) after comments he made about 9/11 that the network and his advertisers found objectionable.

Funny that.

[Arkady Renko]

limbaugh simply has got no decency (regardless of how many other talking heads are just as bad etc.), he'll stop at nothing to paint people he hates in a bad light. I recently read that he slammed Obama for supporting the Ugandan government in their fight against the LRA because in his mind the US government should not support an offensive against a christian group that fights against the muslims. that's so far out there it borders on mental health issues

[Teh One Who Knocks]

There are lines that just shouldn't be crossed, but if you decide that you want to cross them, then you should be prepared for the repercussions.

[Acid Trip]

Q. What's the difference between the Hindenberg and Rush Limbaugh?

A. One's a flaming Nazi gasbag, and the other's just a blimp.

Rush is a little overweight but he's definitely not blimp status.

[perrhaps]

Rush is a little overweight but he's definitely not blimp status.

How's this: One's a flaming Nazi gasbag, and the other's just a dirigible"?:slap:

[Acid Trip]

How's this: One's a flaming Nazi gasbag, and the other's just a dirigible"?:slap:

Much better :mrgreen:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

How's this: One's a flaming Nazi gasbag, and the other's just a dirigible"?:slap:

:lol:

[FBD]

You certainly seem to have a selective memory when it comes to things liberal and conservative. Bill Maher got his show canceled (I believe it was on ABC back then, but I don't know for sure because I never watched it and I have never found him to be funny/entertaining) after comments he made about 9/11 that the network and his advertisers found objectionable.

Funny that.
*places 9-11 on one side of scale, misogynist and racist shit on the other side, watches it tip entirely in one direction*

hm, yeah, funny that!