March 06, 2012 9:40 pm MST

There Are Reasons Rush is So Popular.

• 5 Comments
• by: MADCO

Rush Limbaugh is approx 1/2 way through an 8 year contract  with Clear Channel for $400 million through 2016.

He has high ratings – top 3 in most markets in his time slot.

We can all complain about things he says or does – too many people are listening to his show for it to matter.  Rush matters because Rush has ratings.

Rush never shuts up – which is another way of saying “no dead air”. In radio this is a good thing.

Rush tries to be funny – comedy is a plus. Even though it’s hard and his particular mean spirited sense of humor  is highly offensive to some, probably even more than those for whom it is funny.

But Rush has ratings.  If we assume the ratings are true, Rush has a large audience.  And this is why Rush is the head of the GOTP. And  why the R’s are afraid to disagree with him.

But Rush used to have a tv show. HIghly offensive. Highly targeted. Successfully targeted.  Once people stopped watching, it went away.

The problem isn’t Rush – it’s his audience.  A few years ago some knucklehead wrote a book called Rush Limbaugh is Big Fat Idiot, with footnotes and well researched fact checking.  At which point Rush should have become irrelevant.  But his audience got bigger.

Either the audience can’t read, didn’t believe the facts or don’t care.  To defeat Rush, we just need to stop paying attention to him.  When his ratings tank – he’ll go away.

Unfortunately, it appears as long as there are functioning radios, Rush will have an audience.

Yesterday on Caplis & Silverman, one of them was defending Rush, claiming that until this recent assault on the Georgetown law student (which is, after all, exactly what the left does, and was true, and etc and etc)  there was no memory of Rush being misogynistic (whatever that means).    “Feminazi”  doesn’t count?

Rush is a fool who will say anything to get ratings. Because he’s become the head of the GOTP he says pro-GOTP things.