Why Limbaugh Lost the Slut War

[Massage]

First he went off half-cocked. Nothing in professional feminist activist Sandra Fluke's testimony about the need for $1000 worth of birth control annually was in the first person. Indeed, her ludicrous overestimate of the cost indicates the sort of utter lack of experience with birth control one would expect from a nun, a virgin or someone who never interacts with men, if you catch my drift.

Second, Limbaugh's income depends on his advertisers not his audience. His audience might have been with him (in fact I'm sure they were) but his advertisers aren't his audience.

Third, he picked the wrong battle. Birth control is a settled issue in the United States and has been for close to fifty years. Hell, one of the key virtues of Protestantism is its relatively tolerant position on birth control, and the United States is still a predominantly Protestant nation. The fact that the underlying issue was mandating insurance coverage of birth control was beside the point. Limbaugh didn't mock mandates, he mocked recreational sex.

Fourth, the higher up you go in the United States the more support for birth control and all other aspects of the sexual revolution there is. If Rush had said something outrageous in defense of lower taxes he could have counted on some support from the one percent in the advertiser's boardrooms. No so in this case.

Fifth, Limbaugh's message control depended on a mass media monopoly that no longer exists. In the bad old days Rush, by carefully screening callers, cutting off anyone who went off message, and being under the radar of his critics who rarely listened to his program (Al Franken's otherwise tedious book on Rush opens hilariously with Franken barely able to endure Rush's long winded self promotion of his stupid neckties) could run his show as he pleased with very little pushback. Only when he ventured into a medium like television, where he wasn't as skilled or where he wasn't the producer (Monday Night Football) did he suffer major humiliations.

The internet has changed all that. Now pushback comes from the teeming masses of grassroots Rush haters who, collectively, can monitor his every word and, via twitter and other social networking tools, instantly propagate any slip into a major scandal. They only needed that first mistake, the poorly thought out theory that Sandra Fluke is a slut, to trigger the avalanche.

Rush fought the new media and the new media won.

He isn't the first and he won't be the last.

So, just what's in those Obama Harvard videos?

[FreedomFighter]

Rush Limbaugh's radio audience, 15 million, give or take.

His Twitter audience? 37,537.

Retirement isn't far off.

[FreedomFighter]

It's all about the money. Rush has lost six out of nine national advertisers. Some other companies (Autozone, Oreck) were boycotted but denied ever advertising on Rush, or said it was a mistake or part of a mass buy if they did.

Carbonite - gone
Citrix - gone
LegalZoom - gone
LifeLock - still advertising
ProFlowers - still advertising
Sleep Train - gone
Sleep Number - gone
Quicken Loans - gone (maybe)
TaxResolution - still advertising

[FreedomFighter]

Source of boycott info

http://leftaction.com/action/boycott-rush

[FreedomFighter]

Rush revealed his invincible ignorance. The pill does not work like the viagra he takes. Thousands od hid dittoheads contacted him daily to try to save him from his ignorance.

Rush told a variety of lies. He repeated his lies even after his allies tried to correct some of them.

Protestant theologians reject birth control.

http://www.drugstore.com/yasmin-28
1 month = $85.99 - save 11% ($11.04)
12 months = $1031.88


1 month = $151.96
12 months = $1823.52
https://www.mpllc.net/order.aspx?pro...ookieSupport=1

You did not listen to Fluke's testimony.

[FreedomFighter]

http://www.drugstore.com/yasmin-28
1 month = $85.99 - save 11% ($11.04)
12 months = $1031.88


1 month = $151.96
12 months = $1823.52
https://www.mpllc.net/order.aspx?pro...ookieSupport=1

For any drug you can find an outrageous price if you look hard enough. I've seen $24 a month.

Fluke maximized the cost to make her story more dramatic. If she said these poor oppressed women law students had to pay $288 a year for pills she would have been laughed off the stage.

But really, who cares about law students? That's like lamenting the suffering of Hitler youth.

[FreedomFighter]

drugstore.com is a good price. You are clueless. Show me $24!

[FreedomFighter]

drugstore.com is a good price. You are clueless. Show me $24!

Birth Control Pills at a Glance

Take a pill each day to prevent pregnancy
Safe, effective, and convenient
Easy to get with a prescription
Cost about $15–$50 each month

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/hea...-pill-4228.htm

There's a claim that Walmart sells them for $9 a month but I don't know if it's true.

[FreedomFighter]

Where's the link to $24 Yasmin?

[FreedomFighter]

The power of Limbaugh's vocal connection with millions was overwhelmed in the end by the collective chorus of disdain - and its speed and immediacy. That seems to have made the difference here - as well as the cut-and-dried offense of deploying the words "slut" and "prostitute" and demanding that a law student provide a sex tape.

It's a free country, but I get queasy with boycotts to target disgusting but free speech. Think Progress has whittled down its list of targeted advertizers to ... just two left. Nine have quit. No one knows the full list.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast....onnybrook.html

[AbeSimpson]

Google spreadsheet of over 80 advertisers:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...any=true#gid=0

[FreedomFighter]

Google spreadsheet of over 80 advertisers:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...any=true#gid=0

Carbonite stock dropped 12% after they dumped Rush.

[AbeSimpson]

Carbonite stock dropped 12% after they dumped Rush.

Correlation does not imply causation.

[FreedomFighter]

Correlation does not imply causation.

It does when your whole business is an affinity scam.

[FreedomFighter]

If Limbaugh lost why are his ratings up?

[FreedomFighter]

Whatever happened to Rush Limbaugh?