Well shiver my 'liberal' timbers! This morning's New York Times credits us--yes, the Great Orange Satanites--for getting sponsors to boycott Rush. The story's headline is appropriately apocalyptic: Limbaugh Advertisers Flee Show Amid Storm. In the fifth paragraph, Times reporter Brian Stelter writes:
By the time he [Rush] apologized, online protesters had been organizing for days on social networking Web sites and liberal hubs like Daily Kos. They called on companies like ProFlowers to remove their ads from “The Rush Limbaugh Show” and appeared to be having some success, as companies like Sleep Train said they had suspended advertising.
Leap with me over the liberal squiggly-hub...
Now please don't get me started on the New York Times. You younger boys and girls might not know that, once upon a time, it was a Great Paper. The article giving credit to Our Beloved Hub also mentions various forms of the word 'apology' EIGHT times. Without even once applying any journalistic critical analysis to the fact that said 'apology' was actually the most non-apologetic non-apology in the recent history of galling faux-apologies. But, you know: fact-schmacts, I guess.
The good news: The article appears, in the print paper, on the front page of the Business section. And despite initially pooh-poohing that the campaign against Rush might amount to anything, the story later goes on to note the successful example of advertiser flight that led to The Banishment of the Beck. Because of complaints "coming from some of the same liberal activists."
DAMN those librul activists taking that librul action!
I did however, find a fascinating insight in the article: An important avenue for intensifying the financial pressure on La Limbaugh:
For now, the ad boycott is uncomfortable but not crippling for Mr. Limbaugh, who is estimated to make $50 million a year and whose program is a profit center for Premiere Radio Networks, the company that syndicates it. The program makes money both through ads and through fees paid by local radio stations, and while it often has sparked outrage during more than two decades on the air, efforts at ad boycotts in the past have had no measurable effect. [emphasis added by librul diarist]
While I think the elderly, increasingly senile & conservative Grey Lady is underestimating the power of the snowballing national boycott, this quote shows the importance of leaning on local stations and their advertisers, too. Kossack
ipsos penned a brilliant primer on
How to take action against Limbaugh at the local level. Read it. Do it.
Keep up the pressure, Kossacks! It's working!
UPDATE, 130p Eastern: Krystal Ball, the activist who first launched #BoycottRush, is following Rush's weasely first show back on the air right now...and Tweeting high-larious updates on the Twitter machine. Follow @KrystalBall1 for fun news such as:
"Rush says he rejects millions in ads every year. Guess he won't have that problem any more." Heh.
BREAKING!!! 140p Eastern: Kossack kravitz just
asked yesterday about this! And now that Peter Gabriel has found out about Rush's use of the song Sledgehammer, the musician has posted this on
his Facebook page:
"Peter was appalled to learn that his music was linked to Rush Limbaugh's extraordinary attack on Sandra Flute. [sic] 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."
And note the perfectly ironic opening image in the video. What is that tiny critter swimming vigorously? Could it be a Sacred, Soon-to-be-Slaughtered-by-[gasp]-Birth-Control, SPERMATAZOA???
UPDATE-Y McUPDATE, 415p Eastern: Many of you are mentioning other musical artists used by Rush on his show who would seem unlikely to support his, ahem, politics. I urge you to reach out to these artists via the super-easy means of Facebook and The Twitter. I predict they will also PeterGabrielize Rush with atomic speed. Commenters have mentioned Stevie Wonder, The Pretenders, Cyndi Lauper. As you listen [bless you!] to hone in on advertisers, focus on Naming-That-Musician, too!