Why don't the homeless live with their families?
It would make them un-homeless. —Rush Limbaugh
There is no such thing as equality. —Rush Limbaugh
Stop Rush has grown so much lately that I am not able to follow all the different campaigns. I wasn't even aware of this particular campaign before the victory was announced.
While it is no secret which company I'm referring to, I choose not to name it here due to the earlier backlash against a different restaurant chain, Arby's (which died down pretty quickly, but was rather ugly while it lasted).
Another fortune 1000 company announces: no Rush
I will name the companies from time to time when I put out a list of national companies dropping Rush (harder for ditto heads to pick on an entire list). I'm so impressed with the results accomplished by the team involved in this effort that I didn't want to hold on to this announcement — this is a big international company.
In this particular instance, ads running on the Limbaugh Show were already against the company's policy, but the company has explained that the show was moved to a new time slot after the ads were purchased. The company responded immediately by pulling the ads, and announced pulling its ads via Twitter. I understand that it took only a few hours to fully resolve the issue after corporate got involved.
While this company has not been a big Limbaugh advertiser (they do not buy national ads on syndicated programs), I don't believe they were among the long list of corporations that had previously announced, or had been identified as, avoiding Rush.
Nice to know that they've not only joined more than a thousand other companies in supporting decency and respect on our public airwaves, but they're willing to say so on Twitter. Rush really has become that much of a pariah to corporate America.
Some Stop Rush statistics
There have been nearly 42,000 sponsors' ads reported to the Stop Rush database, with nearly 3400 Rush Limbaugh advertisers currently listed. In March, Rush claimed 18,000 advertisers altogether. We need more monitors, because he probably has around 13,500 advertisers that still need to be identified and contacted. The great news is that the large national companies that his network depended upon so heavily were the first to leave, and very few of these have returned.
Topsy records that the hash tag #stoprush has been tweeted 177,883 times, and stoprush (without the #) has been tweeted 203,065 times.
The daily numbers are increasing — the average daily number of Stop Rush tweets is 690 over the period since Rush first attacked Sandra Fluke, but for the past month we have averaged more than a thousand #StopRush tweets each day. On one recent day alone — December 6 — StopRush was mentioned more than 9,600 times.
One Rush supporter heavily uses #stoprush in an attempt to counter our message; this person accounted for 2,655 of the total all-time mentions. Our experiences indicate that many sponsors find Rush even more distasteful when there are two sides disagreeing with each other over his show.
(Note that these numbers are not precise; each time Topsy interrogates its database, it returns a slightly different total.)
Action Item
We've heard from time to time that radio networks have dramatically dropped the ad rates that they charge for Rush compared to a year ago. (If this is true, I'd love to have confirmation and details.)
Perhaps this is why certain national advertisers are still getting sucked in.
Please let PajamaGram know that they're damaging their good name by advertising on Rush, apparently after having stayed away for six months.
This time around they're not just advertising on Rush, they're offering a discount to Rush Limbaugh listeners. That means this is a market test — they want to know whether advertising on Rush is worth their time and trouble.
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Rush being Rush
RUSH: The California unemployment rate is above 10.2%, state debt, $16 billion. People are leaving the state. Taxes are going up left and right, and the homeless and low income are going to be given free phones and free service.
The idea is to help them reach out to possible job opportunities and stay connected with family. So California's gonna give the homeless free phones and free service so that they can apply for jobs -- ahem, ahem -- and stay in touch with family. Now, why don't the homeless live with their families, maybe, as a solution? It would make them un-homeless. Do you believe this? Gonna give the homeless free phones and free service so they can stay in touch with mom and dad, and apply for jobs. (laughing) Really! [emphasis added]
—Rush Limbaugh: California Expands Obamaphone Program, December 11, 2012
Media Matters for America has the audio.
RUSH: Guess the two things that are proven to not help with income inequality. The two things that are proven to not help with income inequality... And, by the way, I'm not accepting the premise. I'm simply stating that the left is basing a lot of what they're doing in terms of shaping the minds and hearts of duped Americans on this premise that there should be equality. Obama, listen to him talk:
"Fair shot." "Fair shake." "Level playing field." "Equality." "Fairness."
All that, it appeals emotionally. The reality is, there is no such thing as equality or sameness, from person to person or thing to thing. Impossible! Likewise with income. There will not be income equality. Unless you're in a union. And even then, there are differences. So I'm not accepting the premise, simply utilizing it here. Two things that are proven not to help with it are high taxes and unions.
One thing that does contribute to income inequality is high numbers of illegal immigrants, and this is never discussed. And, as usual, we can never solve a problem 'cause we are forbidden from discussing it in reality. [emphasis added]
—Rush Limbaugh: The Truth About Income Inequality, December 11, 2012
The diarist is active in Flush Rush on Facebook:
Flush Rush on Facebook: http://facebook.com/...
Stop Rush database: http://stoprush.net
My Stop Rush blog posts: http://dailykos.com/...
Twitter hashtag: #stoprush