Encyclopedia
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an
American radio talk show host. He is a
conservative, discussing politics and
current events on his program,
The Rush Limbaugh Show. He has been credited by some with reviving AM radio, and is considered by many to have been a catalyst for the Republican Party's 1994 Congressional victories.
The Rush Limbaugh Show has been largely credited for the large shift in
AM broadcasting from music to news-talk after an audience decline in the 1970s.
His show was first nationally syndicated in August 1988, and as of 2005, Arbitron ratings indicate the show's audience to average 13.5 million listeners weekly, making it the largest radio talk show audience in the United States. Such high ratings have been a consistent hallmark of his show.
Limbaugh was the 1992, 1995, 2000 and 2005 recipient of the Marconi Radio Award for Syndicated Radio Personality of the Year , joining the syndicated
Bob & Tom Show as the only other four-time winners of a Marconi award. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1993. In 2002, industry's
Talkers magazine is a trade industry publication related to talk radio [i] in the United States [i]....
ranked him as the greatest radio talk show host of all time. Limbaugh attracts the highest percentage of hard news consumers relative to all other television and radio programs in the United States.
Personal life
Limbaugh began his career in radio as a teenager in 1967 in his hometown of
Cape Girardeau, Missouri using the name
Rusty Sharpe.
Education
He attended
Southeast Missouri State University for one year where he dropped out after failing two speech courses. This would have normally made him eligible for the
draft, but he was classified 1-Y due to an undisclosed medical problem. Limbaugh stated that he was not drafted because a physical found that he had an "inoperable pilonidal cyst" and "a
football knee from
high school."
Relationships
Limbaugh was first married on September 24, 1977 to Roxy Maxine McNeely, a sales secretary at radio station
WHB in
Kansas City. They were married at the Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. In March 1980, Roxy McNeely filed for divorce, citing "incompatibility". They were formally divorced on July 10, 1980.
In 1983, Limbaugh married Michelle Sixta, a college student and usherette at the
Kansas City Royals Stadium Club. They were divorced in 1990, and she remarried the following year.
On May 27, 1994, Limbaugh married Marta Fitzgerald, a 35-year-old aerobics instructor, whom he met via the
Compuserve online service. They were married at the house of
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who officiated. On June 11, 2004, Limbaugh announced that he was separating from Fitzgerald. He stated on-air, "Marta has consented to my request for a divorce, and we have mutually agreed to seek an amicable separation. As I said, it's a personal matter and I want to keep it that way. I don't intend to say any more about this on the air." An article in the
Palm Beach Post claimed that this third divorce was a result of his addiction to prescription pain medications.
Public life
1970s
After dropping out of
Southeast Missouri State University, Limbaugh moved to
Pittsburgh and became a Top 40 music radio
disc jockey on station WIXZ. In October 1972, he moved to
KQV, another Pittsburgh station, using the name
Jeff Christie. Limbaugh developed some of his trademark patter there, such as a claim to use a "golden microphone" . After being fired from KQV, Limbaugh moved to
Kansas City, where he also worked
KUDL, KFIX and KMBZ. After several years in music radio, Limbaugh took a break from radio and accepted a position as director of promotions with the
Kansas City Royals baseball team.
1980s
In 1984, Limbaugh returned to radio as a talk show host at
KFBK in
Sacramento, California, where he replaced one of his mentors, Morton Downey, Jr. In 1987, the
FCCrepealed the Fairness Doctrine, thus freeing radio stations to air opinion journalism without having to air opposing points of view.
After achieving success in Sacramento and drawing the attention of Edward F. McLaughlin, a former president of
ABC Radio, Limbaugh moved to
New York City in 1988, entering the nation's largest radio market on talk-format station
WABC-AM, his flagship station to this day. He initially did a two-hour local program on WABC, where
he was preceded by comedian
Joy Behar and followed by Lynn Samuels, creating a six-hour block of politically focused radio, with Behar and Samuels leaning to the left politically.
Beginning on August 1, 1988 Limbaugh was syndicated nationally as a two-hour show and eventually expanded to three hours while dropping the local New York show, though he was still based at WABC. . While WABC remains Limbaugh's key outlet, he now broadcasts from either the Premiere Radio Network studios in New York or his private studio in Florida near his home.
Newsday is a daily tabloid [i]-size newspaper [i] which primarily serves Long Island [i] and the New York City [i]...
media critic Paul Colford reported on Limbaugh in 1988:
Rush Limbaugh's act includes plenty of pokes at himself and lots of tongue-in-cheek pomposity such as: "I'm Rush Limbaugh, your guiding light in times of trouble and despair." His politics skew sharply to the right of the "liberal Democrats" and Gov.
Michael Dukakis, known in Limbaugh parlance as "The Loser."
The president of EFM Media is a former head of the ABC Radio Network, Edward F. McLaughlin. He believes that Limbaugh, a partner under contract to EFM, will become the most-listened-to radio personality in America - bigger than
Larry King - by virtue of his midwestern manner and informed views. Bigger than Larry King? We'll see. For now, McLaughlin's goal is to have 200 stations signed to Limbaugh's show by 1990.
From this point forward, Limbaugh's radio program is covered in The Rush Limbaugh Show article.1990s
In 1990, while Lewis Grossberger acknowledged that Limbaugh had "more listeners than any other talk show host", he also described Limbaugh's style as "bouncing between earnest lecturer and political
vaudvillian".
The program soared in popularity and moved to stations with larger audiences. The highwater point was his introduction of 'America Held Hostage', following Bill Clinton's election in 1992. Ronald Reagan sent a letter calling Rush the voice of conservatism in that era. When the GOP won control of Congress in 1994, one of the first acts by many freshmen was to award Limbaugh the title of "honorary member of Congress" in recognition of his support of their efforts during this period.
Television appearances
Limbaugh's first television appearance came with a 1990 guest host stint on
Pat Sajak's late-night program on
CBS. After a loud confrontation with deliberately disruptive ACT UP gay activists in the studio audience
, the entire audience was removed so that Limbaugh could finish the show. In 1993, Limbaugh appeared
on
The Late Show with David Letterman is an hour-long weeknight comedy [i] talk show [i] broadcast by CBS [i]...
, and the audience almost immediately became hostile and booed him, especially when Limbaugh compared
Hillary Clinton's face to "a
Pontiac hood ornament."
Limbaugh also guest-starred on an episode of
Hearts Afire as himself, as well as on an episode of
The Drew Carey Show was an American [i] sitcom [i] starring Drew Carey [i] along with ...
. He has also been parodied on several other shows, including an episode of
The Simpsons is an Emmy [i] and Peabody [i]-winning American [i] animated [i] ...
, as a conservative talk radio host named
Birch Barlow, on
an installment of
Saturday Night Live's
TV Funhouse., as "Gus Baker" on an episode of
Beavis & Butthead, and as "Lash Rambo", host of "Perfection in Broadcasting" on an episode of
The New WKRP in Cincinnati was a sequel/spin-off of the original CBS [i] sitcom [i] ...
.
Television show
Limbaugh had a
syndicated half-hour show from 1992 through 1996, produced by
Roger Ailes. The television show discussed many of the topics on his radio show, and was taped in front of a live audience. Limbaugh supposedly ended the show due to disappointment that it was aired too late in the evening in many markets and because of the extensive time required to prepare for the show.
On November 6, 1992, three days after the presidential election, Limbaugh made a reference to
Chelsea Clinton, daughter of President-elect
Bill Clinton, Limbaugh stated: "Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat; Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?" -- a picture of Chelsea then appeared onscreen. Although Limbaugh has claimed it was a technical error, as
Al Franken documented in his book
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is a book [i] of polit...
, the show was on a tape delay, so if truly a technical error, it could have been corrected prior to the show's airing. Limbaugh countered that the tv show was a big drain on his time and did not include retakes. Limbaugh apologized on his show, claiming fatigue. A few days later, he said,
"I don't need to get laughs by commenting on people's looks, especially a young child who's done nothing wrong. I mean, [Chelsea] can't control the way she looks."
On a later broadcast, Limbaugh played a video clip of then-President
Bill Clinton laughing and joking on his way to a memorial service for Commerce Secretary Ron Brown with Tony Campolo and then looking mournful upon noticing news cameras in the area. Limbaugh claimed that Clinton's sudden mood change resulted from the spying news cameras, and was evidence of both the President's insincerity and the tendency of the national media to overlook it.
Cigar Aficionado
In the early 1990s, when the cigar boom was gaining momentum, Limbaugh was seen frequently with a cigar in hand and by the end of the 1990s, cigars had become Limbaugh's staple in many public appearances. Often starting segments of his show with the phrase, "amid billowing clouds of fragrant and aromatic first, second and sometimes third hand premium cigar smoke", cigars became a common topic of discussion. In the spring of 1994, Limbaugh appeared on the cover of the popular magazine
Cigar Aficionado and shared the story of his conversion to cigars. He has since been a frequent participant in many
Cigar Aficionado events such as "The Big Smoke", hosted throughout the year by Cigar Aficionado magazine. Limbaugh has participated in many charity cigar auctions hosted by
Cigar Aficionado, and is known to talk frequently with his listeners about his and their cigar interests, preferences and recommendations. "I think cigars are just a tremendous addition to the enjoyment to life."
Other ventures
In 1992, Limbaugh published his first book,
The Way Things Ought To Be, followed by
See, I Told You So in 1993. Both went to number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. Limbaugh acknowledges in the text of the first book that he taped the book and it was transcribed and edited by
Wall Street Journal is an influential international daily newspaper [i] published in New York City [i] ...
writer John Fund. In the second book,
Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily is named as his collaborator.
As a result of his television program, Limbaugh became known for wearing distinctive
neckties. In response to viewer interest, Limbaugh launched a series of ties designed primarily by his then-wife Marta. Sales of the ties reached over US$5 million in their initial sales year, but were later discontinued.
Subject of criticism
The first book about Limbaugh appears to be 1993's
Rush Limbaugh and the Bible by Daniel J. Evearitt. One reviewer said "Dr. Evearitt is very uncomfortable sharing the label 'conservative' with Limbaugh" and notes that it contains chapters like "No Wife, No Kids — Is This Man an Expert on Family Values?"
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , a
liberal media watchdog group, released a report on March 8, 1992, listing forty-three errors Limbaugh allegedly made during various shows.
Limbaugh responded to about half of the original claims; FAIR then rebutted his rebuttal,
followed by yet another rebuttal to the rebuttal.
Critics such as L. Brent Bozell's
Media Research Center, a
conservative media watchdog group, have argued that FAIR is liberal and partisan.
2000s
Rushlimbaugh.com
In July 2000, Limbaugh launched the fledgling website bearing his name, which includes brief overviews of the current show along with recent headlines from which Limbaugh draws content for his radio program. In the beginning, the website was a text commentary and transcript-only website that allowed his listeners to review the contents of the day's show from a news-based perspective. By December 2000, major changes to the website
were made: new downloadable audio-links of daily highlights were available to internet users free of charge. In spring 2001, the website had launched a brand-new subscriber based website to what would be called "Rush 24/7". Rush 24/7 was now offering the entire, commercial free audio of the daily show available all day via streaming internet audio. The new subscriber
website came to include Limbaugh editorials, commentaries from previous years, and reruns of Rush's defunct television show. By summer 2002, the hallmark achievement of the Rush 24/7 website had been introduced: a live streaming video feed of the radio show was made available to Rush 24/7 subscribers. By 2003, the rushlimbaugh.com website introduced a fully interactive Rush Limbaugh store, selling products that Limbaugh marketed including a signature line of golf apparel, sporting equipment and novelties. The Rush 24/7 site now includes the podcast feature, in which subscribers can have daily audio and video of the radio show downloaded directly to their
ipod or other mp3 player.
Hearing problems
By August 2001, Limbaugh's listeners had noted changes in his voice and diction, changes that Limbaugh emphatically denied on the air. However, on October 8, 2001, Limbaugh admitted that the changes in his voice were due to complete deafness in his left
ear and substantial hearing loss in his right ear. He also revealed that his radio staff was helping him receive calls on his show by setting up a system where he could appear to hear his callers. The system worked remarkably well, but did not convince all listeners, some of whom noted a long delay between a caller ending his point and Limbaugh responding, and occasionally speaking over a caller. Occasionally Limbaugh
asked callers to hold on momentarily, while the caller's comments were typed and shown on Rush's computer monitor.
In December 2001, Limbaugh underwent
cochlear implant surgery, which restored a measure of hearing in his left ear, and his voice and enunciation improved. According to Limbaugh's doctors, Limbaugh's deafness was caused by an autoimmune disease. But Limbaugh's detractors were quick to point out that chronic use of opioids, such as
OxyContin and particularly
hydrocodone, both which Limbaugh later admitted abusing, can compromise the function of the
immune system and cause deafness.. Limbaugh has stated that this was not a factor in his case.
ESPN commentator
On July 14, 2003,
ESPN announced that Limbaugh would be joining ESPN's
Sunday NFL Countdown show as a weekly commentator when it premiered on September 7. Limbaugh would provide the "voice of the fan" and was supposed to spark debate on the show.
On September 28, Limbaugh commented about
Donovan McNabb, the
quarterback of the
Philadelphia Eagles:
- "Sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."
McNabb was the highest paid
NFL player in history at the time, and defenders of Limbaugh's comments point out that McNabb had the worst start of his career in the 2003 season and was the NFL's lowest-rated starting quarterback. McNabb's defenders say that to his credit, McNabb was a runner-up for the year 2000's Most Valuable Player, was a member of three Pro Bowl teams, and led his team to two straight NFC championship games. McNabb had suffered a broken leg during the 2002 season and had been slow to recover.
The Reverend
Al Sharpton, a Democratic Party candidate for
President and political activist, encouraged Limbaugh's firing from ESPN, threatening a
boycott of all
Disney companies including ABC,
Disneyland and
Walt Disney World. Democrats
Howard Dean and
Wesley Clark joined in the criticism, as did the
NAACP. Limbaugh responded by saying that he must have been right; otherwise, the comments would not have sparked such outrage.
On October 1, 2003, Limbaugh resigned from ESPN with the statement:
- "My comments this past Sunday were directed at the media and were not racially motivated. I offered an opinion. This opinion has caused discomfort to the crew, which I regret. I love NFL Sunday Countdown and do not want to be a distraction to the great work done by all who work on it. Therefore, I have decided to resign. I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of the show and wish all the best to those who make it happen."
After Limbaugh's resignation,
Sunday NFL Countdown African American co-host Tom Jackson said on the air:
- "Let me just say that it was not our decision to have Rush Limbaugh on this show. I've seen replay after replay of Limbaugh's comments with my face attached as well as that of my colleagues, comments which made us very uncomfortable at the time, although the depth and the insensitive nature of which weren't fully felt until it seemed too late to reply. He was brought here to talk football, and he broke that trust. Rush told us the social commentary for which he is so well known would not cross over to our show, and instead, he would represent the viewpoint of the intelligent, passionate fan. Rush Limbaugh was not a fit for NFL Countdown."
American Armed Forces Radio Network controversy
- See Armed Forces Radio controversy.
Prescription drug addiction
In early October 2003 , the
National Enquirer reported that Limbaugh was being investigated for illegally buying prescription drugs. Other news outlets quickly confirmed the beginnings of an investigation.
Limbaugh has been a vocal critic of drug users as well as an avid supporter of the
War on Drugs . On October 10, 2003, Limbaugh admitted to listeners on his radio show that he had abused prescription painkillers and stated that he would enter inpatient treatment for 30 days, immediately following the broadcast. He did not specifically mention which pain medications he had been abusing. Speaking about his behavior, Limbaugh went on to say:
- "I am not making any excuses. You know, over the years, athletes and celebrities have emerged from treatment centers to great fanfare and praise for conquering great demons. They are said to be great role models and examples for others. Well, I am no role model. I refuse to let anyone think I am doing something great here, when there are people you never hear about, who face long odds and never resort to such escapes."
- "They are the role models. I am no victim and do not portray myself as such. I take full responsibility for my problem. At the present time the authorities are conducting an investigation, and I have been asked to limit my public comments until this investigation is complete."
Following Limbaugh's admission of drug abuse, his detractors reviewed prior statements by him about drug use as examples of hypocrisy. Several statements were found, in particular, on October 5, 1995:
- "There's nothing good about drug use. We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up."
- "What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use, too many whites are getting away with drug sales, too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too."
and on August 8, 2003:
- "These tough sentencing laws were instituted for a reason. The American people, including liberals, demanded them. Don't you remember the crack cocaine epidemic? Crack babies and out-of-control murder rates? Liberal judges giving the bad guys slaps on the wrist? Finally we got tough, and the crime rate has been falling ever since, so what's wrong?"
on his TV show on December 9, 1993:
- "I'm appalled at people who simply want to look at all this abhorrent behavior and say, "Hey, you know, we can't control it anymore. People are going to do drugs anyway. Let's legalize it." It's a dumb idea. It's a rotten idea, and those who are for it are purely, 100 percent selfish."
Which contradicts what was said on March 12, 1998:
- "What is missing in the drug fight is legalization. If we want to go after drugs with the same fervor and intensity with which we go after cigarettes, let's legalize drugs. Legalize the manufacture of drugs. License the Cali cartel. Make them taxpayers, and then sue them. Sue them left and right, and then get control of the price, and generate tax revenue from it. Raise the price sky high, and fund all sorts of other wonderful social programs."
For this last quote, it should be noted that Rush often uses heavy sarcasm to make his point.
An article in the January 12, 2004 issue of
Human Events presented its reaction to the media attention of Limbaugh's addiction, calling it a 'Network War' against Limbaugh. It charged network anchors with engaging in exaggerated and inflammatory rhetoric by implying Limbaugh was involved in "drug sales" or "drug gangs". Human Events Online reported in January 2004 a of events in this matter from September through December 2003.
An investigation into "doctor shopping" concluded in the state of
Florida under the Palm Beach State Attorney in April 2006. Limbaugh's attorney Roy Black alleged that the chief county prosecutor , investigating Limbaugh was politically motivated. The
ACLU, an organization often lambasted by Limbaugh, came to his defense, claiming that the district attorney violated Limbaugh's constitutional rights by "fishing" through his private medical records. Assistant State Attorney James L. Martzstated on November 9, 2005, "I have no idea if Mr. Limbaugh has completed the elements of any offense yet." Then on December 12, 2005,
Judge David F. Crow decided to prohibit the State from questioning Limbaugh's physicians about "the medical condition of the patient and any information disclosed to the healthcare practitioner by the patient in the course of the care and treatment of the patient."
Limbaugh has said his addiction to painkillers came as a result of
back pain over several years, and a botched surgery that came as a result of that. Limbaugh opposed the prosecutor's efforts to interview his doctors on the basis of patient privacy rights, and has argued that the prosecutor has in fact violated his Fourth Amendment civil rights by illegally seizing his medical records. The Florida courts consistently upheld Limbaugh's right to confidentiality.
Deal reached
On April 28, 2006, Limbaugh turned himself in to the
Palm Beach County,
Florida Sheriff's Office as part of a prearranged settlement to the case. He filed a "not guilty" plea with the Court and posted a $3,000 bond to a single criminal charge of doctor shopping to "obtained 2,000 pills over six months". The sheriff's office later announced that Limbaugh was technically "under arrest" during the booking process. Believing that this term would misleadingly invoke an image of the talk show host being handcuffed and hauled away, Limbaugh and his attorney contacted various media outlets to inform them of the settlement.
Black issued a statement indicating that Limbaugh had settled the charge with the state and that the prosecutor agreed to dismiss the criminal charge if Limbaugh pays $30,000 to defray the cost of the investigation and completes an 18-month therapy regimen with his physician. Black stated:
"...[T]he State Attorney's Office and Mr. Limbaugh have reached an agreement whereby a single count charge of doctor shopping filed today by the State Attorney will be dismissed in 18 months. As a primary condition of the dismissal, Mr. Limbaugh must continue to seek treatment from the doctor he has seen for the past two and one half years. This is the same doctor under whose care Mr. Limbaugh has remained free of his addiction without relapse. Mr. Limbaugh and I have maintained from the start that there was no doctor shopping, and we continue to hold this position. Accordingly, we filed today with the Court a plea of 'Not Guilty' to the charge filed by the State."
Limbaugh asserts that the state's settlement agreement resulted from a lack of evidence supporting the charge of "doctor shopping." Under the terms of the agreement, Limbaugh may not own a firearm and must continue to submit to random drug testing, which he acknowledges having undergone since 2003.
Palm Beach Airport Incident
On June 26, 2006, Limbaugh was detained by
U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Palm Beach International Airport in possession of Viagra which had been prescibed to him but labeled with the name of the issuing physician, Limbaugh's psychiatrist. He was returning to the United States from the
Dominican Republic.
The same day, the Palm Beach County sheriff's office announced it would investigate to determine if any laws were broken. On July 5, 2006, Palm Beach County officials stated that Limbaugh will not face charges in relation to this incident.
Limbaugh joked about acquiring what he was led to believe as "blue M&Ms" from the Clinton Presidential library. Limbaugh also quipped on his radio show that he told his doctor that he was worried about the election, and must have been misheard.
Philosophy
Defining the conservative movement
Limbaugh made the following comments in an op-ed piece in 2005:
I love being a conservative. We conservatives are proud of our philosophy. Unlike our liberal friends, who are constantly looking for new words to conceal their true beliefs and are in a perpetual state of reinvention, we conservatives are unapologetic about our ideals.
- We are confident in our principles and energetic about openly advancing them. We believe in individual liberty, limited government, capitalism, the rule of law, faith, a color-blind society and national security.
- We support school choice, enterprise zones, tax cuts, welfare reform, faith-based initiatives, political speech, homeowner rights and the war on terrorism.
- And at our core we embrace and celebrate the most magnificent governing document ever ratified by any nation — the U.S. Constitution. Along with the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes our God-given natural right to be free, it is the foundation on which our government is built and has enabled us to flourish as a people.
- We conservatives are never stronger than when we are advancing our principles.
From
American Conservatism: A Crackdown, Not a 'Crackup' Wall Street Journal op-ed October 17, 2005
Leukemia & Lymphoma Telethon
Limbaugh holds an annual telethon, called the "EIB Cure-a-Thon" for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In 2006, the EIB Cure-a-Thon conducted its 15th annual telethon.
Statement regarding abortion and homosexuality
In 2003, Limbaugh broadcast the following hypothetical on abortion choices made by parents based upon trait selection and the anticipated reaction by advocates of gay rights:
Imagine we identify the gene—assuming that there is one, this is hypothetical—that will tell us prior to birth that a baby is going to be gay.... How many parents, if they knew before the kid was gonna be born, [that he] was gonna be gay, they would take the pregnancy to term? Well, you don't know but let's say half of them said, "Oh, no, I don't wanna do that to a kid." [Then the] gay community finds out about this. The gay community would do the fastest 180 and become pro-life faster than anybody you've ever seen. They'd be so against abortion if it was discovered that you could abort what you knew were gonna be gay babies .
Limbaugh opposed teaching grade school students about homosexuality in 1993 and wrote of
gay rights as being special rights. He has made similar statements about transsexuals. Moreover, Limbaugh once said of
Strom Thurmond , "He's not encumbered by being politically correct.... If you want to know what America used to be—and a lot of people wish it still were—then you listen to Strom Thurmond."
Balance and point of view
Critics decry what they assert is the lack of a balance between liberal and conservative viewpoints on talk radio. Limbaugh's response is to claim that most news reporting is liberally biased; a common saying of his is "I
am equal time." To combat the claim of his show being "unreasonably biased", he has adopted a policy of automatically bumping liberals to the front of the call queue to ensure that they get a chance to voice their opinions. Not all liberal callers make it past Limbaugh's call screener and his natural tendency is to challenge the views of those who do. He does not claim to be a neutral reporter, and
has explained himself on occasion as being a commentator and
entertainer, not a
reporter.
With the passing from the scene of the network news anchors of the 1990s,
Dan Rather,
Tom Brokaw and
Peter Jennings, Limbaugh has begun to call himself "America's
Real Anchorman."
Limbaugh's
satire, especially that of his early years, has been criticized by his detractors with some even calling it "hate speech". News about the homeless is often preceded with the Clarence "Frogman" Henry song "Ain't Got No Home". For a time, the song "I Know I'll Never Love This Way Again" preceded reports about people with
AIDS. For two weeks in 1989, Limbaugh performed "caller abortions" where he would end a call suddenly to the sounds of a
vacuum cleaner and a woman's scream, after which he would deny there was ever a caller, explaining that the call had been "aborted".
In reference to
Ted Kennedy, he often cites the alcohol use that led to the death of Kennedy's campaign worker/girlfriend,
Mary Jo Kopechne, at
Chappaquiddick by calling Kennedy "the swimmer" and referring to him as the Senator from Chappaquiddick. Limbaugh refers to
Robert Byrd, as "Sheets Byrd" in reference to Byrd's onetime membership in the
Ku Klux Klan. This moniker was originally coined by
Tip O'Neill, per Chris Matthews, a former O'Neill staffer. .
Limbaugh is highly critical of environmentalism and has disputed human-caused
global warming and the relationship between
CFCs and depletion of the
ozone layer.
He is a vocal supporter of
capital punishment, having once said that "the only thing cruel about the death penalty is last minute stays."
Limbaugh is very vocal in denouncing liberal politicians and initiatives, and actively promotes conservative candidates and policies. He has occasionally taken issue from a right-wing perspective, with the
George W. Bush administration in 2005 and 2006, criticizing the choice of
Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court and the President's immigration reform package. Other Republicans whom he criticised in this period included
John McCain 
