Limbaugh apologizes to student... for "insulting words choices" - Page 10

Tweety, I love ya....but you are not getting what I said, or I didn't say what I wanted to say.

I have no problem that you posted those humorous (to me) things. I seriously had never seen them before, ever. Not bad taste on your part to post them....not at all, but we all know that some would think they were done in bad taste by the person who did them.

It made it more interesting for me personally. So thank you.

It's a very nice ruse to keep the focus off of the real issues.

From one top GOP senator openly lamenting the fallout of the ongoing fight over contraception, to the author of the controversial legislation at the heart of that fight effectively conceding defeat in the upper chamber, signs mounted Tuesday that suggest Senate Republicans want to put the birth control controversy to bed.

“You know, I think we’ve got as many votes as I think there were to get on that,” Senate GOP Conference Vice Chairman Roy Blunt told TPM Tuesday afternoon after a weekly Capitol briefing. “I think the House side may take some further action. That debate will go on for a long time, though I don’t know that there’s anything else to happen in the Senate in the near future.”

The concession marks a departure for the GOP leadership, which as recently as last week insisted that Republicans were on the right side of the issue and would fight on.

... Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who devised the Democrats’ legislative and messaging strategy in this fight, told TPM, “I think Republicans know that it hasn’t served them well.”

bill maher stands up for rush limbaugh, decries advertiser intimidation -
bill maher stands up for rush limbaugh, decries advertiser intimidation | mediaite

where gop candidates stand on rush limbaugh remarks
what did mitt romney and the gop candidates say about rush limbaugh's remarks about law student sandra fluke?

romney: “i’ll just say this, which is, it’s not the language i would have used.”

gingrich: “i am astonished at the desperation of the elite media to avoid rising gas prices, to avoid the president’s apology to religious fanatics in [color=windowtext]afghanistan, to avoid a trillion dollar deficit, to avoid the longest period of unemployment since the [color=windowtext]great depression, and to suddenly decide that rush limbaugh is the great national crisis of this week.”

paul: “i had said he used very crude language, and i think he gets over the top at times. but it’s in his best interest. that’s why he did it. i don’t think he’s very apologetic. he’s doing it because some people were taking advertisements off his program. it was the bottom line that he was concerned about.”

santorum: “he’s being absurd. but that’s, you know, an entertainer can be absurd. and - and he’s taking the absurd, you know, the absurd - absurd, you know, sort of, you know, point of view here as to how - how far do you go? and, look, he’s in a very different business than i am. i’m concerned about the public policy of this president imposing his values on the people on people of faith who morally object to - to the government telling them they have to do something which they believe is a grave moral wrong.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/usa/elections/from-the-wires/2012/0306/where-gop-candidates-stand-on-rush-limbaugh-remarks

RushLimbaugh.com appears to have removed parts of his radio transcripts from February 29 and March 1 in which he called Sandra Fluke a "****" and demanded a sex tape as a thank you to taxpayers for subsidizing her birth control. The links to "Butts Sisters Are Safe From Newt and Rick" and "Left Freaks Out Over My Fluke Remarks" now show blank stretches of white space. On March 3, Limbaugh posted an apology on his website. On March 5, he apologized at length on his show. In between, he was not apologetic at all. It's the first round of insults and that bit of doubling down that appear to have been scrubbed.

... While Rush is still a giant of the talk-radio industry, there are signs of erosion. Right-wing talk-radio ratings have been declining, at least in part because of PPMs, a new, more accurate way of measuring listenership.

... Moreover, the Clear Channel radio empire is no longer run solely by the conservative San Antonio–based Mays family—it was sold to Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee partners in 2008, and the CEO of its parent company is now Bob Pittman, the man who gave the world MTV.

In what might be another ominous sign for Rush & Co., Mike Huckabee will be starting a nationally syndicated radio show in April for the Cumulus network, which could be positioned to displace Rush in some markets. A former preacher, governor, and presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee is highly conservative, but he is also unfailingly civil.

... This story is still unfolding, but once major advertisers leave they rarely come back. Money is more powerful than moral outrage in the mind of talk-radio professionals. Their polarizing politics is part of a business plan—and little more, despite what listeners are told and sold. If the business model no longer works as well as it once did, adjustments will need to be made eventually because the biological rules of adapt, migrate, or die still apply.