Rush Limbaugh has died at 70

[fredtoast]

(02-22-2021, 03:01 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Oh the liberals watch it for sure. They’re not happy unless they are outraged.

It has nothing to do with "outrage".  It has to do with understanding a problem that needs to be addressed.

You know what people who oppose gang violence study all the time?  Gang violence.

You can't deal with bullshit unless you understand it.

[Dill]

(02-22-2021, 05:53 PM)michaelsean Wrote: I don't have any evidence, but I always felt that if liberals stopped watching Fox, they would no longer be the #1 cable news network.

Didn't they slip a bit after Jan. 6?

‘We are lost’: Fox News suffers worst ratings in 20 years: Network slides to third behind CNN and MSNBC as Trump leaves White House as pundits say Rupert Murdoch's channel 'out-crazied by the right'

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-news-ratings-trump-newsmax-b1798081.html

It also lost out to its centrist rivals in the primetime evening slot for the first time since July 1999, as the likes of Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson failed to keep momentum under the president’s “stolen” election narrative when no evidence materialised to support that claim. And it struggled to find substantial attacks on the incoming Biden administration.

MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show was the most-watched programme in that time slot, averaging 4.2 million while Hannity fell to 3.1 million, a 19 per cent ratings decline on its January 2020 performance.

Worse, Fox also came third in attracting audiences in the 25-54 age demographic, crucial to securing future advertising commitments, a low it has not hit since October 2001.

President Trump himself appeared to play a significant role in the decline in popularity of his once-loyal mouthpiece, urging his supporters to switch allegiance to fringe competitors like Newsmax and One America News Network (OANN) as revenge for Fox’s surprise (but ultimately correct) decision to call the red state of Arizona for Mr Biden on election night when only 78 per cent of the vote had been counted.

That Arizona call sent the president and his team into a tailspin of disbelief, denial and fury, with campaign manager Jason Miller appearing on the channel to contest the verdict and both Mr Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly pursuing Mr Murdoch by phone, begging for a retraction. The 89-year-old media mogul refused. . . .
“Never before had a network been so closely affiliated with a commander-in-chief,” wrote [i]The Washington Post’s Sarah Ellison and Jeremy Barr, suggesting Fox is currently suffering “something of an identity crisis” under the current leadership of CEO Suzanne Scott and media president Jay Wallace....[/i]

Another Fox staffer told the same publication: “This channel and everyone associated with it created a monster, preying on low-information Americans. What’s even more dangerous is that they’re angry… The programming is getting pathetically desperate to get viewers back. Seeing the bare minimum of debate on shows. It’s sad. This is a self-inflicted wound.”

Television entrepreneur Jonathan Klein placed more emphasis on the threat posed by Newsmax and OANN, saying simply: “They were out-crazied on the right.”
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LOL Limbaugh used to regularly call liberals "low-information" voters.

Better to describe them as "low disinformation" voters now.

[Dill]

Continuing on the theme of Limbaugh's legacy:

Should Florida lower its flags to honor Rush Limbaugh?
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/23/politics/ron-desantis-rush-limbaugh-nikki-fried/index.html

(CNN)Hours after the death of Rush Limbaugh last week, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that the flags in his state would be lowered to half-staff to honor the conservative talk radio host.
"There's not much that needs to be said. The guy was an absolute legend," DeSantis explained. "He was a friend of mine and just a great person."

Which is a matter of debate. While there's no question that Limbaugh is an icon for many conservatives -- and laid the groundwork for the rise of President Donald Trump -- he was also a voice of intolerance on matters of race, gender and ethnicity. And that mixed legacy for Limbaugh has led some in the state to question whether Limbaugh is the sort of person who should be honored with flags being lowered to half-staff.

State Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D) is leading that charge. "The American flag should not be used and cannot be used as a political prop by Governor DeSantis," she said on CNN's "New Day" Tuesday morning. "But what he is doing is bending over backwards to honor a radio host who spent his entire career talking hate speech and talking bigotry and division and conspiracy theories. And lowering our flag should be a symbol of unity not division, raising our standards, not lowering our standards."

There is, of course, politics in this. Fried is the only statewide elected Democrat in Florida and, of late, has been making lots of noise about challenging DeSantis in 2022. Last week, Fried stoked that speculation with the release of a video -- produced by her political consultant -- that lambasted DeSantis for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in the state.
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I think that most MAGA supporters would not view Limbaugh as a "divider" who "talked bigotry and division," but rather as witty, generous man who stood against the "establishment," Republican and Democrat, and did not give in to "political correctness." Limbaugh critics are the ones talking bigotry and division, etc.

[Dill]

(02-22-2021, 06:38 PM)fredtoast Wrote: It has nothing to do with "outrage".  It has to do with understanding a problem that needs to be addressed.

You know what people who oppose gang violence study all the time?  Gang violence.

You can't deal with bullshit unless you understand it.

LOL So you are saying those people "support" and "accept" gang violence?