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Speaker 1: Also media. Hey everybody, Robert Evans here, and you know

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Speaker 1: we're still coming down from our end of the year celebration.

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Speaker 1: I'm headed off to Cees where we'll be doing reporting

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Speaker 1: before it could happen here and better offline, we're going

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Speaker 1: to be coming back for the new year soon. The

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Speaker 1: Oprah episodes will be in the can. Very excited to

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Speaker 1: introduce you all to that, but for this week, we're

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Speaker 1: going to be going back to a rerun, so please

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Speaker 1: enjoy the story of Rush Limbaugh. Welcome to Behind the Bastards,

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Speaker 1: the podcast that I continually failed to introduce like a professional,

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Speaker 1: which is particularly shameful this week because our guest is

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Speaker 1: a very professional voice artist, mister Paul F. Tom Good.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for being here. Paul, you are the voice

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Speaker 1: of a lot of characters that that that a lot

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Speaker 1: of people enjoy. Uh. I think most famously to me

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Speaker 1: at least, UH is mister peanut Butter also.

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Speaker 2: The voice of a lot of characters that people hate.

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Speaker 1: That's true. That's true because if you're really achieving as

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Speaker 1: an artist, a lot of people are going to hate

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Speaker 1: anything that you do.

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Speaker 2: That's the that's you're exactly.

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Speaker 1: And today we're talking about a truly historical success of

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Speaker 1: a creative mind, a man hated by tens of millions

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Speaker 1: of people and who should be hated by billions, A

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Speaker 1: man who has done, I would say, in calculable harm

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Speaker 1: to the future of human life and all life on

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Speaker 1: this planet, mister rush Limbaugh.

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Speaker 2: Correct.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Paul, What do you have any kind of

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Speaker 1: history with rush Limbaugh, Like in terms of your upbringing

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Speaker 1: and stuff. I don't know much about how you grew up. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Do you know what I forgot that I forgot? First

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Speaker 2: of all, I forgot how long he's been around. And

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Speaker 2: I remember watching him in his earliest days on TV

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Speaker 2: and watching that show like as a goof the way,

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Speaker 2: I would watch, you know, the Morton Downey Junior Show

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Speaker 2: or Wally George or whatever, and just like, who is

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Speaker 2: this clown? And he's like doing this this sort of

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Speaker 2: you know what seemed like a character, you know at

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Speaker 2: the time, because he I think he fancied himself an

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Speaker 2: entertainer and had a show that had little skits in

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Speaker 2: it and stuff like that, and I I thought he

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Speaker 2: was just ridiculous, and so I watched him ironically, and

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Speaker 2: and then things just got worse. Like I, I sort

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Speaker 2: of got tired of it. I remember getting tired of

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Speaker 2: it and like, Okay, this is just like the same

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Speaker 2: thing over and over again, and it's not it's not

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Speaker 2: pushing that that button in my ironic pleasure center anymore.

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Speaker 2: So I just stopped watching. But he, despite despite my

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Speaker 2: my jumping ship and you to do what he was doing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Tomkins demographic, but he kept the my parents and

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Speaker 1: everyone that raised me demographics. What was your upbringing particularly political?

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Speaker 1: Would you say?

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Speaker 2: Not, you know what, not super political. I was raised. Uh.

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Speaker 2: My family was a uh lower middle class, uh, big

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Speaker 2: Catholic family in Philadelphia, in in a a sort of

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Speaker 2: suburb called Mount Airy, and we were both of my

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Speaker 2: My family was like lifelong Democrats, you know, Philadelphia Democrats,

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Speaker 2: and so that was kind of it, Like we were

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Speaker 2: just sort of you know, uh like a conservative liberal family. Uh.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, I I we we didn't talk a lot

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Speaker 2: about politics in the house growing up, and that was

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Speaker 2: kind of it. But I knew that we were. We

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Speaker 2: were liberal demo crats, you know, who were weirdly enough,

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Speaker 2: guided by guided by I'm not even gonna say faith.

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Speaker 2: I think we were guided by my parents' sort of

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Speaker 2: morals where they were greatest generation Depression babies, and uh,

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Speaker 2: they voted straight Democrat. But they were not like even

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Speaker 2: though we were Catholic, it was like we were not

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Speaker 2: single issue voters, you know, but they but my family

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Speaker 2: was my parents were brought up with the same sort

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Speaker 2: of prejudices that people of their generation were brought up with,

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Speaker 2: you know. But but yeah, politics did not figure any.

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Speaker 2: It was like when I got when I got you know,

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Speaker 2: a little older and out of the house and everything,

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Speaker 2: that's when I started, you know, investigating my own politics.

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Speaker 2: And it was like a long journey.

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Speaker 1: You know, that is very exciting to me, just because

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Speaker 1: your your you, you came from kind of more of

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Speaker 1: a you know, a liberally background, and your introduction to

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Speaker 1: Rush Limbaugh was kind of watching it as a character, right. Yes, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I grew up very conservative. My parents were also lower

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Speaker 1: middle class, verging on poor in when I was like

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Speaker 1: kind of little, a lot of economic anxiety, but extremely conservative.

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Speaker 1: I would say, like our family religion was conservatism, and

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Speaker 1: so Rush Limbaugh was caught. Whenever I was driving with

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Speaker 1: my mom or my dad, Rush was on. We listened

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Speaker 1: to him. My parents talked about him, so My upbringing

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Speaker 1: with him was that this guy is like the profit

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Speaker 1: of of what's what's right, you know, both in the

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Speaker 1: political sense and in the moral sense. So I'm very

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Speaker 1: excited about this, and I'm excited that, you know who

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Speaker 1: Morton Downey Junior is, because we're gonna be talking about

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Speaker 1: him a bit too. Absolutely, So, yeah, Rush Limbaugh is

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Speaker 1: It's hard to over sell this guy's influence on our

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Speaker 1: current state of Like, I think it would be fair

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Speaker 1: to say we're kind of like verging on civil conflict

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Speaker 1: right now between the right and left in the United States,

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Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so yeah, And I

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Speaker 1: think Rush Limbaugh has a huge might be the man

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Speaker 1: most responsible for that.

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Speaker 2: I totally agree that his influence cannot be Uh is

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Speaker 2: it overestimated?

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Speaker 1: Like, yeah, he cannot.

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Speaker 2: It's like I I the day he died, I tweeted,

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Speaker 2: I tweeted, Uh, if I had to say something positive,

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Speaker 2: I guess if I had to say something positive, I'm

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Speaker 2: glad Rush Limbaugh lived long enough to get cancer and die.

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Speaker 2: And then that got that got picked up by foxnews

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Speaker 2: dot Com. They did a roundup of you know, uh,

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Speaker 2: liberals celebrating Rush Limbaugh's death, which really was just like, hey,

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Speaker 2: if you want to harass some people, here's here's sudo harass.

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Speaker 2: And I had people, I had people on my mentions

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Speaker 2: on Twitter like saying things like, uh, you better pray

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Speaker 2: you never meet me, Like people implying violent because I

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Speaker 2: said I'm glad Rush Limbaugh is dead. I had somebody

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Speaker 2: call my house and say, this, Rush Limbaugh contributed far

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Speaker 2: more good to society than you ever will.

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Speaker 1: Fine, God, my God.

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Speaker 2: For Rush Limbaugh. This guy. But I mean, this guy

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Speaker 2: had a show. He had a show. He wasn't a legislator.

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Speaker 2: He wasn't he wasn't like some some sort of freedom fighter.

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Speaker 2: This guy just had a show where he said mean things.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, where where he repeatedly celebrated the deaths of his

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Speaker 1: enemies and made half a billion dollars doing it. Yes, Okay,

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Speaker 1: let's let's get into Russia's life. So the first thing

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Speaker 1: I learned about him when I started digging him into him,

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Speaker 1: that might be the thing I learned about him that

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Speaker 1: surprised me the most. Rushi is not short for anything.

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Speaker 1: Russia is a full a full first name, and in fact,

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Speaker 1: Rush Limbaugh is the third Rush Limbaugh in his family line.

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Speaker 1: They are very proud of that name. His grandpa, Rush

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Speaker 1: Senior was born and raised in Bolinger County, Missouri, so

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Speaker 1: he and I are both Missouri babies. He grew up

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Speaker 1: into a world that was changing rapidly. Rush Senior saw

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Speaker 1: an electric light for the first time when he was twelve.

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Speaker 1: He took his first railroad trip in nineteen oh four.

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Speaker 3: Real name, I thought that.

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Speaker 1: I always thought that was one of those things I know.

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Speaker 1: It was like I choose that. That is the most

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Speaker 1: shocking thing about him. He rush Lama is not only

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Speaker 1: his full name, it is the only name his family

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Speaker 1: seems to give their firstborn sonsy a apro so, Rush

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Speaker 1: Senior became a lawyer. He opened an office in Cape Girardou, Missouri,

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Speaker 1: and he basically never left the town again. He retired

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Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety four at the age of one hundred

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Speaker 1: and two, which I mention because it suggests that all

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Speaker 1: those cigars Rushmoke w r Us are Rush Limbaugh smoked

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Speaker 1: saved us about thirty two years more of his show,

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Speaker 1: Sweet I'm.

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Speaker 2: Sorry, Did you say he retired at one hundred.

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Speaker 1: And two in nineteen ninety four? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: And then how long did he live after that?

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Speaker 1: Did he get to So I think he died. I

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Speaker 1: think he died immediately from what Yeah, Like he's one

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Speaker 1: of those guys who worked until he died. Basically some

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Speaker 1: people are. His greatest son was like that. So Rush

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Speaker 1: Senior was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives when

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Speaker 1: he was forty. His main political issue was fighting FDR

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Speaker 1: in the New Deal, which shouldn't be surprising to anybody, right,

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Speaker 1: this is deeply, deeply embedded in the Rush Limbaugh line.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty six, Rush Limbaugh Senior was a Republican

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Speaker 1: delegate at the Republican National Convention, where he helped nominate

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Speaker 1: Alf Landon for the noble job of losing to Franklin

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Speaker 1: Delano Roosevelt in an election. You don't nobody was better

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Speaker 1: at campaigning than FDR. It was never a successful thing

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Speaker 1: to run against that family.

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Speaker 2: I know, somebody had to be his Washington generals.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, alf Landon, the Washington generals of Republican politics. So

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Speaker 1: my main source for the early life and family history

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Speaker 1: of Rush Limbaugh is a fairly comprehensive, if I would say,

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Speaker 1: kind of fawning biography of Limbaugh by Zeve Chaffitz and Zev.

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Speaker 1: It's a weird first name ze apostrophe. Ev chaffits. He

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Speaker 1: notes that, over the course of decades of lawyering, Rush

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Speaker 1: Senior quote quietly but inevitably became well to do, which

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Speaker 1: is an interesting way of phrasing it. Just like there

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Speaker 1: was no stopping it. He just got It was kind

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Speaker 1: of a way of making it seem like he just

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Speaker 1: he didn't really want to become rich. He just became rich.

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Speaker 2: You know, that is the most suspicious sounding phrase.

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Speaker 1: Long time, inevitably, quietly, in inevitably got rich. Sinister yea godah,

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Speaker 1: it is very sinister. So Rush Junior, who is our

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Speaker 1: Rush Limbaugh's father was born at some point. Quick googling

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Speaker 1: obviously he had been born. Quick Googling didn't return a date.

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Speaker 1: He's the only Rush Limbaugh without a Wikipedia page, which

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Speaker 1: I guess kind of a kind of a shot to him.

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Speaker 1: I could have probably found it out if I'd really

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Speaker 1: dug into it. But it doesn't really matter that much

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Speaker 1: for our purposes.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he did what he had to do. He gave

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Speaker 2: us rush.

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Speaker 1: He gave us our rush. Yes, our rush, our rush.

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Speaker 1: So Rush Junior is only important for the impact that

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Speaker 1: he had on our rush. He was a World War

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Speaker 1: II combat pilot, which is undeniably rad You gotta give

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Speaker 1: him that, and his biography notes that he maintained a

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Speaker 1: military crew cut for his entire life. He was heavy

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Speaker 1: set and top dad out at about three hundred pounds,

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Speaker 1: which earned him the nickname Big Rush o.

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Speaker 2: Big rush Man, one of those nicknames you you cannot

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Speaker 2: combat like Big Rush. Sorry, Big Rush, Sorry, Big Rush.

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Speaker 2: You can ask politely, It's not gonna happen.

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Speaker 1: Why you in a big rush? Uh? So Big Rush

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Speaker 1: became an attorney.

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Speaker 2: Sorry, because I'm always rushing around.

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Speaker 1: I'm always rushing around. So Big Rush became an attorney

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Speaker 1: like his dad and his brother, who eventually went on

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Speaker 1: to become a federal judge. Big Rush was a powerful

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Speaker 1: orator and often gave speeches in the town of Cape

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Speaker 1: Girardeau during holidays. His very conservative politics influenced these speeches,

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Speaker 1: and his most famous one was a tearful hagiographic speech

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Speaker 1: about our nation saintly founding fathers. Again, you can see

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Speaker 1: he clearly had kind of the same gift of gab

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Speaker 1: that our Rush has. And you have to admit if

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Speaker 1: you want to, if you know anthing about our Rush

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Speaker 1: Limbaugh he was an undeniably talented broadcaster. He was very

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Speaker 1: good at what he did. That's why he had the

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Speaker 1: impact that absolutely.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Now our Rush Limbaugh A Rush Hudson Limbaugh, the

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Speaker 1: third to give his full name, was born in Cape Girardeau, Mississippi,

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Speaker 1: on January or Missouri sorry, on January twelfth, nineteen fifty one.

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Speaker 1: By all accounts, he had a financially comfortable upbringing with

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Speaker 1: a brother and a parents who loved him. Baby Rush

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Speaker 1: spent his childhood and bubing a steady diet of his

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Speaker 1: dad's rants about scummy liberals and evil, conniving communists. One

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Speaker 1: of Our Russia's childhood friends recalls a big Rush of

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Speaker 1: his dad. Quote. We'd go over to his house sometimes

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Speaker 1: just to watch him watch the six o'clock news. He'd

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Speaker 1: sit in front of the television, drinking black cherry pop

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Speaker 1: eat popcorn and just railing at the anchorman and the reporters.

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Speaker 1: He'd yell at Dan Rather, they're all typical liberals, and

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Speaker 1: Rather's the worst one of the bunch. And we'd try

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Speaker 1: to keep him going. You know, mister Rush, what do

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Speaker 1: you think about this? Mister Rush, what do you think

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Speaker 1: about that? Sometimes he'd say kinder. That was this friend's name.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna be the first Dutchman on the moon. I

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Speaker 1: don't know exactly what he meant by that, but he

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Speaker 1: was trying to be friendly. I liked him, but he

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Speaker 1: was a harsh taskmaster with his sons. An odd comment,

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Speaker 1: that's so weird.

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Speaker 2: So Rush has a has a brother, or.

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Speaker 1: Russia has a brother. He has a brother, David, who

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Speaker 1: was his younger brother. No, no, no, I think that's

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Speaker 1: the oldest. The oldest son is the Rush gets the

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Speaker 1: Rush name.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they didn't do it George for me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, David becomes like a lawyer, doesn't really leave Cape

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Speaker 1: Girardeau and is like, you know, he's he's he unlike

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Speaker 1: his brother, has a family, has like a wife that

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Speaker 1: he's you know, stays with and all that stuff.

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Speaker 2: Did he quietly but inevitably become wealthy.

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Speaker 1: I think yeah, I think he was bored wealthy. He

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Speaker 1: and his brother were both born rich as hell. So

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Speaker 1: and and our Russ's brother David provided an even more

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Speaker 1: telling glimpse of kind of what their childhood was like

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Speaker 1: under Big Rush. My dad stood out sometimes. He provoked

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Speaker 1: people who didn't agree with him to violence. Once for example,

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Speaker 1: he was in a bar slamming FDR and a couple

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Speaker 1: guys jumped him and beat him up. I never did

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Speaker 1: ask him the details of that one, but it was

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Speaker 1: a couple guys. Not a fair fight, I know that much.

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Speaker 1: I have to assume he deserved to get the shit

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Speaker 1: kicked out of him. Yeah, I'm gonna guess he was

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Speaker 1: saying something like, the people who got screwed over in

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Speaker 1: the Great Depression deserve to starve to death. We should

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Speaker 1: stay helping them. That's gonna be my guess. And he

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Speaker 1: got the shit kicked out of him by some WPA guys,

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Speaker 1: something like that.

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Speaker 2: If your name is if your name is Big Rush

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Speaker 2: and two guys go after you, I think that's a

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Speaker 2: fair fight.

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Speaker 1: That's a fair fight. You're big, you know.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a little Rush.

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Speaker 1: He's three hundred pounds. They're probably each about a buck fifty.

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Speaker 1: You know, their fight exactly, the fight by mass thin poor. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's so. Our Rush was born into the Eisenhower years,

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Speaker 1: which will probably always be remember. It is like the

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Speaker 1: high point of both capitalism and the United States. This

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Speaker 1: period of peak American exceptionalism imprinted itself deeply on Russia's

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Speaker 1: growing brain. His father was made a special ambassador to

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Speaker 1: India's legal system. Their family got their first television. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: look because he was I think it means you know,

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Speaker 1: India's was newly independent in the Eisenhower years. Right, They

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Speaker 1: had just the UK had just left, they had just

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Speaker 1: partitioned with Pakistan. They're developing their own independent legal system,

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Speaker 1: and they're a democracy that was heavily based at least

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Speaker 1: initially on the US. So the president like picked guys

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Speaker 1: who were established lawyers, like Big Rush and also established

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Speaker 1: Republicans to be kind of helped set up the Indian

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Speaker 1: legal system. Wow, that's kind of what happened. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: his father's a big man in Republican politics. Rush grows

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Speaker 1: up seeing in the period where America is undeniably like

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Speaker 1: like literally is half of the global economy. Right, that's

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Speaker 1: a very significant thing for him. So the family in

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Speaker 1: the fifties gets their first TV. But radio is still

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Speaker 1: the dominant method of entertainment in those days, and Russia's

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Speaker 1: childhood and early adolescence coincided with the birth of rock

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Speaker 1: and roll and the absolute peak of cultural relevance for DJs.

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Speaker 1: My dad grew up at a pretty similar period of time.

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Speaker 1: He's like seven or eight years younger than Rush, and

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Speaker 1: he grew up the only thing my dad ever wanted

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Speaker 1: to be was a DJ, and he wasn't a radio

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Speaker 1: DJ for like twenty thirty years.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: That was like the coolest thing that you could do.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 1: You didn't have Spotify, you didn't have the Internet. People

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Speaker 1: learned about new music from DJs who were kind of

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Speaker 1: like picking what they were going to play on the radio.

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Speaker 1: It was like the absolute raddest thing you could be.

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Speaker 1: And that's what Rush like. He idolizes these big DJs

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Speaker 1: of the time, and that's all he wants to be

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Speaker 1: for basically his entire young life is a DJ. Now,

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Speaker 1: when Rush was three, Brown versus the Board of Education

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Speaker 1: was ruled on by the Supreme Court, which led to

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Speaker 1: the integration of US schools now Zeve Chaffits doesn't write

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Speaker 1: anything specific in the biography about how Rush Senior talked

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Speaker 1: about race to his son. I have not We don't

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Speaker 1: get any of that information. And I'm not necessarily blaming

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Speaker 1: Chaffits for that, because I think the Rush family is

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Speaker 1: very pr savvy. They don't talk about it. You know,

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Speaker 1: I don't know who he would have gotten that info

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Speaker 1: from but our Rush would have definitely picked up on

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Speaker 1: the great deal of conflict in Cape Girardeau over racial matters.

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Speaker 1: Missouri is an odd state and that it is both

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Speaker 1: Midwestern and southern. During the Civil War it was split

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Speaker 1: between Yankee and Confederate sympathizers, and the town that Rush

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Speaker 1: grew up in had monuments to the dead of both sides.

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Speaker 1: There was tremendous resistance to the idea of integration of

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Speaker 1: schools in Missouri and in Cape Girardeau, and Zeeve Chaffits

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Speaker 1: to his credit rights about this quote. In nineteen fifty two,

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Speaker 1: Cape built its white students a new school, Central High.

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Speaker 1: Blacks continued to attend Cobb High School, but the supreme

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Speaker 1: court and basketball changed that. Cape Giardu took its high

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Speaker 1: school basketball very seriously and sometimes contended for the state title.

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Speaker 1: The nineteen fifty three team was expected to be a powerhouse,

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Speaker 1: but word got around that the kids from Cob were

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Speaker 1: even better. An informal game was arranged between Central and

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Speaker 1: Cob High, says historian Frank Nicol, Cob won. Shortly thereafter,

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Speaker 1: Cob mysteriously burned down. Black students went to school and

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Speaker 1: churches and private homes that year, But a more permanent

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Speaker 1: solution was, yeah, they that's the kind of town he

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Speaker 1: grows up and the black kids win at basketball and

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Speaker 1: they burned their school down.

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Speaker 2: Wow.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Cape Girodeau is a very racist town and kind

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Speaker 1: of more to the point, like, we don't know exactly

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Speaker 1: what Russia's dad would have said about any of this.

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Speaker 1: We don't know that he would have supported the burning

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Speaker 1: down of the black school. We don't know that he

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Speaker 1: wouldn't though, that's right, and you know, the conservatives were

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Speaker 1: definitely more on the don't integrate side of things right now.

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Speaker 1: A compromise was eventually reached in Cape Girodo, and the

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Speaker 1: compromise was that black kids would be allowed to attend

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Speaker 1: Central High but they would be put in special classes

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Speaker 1: that were taught by former teachers of cob the school

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Speaker 1: that had been burned down. This was kind of integrating

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Speaker 1: by not integrating. So there were black and white kids

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Speaker 1: in the same school, but not in the same classes.

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Speaker 1: And this is the way things were in Cape Gerarda

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Speaker 1: when Rush Limbaugh started school. So yeah, that's you can

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Speaker 1: infer from that what you will based on some of

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Speaker 1: the things Rush Limbaugh says and does later in life.

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Speaker 1: I think we're missing some important information about what his

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Speaker 1: dad thought about black people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't remember, if ever being concerned as to

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Speaker 2: the investigation of that fire.

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Speaker 1: I don't think he would burned down. He might have

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Speaker 1: done it like that is rampant and irresponsible speculation in

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Speaker 1: my part, but also, uh, the only reason I think

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Speaker 1: he wouldn't have is that he wouldn't have been able

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Speaker 1: to run away from it. In mind, from what I

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Speaker 1: can tell, he didn't do well in that fight, is

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Speaker 1: all I'm saying. So Rush had an upbringing that would

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Speaker 1: have been fairly standard for a rich kid of his era.

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Speaker 1: He played basketball, He did chore, He had plenty of friends.

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Speaker 1: He was not an overly active kid. He did not

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Speaker 1: like sports. He hated his one year in the Cub

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Speaker 1: Scouts rushing them ball. Hates the outdoors his entire life.

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Speaker 1: He did not like school. But he was popular, largely

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Speaker 1: because his family was rich and had a huge basement

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Speaker 1: with a pool table and a bunch of other luxuries.

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Speaker 1: The kids Rush hung out with during this time give

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Speaker 1: us some of our best hints about the darker elements

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Speaker 1: of his childhood. One of them told Zev Chaffets quote,

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Speaker 1: Russia's dad didn't suffer fools lightly. He was always very

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Speaker 1: disapproving of Russia's ambitions to have a career in radio.

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Speaker 1: Russia's mom was a kind, gentle person, but his dad

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Speaker 1: could be pretty rough. He was not above calling down

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Speaker 1: Russian David in front of their friends, and when he

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Speaker 1: did it, there was a string of expletives attached. I

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Speaker 1: saw that happen many times. So kind of abusive, not

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Speaker 1: I don't think, by the standards of the time, And

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Speaker 1: I haven't heard any that he was like fading his

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Speaker 1: kids or anything, but kind of mentally abusive. Again, probably

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Speaker 1: more or less in line with what most most men

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Speaker 1: of his social class would have been like to their kids.

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Speaker 1: You know, I don't think this was abnormal.

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Speaker 2: I mean, how many how many of these guys were

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Speaker 2: born out of the the the sort of ritual humiliation

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Speaker 2: by their fathers in front of an audience.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think most of them.

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Speaker 2: You know, It's like it's such a it's such a

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Speaker 2: common thing that I guess I'm just glad my dad

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Speaker 2: was a guy who didn't say anything.

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Speaker 1: Ever, Yeah, it's better than humiliating you in front of

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Speaker 1: your friends. When you say something he disagrees with. So

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Speaker 1: every one of Russia's early friends that I've seen interviewed

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Speaker 1: is very consistent about the fact that he was not

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Speaker 1: political from an early age. He rarely, if ever talked politics,

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Speaker 1: and he did not express strong beliefs. One of his

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Speaker 1: friends even remembers him as a particularly good debater in

415
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Speaker 1: school because quote he could argue either side of a

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Speaker 1: proposition without missing a beat. When he did express political opinions,

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Speaker 1: they were generally conservative. One friend noted that the only

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Speaker 1: time he saw child Rush express a strong political sentiment

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Speaker 1: was after the nineteen sixty presidential election when Rush was nine. Quote,

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Speaker 1: Rush wrote on a drywall Kennedy Ie darn Nixon lost. Shucks.

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Speaker 1: So grows up conservative because his dad is conservative. But

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Speaker 1: it's clearly politics is not a big part of his

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Speaker 1: life from an early age. He's not like Ben Shapiro, right,

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Speaker 1: where from the get go he's being sort of like

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Speaker 1: focused into becoming a political commentator. That does not happen

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Speaker 1: with Rush Limbaugh.

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Speaker 2: Right, He's more from the darn shucks school of the darn.

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Speaker 1: Shucks school political commentary.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So Rush got his first gig at age thirteen, working

431
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Speaker 1: at a downtown barber shop. He later told his biographer

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Speaker 1: that he liked the gig because it gave him a

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Speaker 1: chance to talk to adults, who he preferred to his peers,

434
00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:50,720
Speaker 1: because I didn't think kids were interesting. When it came

435
00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:53,240
Speaker 1: to girls, Rush was as awkward as you'd expect. He

436
00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:56,040
Speaker 1: was bad at sports, heavy set, and not at all smooth.

437
00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,200
Speaker 1: In his nineteen ninety three biography, The Rush Limbaugh Story,

438
00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:03,240
Speaker 1: biographer Paul Colford recalls one particularly embarrassing incident during a

439
00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:05,560
Speaker 1: game of Spin the bottle when Rush was a teenager.

440
00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 1: He spun the bottle and it stopped at and it

441
00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:11,080
Speaker 1: stopped pointing at the prettiest girl at the party, which

442
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:14,120
Speaker 1: is how she's described in this anecdote quote. She looked

443
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:16,680
Speaker 1: at him and gasped, couldn't do it, not with him,

444
00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:19,560
Speaker 1: that is, And everyone in the room witnessed this humiliation.

445
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:24,080
Speaker 1: It was a wound he would nurse forever. Oh ah, yeah,

446
00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:26,200
Speaker 1: that's nice.

447
00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:30,119
Speaker 3: Uh, thank you biographer for that.

448
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:34,440
Speaker 1: And it's one of those things, you know, I think

449
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:38,120
Speaker 1: there's I'm sure this has an impact on the kind

450
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:40,639
Speaker 1: of man he becomes, but also I think most of

451
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:42,240
Speaker 1: us have a moment like that where we have a

452
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:45,840
Speaker 1: crush on some person of the opposite or the same sex,

453
00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:49,000
Speaker 1: and they're not into us, and it's horribly embarrassing. It's

454
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:51,439
Speaker 1: a pretty and most of us don't grow up to

455
00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:56,240
Speaker 1: destroy civil society in the environment. Right, Yeah, we've all

456
00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:59,080
Speaker 1: been there, and Rush was there too. Obviously this is

457
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:01,720
Speaker 1: a part of what ever toxic stew gets cooked up

458
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:04,159
Speaker 1: at him. But I don't know, like it's one of

459
00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:05,800
Speaker 1: those things I think you can kind of lean too

460
00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:08,600
Speaker 1: much on. Oh, this is why he was always forever

461
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:11,080
Speaker 1: humiliated by this thing, and that's why he became the man.

462
00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:12,720
Speaker 1: He was like, well, we all have that in our past,

463
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:13,800
Speaker 1: and we all don't do this shit.

464
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:17,680
Speaker 2: It's very much like the original origin story of Lex

465
00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:23,160
Speaker 2: Luthor that uh yeah, Superman blew out his hair Superman.

466
00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:27,760
Speaker 2: Superman was responsible for him going prematurely bald, and he

467
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:30,119
Speaker 2: became a super villain because of this. Y.

468
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:32,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know there are a lot of other

469
00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:37,879
Speaker 1: bald men in that world who don't become Superman. Yeah.

470
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,320
Speaker 1: So Big Rush wanted his son to become a lawyer

471
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 1: or to do something else with a similar sort of gravitas. Right,

472
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,000
Speaker 1: The Limbaughs were big men in Cape Girardo. They were

473
00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:49,119
Speaker 1: kind of like the the the primary, like the most

474
00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:53,000
Speaker 1: prominent men in the entire town. And he Big Rush

475
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:55,240
Speaker 1: wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and do

476
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:57,920
Speaker 1: something respectable. Didn't have to be a lawyer, going to politics,

477
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:01,200
Speaker 1: do something important, right, something that he can brag about

478
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 1: to the other rich guys. Now, the fact that young

479
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:06,919
Speaker 1: Rush only ever wanted to be on the radio infuriated

480
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 1: his father. For his part, Rush seems to suspect that

481
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,040
Speaker 1: his love of radio was born in part from his

482
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:13,040
Speaker 1: hatred of school.

483
00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:13,760
Speaker 2: Quote.

484
00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:16,119
Speaker 1: My mother would be fixing me breakfast and I'd be

485
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:18,720
Speaker 1: listening to the guy on the radio. He'd be having fun,

486
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 1: and I was preparing to go to prison.

487
00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 2: God, I mean join the club, Rush.

488
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:27,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, we all hate school.

489
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 2: It's tradish everybody. It never occurred to me to related

490
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:34,520
Speaker 2: to the guy on the radio, like how come he

491
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,439
Speaker 2: gets to have fun, this full grown adult, and I

492
00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:38,560
Speaker 2: have to go to school.

493
00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:41,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there's a lot of kids. Let's I'll

494
00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:44,520
Speaker 1: take my adopted hometown, Portland, for example, a lot of

495
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:47,879
Speaker 1: kids there who hate school. They don't destroy the entire planet.

496
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:50,360
Speaker 1: They just break Starbucks windows on the weekends, and that's

497
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:51,040
Speaker 1: much healthier.

498
00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:51,399
Speaker 2: Rush.

499
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:54,360
Speaker 1: You can just buck up a Starbucks if you if

500
00:25:54,359 --> 00:25:59,440
Speaker 1: you're nursing some rage at the educational industrial complex or whatever.

501
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:03,160
Speaker 1: So despite his irritation, Big Rush clearly did love his son,

502
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:05,760
Speaker 1: and when little Rush was sixteen, his dad used some

503
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:08,040
Speaker 1: of his local clout to get his son a part

504
00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:11,720
Speaker 1: time job at the local radio station. Rush started doing

505
00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:15,439
Speaker 1: what you'd today call internshit, you know, fetching coffee, cleaning up,

506
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:18,399
Speaker 1: handling odd tasks here and there, and eventually he was

507
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:22,240
Speaker 1: allowed to actually introduce and play records on air. The

508
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:24,680
Speaker 1: summer before his senior year of high school, Big Rush

509
00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:26,800
Speaker 1: paid for his son to attend a six week radio

510
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:30,199
Speaker 1: engineering course in Dallas. This was a big moment for Rush.

511
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 1: He was away from home for the first time, living

512
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:35,160
Speaker 1: in a boarding house. He started smoking cigarettes, thank god,

513
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:37,440
Speaker 1: and he got a license that allowed him to actually

514
00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:42,119
Speaker 1: and he got a license that allowed him to actually

515
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:45,439
Speaker 1: run the radio without adult supervision. Once he had this,

516
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:48,199
Speaker 1: station management let him hang out alone all weekend and

517
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:51,680
Speaker 1: weekdays after school, playing records and for the first time,

518
00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:55,800
Speaker 1: presenting himself to an audience on air. So he gets started,

519
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:57,520
Speaker 1: and this is one of those things his dad clearly

520
00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:00,359
Speaker 1: there are some abusive elements of their relationship. His dad

521
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:04,359
Speaker 1: is not supportive of Rush's radio career, but also is

522
00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:07,359
Speaker 1: like his dad doesn't think it's a good idea, but

523
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:10,600
Speaker 1: also enables him right, like, not just gets him a job,

524
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:13,280
Speaker 1: but pays for him to get educated. So this is

525
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:15,840
Speaker 1: not a guy I'm sure you know he had his

526
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 1: frustra strations with his father. This is not a guy

527
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:20,000
Speaker 1: who grows up with a dad who just doesn't get

528
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:22,080
Speaker 1: him and refuses to support him. This is a very

529
00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: supportive upbringing. This kid has his father's not yeah exactly.

530
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:29,240
Speaker 2: Yeah.

531
00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:32,560
Speaker 1: So Rush, you know, becomes kind of famous within his

532
00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:35,120
Speaker 1: you know, the teen set at his town because he's

533
00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:37,439
Speaker 1: the guy with the radio show and in high school

534
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:39,639
Speaker 1: and he was not at all political at this point.

535
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,679
Speaker 1: His most well known bit involved reading the daily beauty

536
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:46,280
Speaker 1: tips that the Associated Press sent out back then, which

537
00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:48,199
Speaker 1: he like, and he would like kind of mock the

538
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:50,240
Speaker 1: beauty tips because he thought it was silly that the

539
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:53,120
Speaker 1: AP was sending out daily beauty tips, which is fair,

540
00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:54,920
Speaker 1: it is that has a silly thing for the AP

541
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:55,359
Speaker 1: to do.

542
00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 5: Now.

543
00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:59,520
Speaker 1: Russia's professional idol at this point was a guy named

544
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:03,639
Speaker 1: Larry lou Jack Lujack, a Chicago DJ who was famous

545
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:06,720
Speaker 1: for his sense of humor and comedic stylings. Rush leader

546
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:10,119
Speaker 1: called him the only person I ever copied. Lujack was

547
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:14,000
Speaker 1: known for audibly shuffling papers during his monologues and different bits,

548
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 1: a tactic Limbaugh copied and used repeatedly through his decades

549
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:19,240
Speaker 1: on air, and as.

550
00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:23,440
Speaker 2: In kind of like his signature bit no.

551
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:24,879
Speaker 1: No, no. It wasn't a bit, but it was like

552
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:27,480
Speaker 1: a thing he would do to emphasize that, like I've

553
00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:30,520
Speaker 1: got evidence or I've got information here. You know, it

554
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:32,320
Speaker 1: was a thing Rush, and it was a big Rush

555
00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:35,440
Speaker 1: Limbaugh thing. You know. It's it's how you convince people

556
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 1: who maybe aren't that credible that you you have good information.

557
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:42,719
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, he's been handed he's been handed to this

558
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:45,800
Speaker 2: ream of paper that has information on it. So it's true.

559
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,640
Speaker 2: But but Lujack was not a political guy, right he was.

560
00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:51,800
Speaker 1: He was not, And he fucking hated Rush Limbaugh because

561
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:54,960
Speaker 1: when Rush got famous in the early nineties, Rush was like, yeah,

562
00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:57,080
Speaker 1: Larry Lujack is the only man I ever copied. And

563
00:28:57,080 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 1: they asked Lujack about it, and his response was basically,

564
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:00,440
Speaker 1: fuck that.

565
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 2: Guy, bless you good man.

566
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you can't pick who finds you influentially, you know. Yeah,

567
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:16,360
Speaker 1: So back in those days again, being a radio DJ

568
00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 1: was pretty much the coolest thing you could do, and

569
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:21,240
Speaker 1: Russia's side job made him very popular at high school.

570
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:24,080
Speaker 1: He even signed autographs on a few occasions. The work

571
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 1: was intoxicating, and Rush seemed to know at once that

572
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:30,080
Speaker 1: this was what he wanted to dedicate his life to doing. Obviously,

573
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:32,520
Speaker 1: his ambitions did not make his father happy, and during

574
00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 1: Russia's last year of childhood, his dad would constantly yell

575
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:37,960
Speaker 1: at him for wanting to waste his life on the radio.

576
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:40,600
Speaker 1: No amount of paternal ill will was enough to pull

577
00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:43,520
Speaker 1: Rush Limbaugh away from his dream, though he was miserable

578
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 1: at home and his father with his father, after graduating,

579
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:48,880
Speaker 1: he enrolled in a local college just to please the

580
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:51,240
Speaker 1: old man, but he couldn't actually bring himself to go

581
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:54,200
Speaker 1: to school very often. Sometimes his mother would drive him

582
00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:57,200
Speaker 1: to college just to make sure that he went. Rush

583
00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:59,160
Speaker 1: came of age during one of the most exciting and

584
00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 1: tumultuous periods in US history. I mean, he's literally becoming

585
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:04,920
Speaker 1: an adultho in like nineteen sixty eight. I think like

586
00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 1: some shit went down that year, you know, there's a

587
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:11,640
Speaker 1: lot of teenagers doing some exciting things. Now, given how

588
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:14,120
Speaker 1: Rush turned out, you might expect him to have been

589
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:16,960
Speaker 1: active and involved in the politics of his time. But

590
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:18,960
Speaker 1: he was not. And to hear him tell it now,

591
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 1: or to hear him tell it when he related this

592
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:23,120
Speaker 1: to his biographer, the civil rights movement in the Vietnam

593
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:27,320
Speaker 1: years basically all passed him by. He never attended political rallies.

594
00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 1: He only dimly remembers hearing of Bobby Kennedy's death. When

595
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,400
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated, his radio station asked

596
00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:36,400
Speaker 1: him to help send out news reports for the local

597
00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 1: NBC affiliate because there were uprisings all around the country,

598
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 1: and Rush did this, but he didn't actually engage with

599
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 1: the news. He was not actually interested in what was happening.

600
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:46,960
Speaker 1: He was just interested in kind of the business of

601
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:50,280
Speaker 1: how news was disseminated. Quote this is what he said later.

602
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:53,280
Speaker 1: I remember talking to them about the broadcast business NBC.

603
00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 1: I was seventeen, playing records on the radio, not commenting

604
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:59,719
Speaker 1: on news. I don't recall feeling any concern. So that

605
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:02,440
Speaker 1: is how we again a lot of privilege. There are

606
00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:06,160
Speaker 1: massive race based uprisings in the number of US cities,

607
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:08,840
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of National Guard troops are called up.

608
00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:13,320
Speaker 1: As after the civil rights leader is assassinated, the country

609
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:15,720
Speaker 1: is on the brink of open conflict in Russia, Limbache,

610
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: I don't give a fuck, Like I just want to

611
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:19,080
Speaker 1: pla him a record. So you know, Wow, he's just

612
00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:21,120
Speaker 1: a rich white kid, you know, in the middle of Missari.

613
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:21,840
Speaker 1: He doesn't give a shit.

614
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:25,520
Speaker 2: It's so wild to think about someone being alive at

615
00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:29,520
Speaker 2: that time. Yeah, and not having a strong feeling either

616
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 2: way about anything that's going on.

617
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:34,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's not doesn't even have strong hard right sympathies.

618
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:36,120
Speaker 1: He just doesn't give a fuck about it.

619
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 2: Right. That is like a kind of privilege that I

620
00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:40,440
Speaker 2: can't even begin to fathom.

621
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:43,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is important that, like he's not just

622
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:44,880
Speaker 1: taking the right wing side of things, where like we

623
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:46,640
Speaker 1: have fu Martin Luther King, he was a comedy. He

624
00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:49,640
Speaker 1: just doesn't care, Like none of this even makes it

625
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:50,520
Speaker 1: into his mind.

626
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:53,120
Speaker 2: Like the idea that you would say, Martin Luther King,

627
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:53,880
Speaker 2: who is that again?

628
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:57,520
Speaker 1: That which guy Bobby who got killed?

629
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:03,920
Speaker 2: Kidd of what dimly aware? That diminated?

630
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:08,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's quite a thing. So I'm going to

631
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:11,160
Speaker 1: quote now from a write up in The New York

632
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:16,080
Speaker 1: Times that ably summarizes Rush Limbaugh's early twenties. Quote. Love

633
00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 1: of radio eventually won out over formal education, and he

634
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:21,800
Speaker 1: dropped out of a local college after a year, appalling

635
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:25,680
Speaker 1: his parents. Then began a long, checkered odyssey typical of radio.

636
00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:28,800
Speaker 1: Limbaugh held and lost jobs in several cities, working under

637
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:32,000
Speaker 1: different names and broadcast styles. He was Rusty Sharp and

638
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 1: Jeff Christi. He was a DJ, a newsreader, a tak host.

639
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:38,000
Speaker 1: In each place he developed components of what would later

640
00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 1: emerge as the Limbaugh style. In Pittsburgh, he was a prankster,

641
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:43,680
Speaker 1: convincing listeners that he could see them through a new

642
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:49,080
Speaker 1: experimental picture phone. So he's kind of like a drivetime

643
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 1: morning DJ, like yeah, we're gonna I don't know, I

644
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 1: can't do the DJ voice, but like playing like soundbits

645
00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:58,880
Speaker 1: and doing doing gags. Like he's very like not even

646
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:01,719
Speaker 1: really a shock jockey yet because he's not like that

647
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:05,360
Speaker 1: has that's like starting to evolve in this period of time. Yeah,

648
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:08,800
Speaker 1: I did find some audio from Run of Russia's very

649
00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:11,640
Speaker 1: first broadcast in nineteen seventy four while he was still

650
00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:14,600
Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh, and I think it's interesting because in it

651
00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: you can hear Rush in mid transition from that drive

652
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:20,560
Speaker 1: time DJ voice to the voice of the Rush Limbaugh

653
00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:23,360
Speaker 1: who would help breed a modern American fascist movement. So

654
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:27,760
Speaker 1: here he is on wxz's Solid Rock and Gold Show.

655
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:31,160
Speaker 1: So without further ado, here is Rush Limbaugh in nineteen

656
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:32,320
Speaker 1: seventy four.

657
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 6: Also appearing with SHAWNAA at opening the show. I'llby Billy

658
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:38,720
Speaker 6: Cook's Rainbows and Gypsies. See the exact name of Dolphin

659
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:41,080
Speaker 6: rated PG. Now showing at the Ardmore Drive in Bellevue,

660
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:43,520
Speaker 6: Bethley Senema, camp Horn Drive in Carnegie, set him A

661
00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 6: and Cinema World Nay of the Dolphin, also showing in

662
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,400
Speaker 6: the Hampton Plaza, McKay Cinema, OH Penn Hills Region and

663
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:52,360
Speaker 6: Ronji the leads ce Day of the Dolphin.

664
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 5: Now at these the Wiggle South Hills, South Mark Drive In,

665
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:57,800
Speaker 5: South Hills Drive In and Sunset DEEO Drive In. I

666
00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:00,440
Speaker 5: certainly hope you people are writing all this down. Don't

667
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:03,720
Speaker 5: miss a Day of the Dolphin. It is showing so.

668
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:09,359
Speaker 1: Very silly as all radio from the nineteen seventies sounds today, right,

669
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,279
Speaker 1: he has most radio today sounds but also like there's

670
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:15,719
Speaker 1: you would never have guessed based on his early performances

671
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,000
Speaker 1: that he was going to become what he became, right.

672
00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:22,439
Speaker 2: No, I mean, look, he has undeniably great voice, great noise,

673
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:27,880
Speaker 2: very good at imparting information like actual factual information. This

674
00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:30,839
Speaker 2: movie is for sure playing here at this time day

675
00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:33,600
Speaker 2: if the Dolphins. Look, yeah, I can't wait to see it. Yeah,

676
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:37,279
Speaker 2: it's the exciting movie Day of the Dolphin. But that

677
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:41,480
Speaker 2: he's just straight reading things that you cannot misinterpret in

678
00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:45,959
Speaker 2: any way, if only he'd stuck to that. But yeah,

679
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:50,400
Speaker 2: I it's so. I guess I don't want to get

680
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 2: ahead of us and get ahead of ourselves. But the

681
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 2: idea that this guy would not be content doing.

682
00:34:57,760 --> 00:34:58,400
Speaker 1: Just this.

683
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 2: Is like what when does it the idea that it

684
00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:05,360
Speaker 2: turns like I don't know, I don't.

685
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:07,319
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry, we'll get to that.

686
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:08,000
Speaker 2: But I.

687
00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:11,960
Speaker 1: Think it's fair to say this is what he loved,

688
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:14,000
Speaker 1: and he would have been perfectly happy if he could

689
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:16,400
Speaker 1: have made a good We're getting to kind of like

690
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:18,879
Speaker 1: a Hitler at art school story where like, yeah, maybe

691
00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:21,239
Speaker 1: if he'd gotten to keep being a drivetime radio DJ,

692
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 1: things would have been better.

693
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:24,360
Speaker 2: You know, I had I had a conversation with a

694
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:29,160
Speaker 2: friend of mine who who also does podcasts in radio,

695
00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:33,879
Speaker 2: and for neither of us it is our thing, our

696
00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:37,320
Speaker 2: first thing, but we shared a we we had a

697
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:41,480
Speaker 2: conversation where we shared our love of being good at

698
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 2: reading copy like you have to do ads. There is

699
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,520
Speaker 2: something that's weirdly satisfying about like, oh, I sound like

700
00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:50,799
Speaker 2: a guy on the radio. I'm doing a good job

701
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:52,920
Speaker 2: at reading this and making it sound natural and whatever,

702
00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:56,200
Speaker 2: and it's like there it like there's isn't that enough?

703
00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:59,440
Speaker 2: Isn't that enough? That there's there? It is a good

704
00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:01,880
Speaker 2: feeling when you nail an ad read.

705
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:04,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, look, it's I mean, I think I think everyone

706
00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:08,960
Speaker 1: who does a who who does a job that like,

707
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,160
Speaker 1: I think it pretty much everyone who has worked. There's

708
00:36:11,200 --> 00:36:14,120
Speaker 1: a joy in professional competence of any time you know

709
00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:16,480
Speaker 1: you're working, you know, if you're like if you're if

710
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:19,200
Speaker 1: you're running like the cash cashier at a grocery store,

711
00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 1: right when you get really good at bagging, like it's this, oh,

712
00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:25,319
Speaker 1: the the the kind of ecstasy of competence right where

713
00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:27,440
Speaker 1: you can kind of lose yourself in a task, you know,

714
00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:29,319
Speaker 1: and be like I'm as good at this thing as

715
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:31,320
Speaker 1: I can be. Even if you don't like the job,

716
00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:34,680
Speaker 1: there's a satisfaction in that. And I think Rush was

717
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:37,880
Speaker 1: happy in this period doing He wasn't rich, he wasn't influential,

718
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:39,920
Speaker 1: but he was doing a thing he loved well and

719
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,200
Speaker 1: he was happy in this in the in this period

720
00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:45,960
Speaker 1: in the early seventies. So his early material in Pittsburgh

721
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:48,640
Speaker 1: is interesting to me because it's exactly the opposite of

722
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:51,280
Speaker 1: what you'd expect from him. One of his reoccurring bits

723
00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:55,000
Speaker 1: was the Friar Shuck Radio Ministry of the Air, where

724
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:58,080
Speaker 1: he relentlessly mocked the radio preachers that he saw coming

725
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:00,879
Speaker 1: into the station on Sundays. He thought these guys were

726
00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:03,839
Speaker 1: grifters and he hated them. The center of this bit

727
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:06,440
Speaker 1: was that no matter your problem, God would solve it

728
00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:10,200
Speaker 1: if you'd send the radio preacher one hundred dollars. That's

729
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:13,080
Speaker 1: interesting to me, and this is like a real running

730
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:16,120
Speaker 1: theme in his early careers. He made fun of preachers

731
00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:19,080
Speaker 1: all the time, of the exact kind of religious grifters

732
00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:21,959
Speaker 1: that later helped make him a wealthy man. It's very

733
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:26,359
Speaker 1: interesting to me. Yeah, there's also he also would read

734
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:29,319
Speaker 1: letters from fans, and at one point he read a

735
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:32,560
Speaker 1: letter that he said was from a young woman who

736
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:34,759
Speaker 1: wanted to be a DJ and was worried that her

737
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:37,359
Speaker 1: gender would hold her back. Here's what he told her

738
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:40,799
Speaker 1: on the air. This is interesting to me too. You

739
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:43,200
Speaker 1: just have to master two techniques, and I'm going to

740
00:37:43,239 --> 00:37:45,839
Speaker 1: explain them right now. Number one, the use of microphone.

741
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:47,840
Speaker 1: To use it, simply turn the microphone to the on

742
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,400
Speaker 1: position and talk into it. The second, which is the

743
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:52,719
Speaker 1: biggie is queuing up the record. Get the record you

744
00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:54,719
Speaker 1: want to play, take it out of the appropriate shuck,

745
00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:57,080
Speaker 1: slap it onto the turntable, take the arm and the needle,

746
00:37:57,120 --> 00:37:59,120
Speaker 1: place it on the outside edge of the record. Then

747
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,640
Speaker 1: turn the record till hear the beginning of the record.

748
00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:03,399
Speaker 1: Back it up a quarter of a turn, and when

749
00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:05,840
Speaker 1: you get through talking, the record will start. After you

750
00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:09,839
Speaker 1: have mastered those two techniques, girls change your sex and

751
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:12,280
Speaker 1: you can interpret that a couple of ways.

752
00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:14,640
Speaker 3: That about the man explaining about how to turn on

753
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:17,440
Speaker 3: a microphone and then he goes, oh wait, you can't.

754
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:20,359
Speaker 1: Do it well that that. I think there's two ways

755
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:22,360
Speaker 1: to interpret this. One of them is what you've said, Sophie,

756
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:24,279
Speaker 1: that he was just being incredibly sexist. One of them

757
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:26,760
Speaker 1: is that he might he might have been acknowledging anyone

758
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:28,680
Speaker 1: could do this job, but you won't be able to

759
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:31,080
Speaker 1: as a woman because of sexism in the industry. And

760
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:35,560
Speaker 1: I'm really not sure which one he was going for there, yea, yeah,

761
00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:37,240
Speaker 1: it could be both, Because it could be both.

762
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:39,759
Speaker 2: There is a kind of lording it over, like you know,

763
00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:42,000
Speaker 2: this is a dumb job, but you're still not allowed

764
00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:42,440
Speaker 2: to do it.

765
00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:45,439
Speaker 1: You're still not allowed to do it ladies. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

766
00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 1: that that's probably probably accurate. It's probably a bit of it.

767
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:51,000
Speaker 3: But Robert, you know what all ladies are allowed to do?

768
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:52,200
Speaker 2: Products?

769
00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:56,320
Speaker 1: Is it at Sophie? Is it participate in capitalism as consumers?

770
00:38:56,480 --> 00:38:58,400
Speaker 3: Yes, it is participating or capitalism.

771
00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:04,440
Speaker 1: Ladies. Stick it to Rush Limbaugh by engaging positively with

772
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:06,360
Speaker 1: the system he spent his life propping.

773
00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:09,280
Speaker 3: All right, shit, you know I didn't like the phrase

774
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:11,360
Speaker 3: stick it to Rush Limba very much.

775
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:21,360
Speaker 1: Neither did I, Sophie. Here's some mats. Oh we're back,

776
00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:24,399
Speaker 1: we're back from those ads, and Paul, I can see

777
00:39:24,440 --> 00:39:26,640
Speaker 1: the glow on your face that only comes upon a

778
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:29,479
Speaker 1: man's face the first time that he gets to help

779
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:32,440
Speaker 1: advertise the fine products and surfaces brought to us by

780
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:35,799
Speaker 1: the people at Raytheon. Are you feeling good, Paul about now?

781
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:39,840
Speaker 1: You are inextricably tied to wonderful products like the R

782
00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:41,120
Speaker 1: nine X knife missile.

783
00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:46,920
Speaker 2: I Yeah, as a boy growing up in Philadelphia, I

784
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:50,920
Speaker 2: dreamed of advertising for missiles.

785
00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:55,000
Speaker 1: That's what everyone wants to do, right, Yeah, since cavemen

786
00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:58,360
Speaker 1: painted on walls, they dreamed of Raytheon. And now we

787
00:39:58,640 --> 00:40:01,320
Speaker 1: are in the privileged position of getting to sell their products.

788
00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:02,400
Speaker 1: And I couldn't be happier.

789
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:05,719
Speaker 2: Here's what sucks. Raytheon is such a cool name.

790
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:06,560
Speaker 1: It is great.

791
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:08,200
Speaker 2: It's so good.

792
00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:11,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this in this ongoing bit I do.

793
00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:13,480
Speaker 1: I often just like the RNIX missile I think is

794
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:17,839
Speaker 1: made by Lockheed. Raytheon's guide it to be fair. It's

795
00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:22,640
Speaker 1: just the name Raytheon is such a good shady defense industry.

796
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,600
Speaker 1: Like it's the name of a company that ends the world, right,

797
00:40:25,719 --> 00:40:28,200
Speaker 1: Like you're talking about like like a you know they're

798
00:40:28,239 --> 00:40:30,239
Speaker 1: going to make a sky net that kills us all

799
00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:32,360
Speaker 1: at some point. Their name is just too on point

800
00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:37,680
Speaker 1: to not be Yeah. So back to Limbaugh. Rush was

801
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:41,000
Speaker 1: popular in Pittsburgh and his bosses appreciated everything, but his

802
00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:44,440
Speaker 1: long windedness. They repeatedly sent him memos that stated it

803
00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:47,400
Speaker 1: shut up and play the records, and for a while

804
00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:50,600
Speaker 1: he was content to mostly just do that. But in

805
00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:53,279
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, the economy took a nose dive and

806
00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 1: Rush was fired. He had to move back home with

807
00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:58,759
Speaker 1: his family, where he lived for seven miserable months. His

808
00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:01,480
Speaker 1: dad repeatedly badge him to move on and start a

809
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:04,880
Speaker 1: real career, but Rush was committed to radio, and eventually

810
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:07,400
Speaker 1: he landed a new gig in Kansas City, where he

811
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:10,719
Speaker 1: started taking listener phone calls for the first time. This

812
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:13,320
Speaker 1: was the dawn of the era of insult comedy, a

813
00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 1: sort of mean spirited comedy based on pranks and you know,

814
00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:20,360
Speaker 1: primarily executed by shock jocks guys The Body by Howard Stern.

815
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:24,759
Speaker 1: Really you entertained via ostentatious cruelty hungry as.

816
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:27,080
Speaker 2: I don't know, if I don't know, if you'll if

817
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:32,920
Speaker 2: you'll know, or not. Like talk radio, how much of

818
00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:35,720
Speaker 2: a thing is it at this point of people calling

819
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:40,480
Speaker 2: in to radio stations to have conversations with broadcasters.

820
00:41:40,680 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 1: It's starting at this point, right, This is really kind

821
00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:45,600
Speaker 1: of the birth of talk radio, and Rush is on

822
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:46,640
Speaker 1: the ground floor of that.

823
00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:49,600
Speaker 2: Right, does it start with sports or does it start

824
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:50,800
Speaker 2: with issues?

825
00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:53,399
Speaker 1: I think it starts with issues. It starts with their

826
00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:55,920
Speaker 1: Before what we know is talk radio. You had had

827
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:58,399
Speaker 1: people who would take calls and talk about politics, both

828
00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:00,960
Speaker 1: on TV and on the radio. And one of the

829
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:02,920
Speaker 1: things that Rush changes to skip ahead a little bit

830
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:05,399
Speaker 1: is that those guys had mostly been interchangeable, right, They

831
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:09,200
Speaker 1: were just sort of fielding calls and engaging with with callers.

832
00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,640
Speaker 1: Rush and that kind of turns into with these shock

833
00:42:12,719 --> 00:42:15,480
Speaker 1: jocks more of kind of a comedy based entertainment. You

834
00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:18,120
Speaker 1: have these pranks, you have insults, you have all this stuff.

835
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:20,480
Speaker 1: So it kind of it evolves out of a thing

836
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:22,280
Speaker 1: that had been going on for much longer.

837
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:26,440
Speaker 2: Right, It's an extension of the idea of the The

838
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:29,400
Speaker 2: original idea of the DJ was maybe a personality, but

839
00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:32,759
Speaker 2: his main thrust was I'm giving you this music that

840
00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:36,040
Speaker 2: you crave, and that's why you like me is because

841
00:42:36,200 --> 00:42:38,840
Speaker 2: I'm gonna maybe get I'm gonna maybe get tracks before

842
00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:41,359
Speaker 2: other people get them, and you're gonna hear You're gonna

843
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:44,120
Speaker 2: hear this stuff first. But there's still a thing of

844
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:48,960
Speaker 2: it's not about my personality necessarily it's mainly about I

845
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:53,080
Speaker 2: am the I'm I'm I'm, I'm the Santa Claus of music.

846
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:55,600
Speaker 2: I'm giving you these things, yes, and that's why you

847
00:42:55,760 --> 00:42:56,000
Speaker 2: like me.

848
00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:58,640
Speaker 1: Yes, And I have access to them first and all

849
00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:02,680
Speaker 1: this stuff. Yeah. Right, so Rush kind of as this.

850
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 1: He kind of sees the writing on the Walwaite. He

851
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:07,600
Speaker 1: loses his gig as a traditional DJ because that is

852
00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:10,520
Speaker 1: starting to become less profitable, right, and there's, you know,

853
00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:16,520
Speaker 1: in general, the economies taking a shitter. So he realizes

854
00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:18,799
Speaker 1: that kind of the way things are going is more

855
00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:22,560
Speaker 1: based around personalities and comedy and entertaining people, and he

856
00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:25,759
Speaker 1: starts to pivot to that. So this is uh, there's

857
00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:29,880
Speaker 1: a well an interesting quote that Rush himself wrote in

858
00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:32,640
Speaker 1: one of his many interminable books about how he felt

859
00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:36,360
Speaker 1: about kind of pivoting to insult comedy. Quote. I found

860
00:43:36,440 --> 00:43:39,840
Speaker 1: out something about myself, something that was quite disturbing. I

861
00:43:39,920 --> 00:43:43,040
Speaker 1: found out I was really really good at insulting people.

862
00:43:43,320 --> 00:43:46,040
Speaker 1: For example, the topic one day was when you die,

863
00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 1: how do you want to go? I want to go

864
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:50,640
Speaker 1: the cheapest and most natural way I can. One nice

865
00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:54,600
Speaker 1: lady caller from Independence, Missouri said My response was easy,

866
00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:56,600
Speaker 1: have your husband throw you in a trash bag and

867
00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:58,680
Speaker 1: then in the Missouri River with the rest of the garbage.

868
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:00,840
Speaker 1: When I went home after after a day of this,

869
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:02,280
Speaker 1: I didn't like myself.

870
00:44:03,360 --> 00:44:05,839
Speaker 2: Is that being I don't know if that's being good

871
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:06,720
Speaker 2: at insulting people.

872
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:09,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not really, that's just.

873
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:11,120
Speaker 2: Being ready to insult people.

874
00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:13,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it is.

875
00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:13,279
Speaker 2: Though.

876
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:15,320
Speaker 1: One of the things people will state, and I can't

877
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:18,080
Speaker 1: categorically say this, but it seems accurate based on my

878
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:20,520
Speaker 1: recollections of the show is even when people would disagree

879
00:44:20,560 --> 00:44:23,880
Speaker 1: with Rush on the air, he wasn't an asshole to them, Like,

880
00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:27,520
Speaker 1: he was not cruel to his callers to their faces. Right,

881
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:30,200
Speaker 1: he would say cruel things about liberals, but when people

882
00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 1: would call in, he would not like call them monsters.

883
00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:37,000
Speaker 1: He would not like He seems to have genuinely not

884
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:40,000
Speaker 1: liked insulting people to their faces or at least over

885
00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:43,920
Speaker 1: like directly insulting people over over the phone or whatever.

886
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:47,760
Speaker 1: While he was disturbed by this, he was not disturbed

887
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:52,960
Speaker 1: by racism, mainly racism against black people. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,

888
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:57,319
Speaker 1: here's where we're going. At one point during his call

889
00:44:57,360 --> 00:44:59,719
Speaker 1: in show, he claimed he had a black collar, and

890
00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:02,120
Speaker 1: he he claim to not be able to understand the

891
00:45:02,160 --> 00:45:06,120
Speaker 1: man's accent. Limbaugh hung up on this black man after saying,

892
00:45:06,560 --> 00:45:09,600
Speaker 1: take that bone out of your nose and call me back.

893
00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:17,760
Speaker 1: Which is or I mean he says it was. We'll

894
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:20,160
Speaker 1: get to that. At another point, he asked his audience,

895
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:23,400
Speaker 1: have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted

896
00:45:23,440 --> 00:45:29,000
Speaker 1: criminals resemble Jesse Jackson? Now during a nineteen ninety interview

897
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:31,680
Speaker 1: after he had kind of risen to political prominence, Newsweek

898
00:45:31,719 --> 00:45:34,320
Speaker 1: asked Limbaugh if he thought these statements had been racist.

899
00:45:34,680 --> 00:45:37,719
Speaker 1: He replied, you may interpret it as that, but I know,

900
00:45:37,960 --> 00:45:40,880
Speaker 1: honest to God, that's not how I intended it at all. Gee,

901
00:45:40,920 --> 00:45:42,960
Speaker 1: don't get me in this one. I am the least

902
00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:46,400
Speaker 1: racist host you'll ever find. Now, if we're going to

903
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:48,960
Speaker 1: try to analyze Rush from the length of his career,

904
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 1: I think we can say two things. He's probably being

905
00:45:51,239 --> 00:45:53,840
Speaker 1: honest when he said that he felt bad about insulting

906
00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:57,040
Speaker 1: callers because he did not continue to do that. He

907
00:45:57,160 --> 00:45:59,680
Speaker 1: is probably being dishonest when he says that he's not

908
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:03,359
Speaker 1: raised because he continued to say incredibly fucking racist things

909
00:46:03,400 --> 00:46:06,000
Speaker 1: about black people consistently throughout his entire career.

910
00:46:06,280 --> 00:46:10,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the the the number one indication that

911
00:46:10,760 --> 00:46:13,160
Speaker 2: someone is racist when they say that the least racist

912
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:17,120
Speaker 2: has that ever been said by him by a non

913
00:46:17,480 --> 00:46:21,279
Speaker 2: racist person, usually with yeah, it's always got to be,

914
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:23,880
Speaker 2: it's always got to be. Not only am I not racist,

915
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:26,920
Speaker 2: I am the least racist person you're ever gonna meet.

916
00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:30,320
Speaker 2: It's like you don't maybe don't go that far because

917
00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:32,920
Speaker 2: it's so so easily disproved.

918
00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:36,319
Speaker 3: Also followed by the I don't see color people.

919
00:46:36,120 --> 00:46:38,720
Speaker 1: I don't see color. I would say I think most

920
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:41,160
Speaker 1: of the people. I think I don't see color. People

921
00:46:41,280 --> 00:46:44,160
Speaker 1: tend to be performative Obama voters. The I am the

922
00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:46,440
Speaker 1: least racist person in the world. People tend to have

923
00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:48,480
Speaker 1: strong opinions on why they should be able to say

924
00:46:48,520 --> 00:46:50,840
Speaker 1: the N word exactly. Like that would be the split

925
00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:55,000
Speaker 1: between the right and the left version it is yeah, yeah, yeah,

926
00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:56,800
Speaker 1: and both of you are fucking racist.

927
00:46:56,960 --> 00:46:57,640
Speaker 3: So shut the.

928
00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:01,160
Speaker 2: Fuck up, jimmy me, Robert right.

929
00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:06,839
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, she's found out about our opinions on Liechtenstein,

930
00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:10,640
Speaker 1: which I refused to apologize for. In the fucking Swedes,

931
00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:12,960
Speaker 1: my god, the Swedes, Yeah.

932
00:47:12,800 --> 00:47:14,640
Speaker 3: You do have issues with the Swedes.

933
00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:18,759
Speaker 1: I have huge issue particularly blue Swede. What did you

934
00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:20,960
Speaker 1: who get shakamine? Why did you say that at the

935
00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:27,239
Speaker 1: start of that song? Okay? Sorry? Rush was Rush was still,

936
00:47:27,280 --> 00:47:30,880
Speaker 1: at this point in his career, completely apolitical. His roommate

937
00:47:30,920 --> 00:47:33,040
Speaker 1: and close friend at the time later told an interviewer

938
00:47:33,239 --> 00:47:36,000
Speaker 1: he was scary smart about everything, but I can't recall

939
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:39,160
Speaker 1: us talking much about current events. He was funny, though

940
00:47:39,280 --> 00:47:42,920
Speaker 1: I was an audience of one. Limbaugh's years in Kansas

941
00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:45,640
Speaker 1: City were not super successful, and he seems to have

942
00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:48,920
Speaker 1: recalled them somewhat sourly. As The New York Times summarized,

943
00:47:49,360 --> 00:47:52,120
Speaker 1: Limbaugh likes to say, everything I did in Kansas City,

944
00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:54,440
Speaker 1: I failed at He got fired from the station and

945
00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:57,120
Speaker 1: quit radio forever to become an executive with the Kansas

946
00:47:57,120 --> 00:48:00,560
Speaker 1: City Royals baseball team. Five years later, he quit the Royals,

947
00:48:00,600 --> 00:48:03,240
Speaker 1: convinced his career there was steymiat and went back to radio,

948
00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:06,360
Speaker 1: this time as a news commentator. Again, he got fired

949
00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:09,840
Speaker 1: for being too controversial. Also in Kansas City, he married twice,

950
00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:11,880
Speaker 1: both marriages eventually ending in divorce.

951
00:48:12,080 --> 00:48:14,080
Speaker 2: What are the do we know? What the sources of

952
00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:16,360
Speaker 2: the the what the type of controversies?

953
00:48:16,600 --> 00:48:18,640
Speaker 1: Yes, we're about to get into that. Yeah, Okay, yeah,

954
00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:23,799
Speaker 1: we're about to get in this. Sorry, come on. So

955
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:28,359
Speaker 1: it was in Kansas City where Rush Limbaugh, conservative commentator

956
00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:31,440
Speaker 1: made his first public appearance after getting pushed out of

957
00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:33,440
Speaker 1: the Royals. No one really liked him there. He had

958
00:48:33,440 --> 00:48:35,440
Speaker 1: one friend who was on the team, and that's why

959
00:48:35,480 --> 00:48:37,080
Speaker 1: he got to keep the job, and when that guy

960
00:48:37,280 --> 00:48:40,759
Speaker 1: got traded, they pushed him out because they all hated him.

961
00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:43,080
Speaker 1: So after getting pushed out of the Royals, he got

962
00:48:43,080 --> 00:48:47,720
Speaker 1: a gig at KMBZ, a local station. He started satirizing

963
00:48:47,920 --> 00:48:50,920
Speaker 1: what he considered to be a left wing caricature of

964
00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:54,759
Speaker 1: of right wing political commentator. Right the initial right wing

965
00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:59,560
Speaker 1: Rush Limbaugh was satire and he was being purposely controversial

966
00:48:59,600 --> 00:49:03,280
Speaker 1: and reasonably extreme in order to make a comedic point.

967
00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:06,359
Speaker 1: This was a joke. Initially this did not go over

968
00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:09,080
Speaker 1: well with his middle of the road Mormon station manager,

969
00:49:09,320 --> 00:49:13,080
Speaker 1: but it made Limbaugh popular with his audience. See Limpaugh

970
00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:15,000
Speaker 1: had caught on to the fact that radio was in

971
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:17,640
Speaker 1: the middle of a revolution. This was the era where

972
00:49:17,680 --> 00:49:20,600
Speaker 1: the first big shock jocks, men like Don Imus and

973
00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:23,719
Speaker 1: Howard Stern, began their as sense to stardom. I found

974
00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:26,480
Speaker 1: a wonderful write up about this era on Longreads, which

975
00:49:26,560 --> 00:49:29,120
Speaker 1: argues that the first radio shock jock was a talk

976
00:49:29,239 --> 00:49:32,239
Speaker 1: radio star named Joe Pine in the nineteen fifties, and

977
00:49:32,239 --> 00:49:33,839
Speaker 1: I'm gonna quote from this now we might do an

978
00:49:33,840 --> 00:49:37,480
Speaker 1: episode on Pine at some point. Quote His unconventional style,

979
00:49:37,560 --> 00:49:40,440
Speaker 1: dressed up to dress down pinko's and women's libbers and

980
00:49:40,520 --> 00:49:44,360
Speaker 1: riff on rather than read reports, was neither news nor entertainment,

981
00:49:44,600 --> 00:49:46,839
Speaker 1: it seemed to be best described. While the New York

982
00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:50,200
Speaker 1: Times and Time both did anyway as an electronic peep show,

983
00:49:50,520 --> 00:49:53,719
Speaker 1: The personality free press of the time considered Walter Cronkite

984
00:49:53,719 --> 00:49:56,719
Speaker 1: the most trusted man in America and Johnny Carson the funniest,

985
00:49:56,920 --> 00:49:59,200
Speaker 1: but Pine, with a syndicated show on more than two

986
00:49:59,239 --> 00:50:02,680
Speaker 1: hundred radio outle, was the most machiavellian when it comes

987
00:50:02,719 --> 00:50:06,040
Speaker 1: to manipulating media icons of talk. Author Donna Halper told

988
00:50:06,080 --> 00:50:10,240
Speaker 1: Smithsonian Magazine he was the father of them all. Pine

989
00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:12,880
Speaker 1: briefly descended from his soapbox in the mid sixties for

990
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:15,480
Speaker 1: a week's vacation after bringing a gun to his show

991
00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:18,600
Speaker 1: during the Watts Riots, suggesting the world wasn't quite ready

992
00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:22,840
Speaker 1: for his kind of conservative appeal. So Pine is doing

993
00:50:22,880 --> 00:50:25,880
Speaker 1: the Rush Limbaugh bit in the fifties and early sixties.

994
00:50:26,200 --> 00:50:30,160
Speaker 1: But America is not ready for that yet. Right, even

995
00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:33,680
Speaker 1: fifties America's like, this guy's racist and like and a

996
00:50:33,719 --> 00:50:34,680
Speaker 1: fucking lunatic.

997
00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:40,480
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, now, just so I understand Russia's this satire

998
00:50:40,520 --> 00:50:44,279
Speaker 2: that he was doing. Yeah, the idea was, here is

999
00:50:44,400 --> 00:50:49,840
Speaker 2: what left wing people think right wing people are like?

1000
00:50:50,880 --> 00:50:53,360
Speaker 2: And yeah, the point he is trying to make is

1001
00:50:53,400 --> 00:50:56,520
Speaker 2: they see us as they see the left wing sees

1002
00:50:56,560 --> 00:51:03,960
Speaker 2: the right wing as extreme and h hateful and you know,

1003
00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:08,319
Speaker 2: racist and closed minded. Like is that is that the

1004
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:09,560
Speaker 2: point he was trying to make.

1005
00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:13,160
Speaker 1: I think so, because he's he even says like it

1006
00:51:13,200 --> 00:51:15,319
Speaker 1: was a satire, right, Like, That's how it's portrayed in

1007
00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:17,880
Speaker 1: his biography that he was kind of his personality was

1008
00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:21,279
Speaker 1: satiric in nature. And and that's kind of the only

1009
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:23,120
Speaker 1: way I can interpret it is that he was trying

1010
00:51:23,120 --> 00:51:26,640
Speaker 1: to satirize what like kind of the looney right winger,

1011
00:51:26,920 --> 00:51:27,200
Speaker 1: you know.

1012
00:51:27,440 --> 00:51:31,120
Speaker 2: Okay, but through the through the lens of here's how

1013
00:51:31,200 --> 00:51:32,839
Speaker 2: the left sees them.

1014
00:51:33,440 --> 00:51:35,719
Speaker 1: I That's that was never said directly.

1015
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:39,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds like it's a it's a a protective

1016
00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:43,600
Speaker 2: phrase of like I was not satirizing these guys directly.

1017
00:51:43,640 --> 00:51:47,440
Speaker 2: I was not satirizing right wing people. I was satirizing

1018
00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:51,600
Speaker 2: how left wing people see right wing. Yes, that is

1019
00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:54,560
Speaker 2: how I have interpreted what I've read. Yeah, okay, yeah

1020
00:51:54,920 --> 00:51:56,919
Speaker 2: that does sound like a base covering kind of thing.

1021
00:51:57,680 --> 00:52:00,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, it a bit. I do think he's started not

1022
00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:04,600
Speaker 1: believing everything he said. It started as a joke in

1023
00:52:04,680 --> 00:52:08,680
Speaker 1: him intentionally to provoke controversy, because controversy brings in listeners

1024
00:52:08,719 --> 00:52:11,319
Speaker 1: and gets attention, gets word of mouth. That's why he

1025
00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:14,200
Speaker 1: was doing it. And the story of Rush Limbaugh is

1026
00:52:14,239 --> 00:52:19,759
Speaker 1: these kind of purposefully absurdly extreme satire becomes what he

1027
00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:21,440
Speaker 1: really believes and is you know.

1028
00:52:21,520 --> 00:52:24,200
Speaker 2: Yes, so he's an a political guy who's like this

1029
00:52:24,280 --> 00:52:27,120
Speaker 2: is this is what this is what politics sounds like

1030
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:27,319
Speaker 2: to me.

1031
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:31,080
Speaker 1: I guess, yeah, I think so, and I yeah, that's

1032
00:52:31,160 --> 00:52:34,480
Speaker 1: how I interpreted. We'll go over that more so. Obviously,

1033
00:52:34,600 --> 00:52:37,399
Speaker 1: Pine kind of the first right wing radio shock jock,

1034
00:52:37,440 --> 00:52:40,120
Speaker 1: had peaked too early and kind of I guess, to

1035
00:52:40,160 --> 00:52:42,680
Speaker 1: steal a phrase from the Nazis, shown his power level

1036
00:52:42,719 --> 00:52:45,440
Speaker 1: to early during the Watts riots, and he got kicked

1037
00:52:45,480 --> 00:52:49,520
Speaker 1: off the air. Rush, though, started getting political at exactly

1038
00:52:49,560 --> 00:52:53,440
Speaker 1: the perfect time. This was the early nineteen eighties. Howard

1039
00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:56,200
Speaker 1: Stern came onto the scene in eighty four. Don Imus

1040
00:52:56,239 --> 00:52:59,080
Speaker 1: had risen to prominence in the nineteen seventies. Imus was

1041
00:52:59,080 --> 00:53:01,239
Speaker 1: another guy my dad listened to a lot growing up.

1042
00:53:02,360 --> 00:53:04,200
Speaker 1: Imus in the morning was like a big part of

1043
00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:06,120
Speaker 1: getting ready for school. Don Imus is going to be

1044
00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:06,799
Speaker 1: on the fucking TV.

1045
00:53:07,360 --> 00:53:09,160
Speaker 2: And you were like, this guy's having so much fun

1046
00:53:09,160 --> 00:53:10,120
Speaker 2: and I have to go to prison.

1047
00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:12,560
Speaker 1: I have to go to prison. This guy's having fun.

1048
00:53:12,680 --> 00:53:15,520
Speaker 1: He's talking about nappy headed hose, which was like the

1049
00:53:15,560 --> 00:53:17,799
Speaker 1: phrase that he I forget what it was in reference to,

1050
00:53:17,880 --> 00:53:19,440
Speaker 1: but like that's what got him in trouble.

1051
00:53:20,239 --> 00:53:21,600
Speaker 2: It was a women's basketball team.

1052
00:53:21,680 --> 00:53:23,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a women's basketball team. Because don i'mis

1053
00:53:24,040 --> 00:53:27,520
Speaker 1: was also very racist. Sure, so yeah, the world was

1054
00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:29,759
Speaker 1: still not quite ready for the rush limball. We knew

1055
00:53:30,200 --> 00:53:32,760
Speaker 1: h during while he was like starting to be political

1056
00:53:32,800 --> 00:53:36,000
Speaker 1: at KMBZ, but a diet version of what he would

1057
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:40,200
Speaker 1: become was now acceptable. And one man who recognized the

1058
00:53:40,239 --> 00:53:43,799
Speaker 1: potential of limbasch stick was Norm Woodruff, a consultant to

1059
00:53:43,840 --> 00:53:47,520
Speaker 1: the station who became the acting program director at Sacramento's

1060
00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:52,760
Speaker 1: KFBK network KFBK needed a new right wing talk radio

1061
00:53:52,800 --> 00:53:55,680
Speaker 1: host after firing their previous one, a guy you mentioned

1062
00:53:55,719 --> 00:53:58,800
Speaker 1: at the start of this episode named Morton Downey Junior.

1063
00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:03,440
Speaker 1: Morton was extremely popular and he was very extreme in

1064
00:54:03,440 --> 00:54:06,920
Speaker 1: his antics. This had allowed his local station in Sacramento

1065
00:54:07,120 --> 00:54:10,480
Speaker 1: to repeatedly draw national attention because he would say purposefully

1066
00:54:10,480 --> 00:54:14,520
Speaker 1: controversial things. This did backfire on Morton eventually, when he

1067
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:17,919
Speaker 1: told a racist on air joke about a Chinaman, which

1068
00:54:18,000 --> 00:54:20,840
Speaker 1: was a thinly veiled attack on a local city councilman

1069
00:54:20,920 --> 00:54:24,560
Speaker 1: named Tom chin Downey Junior was fired and went into

1070
00:54:24,640 --> 00:54:28,600
Speaker 1: the world of television, where he would somehow simultaneously blaze

1071
00:54:28,600 --> 00:54:31,520
Speaker 1: a trail for both Tucker Carlson and Jerry Springer. We

1072
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:33,960
Speaker 1: will do an episode on him someday because he's a

1073
00:54:34,120 --> 00:54:38,680
Speaker 1: very plential guy, absolutely, but his for today he matters

1074
00:54:38,719 --> 00:54:42,800
Speaker 1: because his firing number one his success proved that being

1075
00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:47,160
Speaker 1: a purposefully controversial right wing bigot was really profitable for

1076
00:54:47,320 --> 00:54:50,839
Speaker 1: radio station, and because when he got fired, Sacramento had

1077
00:54:50,840 --> 00:54:53,440
Speaker 1: a hole in the station's roster that they needed to

1078
00:54:53,520 --> 00:54:56,520
Speaker 1: fill with another racist right wing shitthead, just one who

1079
00:54:56,600 --> 00:55:00,680
Speaker 1: was not quite as racist as Morton Downey junior, rush

1080
00:55:00,760 --> 00:55:03,560
Speaker 1: Limbas stepped up and said, not being quite as racist

1081
00:55:03,600 --> 00:55:09,600
Speaker 1: as that guy is my middle name. For now, for now,

1082
00:55:10,239 --> 00:55:16,240
Speaker 1: Eventually I will be much worse. So Rush Limbaugh moved

1083
00:55:16,280 --> 00:55:19,440
Speaker 1: to Sacramento. When he started at the station, his new boss,

1084
00:55:19,480 --> 00:55:22,799
Speaker 1: Woodruff told him, we want controversy, but don't make it up.

1085
00:55:22,840 --> 00:55:25,880
Speaker 1: If you actually think something, if you actually believe it,

1086
00:55:26,080 --> 00:55:29,040
Speaker 1: you can tell people why. We'll back you up. But

1087
00:55:29,239 --> 00:55:31,480
Speaker 1: if you're going to say stuff just to make people mad,

1088
00:55:31,520 --> 00:55:33,160
Speaker 1: if all you want to do is rabble rouse, if

1089
00:55:33,160 --> 00:55:34,800
Speaker 1: all you want to do is of fend, then get noticed.

1090
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:37,160
Speaker 1: That's not what we're interested in, and we won't back

1091
00:55:37,200 --> 00:55:39,719
Speaker 1: you up. He was clearly lying. I think this was

1092
00:55:39,760 --> 00:55:41,600
Speaker 1: ass covering by the station.

1093
00:55:41,520 --> 00:55:46,239
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, absolutely, yeah, but they would never would never

1094
00:55:46,360 --> 00:55:48,480
Speaker 2: ever push back on his bigotry.

1095
00:55:48,600 --> 00:55:51,840
Speaker 1: But you know who does push back on bigotry. Paul

1096
00:55:52,560 --> 00:56:02,640
Speaker 1: ads the products and services that support this podcast. So

1097
00:56:02,960 --> 00:56:06,400
Speaker 1: we're back. And at this point rush Limbaugh has launched

1098
00:56:06,480 --> 00:56:09,880
Speaker 1: himself as a right wing shock jock, and he is

1099
00:56:09,920 --> 00:56:14,200
Speaker 1: an instant hit zeev chaffits rights quote. The station let

1100
00:56:14,280 --> 00:56:17,680
Speaker 1: him go on the air solo, unencumbered by sidekicks or guests,

1101
00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:21,120
Speaker 1: and encouraged his highly personal right wing monologus. For the

1102
00:56:21,120 --> 00:56:24,520
Speaker 1: first time in his career, he was marketed heavily and aggressively.

1103
00:56:24,880 --> 00:56:27,600
Speaker 1: There were billboards around town showing a finger hitting a

1104
00:56:27,600 --> 00:56:30,880
Speaker 1: button captioned how would you like to punch Rush Limbaugh.

1105
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:33,480
Speaker 1: Rush was so pleased by these that he sent Brian

1106
00:56:33,520 --> 00:56:36,560
Speaker 1: a snapshot. Morton Downey Junior had been a big star

1107
00:56:36,640 --> 00:56:39,239
Speaker 1: in Sacramento, with a five share of the market five

1108
00:56:39,280 --> 00:56:41,279
Speaker 1: percent of people listening to the radio in a given

1109
00:56:41,320 --> 00:56:45,160
Speaker 1: fifteen minute segment. Limbaugh tripled that he was sharp edged

1110
00:56:45,200 --> 00:56:48,040
Speaker 1: but good humored. The new morning host espouses many of

1111
00:56:48,080 --> 00:56:51,040
Speaker 1: the same beliefs of his predecessor, Morton Downey Junior, reported

1112
00:56:51,040 --> 00:56:53,680
Speaker 1: the Sacramento b but he skates a little further from

1113
00:56:53,719 --> 00:56:56,040
Speaker 1: the edge of the hole in the ice. Rush was

1114
00:56:56,080 --> 00:56:58,680
Speaker 1: rewarded for his success with a six figure salary, an

1115
00:56:58,800 --> 00:57:01,399
Speaker 1: estimable income in the mid nineteen eighties, even by his

1116
00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:04,279
Speaker 1: father's standards. More important, for the first time in his life,

1117
00:57:04,360 --> 00:57:07,480
Speaker 1: he really mattered. He was invited to deliver speeches just

1118
00:57:07,560 --> 00:57:08,400
Speaker 1: like Big Rush.

1119
00:57:08,520 --> 00:57:09,160
Speaker 2: He was an.

1120
00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:13,200
Speaker 1: Occasional commentator on television and wrote newspaper columns. Politicians and

1121
00:57:13,239 --> 00:57:15,759
Speaker 1: celebrities sought him out. He and Michelle, his wife at

1122
00:57:15,800 --> 00:57:17,720
Speaker 1: the time, bought a new house and furnished it with

1123
00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:21,880
Speaker 1: products he endorsed on air. So he's a hit.

1124
00:57:22,040 --> 00:57:22,280
Speaker 2: You know.

1125
00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:25,240
Speaker 1: This is the start of and it's really just almost

1126
00:57:25,320 --> 00:57:27,680
Speaker 1: straight up from there for the rest of his career.

1127
00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:30,280
Speaker 1: He finds his niche and he runs with it.

1128
00:57:30,720 --> 00:57:30,919
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1129
00:57:30,960 --> 00:57:33,520
Speaker 1: Again, he's a very intelligent, talented man.

1130
00:57:33,920 --> 00:57:37,040
Speaker 3: Anybody else to find the big Rush part really funny?

1131
00:57:37,360 --> 00:57:40,280
Speaker 1: It is very funny. It's very funny. Now we're in

1132
00:57:40,400 --> 00:57:41,640
Speaker 1: It's still funny.

1133
00:57:44,120 --> 00:57:44,400
Speaker 2: Now.

1134
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:47,360
Speaker 1: I have long argued that Sacramento is the very mouth

1135
00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:49,880
Speaker 1: of Hell itself, and the fact that Rush Limbaugh first

1136
00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:52,640
Speaker 1: saw success as a right wing firebrand there serves to

1137
00:57:52,640 --> 00:57:56,840
Speaker 1: support my hypothesis. Again. His conscious decision as an entertainer

1138
00:57:56,960 --> 00:57:59,960
Speaker 1: was to be a satirical version of a right wing polemicist,

1139
00:58:00,160 --> 00:58:03,640
Speaker 1: deliberately exaggerating the things he did believe for comedic effect.

1140
00:58:03,920 --> 00:58:06,680
Speaker 1: The audience thought he was funny, but I don't think

1141
00:58:06,760 --> 00:58:09,120
Speaker 1: they got the joke. And there is some evidence for

1142
00:58:09,160 --> 00:58:16,920
Speaker 1: this when an Ohio evangelist, a lot of evidence. Yeah, So,

1143
00:58:16,960 --> 00:58:19,200
Speaker 1: I think the earliest evidence for this, I should say,

1144
00:58:19,240 --> 00:58:22,360
Speaker 1: is when an Ohio evangelist very publicly claimed that the

1145
00:58:22,360 --> 00:58:25,200
Speaker 1: theme song from Mister Ed held a Satanic message when

1146
00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:27,080
Speaker 1: played backwards. You know, we're kind of talking about the

1147
00:58:27,080 --> 00:58:30,920
Speaker 1: Satanic Panic period during this. Rush found this ridiculous. And

1148
00:58:30,960 --> 00:58:34,480
Speaker 1: again he had a long history of mocking the evangelical

1149
00:58:34,560 --> 00:58:37,560
Speaker 1: religious right. So when he heard this, he told his

1150
00:58:37,600 --> 00:58:41,120
Speaker 1: listeners that a Slim Whitman recording also contained a backwards

1151
00:58:41,160 --> 00:58:45,040
Speaker 1: message of from Satan. Zeef Chaffitz writes that, to his delight,

1152
00:58:45,280 --> 00:58:48,920
Speaker 1: many Limbaugh listeners took Limbaugh at his word and flooded

1153
00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:51,720
Speaker 1: the station with phone calls promising to destroy their Slim

1154
00:58:51,760 --> 00:58:54,760
Speaker 1: Witman albums to keep the Devil out of the house.

1155
00:58:55,360 --> 00:58:58,800
Speaker 1: Rush considered this a hilarious plank prank. He did not

1156
00:58:58,920 --> 00:59:01,360
Speaker 1: apologize or as far as I know, correct the record.

1157
00:59:01,440 --> 00:59:05,240
Speaker 1: So we see in this he's joking, right, he is not. Again,

1158
00:59:05,280 --> 00:59:07,680
Speaker 1: his whole history is mocking these people. He does not

1159
00:59:07,880 --> 00:59:12,160
Speaker 1: believe this, but he doesn't correct people because it gets

1160
00:59:12,280 --> 00:59:14,959
Speaker 1: he realizes, Oh, they're engaged. They're destroying stuff. That means

1161
00:59:14,960 --> 00:59:16,880
Speaker 1: I have power, right. I think even found it kind

1162
00:59:16,920 --> 00:59:18,880
Speaker 1: of It might have been something that kind of addicted

1163
00:59:18,920 --> 00:59:21,560
Speaker 1: him to this, this idea that like I can make

1164
00:59:22,040 --> 00:59:25,240
Speaker 1: even if I'm deliberately being absurd and lying, I can

1165
00:59:25,280 --> 00:59:28,360
Speaker 1: make people take action based on those absurdities. That's got

1166
00:59:28,400 --> 00:59:30,200
Speaker 1: to be addictive, and I think it is for me.

1167
00:59:30,320 --> 00:59:34,520
Speaker 2: It is absolutely undeniable. And especially like if you spend

1168
00:59:34,600 --> 00:59:36,480
Speaker 2: time on Twitter, and if you've ever been like I

1169
00:59:36,560 --> 00:59:41,800
Speaker 2: have on occasion, deliberately stupid on Twitter and gotten sincere

1170
00:59:41,920 --> 00:59:46,120
Speaker 2: replies to something that is so obviously a joke, so

1171
00:59:46,280 --> 00:59:51,160
Speaker 2: obviously a joke, it absolutely is fun. There's no way

1172
00:59:51,200 --> 00:59:54,080
Speaker 2: around that. There's no way around that. Seeing people take

1173
00:59:54,120 --> 00:59:56,400
Speaker 2: you at your word when you say something that's so

1174
00:59:56,880 --> 01:00:01,880
Speaker 2: patently absurd is it's joyful. It does give you like

1175
01:00:01,920 --> 01:00:03,040
Speaker 2: a real jolt.

1176
01:00:03,520 --> 01:00:05,800
Speaker 1: And there's a This is a bit of a different case,

1177
01:00:05,840 --> 01:00:08,560
Speaker 1: but I think there's some similarity. So last summer, you know,

1178
01:00:08,640 --> 01:00:11,200
Speaker 1: I was covering a lot of the protests in Portland, Oregon,

1179
01:00:11,320 --> 01:00:13,680
Speaker 1: including doing a lot of live streaming, and very early

1180
01:00:13,760 --> 01:00:16,560
Speaker 1: on the police put a fence up around the police

1181
01:00:16,600 --> 01:00:19,280
Speaker 1: station and there would be marches where like a couple

1182
01:00:19,280 --> 01:00:21,880
Speaker 1: of thousand people would march to the fence and somebody

1183
01:00:21,920 --> 01:00:24,560
Speaker 1: would like touch the fence and the police would tear

1184
01:00:24,560 --> 01:00:27,560
Speaker 1: gas like six square blocks of traffic, And I started

1185
01:00:27,600 --> 01:00:30,000
Speaker 1: calling it the Sacred Fence, and the joke, like the

1186
01:00:30,040 --> 01:00:32,880
Speaker 1: comment that I was making is that the police are

1187
01:00:33,000 --> 01:00:36,680
Speaker 1: endangering the lives of thousands of citizens to protect a

1188
01:00:36,840 --> 01:00:40,680
Speaker 1: fence because it's sacred to them, right. That went viral

1189
01:00:40,760 --> 01:00:44,160
Speaker 1: within the city, and there were dozens of protests at

1190
01:00:44,200 --> 01:00:47,080
Speaker 1: the Sacred Fence, as everyone called it, including numerous attempts

1191
01:00:47,120 --> 01:00:49,720
Speaker 1: to tear it down. And I know that the way

1192
01:00:49,760 --> 01:00:52,640
Speaker 1: that I framed it had a significant impact on a

1193
01:00:52,680 --> 01:00:56,680
Speaker 1: lot of people getting hurt, damaging a fence, getting arrested,

1194
01:00:57,560 --> 01:01:01,360
Speaker 1: and it was both kind of intoxicating and it also

1195
01:01:01,440 --> 01:01:02,720
Speaker 1: scared the hell out of me. It was one of

1196
01:01:02,720 --> 01:01:05,200
Speaker 1: the reasons why I pulled back to some extent on

1197
01:01:05,240 --> 01:01:07,480
Speaker 1: some aspects of my coverage because I got really worried

1198
01:01:07,520 --> 01:01:10,280
Speaker 1: about the kind of impact that you can have on

1199
01:01:10,360 --> 01:01:12,320
Speaker 1: people by doing that sort of thing. I didn't want

1200
01:01:12,360 --> 01:01:14,920
Speaker 1: to be It was very concerning to me. But it

1201
01:01:14,960 --> 01:01:17,240
Speaker 1: was also I'd be lying if I said there wasn't

1202
01:01:17,240 --> 01:01:19,200
Speaker 1: an element of it that I wanted to do more

1203
01:01:19,200 --> 01:01:22,480
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and I didn't, but I wanted to,

1204
01:01:22,680 --> 01:01:22,880
Speaker 1: you know.

1205
01:01:22,920 --> 01:01:25,520
Speaker 2: But and that's that is the key, the key difference

1206
01:01:25,640 --> 01:01:30,960
Speaker 2: of uh, you know, you seeing something that catches catches

1207
01:01:31,040 --> 01:01:34,720
Speaker 2: fire in a forgive the phrasing, but catch fire in

1208
01:01:34,760 --> 01:01:39,400
Speaker 2: a in a charged situation, and how easily people can

1209
01:01:39,680 --> 01:01:44,640
Speaker 2: glom onto something when everything's so churned up, and then

1210
01:01:44,720 --> 01:01:47,520
Speaker 2: realizing like, oh, words have power, I have to be

1211
01:01:47,560 --> 01:01:49,640
Speaker 2: careful rather than words have power.

1212
01:01:50,200 --> 01:01:53,640
Speaker 1: Here we go, here we go, let's use it to

1213
01:01:53,760 --> 01:02:03,280
Speaker 1: sell gold. So Russia's domestic life while he's enduring all

1214
01:02:03,320 --> 01:02:06,760
Speaker 1: this professional success, his domestic life with his I think

1215
01:02:06,840 --> 01:02:08,840
Speaker 1: she was his second. I think she was his third wife.

1216
01:02:08,880 --> 01:02:11,760
Speaker 1: Actually I don't know. He had a couple. He had

1217
01:02:11,760 --> 01:02:13,400
Speaker 1: a lot of wives. I think actually, no, this was

1218
01:02:13,440 --> 01:02:15,640
Speaker 1: his second wife. His domestic wife life with his second

1219
01:02:15,680 --> 01:02:18,360
Speaker 1: life at this period was less than joyful. He was

1220
01:02:18,400 --> 01:02:21,480
Speaker 1: famous and popular, constantly feted for dinners and invited to

1221
01:02:21,520 --> 01:02:25,160
Speaker 1: big events, and his wife, Michelle was much less successful.

1222
01:02:25,920 --> 01:02:28,000
Speaker 1: She quit her job to be as assistant, but she

1223
01:02:28,120 --> 01:02:32,760
Speaker 1: hated the work. That it's a nightmare that gives me

1224
01:02:32,800 --> 01:02:36,479
Speaker 1: the Yeah. They were not a good fit. Michelle loved

1225
01:02:36,520 --> 01:02:40,800
Speaker 1: the outdoors, rush Limbaugh despised them. Two of his colleagues

1226
01:02:40,800 --> 01:02:42,840
Speaker 1: tell a story from around this time of how they

1227
01:02:42,880 --> 01:02:45,280
Speaker 1: convinced him to go rafting once that I think is

1228
01:02:45,320 --> 01:02:48,880
Speaker 1: telling about Rush Limbaugh's personality. So this is one of

1229
01:02:48,920 --> 01:02:51,120
Speaker 1: Russia's friends talking about at the time, they took Rush

1230
01:02:51,160 --> 01:02:53,760
Speaker 1: Limbaugh on a on a rafting trip in whatever river

1231
01:02:53,840 --> 01:02:57,120
Speaker 1: it is that goes through Sacramento. Quote, it's a very

1232
01:02:57,280 --> 01:03:00,000
Speaker 1: very mild ride. Bob gave Russian or and told him

1233
01:03:00,120 --> 01:03:06,000
Speaker 1: to Oh, you're gonna really love this.

1234
01:03:08,360 --> 01:03:10,160
Speaker 2: You have to know before I start the story, you

1235
01:03:10,240 --> 01:03:10,560
Speaker 2: have to.

1236
01:03:10,520 --> 01:03:12,880
Speaker 1: Know we're on a baby.

1237
01:03:13,360 --> 01:03:14,840
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1238
01:03:14,880 --> 01:03:17,640
Speaker 1: Bob gave Russian ar and told him to absorb the

1239
01:03:17,680 --> 01:03:19,760
Speaker 1: blow of the canyon wall to give us a little

1240
01:03:19,760 --> 01:03:23,000
Speaker 1: spring back into the current. Rush panicked, stuck the ore

1241
01:03:23,080 --> 01:03:25,320
Speaker 1: out his arm, stiff as a board, and upon impact

1242
01:03:25,360 --> 01:03:27,960
Speaker 1: he fell overboard. We got rushed back in the raft

1243
01:03:28,000 --> 01:03:30,320
Speaker 1: and the next day he spent the entire three hours

1244
01:03:30,320 --> 01:03:33,360
Speaker 1: of his show talking about his horrendous whitewater grapple with

1245
01:03:33,400 --> 01:03:41,040
Speaker 1: the Grim Reaper about a fucking baby. I've had people

1246
01:03:41,120 --> 01:03:44,160
Speaker 1: fucking shoot at me, and I've people showed me with artillery,

1247
01:03:44,160 --> 01:03:46,480
Speaker 1: and I've never spent three hours talking about it.

1248
01:03:47,240 --> 01:03:48,800
Speaker 2: Baby.

1249
01:03:52,400 --> 01:03:56,000
Speaker 1: So Sacramento is where Limbaugh started picking up what would

1250
01:03:56,040 --> 01:04:00,040
Speaker 1: become a voluminous list of mostly self inflicted nicknames. He

1251
01:04:00,200 --> 01:04:04,360
Speaker 1: was l Rushbo, the all knowing, all caring, all sensing

1252
01:04:04,440 --> 01:04:08,080
Speaker 1: Maha Rushi. He was also a harmless little fuzzball and

1253
01:04:08,440 --> 01:04:11,800
Speaker 1: the epitome of morality and virtue. He started claiming that

1254
01:04:11,840 --> 01:04:15,000
Speaker 1: his show was hosted by the eib OR Excellence in

1255
01:04:15,080 --> 01:04:19,440
Speaker 1: Broadcasting Network, which did not exist. This joke mainly served

1256
01:04:19,440 --> 01:04:22,400
Speaker 1: as a vehicle for Rush to express his grandiosity. He

1257
01:04:22,480 --> 01:04:26,280
Speaker 1: declared himself on the cutting edge edge of societal evolution,

1258
01:04:26,760 --> 01:04:30,560
Speaker 1: swore that he was serving humanity, and had himself introduced

1259
01:04:30,560 --> 01:04:34,640
Speaker 1: as having talent on loan from God. His opinions were

1260
01:04:34,760 --> 01:04:38,120
Speaker 1: quote documented to be almost always right ninety seven point

1261
01:04:38,200 --> 01:04:40,959
Speaker 1: nine percent of the time by the Sullivan Group, which

1262
01:04:41,000 --> 01:04:45,280
Speaker 1: also did not exist. And again he's joking. And also

1263
01:04:45,400 --> 01:04:48,120
Speaker 1: at a certain point he starts meaning all of this

1264
01:04:48,400 --> 01:04:52,640
Speaker 1: very literally, yes, right, Like that's kind of how narcissists were.

1265
01:04:53,440 --> 01:04:57,160
Speaker 1: So it may surprise people to know that Rush to

1266
01:04:57,200 --> 01:05:00,320
Speaker 1: hear that Rush Limba's career was launched into the stratus

1267
01:05:00,400 --> 01:05:04,360
Speaker 1: in Sacramento because California is, to most people outside of

1268
01:05:04,400 --> 01:05:07,960
Speaker 1: California at least, a bastion of liberal politics. Now you

1269
01:05:08,040 --> 01:05:10,560
Speaker 1: actually live and spend time in the state, you know, like,

1270
01:05:10,640 --> 01:05:12,760
Speaker 1: for example, if you've ever been to fucking I don't

1271
01:05:12,760 --> 01:05:15,640
Speaker 1: know what is that Orange County right or if you've

1272
01:05:15,720 --> 01:05:18,400
Speaker 1: been up near reading, there's a shitloak like there are

1273
01:05:18,480 --> 01:05:21,680
Speaker 1: more right wing Californians than there are right wingers than

1274
01:05:21,680 --> 01:05:24,560
Speaker 1: there are in like a number of US states. Right Like,

1275
01:05:24,680 --> 01:05:27,360
Speaker 1: California has a ton of right wingers and it has

1276
01:05:27,440 --> 01:05:31,560
Speaker 1: a long powerful conservative political tradition. California gave us Ronald Reagan.

1277
01:05:31,720 --> 01:05:34,560
Speaker 1: It gave US Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, in one of

1278
01:05:34,560 --> 01:05:38,840
Speaker 1: the most surreal turns in political history, is now among

1279
01:05:38,960 --> 01:05:42,040
Speaker 1: the only rational voices on the right in the United States.

1280
01:05:42,080 --> 01:05:46,640
Speaker 1: Yeah so, yeah, California has a powerful right wing and

1281
01:05:46,800 --> 01:05:49,960
Speaker 1: yes they are, especially in the last twenty something years,

1282
01:05:50,240 --> 01:05:53,880
Speaker 1: overwhelmed by the much more numerous liberals and leftists. But

1283
01:05:54,120 --> 01:05:56,320
Speaker 1: in this fact is one of the hints to Rush

1284
01:05:56,400 --> 01:05:59,720
Speaker 1: Limbaugh's rise. You see, Sacramento is located kind of north

1285
01:05:59,760 --> 01:06:02,600
Speaker 1: of the center of California, not far from some of

1286
01:06:02,640 --> 01:06:05,760
Speaker 1: the most productive farmland in the country. It is also

1287
01:06:05,920 --> 01:06:09,280
Speaker 1: not far from north central California places like Redding, which

1288
01:06:09,320 --> 01:06:12,840
Speaker 1: are right wing strongholds. The conservatives who live in these

1289
01:06:12,880 --> 01:06:15,560
Speaker 1: areas tend to be very extreme in their beliefs and

1290
01:06:15,560 --> 01:06:18,160
Speaker 1: that's partly a response to the liberal and left wing

1291
01:06:18,560 --> 01:06:21,720
Speaker 1: government that they live under. They see and this is

1292
01:06:21,760 --> 01:06:24,960
Speaker 1: not they are not entirely or even largely wrong in

1293
01:06:25,040 --> 01:06:28,040
Speaker 1: seeing this. They see themselves oppressed by many of the

1294
01:06:28,120 --> 01:06:30,640
Speaker 1: rules liberals in the cities put in terms of things

1295
01:06:30,720 --> 01:06:33,800
Speaker 1: like gas taxes, right, you're living in if you're a farmer,

1296
01:06:33,840 --> 01:06:36,760
Speaker 1: you know in central or northern California, a gas tax

1297
01:06:36,760 --> 01:06:39,880
Speaker 1: that is reasonable for people in La San Diego, San Francisco,

1298
01:06:39,920 --> 01:06:44,360
Speaker 1: Sacramento is a hardship on you, and you're not contributing

1299
01:06:44,640 --> 01:06:46,440
Speaker 1: to the kind of pollution in the cities that the

1300
01:06:46,480 --> 01:06:48,800
Speaker 1: gas taxes are meant to fight. You know, the strict

1301
01:06:48,800 --> 01:06:52,200
Speaker 1: gun laws and stuff. There's a lot of things reasons

1302
01:06:52,240 --> 01:06:56,600
Speaker 1: these people have to be angry, and Rush Limbaugh became

1303
01:06:56,680 --> 01:07:02,400
Speaker 1: their voice. So these this kind of infuriated very radical

1304
01:07:02,520 --> 01:07:05,160
Speaker 1: right wing who hates the liberals and left that govern

1305
01:07:05,320 --> 01:07:09,120
Speaker 1: California have a voice in Rush Limbaugh. He obliges their

1306
01:07:09,120 --> 01:07:13,000
Speaker 1: sensibilities with a ceaseless stream of attacks on liberal California.

1307
01:07:13,040 --> 01:07:16,520
Speaker 1: And that's what makes him huge is because there's millions

1308
01:07:16,520 --> 01:07:19,480
Speaker 1: of right wingers in California, and Rush Limbaugh becomes like, yeah,

1309
01:07:19,520 --> 01:07:23,400
Speaker 1: he's their voice. You know it, you could. You might

1310
01:07:23,440 --> 01:07:26,120
Speaker 1: even be able to argue that nowhere but California could

1311
01:07:26,160 --> 01:07:30,800
Speaker 1: have produced Rush Limbaugh as he became uh yeah, so

1312
01:07:30,920 --> 01:07:32,840
Speaker 1: I'm going to quote from the book Rush Limbaugh an

1313
01:07:32,920 --> 01:07:35,840
Speaker 1: Army of One here. He mocked the multicultural style of

1314
01:07:35,880 --> 01:07:39,560
Speaker 1: California by proposing to keep Ugglo Americans off the streets.

1315
01:07:39,840 --> 01:07:43,720
Speaker 1: Militant feminists became feminazis, The green movement was full of

1316
01:07:43,920 --> 01:07:48,240
Speaker 1: environmental wackos. The American left became commie pinko. Liberals and

1317
01:07:48,280 --> 01:07:51,760
Speaker 1: the residents of Rio Linda, California, were synonymous with stupidity.

1318
01:07:52,160 --> 01:07:56,000
Speaker 1: A ringing ded Ded Dedalate introduced news updates on what

1319
01:07:56,040 --> 01:07:59,919
Speaker 1: he regarded as the absurdities of liberal activism. Liberals, of course,

1320
01:08:00,160 --> 01:08:03,160
Speaker 1: hated him, which he found inspiring. When they attacked him

1321
01:08:03,200 --> 01:08:05,360
Speaker 1: as a dim wit, he responded by claiming that he

1322
01:08:05,440 --> 01:08:07,280
Speaker 1: was so much smarter than his critics that he could

1323
01:08:07,320 --> 01:08:10,200
Speaker 1: vanquish them with half my brain tied behind my back.

1324
01:08:10,400 --> 01:08:13,919
Speaker 1: Just to make it fair. Before long, Rush was too

1325
01:08:13,960 --> 01:08:16,240
Speaker 1: big to stay in Sacramento, which is again the very

1326
01:08:16,280 --> 01:08:19,120
Speaker 1: mouth of Hell itself. He was introduced to Ed McLaughlin,

1327
01:08:19,200 --> 01:08:21,720
Speaker 1: the former head of ABC Radio, who had started his

1328
01:08:21,720 --> 01:08:24,200
Speaker 1: own big radio company based out of New York City.

1329
01:08:24,520 --> 01:08:27,360
Speaker 1: McLaughlin had listened to Russ's show and decided it had

1330
01:08:27,360 --> 01:08:30,960
Speaker 1: the potential to go national. He offered Russia partnership, and

1331
01:08:31,040 --> 01:08:34,160
Speaker 1: after some haggling, Russia greed. He moved to New York

1332
01:08:34,280 --> 01:08:38,759
Speaker 1: and made the EIB network a reality. Rush was thirty

1333
01:08:38,840 --> 01:08:41,519
Speaker 1: seven years old at this point, in twenty one years

1334
01:08:41,560 --> 01:08:44,760
Speaker 1: into a career of doing almost nothing but broadcasting on

1335
01:08:44,800 --> 01:08:48,160
Speaker 1: the radio. Again, the voice of the so called populist

1336
01:08:48,160 --> 01:08:52,679
Speaker 1: American right. Never did anything but radio, really. In nineteen

1337
01:08:52,800 --> 01:08:54,960
Speaker 1: eighty eight, he launched a new version of the Rush

1338
01:08:54,960 --> 01:08:57,800
Speaker 1: Limbaugh Show, this time for an audience across the nation.

1339
01:08:58,280 --> 01:09:00,240
Speaker 1: It's sort of hard to find his stuff from the

1340
01:09:00,320 --> 01:09:02,720
Speaker 1: late nineteen eighties, but I found this guest appearance he

1341
01:09:02,760 --> 01:09:05,759
Speaker 1: did not long after in nineteen ninety one on another

1342
01:09:05,800 --> 01:09:08,680
Speaker 1: colleague show for the same network. It gives you an

1343
01:09:08,720 --> 01:09:12,040
Speaker 1: idea of where his radio personality was by this point,

1344
01:09:12,360 --> 01:09:14,680
Speaker 1: and of how he presented himself right, of how he

1345
01:09:14,800 --> 01:09:17,120
Speaker 1: kind of introduced himself anytime he was coming on the air.

1346
01:09:17,160 --> 01:09:19,280
Speaker 1: So that's that's we're going to play this now. This

1347
01:09:19,400 --> 01:09:21,920
Speaker 1: is kind of the birth of the Rush Limbaugh. We

1348
01:09:21,960 --> 01:09:23,960
Speaker 1: all know, we all.

1349
01:09:23,800 --> 01:09:27,000
Speaker 6: Know now one of radios and great broadcasters, and he'sa.

1350
01:09:26,920 --> 01:09:28,280
Speaker 2: With us today on the study. We invite a name

1351
01:09:28,360 --> 01:09:32,800
Speaker 2: Rush Limbaugh. That my ry, Hey thrill. It's about time,

1352
01:09:32,840 --> 01:09:33,000
Speaker 2: you know.

1353
01:09:33,040 --> 01:09:34,680
Speaker 4: I smoked a little dope to get ready for this

1354
01:09:34,760 --> 01:09:38,559
Speaker 4: in here, and I'm ready to go, man to one

1355
01:09:38,640 --> 01:09:40,599
Speaker 4: goal to time, one brain behind you back, Oh half

1356
01:09:40,640 --> 01:09:43,640
Speaker 4: my brain tied behind my back. Just to make it fair, Well,

1357
01:09:43,720 --> 01:09:45,639
Speaker 4: I'll tell you one thing, Yes, I use my talent

1358
01:09:45,760 --> 01:09:46,920
Speaker 4: on loan from god.

1359
01:09:47,560 --> 01:09:49,960
Speaker 2: Man. I heard you got a little loan from ABC.

1360
01:09:50,080 --> 01:09:52,600
Speaker 4: Can't say when you negotiating a new contract. Oh, I

1361
01:09:52,680 --> 01:09:55,080
Speaker 4: loan Limb some money, and I brought you a gift

1362
01:09:55,120 --> 01:09:56,160
Speaker 4: Los Angeles Times.

1363
01:09:56,320 --> 01:09:57,559
Speaker 2: Oh great, good.

1364
01:10:00,040 --> 01:10:03,439
Speaker 4: Wowed him there, didn't I that's nice having a big

1365
01:10:03,520 --> 01:10:05,880
Speaker 4: article on how you've flopped in the New York Times

1366
01:10:06,880 --> 01:10:08,080
Speaker 4: six minutes before nine o'clock.

1367
01:10:08,080 --> 01:10:09,240
Speaker 1: You started out with just like.

1368
01:10:09,200 --> 01:10:12,040
Speaker 4: A small group of stations on your shot with fifty

1369
01:10:12,080 --> 01:10:14,680
Speaker 4: six an hour of three hundred and thirty seven, with

1370
01:10:14,800 --> 01:10:16,600
Speaker 4: the weekly audience about six and a half million, an

1371
01:10:16,560 --> 01:10:19,200
Speaker 4: average quarter of our acuum of a million, seven most

1372
01:10:19,200 --> 01:10:21,080
Speaker 4: listened to radio talk show in America.

1373
01:10:23,720 --> 01:10:28,320
Speaker 1: That's that's Rush Limbaugh that kind of when he goes

1374
01:10:28,400 --> 01:10:30,120
Speaker 1: viral for the listin what do you think about that?

1375
01:10:30,200 --> 01:10:32,479
Speaker 1: About that how he presents himself on here? What does

1376
01:10:32,479 --> 01:10:33,080
Speaker 1: that say to you?

1377
01:10:33,360 --> 01:10:39,600
Speaker 2: It's so it's so the the fully formed version of

1378
01:10:39,680 --> 01:10:44,639
Speaker 2: him that I first experienced, and like he's really going

1379
01:10:44,680 --> 01:10:49,320
Speaker 2: for it, like he's really he's really like he's so

1380
01:10:49,439 --> 01:10:53,160
Speaker 2: aggressive in it, and and like saying I'm gonna come

1381
01:10:53,600 --> 01:10:57,000
Speaker 2: Like clearly the intention is, I'm gonna come on your

1382
01:10:57,040 --> 01:10:59,320
Speaker 2: show and I'm gonna take it over, and I'm gonna

1383
01:10:59,479 --> 01:11:03,000
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be the the the the I'm gonna be

1384
01:11:03,040 --> 01:11:06,840
Speaker 2: the alpha here. I'm gonna dominate you with this, the

1385
01:11:06,840 --> 01:11:09,320
Speaker 2: the La the present presentation of the La Times is

1386
01:11:09,320 --> 01:11:12,840
Speaker 2: because why that guy got fired from the La Times.

1387
01:11:12,880 --> 01:11:14,559
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like no, I think he'd been in

1388
01:11:14,600 --> 01:11:18,680
Speaker 1: Los Angeles and they savaged him in a review, right, Okay, Yeah.

1389
01:11:18,360 --> 01:11:23,280
Speaker 2: So it's it's you know, it's that Frankly, it's like

1390
01:11:23,320 --> 01:11:24,559
Speaker 2: it's all the ship that I hate.

1391
01:11:25,080 --> 01:11:26,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it is, it is.

1392
01:11:27,040 --> 01:11:31,760
Speaker 2: It's it's so it's it's aggressive, it's mean, it's you know,

1393
01:11:32,000 --> 01:11:36,320
Speaker 2: it's he's also correcting him on one of his you know,

1394
01:11:36,640 --> 01:11:39,760
Speaker 2: uh eight catch phrases. You know, you have to get

1395
01:11:39,760 --> 01:11:41,840
Speaker 2: it right. I say it like this every time. This

1396
01:11:41,880 --> 01:11:45,200
Speaker 2: is the way it goes. You know, it's just uh,

1397
01:11:45,240 --> 01:11:46,760
Speaker 2: it's a drag. It's a drag.

1398
01:11:46,800 --> 01:11:49,559
Speaker 1: It's it's a drag. It's also I think there's a

1399
01:11:49,560 --> 01:11:51,320
Speaker 1: thing that he's doing here when we talk about all

1400
01:11:51,360 --> 01:11:54,479
Speaker 1: these phrases, half my brain tied behind my back. Uh,

1401
01:11:54,520 --> 01:11:58,240
Speaker 1: you know, the uh from God, all these different phrases

1402
01:11:58,280 --> 01:12:02,599
Speaker 1: that were that he continuously for decades. I don't want

1403
01:12:02,640 --> 01:12:04,080
Speaker 1: to I don't know. I hope this doesn't seem a

1404
01:12:04,080 --> 01:12:06,640
Speaker 1: little pompous, but I kind of make a comparison between that,

1405
01:12:06,800 --> 01:12:08,760
Speaker 1: like the Iliot and the Odyssey, Right this like the

1406
01:12:08,800 --> 01:12:11,320
Speaker 1: way that anytime you've got home or introducing it's always

1407
01:12:11,360 --> 01:12:14,920
Speaker 1: like you know, the there's certain phrases. Anytime Achilles comes up,

1408
01:12:14,920 --> 01:12:17,080
Speaker 1: he uses the same kind of phrases, same couple of

1409
01:12:17,080 --> 01:12:21,080
Speaker 1: phrases to introduce him, These descriptive phrases to introduce a

1410
01:12:21,160 --> 01:12:24,600
Speaker 1: character that are repeated constantly throughout the because it's a

1411
01:12:25,000 --> 01:12:27,360
Speaker 1: because it was a spoken story, right Like that's where

1412
01:12:27,320 --> 01:12:29,560
Speaker 1: you're supposed to deliver it. That works. It gets in

1413
01:12:29,640 --> 01:12:33,200
Speaker 1: people's heads. They associate those phrases with those characters. Russia's

1414
01:12:33,280 --> 01:12:35,599
Speaker 1: kind of doing. This is an old tactic, but it works.

1415
01:12:36,160 --> 01:12:38,839
Speaker 1: It's the same thing Trump does with his impulse insults

1416
01:12:38,840 --> 01:12:43,200
Speaker 1: Crooked Hillary, right, sleepy Joe. These are effective tactics, and

1417
01:12:43,200 --> 01:12:46,639
Speaker 1: that's what Russia is doing to inculcate his followers, primarily

1418
01:12:46,640 --> 01:12:50,320
Speaker 1: with this idea that he is genius. Right, and again

1419
01:12:50,680 --> 01:12:54,080
Speaker 1: he's joking, but he's also not because this shit buries

1420
01:12:54,120 --> 01:12:59,000
Speaker 1: itself in your brains. He knows what he's doing. He's

1421
01:12:59,040 --> 01:13:00,120
Speaker 1: a very savvy per.

1422
01:13:00,600 --> 01:13:02,599
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like when you when you people like that

1423
01:13:02,600 --> 01:13:08,080
Speaker 2: that that understand the the importance of branding over having

1424
01:13:08,200 --> 01:13:11,880
Speaker 2: an actual thing to say, Like it honestly, the the

1425
01:13:12,000 --> 01:13:16,400
Speaker 2: what you what? The content is secondary to the presentation

1426
01:13:16,760 --> 01:13:19,920
Speaker 2: of here's who I am. I'm gonna tell you through repetition,

1427
01:13:20,360 --> 01:13:22,240
Speaker 2: this is my whole thing. It's like they're they're you know,

1428
01:13:22,320 --> 01:13:24,599
Speaker 2: comics that uh to me, it always makes me think

1429
01:13:24,600 --> 01:13:29,640
Speaker 2: of comedians that majored in marketing in college. Yeah, and

1430
01:13:29,680 --> 01:13:32,320
Speaker 2: then it's like, okay, but are they actually that funny

1431
01:13:32,439 --> 01:13:34,960
Speaker 2: or did they just are they able to really sell

1432
01:13:35,000 --> 01:13:39,240
Speaker 2: themselves so well that that the content is secondary to

1433
01:13:39,840 --> 01:13:41,120
Speaker 2: the image.

1434
01:13:41,120 --> 01:13:44,040
Speaker 1: You have two kinds of people who really are able

1435
01:13:44,080 --> 01:13:46,200
Speaker 1: to build a following. People who are able to build

1436
01:13:46,200 --> 01:13:48,599
Speaker 1: a following because folks genuinely just enjoy that the work

1437
01:13:48,600 --> 01:13:50,800
Speaker 1: that they're bringing into the world, they like their personality,

1438
01:13:50,800 --> 01:13:52,280
Speaker 1: they like what they're doing. And then you have folks

1439
01:13:52,280 --> 01:13:54,680
Speaker 1: who are able to build a following primarily because they

1440
01:13:54,720 --> 01:13:57,280
Speaker 1: do cult leadership. Right, Yeah, that's the that's what the

1441
01:13:57,320 --> 01:14:00,160
Speaker 1: marketing comedians, right, that's what this is. Cult leadership. It,

1442
01:14:00,200 --> 01:14:02,880
Speaker 1: this is how you do it. We do a little

1443
01:14:02,880 --> 01:14:06,000
Speaker 1: bit of that here, but we're all guilty a little

1444
01:14:06,040 --> 01:14:08,840
Speaker 1: We're all guilty a little bit, and I'll be guiltier

1445
01:14:08,960 --> 01:14:10,639
Speaker 1: when I get I don't know, a couple of hundred

1446
01:14:10,640 --> 01:14:13,519
Speaker 1: people killed by the FDA in my mountaintop compound, which

1447
01:14:13,600 --> 01:14:16,040
Speaker 1: I you know is always the goal. Paul, You're very

1448
01:14:16,080 --> 01:14:18,120
Speaker 1: welcome if you would like to have an armed standoff

1449
01:14:18,120 --> 01:14:18,400
Speaker 1: with the.

1450
01:14:18,760 --> 01:14:19,800
Speaker 2: You know you're successful.

1451
01:14:19,960 --> 01:14:22,080
Speaker 1: That's how you know you're successful when a three letter

1452
01:14:22,120 --> 01:14:26,000
Speaker 1: agency burns you down. By anyway, I don't need to

1453
01:14:26,000 --> 01:14:32,040
Speaker 1: Waco this time. I do love Waco. That's a good one.

1454
01:14:32,160 --> 01:14:35,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm so improudb We took in almost an hour

1455
01:14:35,520 --> 01:14:37,040
Speaker 3: twenty for Robert to mention Waco.

1456
01:14:37,240 --> 01:14:41,160
Speaker 1: Good job. Yeah, I'm getting you know, I I realized

1457
01:14:41,200 --> 01:14:44,680
Speaker 1: I was wacoing a lot, trying to cut back, you know,

1458
01:14:45,439 --> 01:14:46,120
Speaker 1: get a little less.

1459
01:14:46,880 --> 01:14:49,599
Speaker 3: And then here he is first Waco.

1460
01:14:49,920 --> 01:14:53,280
Speaker 1: But well, we'll talk off air, Paul about synergizing our

1461
01:14:53,360 --> 01:14:57,160
Speaker 1: cults in the near future. Anyway, So Rush did not

1462
01:14:57,320 --> 01:14:59,880
Speaker 1: tone himself down at all after he went mainstream. In

1463
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:02,320
Speaker 1: in fact, he grew more extreme, and he seems to

1464
01:15:02,360 --> 01:15:05,960
Speaker 1: have quickly forgotten that he was ever practicing satire. In

1465
01:15:06,040 --> 01:15:08,880
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety, at the very height of the AIDS crisis,

1466
01:15:09,080 --> 01:15:12,879
Speaker 1: Rush launched a new segment on his show, the AIDS Update.

1467
01:15:13,120 --> 01:15:15,920
Speaker 1: And I find it interesting how different sources report on this.

1468
01:15:16,439 --> 01:15:19,080
Speaker 1: When Limbaugh died, it was obviously a big story, the

1469
01:15:19,080 --> 01:15:21,559
Speaker 1: fact that he'd done this Aid's Update, and it was,

1470
01:15:21,600 --> 01:15:24,080
Speaker 1: in fact, Limbaugh Aid's Update was like the second or

1471
01:15:24,120 --> 01:15:26,840
Speaker 1: third most googled term alongside his name the day he died.

1472
01:15:27,160 --> 01:15:30,719
Speaker 1: Snopes and Newsweek both published prominent fact checks on this story.

1473
01:15:30,960 --> 01:15:33,800
Speaker 1: But ZEEV. Chaffits's biography of Limbaugh came out well before

1474
01:15:33,880 --> 01:15:36,679
Speaker 1: Rush's death and before the AIDS updates were really talked

1475
01:15:36,680 --> 01:15:39,280
Speaker 1: about all that much outside of the community they most

1476
01:15:39,280 --> 01:15:42,479
Speaker 1: impacted and not. I think it's interesting how Zev wrote

1477
01:15:42,479 --> 01:15:44,519
Speaker 1: about it, not knowing that this was one going, one

1478
01:15:44,600 --> 01:15:46,600
Speaker 1: day going to become a significant story. So this is

1479
01:15:46,600 --> 01:15:50,320
Speaker 1: how Zev wrote about the AIDS Update. After an act

1480
01:15:50,439 --> 01:15:53,280
Speaker 1: up demonstration at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City

1481
01:15:53,320 --> 01:15:57,519
Speaker 1: that disrupted a mass Limbaugh chastised militant homosexuals for their

1482
01:15:57,560 --> 01:16:01,760
Speaker 1: disrespectful behavior, and shortly thereafter began broadcasting irreverent and tasteless

1483
01:16:01,960 --> 01:16:05,760
Speaker 1: AIDS Update segments produced introduced by Dion Warwick's I'll Never

1484
01:16:05,840 --> 01:16:08,600
Speaker 1: Love This Way Again in his traveling stage show The

1485
01:16:08,640 --> 01:16:11,200
Speaker 1: Excellence and Broadcasting Tour. He did a bit when he

1486
01:16:11,240 --> 01:16:14,400
Speaker 1: put a condom over the microphone to illustrate safe speech.

1487
01:16:15,160 --> 01:16:17,479
Speaker 1: So that's how the aid's Update was kind of framed

1488
01:16:17,479 --> 01:16:20,040
Speaker 1: by Zeve before it was a big story. Now here's

1489
01:16:20,040 --> 01:16:23,240
Speaker 1: how Snopes characterized it in their fact check after Limbaugh died.

1490
01:16:23,320 --> 01:16:26,759
Speaker 2: And I think before that, like already that doesn't sound

1491
01:16:26,760 --> 01:16:27,439
Speaker 2: good that.

1492
01:16:27,560 --> 01:16:30,160
Speaker 1: No, I don't think Zeeve is trying to whitewash. Yeah,

1493
01:16:30,160 --> 01:16:32,479
Speaker 1: I think that he just doesn't see it as a

1494
01:16:32,479 --> 01:16:33,040
Speaker 1: big story.

1495
01:16:33,120 --> 01:16:36,599
Speaker 2: Yeah, even just plainly stated that is it's terrible.

1496
01:16:36,760 --> 01:16:39,639
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's terrible, and it sounds worse when Snopes goes

1497
01:16:39,680 --> 01:16:42,800
Speaker 1: into more detail on this yeah quote. At the height

1498
01:16:42,800 --> 01:16:45,559
Speaker 1: of the HIV AIDS crisis, the Rush Limbaugh Show featured

1499
01:16:45,560 --> 01:16:48,360
Speaker 1: an AIDS update in which limbad joked about an epidemic

1500
01:16:48,400 --> 01:16:51,080
Speaker 1: that had claimed more than one hundred thousand lives between

1501
01:16:51,160 --> 01:16:54,679
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one and nineteen ninety. Specifically, Limbaugh targeted gay

1502
01:16:54,720 --> 01:16:57,400
Speaker 1: men who had died. In addition to joking about their deaths,

1503
01:16:57,479 --> 01:17:01,120
Speaker 1: Limbaugh reportedly played songs during the segment include kiss Him Goodbye,

1504
01:17:01,200 --> 01:17:03,360
Speaker 1: I'll Never Love This Way Again, and looking for Love

1505
01:17:03,400 --> 01:17:06,280
Speaker 1: in All the Wrong Places. Snopes dot Com uncovered an

1506
01:17:06,280 --> 01:17:08,720
Speaker 1: interview in The Cedar Gazette from nineteen ninety in which

1507
01:17:08,760 --> 01:17:12,000
Speaker 1: Limbaugh said the segment was politically oriented and based upon

1508
01:17:12,080 --> 01:17:14,479
Speaker 1: my reaction to what I considered to be extremism in

1509
01:17:14,520 --> 01:17:17,240
Speaker 1: the political mainstream by a group of people. Per the

1510
01:17:17,240 --> 01:17:20,360
Speaker 1: Cedar Gazette, Limbaugh said his target is not AIDS victims,

1511
01:17:20,360 --> 01:17:23,360
Speaker 1: but militant homosexuals who blamed church and government officials for

1512
01:17:23,360 --> 01:17:26,840
Speaker 1: the epidemic. The AID'S update is meant to offend them,

1513
01:17:27,000 --> 01:17:30,360
Speaker 1: Limbas said, damn right. According to a nineteen ninety eight

1514
01:17:30,439 --> 01:17:33,200
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Times article, it was a popular segment, but

1515
01:17:33,240 --> 01:17:36,639
Speaker 1: it also created outrage among AIDS activists, something not helped

1516
01:17:36,640 --> 01:17:41,240
Speaker 1: by Limbaugh reportedly saying gays deserved their fate. Mocking the

1517
01:17:41,280 --> 01:17:43,519
Speaker 1: horrific deaths of gay people isn't something that will get

1518
01:17:43,520 --> 01:17:46,720
Speaker 1: a conservative radio host fired today. So obviously this was

1519
01:17:46,800 --> 01:17:49,439
Speaker 1: never more than a mile bump in limbaugh'squreer back in

1520
01:17:49,520 --> 01:17:52,160
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety. And it says a lot about where the

1521
01:17:52,240 --> 01:17:56,320
Speaker 1: right would go that a segment dedicated to mocking joyfully

1522
01:17:56,400 --> 01:17:59,479
Speaker 1: the deaths of people he disagreed with was popular right

1523
01:17:59,640 --> 01:18:03,080
Speaker 1: that would become the mainstream for Republicans. Now, in nineteen

1524
01:18:03,400 --> 01:18:06,080
Speaker 1: ninety it was still a thing he had to apologize for,

1525
01:18:06,720 --> 01:18:09,599
Speaker 1: and that year is the year he became officially famous.

1526
01:18:09,640 --> 01:18:11,880
Speaker 1: Nineteen ninety. He had his first live TV appearance on

1527
01:18:11,960 --> 01:18:14,599
Speaker 1: June second, when c SPAN did a special on talk radio.

1528
01:18:15,880 --> 01:18:18,240
Speaker 1: And yeah, so this is like he he does kind

1529
01:18:18,280 --> 01:18:21,640
Speaker 1: of have to sort of say that he regretted doing this,

1530
01:18:21,840 --> 01:18:23,799
Speaker 1: that he felt like he was kind of attacking people

1531
01:18:24,200 --> 01:18:27,880
Speaker 1: who like he was, like, I didn't mean to be

1532
01:18:28,000 --> 01:18:30,000
Speaker 1: mocking people who had died. I was trying to attack

1533
01:18:30,040 --> 01:18:32,680
Speaker 1: these militant activists, and so I stopped.

1534
01:18:32,479 --> 01:18:33,879
Speaker 2: Work so I fear that alive?

1535
01:18:34,320 --> 01:18:38,439
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, who are so far still alive for the moment? Yeah?

1536
01:18:38,520 --> 01:18:38,920
Speaker 2: Anyway?

1537
01:18:38,920 --> 01:18:41,519
Speaker 1: That So he does a TV appearance on c SPAN

1538
01:18:41,600 --> 01:18:43,960
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety on June second, which is kind of

1539
01:18:44,000 --> 01:18:46,800
Speaker 1: his first big TV appearance, and then The New York

1540
01:18:46,840 --> 01:18:50,200
Speaker 1: Times does a big profile on him from that quote,

1541
01:18:50,320 --> 01:18:53,400
Speaker 1: with its characteristic attention to production values, the network simply

1542
01:18:53,439 --> 01:18:56,519
Speaker 1: set up a camera inside a spare WABC seventy seven

1543
01:18:56,600 --> 01:18:58,760
Speaker 1: studio in New York and let the self proclaimed most

1544
01:18:58,840 --> 01:19:01,679
Speaker 1: dangerous man in America a roll cut to a shlub

1545
01:19:01,720 --> 01:19:04,040
Speaker 1: and a cheap white dress shirt, black tie, and hastily

1546
01:19:04,080 --> 01:19:07,400
Speaker 1: barbershopped helmet of hair, already wiping sweat and grumbling about

1547
01:19:07,400 --> 01:19:10,040
Speaker 1: the TV lights planted behind his desk, and Mike interrupting

1548
01:19:10,080 --> 01:19:13,559
Speaker 1: the station's young newscaster, Kathleen Mahoney. She's trying to do

1549
01:19:13,640 --> 01:19:15,920
Speaker 1: her five minute top of the Hour update oddly for

1550
01:19:16,000 --> 01:19:18,880
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety while wearing a mask, because, as she explains,

1551
01:19:19,120 --> 01:19:21,040
Speaker 1: the host had warned her it could be dangerous to

1552
01:19:21,080 --> 01:19:24,000
Speaker 1: let his listeners identify her on TV as a liberal feminist.

1553
01:19:24,200 --> 01:19:26,960
Speaker 1: He was only joking. Limba insists, you said wear a

1554
01:19:27,000 --> 01:19:30,479
Speaker 1: bag over my head, Maloney says, Limbaugh keeps threatening to

1555
01:19:30,560 --> 01:19:33,840
Speaker 1: yank her mask off, complimenting her beauty, and interjecting impatiently.

1556
01:19:34,200 --> 01:19:36,439
Speaker 1: The news just holds up everything here. I'm trying to

1557
01:19:36,439 --> 01:19:39,360
Speaker 1: make the news worthwhile. There's a lot in there.

1558
01:19:39,920 --> 01:19:41,559
Speaker 2: Fuck Jesus Christ.

1559
01:19:41,560 --> 01:19:45,080
Speaker 1: That's a New York Times reportan of span appearance. Yeah,

1560
01:19:45,160 --> 01:19:47,800
Speaker 1: he's like both saying you should cover your face because

1561
01:19:47,800 --> 01:19:50,360
Speaker 1: my listeners will harass you for being a liberal feminist,

1562
01:19:50,360 --> 01:19:52,920
Speaker 1: and also take off that mask let everyone see your

1563
01:19:52,920 --> 01:19:58,040
Speaker 1: pretty face. Like he's simultaneously both threatening her and sexually

1564
01:19:58,120 --> 01:19:58,760
Speaker 1: harassing her.

1565
01:20:00,320 --> 01:20:04,479
Speaker 2: It's wild that It's good. It seems there's something about

1566
01:20:04,479 --> 01:20:07,040
Speaker 2: that that seems so modern. Do you know what I mean?

1567
01:20:07,160 --> 01:20:13,040
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yeah, that could. He's because he broughtly created

1568
01:20:13,080 --> 01:20:16,559
Speaker 1: the modern right, you know, so you can see it,

1569
01:20:16,720 --> 01:20:20,360
Speaker 1: you know, in nineteen ninety that's what he's doing. Yeah, now,

1570
01:20:20,520 --> 01:20:22,599
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety is as I said. Also, when The Gray

1571
01:20:22,720 --> 01:20:26,080
Speaker 1: Lady published their first full feature dedicated to el Rushbo,

1572
01:20:26,479 --> 01:20:29,360
Speaker 1: the article is fascinating and valuable, since it seems like

1573
01:20:29,479 --> 01:20:32,280
Speaker 1: few copies of his early nineteen eighty eight to ninety

1574
01:20:32,280 --> 01:20:35,200
Speaker 1: one ninety two episodes exist. So this New York Times write,

1575
01:20:35,200 --> 01:20:38,160
Speaker 1: it provides us with several fascinating insights into how Russia's

1576
01:20:38,200 --> 01:20:41,160
Speaker 1: show evolved during this period, and, more to the point,

1577
01:20:41,240 --> 01:20:44,840
Speaker 1: into where American conservatism was about to follow in his wake.

1578
01:20:45,240 --> 01:20:47,519
Speaker 1: At one point, a critic calls in, this is again

1579
01:20:47,520 --> 01:20:49,680
Speaker 1: The New York Times are writing about his show from

1580
01:20:49,720 --> 01:20:52,600
Speaker 1: an episode we don't have anymore. So at one point

1581
01:20:52,720 --> 01:20:55,839
Speaker 1: in the show, a critic calls in and tells Rush quote,

1582
01:20:56,000 --> 01:20:58,320
Speaker 1: I believe you are doing a great disservice by using

1583
01:20:58,360 --> 01:21:01,240
Speaker 1: the program to convince people that if people are not successful,

1584
01:21:01,280 --> 01:21:03,559
Speaker 1: it is their fault. You were just a paid advocate

1585
01:21:03,600 --> 01:21:06,760
Speaker 1: of the rich and you despise the poor. Now that's

1586
01:21:06,840 --> 01:21:09,759
Speaker 1: very accurate. The author of the New York Times article

1587
01:21:10,160 --> 01:21:12,639
Speaker 1: notes that perhaps due to his guilt over his crueler

1588
01:21:12,720 --> 01:21:15,920
Speaker 1: shock jock days, Russia is very polite to his liberal callers,

1589
01:21:16,040 --> 01:21:18,400
Speaker 1: and this is what The New York Times writes as

1590
01:21:18,479 --> 01:21:22,120
Speaker 1: Russia's answer. You misunderstand my point. There is nothing wrong

1591
01:21:22,160 --> 01:21:24,880
Speaker 1: with being rich. It's not evil. Most rich people earned

1592
01:21:24,880 --> 01:21:26,840
Speaker 1: it by virtue of hard work. This has always been

1593
01:21:26,880 --> 01:21:28,880
Speaker 1: the country that people come to because there has always

1594
01:21:28,880 --> 01:21:31,400
Speaker 1: been a chance for opportunity. And if you start punishing

1595
01:21:31,439 --> 01:21:33,760
Speaker 1: the people who bust their tale to be prosperous, then

1596
01:21:33,760 --> 01:21:36,200
Speaker 1: you're going to unmotivate people to try that. I am

1597
01:21:36,240 --> 01:21:38,120
Speaker 1: not a paid defender of the rich. I am a

1598
01:21:38,160 --> 01:21:42,120
Speaker 1: proud promoter of the American way of life. Yeah, what

1599
01:21:42,240 --> 01:21:42,559
Speaker 1: are the.

1600
01:21:44,280 --> 01:21:46,320
Speaker 2: I guess that's a thing. You can just say that

1601
01:21:46,479 --> 01:21:49,400
Speaker 2: most rich people earned their money, Like.

1602
01:21:49,439 --> 01:21:52,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's objectively untrue. But yes, you can say that

1603
01:21:52,840 --> 01:21:54,000
Speaker 1: objective untrue.

1604
01:21:54,320 --> 01:21:56,800
Speaker 2: But I guess if you are born to wealth, but

1605
01:21:56,880 --> 01:22:00,280
Speaker 2: then you also get a job that makes you even wealthy, yeah,

1606
01:22:01,439 --> 01:22:02,120
Speaker 2: that's hard work.

1607
01:22:02,439 --> 01:22:05,880
Speaker 1: I mean, look at Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates,

1608
01:22:05,920 --> 01:22:08,280
Speaker 1: all guys who were born to wealth. They weren't born

1609
01:22:08,439 --> 01:22:10,559
Speaker 1: crazy rich, they weren't born with fuck you money, but

1610
01:22:10,600 --> 01:22:13,000
Speaker 1: they were born into wealth and then they were able

1611
01:22:13,040 --> 01:22:15,680
Speaker 1: to get fuck you money because of the he And

1612
01:22:15,840 --> 01:22:17,559
Speaker 1: there's a lot written about that. You know, Bill Gates

1613
01:22:17,560 --> 01:22:19,839
Speaker 1: having access to a computer in an era when basically

1614
01:22:19,840 --> 01:22:23,320
Speaker 1: no one did. Bezos being able to secure a huge

1615
01:22:23,360 --> 01:22:25,519
Speaker 1: loan from his parents in order to help start his

1616
01:22:25,560 --> 01:22:28,720
Speaker 1: first business. Elon Musk also getting a loan from his

1617
01:22:28,800 --> 01:22:30,880
Speaker 1: dad to start a business. You know, it's the way

1618
01:22:30,920 --> 01:22:33,400
Speaker 1: it always works for these people, and they they spin

1619
01:22:33,520 --> 01:22:34,840
Speaker 1: that as self made, you.

1620
01:22:34,760 --> 01:22:38,280
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, because in their mind it's true.

1621
01:22:38,360 --> 01:22:40,360
Speaker 1: Because in their mind it's true, and they do work hard.

1622
01:22:40,400 --> 01:22:42,800
Speaker 1: And if you work hard, you can convince yourself that

1623
01:22:42,880 --> 01:22:44,920
Speaker 1: you've earned it, as opposed to like, I worked hard,

1624
01:22:44,960 --> 01:22:47,080
Speaker 1: but it only like I can say I worked hard,

1625
01:22:47,120 --> 01:22:51,599
Speaker 1: I can also say I am only financially successful because

1626
01:22:51,680 --> 01:22:54,200
Speaker 1: I got lucky. And I know other people who worked

1627
01:22:54,200 --> 01:22:55,880
Speaker 1: as hard as I did who have not been nearly

1628
01:22:55,920 --> 01:22:58,200
Speaker 1: as financially successful. And it's not because of a lack

1629
01:22:58,240 --> 01:23:01,000
Speaker 1: of talent. It's because I got a break that they didn't,

1630
01:23:01,080 --> 01:23:01,240
Speaker 1: you know.

1631
01:23:01,680 --> 01:23:04,320
Speaker 2: And leaving that, leaving that part out is how you

1632
01:23:04,320 --> 01:23:09,360
Speaker 2: were able to convince other people that that the majority

1633
01:23:09,360 --> 01:23:12,080
Speaker 2: of people are away, the majority of people are a

1634
01:23:12,080 --> 01:23:14,280
Speaker 2: wealthy through hard work.

1635
01:23:14,760 --> 01:23:19,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's nonsense. So that New York Times piece reveals

1636
01:23:19,120 --> 01:23:21,960
Speaker 1: that by nineteen ninety, Rush was already popular enough to

1637
01:23:22,040 --> 01:23:25,120
Speaker 1: draw massive in person crowds, and this was unheard of

1638
01:23:25,200 --> 01:23:28,720
Speaker 1: for a talk radio personality. Today we're well acquainted with

1639
01:23:28,800 --> 01:23:31,719
Speaker 1: right wing thought leaders who can draw thousands upon thousands

1640
01:23:31,720 --> 01:23:35,719
Speaker 1: of fanatically loyal followers to in person gatherings. But Rush

1641
01:23:35,880 --> 01:23:39,080
Speaker 1: was really the first. From the Times quote, there are

1642
01:23:39,120 --> 01:23:41,600
Speaker 1: towns where he is unheard, unheard and unheard of. And

1643
01:23:41,600 --> 01:23:43,680
Speaker 1: then there are places like Tampa, where the announcement of

1644
01:23:43,680 --> 01:23:46,000
Speaker 1: a Rush Limbaugh stage show sold out the twenty two

1645
01:23:46,120 --> 01:23:49,680
Speaker 1: hundred seat Ruth Eckert Hall in four days. The occupants

1646
01:23:49,720 --> 01:23:51,680
Speaker 1: of those seats are out of them and cheering when

1647
01:23:51,720 --> 01:23:54,600
Speaker 1: Limbaugh appears in a three piece tuxedo. They're like the

1648
01:23:54,640 --> 01:23:57,320
Speaker 1: crowd for a country western concert, says Dan Woollet, the

1649
01:23:57,320 --> 01:23:59,720
Speaker 1: hall's director of operations, after sizing up the crowd in

1650
01:23:59,760 --> 01:24:03,160
Speaker 1: the law surprisingly youthful and more beer than wine drinkers.

1651
01:24:03,439 --> 01:24:05,680
Speaker 1: You're gonna have fun tonight, Limbaugh tells them. And at

1652
01:24:05,680 --> 01:24:08,599
Speaker 1: the same time, you're gonna learn some things. Pacing constantly,

1653
01:24:08,680 --> 01:24:10,960
Speaker 1: he does some jokes that poke fun at the Japanese

1654
01:24:11,040 --> 01:24:16,320
Speaker 1: and the liberal media. One of his jokes is that

1655
01:24:16,479 --> 01:24:19,679
Speaker 1: Judgment Day comes and the Washington Post article banner reads

1656
01:24:19,880 --> 01:24:23,880
Speaker 1: world ends tomorrow, Women, minorities hardest hit. It's like that's

1657
01:24:23,920 --> 01:24:26,599
Speaker 1: the you know, you see what he's going for there, Yeah,

1658
01:24:27,400 --> 01:24:28,679
Speaker 1: I see what he's going for sure.

1659
01:24:28,760 --> 01:24:29,040
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1660
01:24:29,240 --> 01:24:31,959
Speaker 1: Later in his live show, Russi engaged in a popular

1661
01:24:32,040 --> 01:24:34,080
Speaker 1: bit wherein he brings a piece of shit to a

1662
01:24:34,200 --> 01:24:37,479
Speaker 1: modern art gallery. And the joke is that, like, modern

1663
01:24:37,560 --> 01:24:39,200
Speaker 1: art is so dumb that if you like poop and

1664
01:24:39,240 --> 01:24:41,960
Speaker 1: take right, it's very obvious. This is it. You can

1665
01:24:42,000 --> 01:24:45,120
Speaker 1: find Ben Shapiro making the same basic joke decades later.

1666
01:24:45,280 --> 01:24:47,000
Speaker 1: And the gist of it is. That gist of it

1667
01:24:47,040 --> 01:24:48,760
Speaker 1: is that you know, liberals are so dumb they'll stare

1668
01:24:48,760 --> 01:24:50,960
Speaker 1: at shit if you tell him it's art. The Times

1669
01:24:51,000 --> 01:24:53,280
Speaker 1: introduces this bit and then moves on to something that

1670
01:24:53,320 --> 01:24:58,200
Speaker 1: I found chillingly relevant. Quote art criticism is a limbas staple.

1671
01:24:58,479 --> 01:25:01,080
Speaker 1: He believes there is a culture war going on between

1672
01:25:01,080 --> 01:25:05,000
Speaker 1: those upholding decent values conservatives and the kammie lib hordes

1673
01:25:05,040 --> 01:25:09,160
Speaker 1: trying to devalue human life and worst undermine private enterprise.

1674
01:25:09,640 --> 01:25:12,719
Speaker 1: Limba's sermon on art brings out the Evening's only heckling,

1675
01:25:12,960 --> 01:25:16,920
Speaker 1: a female cry of censorship. Oh no, Limbaugh protests, he

1676
01:25:16,960 --> 01:25:19,600
Speaker 1: never spoke that word, but seconds later he allows that

1677
01:25:19,640 --> 01:25:23,080
Speaker 1: censorship isn't really so bad. It has been used throughout

1678
01:25:23,080 --> 01:25:35,040
Speaker 1: this nation's history as a means of maintaining standards.

1679
01:25:35,040 --> 01:25:39,559
Speaker 2: Some means of maintaining standards. Yeah, what the fuck is

1680
01:25:39,560 --> 01:25:40,479
Speaker 2: he talking about?

1681
01:25:40,960 --> 01:25:43,680
Speaker 1: What he's talking about is threading the needle that the

1682
01:25:43,800 --> 01:25:46,240
Speaker 1: right is now the scent like right, the main I

1683
01:25:46,280 --> 01:25:48,839
Speaker 1: went I was in fucking I took a concealed handgun

1684
01:25:48,880 --> 01:25:50,639
Speaker 1: course in Texas because I'm getting my out of state

1685
01:25:50,720 --> 01:25:53,160
Speaker 1: permit so i can be armed in more parts of

1686
01:25:53,160 --> 01:25:54,559
Speaker 1: the United States. Because of all.

1687
01:25:56,040 --> 01:25:58,720
Speaker 2: That is like going to cooking school in Paris. Yeah.

1688
01:25:58,760 --> 01:26:02,200
Speaker 1: Well, and the things started with like a thirty minute

1689
01:26:02,280 --> 01:26:05,280
Speaker 1: lecture from the instructor on cancel culture, like this is

1690
01:26:05,320 --> 01:26:08,040
Speaker 1: the big thing within the right. I know, I know,

1691
01:26:08,320 --> 01:26:12,880
Speaker 1: I know, this is the big thing within the right now.

1692
01:26:12,960 --> 01:26:15,720
Speaker 1: And it Limbaugh is starting both like saying like, well,

1693
01:26:15,760 --> 01:26:18,760
Speaker 1: the liberals want to like censor us, want to cut

1694
01:26:18,760 --> 01:26:21,760
Speaker 1: out all ideas they disagree with, and then he moves

1695
01:26:21,760 --> 01:26:24,960
Speaker 1: on to saying but also, it's okay to censor people sometimes, right,

1696
01:26:25,000 --> 01:26:27,639
Speaker 1: because this is what the right believes. It's cancel culture

1697
01:26:27,720 --> 01:26:30,360
Speaker 1: if you if people don't like it and if they

1698
01:26:30,400 --> 01:26:34,040
Speaker 1: suffer financial consequences for being racist. But it's not cancel

1699
01:26:34,120 --> 01:26:36,719
Speaker 1: culture if they go out of their way to censor

1700
01:26:36,840 --> 01:26:40,040
Speaker 1: left wing in liberal voices, which they do through things

1701
01:26:40,080 --> 01:26:43,559
Speaker 1: like school books. Right, objectively true, well documented. This is

1702
01:26:43,600 --> 01:26:44,360
Speaker 1: how the right works.

1703
01:26:44,439 --> 01:26:44,919
Speaker 2: Absolutely.

1704
01:26:45,360 --> 01:26:47,160
Speaker 1: I know no one listening is going to disagree, but

1705
01:26:47,320 --> 01:26:48,720
Speaker 1: it's frustrating.

1706
01:26:48,360 --> 01:26:50,760
Speaker 2: But it is. It is absurd, the idea of of

1707
01:26:51,000 --> 01:26:54,960
Speaker 2: you know, like it's it's cancel culture. If you if

1708
01:26:55,000 --> 01:27:01,400
Speaker 2: you compare being conservative to being a jew in late

1709
01:27:01,479 --> 01:27:05,880
Speaker 2: nineteen thirties Berlin, to like it should be illegal to

1710
01:27:05,880 --> 01:27:07,320
Speaker 2: give the finger to the flag.

1711
01:27:08,120 --> 01:27:13,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing. And that, Paul is the end of

1712
01:27:13,920 --> 01:27:16,880
Speaker 1: part one of what is going to be like three

1713
01:27:16,920 --> 01:27:18,679
Speaker 1: hours of talking about Rush Limbaugh.

1714
01:27:18,920 --> 01:27:21,640
Speaker 3: Wow, way more time than he deserves.

1715
01:27:21,720 --> 01:27:24,320
Speaker 1: But how he had to do it. I mean, he

1716
01:27:24,400 --> 01:27:26,960
Speaker 1: deserves this much time, not in a good way, but

1717
01:27:27,040 --> 01:27:29,439
Speaker 1: in a we need to understand what this man has

1718
01:27:29,520 --> 01:27:31,160
Speaker 1: done to us all absolutely.

1719
01:27:31,240 --> 01:27:33,120
Speaker 2: And it's also if you're if you're willing to go

1720
01:27:33,160 --> 01:27:35,519
Speaker 2: to bat for Rush Limbaugh because you think it's mean

1721
01:27:35,920 --> 01:27:39,439
Speaker 2: that somebody is glad that he's dead. Let's lay it

1722
01:27:39,479 --> 01:27:42,760
Speaker 2: all out and here's here's why some people might might

1723
01:27:42,840 --> 01:27:47,200
Speaker 2: not be so sad that a human life is of evidence.

1724
01:27:47,600 --> 01:27:50,880
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, evidence both that he deserves to have

1725
01:27:50,960 --> 01:27:53,960
Speaker 1: his death cheered and also that he loved laughing at

1726
01:27:54,000 --> 01:27:54,799
Speaker 1: people's deaths.

1727
01:27:54,880 --> 01:27:58,760
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, in a way. Yeah, you are, you are.

1728
01:27:58,800 --> 01:28:00,720
Speaker 1: It's what he would have wanted. But you know what

1729
01:28:00,800 --> 01:28:02,840
Speaker 1: I want right now, Paul, I want you to plug

1730
01:28:02,880 --> 01:28:03,720
Speaker 1: your pluggables.

1731
01:28:04,000 --> 01:28:08,160
Speaker 2: Well, let's see. Uh. You can find me on social

1732
01:28:08,200 --> 01:28:11,720
Speaker 2: media at PF Tompkins on Twitter and Instagram.

1733
01:28:12,400 --> 01:28:12,960
Speaker 4: I have.

1734
01:28:14,720 --> 01:28:19,280
Speaker 2: A bunch of podcasts going on at any given time, Freedom,

1735
01:28:20,400 --> 01:28:23,120
Speaker 2: which I co host with Lauren Lapis of Scott Ackerman

1736
01:28:23,200 --> 01:28:25,880
Speaker 2: and Stay Off Homekins, which I co host with my wife.

1737
01:28:25,920 --> 01:28:29,760
Speaker 2: We started a podcast during the pandemic and unfortunately we

1738
01:28:29,800 --> 01:28:34,720
Speaker 2: are still doing it. Uh and I do UH. I

1739
01:28:34,800 --> 01:28:37,960
Speaker 2: do shows the first live streaming improv shows the first

1740
01:28:37,960 --> 01:28:42,160
Speaker 2: Monday of every month with my friend Lauren Lapus and that.

1741
01:28:42,400 --> 01:28:44,559
Speaker 2: All those tickets can be found at Paul F. Tompkins

1742
01:28:44,560 --> 01:28:45,519
Speaker 2: dot com slash live.

1743
01:28:46,760 --> 01:28:50,800
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of cancel culture, this episode is now over

1744
01:28:50,960 --> 01:28:56,599
Speaker 1: and thus canceled because of the libs it's done by Bye.

1745
01:28:59,479 --> 01:29:02,200
Speaker 3: Behind the Bars is a production of cool Zone Media.

1746
01:29:02,560 --> 01:29:05,840
Speaker 3: For more from cool Zone Media, visit our website Coolzonemedia

1747
01:29:06,040 --> 01:29:09,240
Speaker 3: dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,

1748
01:29:09,320 --> 01:29:12,439
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Behind the

1749
01:29:12,479 --> 01:29:16,560
Speaker 3: Bastards is now available on YouTube, new episodes every Wednesday

1750
01:29:16,640 --> 01:29:20,320
Speaker 3: and Friday. Subscribe to our channel YouTube dot com slash

1751
01:29:20,479 --> 01:29:22,000
Speaker 3: at Behind the Bastards