Limbaugh Health Scare Provides New Insights

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

What Limbaugh's Hawaiian Hospital Stay Reveals







In the unintelligible intelligence farce Burn After Reading, that's the key question from a nameless CIA supervisor after a bizarre series of events: "well, what have we learned?"

In the aftermath of Rush Limbaugh's Hawaiian health scare, the answer is plenty:


Despite every opposition-led effort to marginalize him, Rush Limbaugh's political role clearly extends far beyond talk radio and its audience. Who else could hold a press conference and generate national headlines as a result? Or effectively upstage a president who was also in the Aloha State, just blocks away?

Also noteworthy: newspapers assigned political reporters to cover it, not entertainment correspondents.





Though Rush's personal life is generally quite public, his entourage is capable of keeping a lid on information when necessary. The clear struggle by gossip sites, newspapers and networks to get beyond basic details demonstrates that ability.


Limbaugh knows how to push the state-run news media's buttons, as shown during Sunday morning's news programs, where some fought back against his upbeat assessment of hospital care. Media Matters is still worked up over it. So is the HuffPo crowd.


Google's role in the ongoing smear campaign can't be ignored: the top result for a "Rush Limbaugh" search is currently a link to "Rush Limbaugh dead at 58". That engine-suggested query turns up nearly 20,000 results.

In addition, Google News links to this entirely inaccurate piece regarding Rush's "girlfriend" (yet refuses to include many large blogs).

Meanwhile, the haters are still haters, with Roger Ebert as a standout example.


Talk radio station group owners who've relied on Rush for ratings have had a rude awakening. What if Rush were to exit broadcasting altogether? The corporate suits who've made a killing carrying Limbaugh's program don't have a Plan B.


Beltway establishment types who've hemmed and hawed over Rush's role have once again been forced to confront the reality of his influence, while movement conservatives openly ponder a "world without Rush", perhaps for the first time.


Once again, the bottom line: anyone underestimating Rush is a fool.


Major events have a way of adding perspective we wouldn't have had otherwise. That's certainly the case here.



ELSEWHERE TODAY:


Melanie Morgan leaves America's Morning News to return to the West Coast with her family. Melanie promises us she'll be back on the air soon, however.


Mark Levin Show enjoys big ratings increase in Chicago: takes first place overall on WLS-AM for the fifth consecutive period, number one in eight out of last twelve months. Overall share: 9.6, an impressive figure to say the least.



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