RUSH: They are begging for more money off of those poll results.

dont kick the dog

• Karzai: Get Out
• Obama's Top Campaign Bundlers Among State Dinner Guests

• Obama Fills Out NCAA Bracket
• Blago's Last Day of Freedom
• Price of gas in CA jumps 50 cents
• 'Obamacare' to Cost Twice as Much
• The Collapsing Dollar in Your Gas Tank
 

RUSH: You know, liberals, ladies and gentlemen, are still in a state of shock and disbelief over the notion that "social issues" don't hurt Republicans. You see the reason for the manufactured, false, it-doesn't-really-exist attempt to convince people Republicans have a war on women... Which, again, as mayor of Realville: Republicans date women, they marry women, they have children with women.

They take women to dinner. They buy women diamonds and open car doors for women. Yet there's this Republican war on women, and the Republicans want to actually somehow reach into their purses and grab their birth control pills and take 'em away from 'em. The Democrats actually think that they're going to win with this! The Democrats in the media actually believe they can convince (in this era) the American people that Republicans hate women and are actually at war with them.

RUSH: (doing impression) "Ah, what's going on, it doesn't make sense. Women ought to be hating Romney. Women ought to despise the Republicans, and they like Romney, they like Santorum, it's not happening. They're voting on the economy. These women, they came out and they said the economy was most important to them and don't they understand the Republicans are trying to take their health away?" They actually believe this, folks. They actually believe that all they've gotta do is level the accusation and then all of you are gonna believe that Santorum and Romney and Newt are at war with you. Now, Romney, Planned Parenthood, he didn't say he was gonna shut it down. He said he was gonna take federal money away from it. He didn't say that he was going to wipe it out. He said he was going to stop spending and giving federal tax dollars to Planned Parenthood. To the media and to the Democrats, that's the same thing as shutting it down, as far as they're concerned.

Last night also on Hardball, Chris Matthews had Melinda Henneberger. I think she used to be at US News or Newsweek or TIME. I forget which. Where is she now? Is she at the Washington Post? Yeah. I thought she was at a blog somewhere. Anyway, Matthews spoke with Melinda Henneberger who's at the Washington Post. He said, "It's astounding to me after all the talk on television, especially about what happened with regard to going after Planned Parenthood, right? All this talk about Rush Limbaugh, and all this talk about the Catholic Church, all this talk about contraception, all those issues which you would think would have put the Democrats with an advantage over the conservatives. Not a big, powerful impact yet in terms of big changing and how people are voting yet."

HENNEBERGER: I do think that it's a very powerful, good issue for Democrats because it energizes the base, it energizes women, they're raising a lot of money on it. But to quote Ann Romney, women are concerned about other things besides contraceptives, too. So, you know, I mean a friend of mine who's an independent voter said, "You know, I am worried. The top issue on my mind is not who's gonna be paying for contraception with my tax dollars. Oops, I'm unemployed, I'm not paying taxes."

RUSH: Ah, Melinda has an independent friend. That's noteworthy. And even her independent friend is not worried about contraception and who's gonna be paying for it. She wants a job. Shock. "I think it's a powerful, good issue for Democrats." You hear Matthews, he can't believe it. All the talk about me. All the talk about the Catholic Church. All the talk about contraception. All this talk, all this talk, all this talk, and it hasn't hurt the Republicans yet. Why not, Melinda? The whole point here was to hurt Republicans. Why hasn't it hurt Republicans? They can't believe it.

RUSH: I sit here and I marvel at the ease with which the Democrats and the left create literal false realities -- not even realities -- they create false illusions. This may be redundant to even say. But remember, folks, I opened today's busy broadcast by telling you that there's abject panic in the White House, and there is, and Obama's speech to the community college students in Maryland today is evidence of a huge defensive posture when it comes to energy and gasoline and oil. These two polls, the Washington Post, New York Times polls on Monday, New York Times in particular, the president's approval number at an all-time low in that poll at 41%. The whole war on women is not working. I'm still here. You are still here in larger than ever numbers, sponsors are still here and you are still patronizing them.

RUSH: Tuesday night on C-SPAN's simulcast of Politico.com's coverage of the Mississippi, Alabama, Hawaii primaries, the executive editor, Jim VandeHei and the editor-in-chief John Harris are discussing an article looking at recent polling data. And VandeHei says, "There was a good debate inside the Politico today. There's a piece that looked at the state of the American voter. Tell the people what the thesis of the story was, John."

HARRIS: Some of these poll results, they just seem stupid. So I asked Alex Burns to, said, "Why don't you do a piece looking at the question of whether voters are stupid and a lot of the things that they say in these polls are just plain stupid." And Alex warmed to the assignment and he wrote this, actually found a number of good voices from pollsters who say, "Yeah, that's the first thing you learn as a pollster, voters are stupid." He meant that often they're expressing their opinions in a context of ignorance.

RUSH: Now, isn't this fascinating? We've got two polls which show the bottom falling out on Obama, the war on women not working.

Here we have two polls which show Obama trailing with women. In the Washington Post poll he lost four points after this whole attempt to create the phony Republican war on women via contraception, abortion. So now these guys are looking at the people who participate in polls, and do you notice the derision with which Harris uses the word "stupid"? (imitating Harris) "These people are just stupid." Listen to sound bite one again and pay attention to that.

HARRIS: Some of these poll results, they just seem stupid. So I asked Alex Burns to, said, "Why don't you do a piece looking at the question of whether voters are stupid and a lot of the things that they say in these polls are just plain stupid."

RUSH: Okay, that's it. Stupid. These people are just stupid. They're talking about their own polls. And later on he says, "Often they're expressing their opinions in a context of ignorance." Well, why don't you educate 'em with your polling question, then? If they're so stupid, why don't you educate them in the form of the question? So we voters are too stupid to appreciate all the great things Obama's done. We're too stupid to appreciate the brilliant political ploy he played last week. We're too stupid. We didn't have the sense to understand it and play along with it and applaud him for a phony, nonexistent Republican war on women.

I just find it fascinating, after all of these years of polls and these guys have used polls to make news, not reflect it, they have used these polls to create public opinion, and all of a sudden two bad polls in the same day and the respondents are stupid.

 Late yesterday afternoon on MSNBC the guest was Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson, and they were talking about Obama's recent poll numbers. We have two bites from Michael Eric Dyson.

BASHIR: We've seen a slew of polls with varying results on the President's approval rating from 41% as you know to 50. Are the polls broken?

RUSH: That's the host on MSNBC. (imitating Bashir) "Are the polls broken? The president's approval numbers have fallen precipitously from 50 to 41%, are the polls broken, Mr. Dyson?" And here was his answer.

DYSON: Yeah, it's very difficult to tell. The mechanics of trying to determine whether or not Obama is successful is not about the math; it's about the chemistry. And so here I think what's going on is that Obama strikes a nerve in the heart of the American middle states as well as some of those states that are significantly blue.

RUSH: What? Do you understand that? The question was, are the polls broken? And, well, you know, the American middle states, some of those states are significantly blue, it's what's going on here, Obama's striking a nerve there. Huh? Professor Dyson, you might want to ask MSNBC if you can go back on and try another take of that.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It's not that the polls are broken. Maybe it's that the numbers are so bad, the media cannot manipulate them enough to hide the decline taking place with Obama. Maybe that's what's going on. The numbers are so bad they can't manipulate them enough and still maintain credibility after they do that.

RUSH: We just shared with you John Harris and Michael Eric Dyson (John Harris, Politico; Michael Eric Dyson, professor at Georgetown) worried "Are the polls broken? The people in these polls are just stupid! They're just stupid!" All because the New York Times has Obama's approval at 41% and it's an all-time low. Let's go back. We have a montage here from March 13th of 2006. Now, for those of you new to the program, this is hilarious. This is what we do here all the time. On March 13th, 2006, when George W. Bush reached an all-time low in a CNN poll, Wolf Blitzer did not ask if the polls were "broken." Wolf Blitzer did not speculate that maybe the people in the polls were stupid.

Wolf Blitzer celebrated it!

BLITZER, MARCH 13, 2006: It's 4 p.m. here in Washington. So you're getting the first look right now at our brand-new poll. The president's job approval rating has taken a downward turn again, falling to only 36%. [break] This represents his lowest rating ever in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. [break] The president's poll numbers are pretty bad, pretty awful right now, rock bottom as far as the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. [break] The president's Iraq problem and his new low point in the polls. [break] His approval and policies now are at new lows. [break] The president's job approval number in this new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, rock bottom, the lowest it's ever been. [break] It's 5 p.m. here in Washington where President Bush takes a beating in our latest poll. His approval rating at a low ebb. [break] Our latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll just out in the past hour shows the president at an all-time low. [break] His job approval rating at a new low. [break] That's rock bottom as far as our poll is concerned. [break] It's 7 p.m. here in Washington. The war in Iraq comes home to roost for President Bush. Our latest poll numbers showing his approval rating at a new low. [break] Also: President Bush hits a new low in the polls. [break] Now back to our lead story: President Bush's approval rating now at an all-time low. [break] As we noted, a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows his job approval rating at a new low. [break] President Bush's approval rating at a new low, 36%.

RUSH: We didn't repeat any of those.

Those are actual, singular instances.

When Bush hit "a new low in the polls," the polls were not "broken" and the people weren't "stupid." No, it wasn't time to celebrate! Do you know what the unemployment rate was in March 13th, 2006? You know what the unemployment rate was then? Take a guess. Come on, you guys! It was 4.7%. The unemployment rate when Wolf Blitzer was celebrating Bush's "all-time low approval number" was 4.7%, March 13th of 2006. Today the unemployment rate is 8.3%. The economy is in a free-fall disaster. The polls show Obama has hit an all-time low in the New York Times poll, and this is how the media reports that.

HARRIS: Some of these poll results, they just seem stupid. So I asked Alex Burns to, said, "Why don't you do a piece looking at the question of whether voters are stupid and a lot of the things that they say in these polls are just plain stupid." And Alex warmed to the assignment and he wrote this, actually found a number of good voices from pollsters who say, "Yeah, that's the first thing you learn as a pollster, voters are stupid." He meant that often they're expressing their opinions in a context of ignorance.

RUSH: Now, if a new poll comes out and shows Obama's approval up to 50, guess what? The voters will no longer be stupid, I guess, right? Nope! They can't possibly be stupid if they get it right in the next poll. That's who we're dealing with.

As more than 140 sponsors have fled the Rush Limbaugh show, Rushbo is determined to put his game face on. [...]

In fact, early on, Limbaugh characterized the growing exodus of advertising dollars from his mega-million dollar money making machine as amounting to “a couple of French fries.”

The most recent blow was the defection of the US Army (which brings home the question of why our tax dollars were going into Limbaugh’s pockets via military advertising in the first place? Note: US Armed Forces Radio still is airing the Limbaugh show to Gis around the world though.)

But Limbaugh remains defiant [...]

In essence, one can speculate that this is a machismo way of appealing to his primarily elderly white male audience. (One radio audience analyst I came across described the average age of a typical Limbaugh listener as “deceased.)

When you live the lavish life style that a salary of $50 million a year affords you, you’ll do anything to keep the gravy train running and the Viagra in abundant supply.

According to Gary Dell'Abate of The Howard Stern Show Rush ran 88 commercials on Tuesday. 77 of them were "public service announcements" and another 8 were from entities that had already committed to removing their advertising from the show but due to contracts had not yet had their actual ads deleted. Respond to THAT Duggie...

Here's a few more about your "hero"...

EXCLUSIVE: 140 Companies Drop Advertising From Rush Limbaugh [Update: 142]

By Judd Legum on Mar 12, 2012 at 12:15 pm

ThinkProgress has obtained an internal memo from Premiere Radio Networks listing 96 national companies that have “specifically asked” their advertisments not be played during the Rush Limbaugh Show. Premiere is the distributor of Limbaugh’s program. The advertisers have also requested to be excluded from other right-wing hosts including Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. According to the memo, the listed companies’ advertisements should be excluded from these programs because they have been “deemed to be offensive.”

The existence of the memo was first reported over the weekend by Radio-info.com, an industry newsletter. Radio-info did not publish the full list of companies. The memo was posted website of the Traffic Directors Guild of America, an association of professionals who distribute paid advertisements to radio stations. It was quickly deleted but ThinkProgress obtained a copy from a Google snapshot of the site taken on March 9.

Previously, ThinkProgress has reported that 50 companies requested their advertising be pulled from the Rush Limbaugh show following his sexist attacks on Sandra Fluke. The publication of the memo adds an additional 90 companies to the list of companies that have dropped Limbaugh:

21st Century Insurance • Hotels.com • Rite Aid • Ace Hardware • Honda • Robitussin • Acura • IBM • Sam Adams • Advance Auto Parts • Icy Hot • Sam’s Club • Advil (All products) • Intuit/Small Business • Schiff – Digestive Advantage • Alacer/Emergen-C • Schiff – Mega Red • Allegra (all products) • Johnson & Johnson (All Brands) • Schiff – Move Free • Kohl’s • Schiff – Sustenex • Ally Bank • La Quinta • Scotts Miracle-Gro (all products) • American Express • Lifetime • Autozone • Little Caesars • Sony • Lowe’s • State Farm • British Petroleum • Luxottica • Staples • Bullfrog Sunblock • Macy’s • Sterling/Kay Jared Jewelers • Caltrate • MasterCard • Subway • Centrum • McDonalds • Takeda Uloric • Chapstick • Midas • The Home Depot • Clorox (Pinesol/Homecare) • Napa Auto Parts • ThermaCare • Cortizone • National Realtor • Toyota • DeVry • NBC-TV • Discover Card • Office Depot • Twinings of London • Domino’s Pizza • Office Max • Tyson/Wright Brand Bacon • Exxon/Exxon Mobil • One Main Financial • Unisom • Farmers Insurance • United Healthcare • Ford • Orkin • U.S. Army • Outback • U. S. Postal Service • General Motors (All products -GM Certified Service • Chevy • Onstar • Cadillac • etc) • Preparation H • Visa • Gold Bond (all products • ProNutrients (all products) • Walgreens • Grainger • Progressive Insurance • Wal-Mart • Green Mountain Coffee • Prudential • Wells Fargo • Hallmark • Radio Shack • Wrigley • H&R Block • Rent-A-Center • Yahoo!

Check out all 140 companies (plus their statements, when available) on our Pinterest.

------------------------

BREAKING: Rush Limbaugh Syndicator Suspends National Ads For Two Weeks

By Judd Legum on Mar 12, 2012 at 9:24 pm

Radio-Info.com reports that Premiere Networks, which syndicates the Rush Limbaugh show, told its affiliate radio stations that they are suspending national advertising for two weeks. Rush Limbaugh is normally provided to affiliates in exchange for running several minutes of national advertisements provided by Premiere each hour. These ads are called “barter spots.” These spots are how Premiere makes its money off of Rush Limbaugh and other shows it syndicates.

But without explanation, Premiere has supended these national advertisements for two weeks. Radio-Info.com calls the move “unusual.” The development suggests that Rush Limbaugh’s incessant sexist attacks on Sandra Fluke have caused severe damage to the show.

From the memo:

Attention Traffic Managers of Premiere News/Talk Affiliates:

We are suspending the requirement to run barter spots for two weeks, March 12th and March 19th, for our News/Talk affiliates only.

Please replace/re-traffic any Premiere barter spots immediately. Contractual requirements to run barter spots are being suspended for these two weeks only. Replace them with Lifelock and Lear Financial or a local spot of your choice.

Earlier today, ThinkProgress exclusively reported that 140 advertisers, including dozens of major national corporations, had requested their ads no longer air on Rush Limbaugh. Lifelock and Lear Financial are among the only companies standing by Limbaugh.

Over the last several days much of the advertising time during the Rush Limbaugh show on his flagship station, WABC, has been filled with free public service announcements.

-------------------------


From MediaMatters.org

-------------------------------------

  Hi rman. Thanks for posting so I can correct you and tear you down yet once again. 

  140 sponsors have fled? Really?

  I'm gonna forgive you for this one. You just don't know. You've never worked in television or radio or the media whereas I have. So you just don't know. You are not stupid. Just ignorant. I'll explain it to you.

  Rush has over 600 stations. They have local and national spots. All but 2 or 3 of the sponsors you are talking about are local. They may have an ad on one station or they may have ads on 2 or 3 depending on how big they are. They are local. They requested to move their local spots from Rush to Hannity or some other show. They still advertise on the station. The station doesn't lose any money. The only way they lose money is if the station drops Limbaugh. Then they lose alot of money. So the station doesn't lose any money.

  Most of these guys will come back when the coast is clear. New ones will gladly take their place. One national fell 12% in one day. I have called advertisers to let them know I am dropping their service. Nationals are waiting in line to get on.

  Just listen to Rush from noon to 3pm each day (EST) and you will see I am right. Better yet, you can subscribe to his website. Pluswise he has some awesome tea.

  I'm glad I could help and  don't feel stupid. You're just ignorant.

  And now Bill Mahr is feeling the effect. He is under fire. I'll call HBO tomorrow and cancel. In fact, I'll cancel all my priemum services. That should help the economy. It's gonna help my pocketbook. Gas prices are killing me. In fact, I think I'll just start saving a whole bunch of money. I'm gonna start dropping anything that even smells liberal. My newspaper, Time and Newsweek, and the restaurant run by liberals that charge me $125 for my surf and turf. 

  Yeah. That's what I'll do. I'll just pull out of this phoney economy.  Thanks fellas. From now on it's Applebees. Their chicken won tons are to die for.