TALK RADIO BOMB: 98 Advertisers Tell Premiere Networks to Avoid Shock Jocks
WASHINGTON – Rush Limbaugh’s “slut” and “prostitute” smears have officially become The Talk Radio Tipping Point. He and his right-wing talker spawn have finally been hoisted on their own poison petard.
But this latest controversy comes at a particularly difficult time for right-wing talk radio. They are playing to a (sometimes literally) dying demographic. Rush & Co. rate best among old, white males. They have been steadily losing women and young listeners, who are alienated by the angry, negative, obsessive approach to political conservations. Add to that the fact that women ages 24–55 are the prize advertising demographic, and you have a perfect storm emerging after Limbaugh’s Sandra Fluke comments. – Rush Limbaugh Scandal Proves Contagious for Talk-Radio Advertisers
From Radio-Info, first reported on The Daily Beast by John Avlon:
From today’s TRI Newsletter: Premiere Networks is circulating a list of 98 advertisers who want to avoid “environments likely to stir negative sentiments.” The list includes carmakers (Ford, GM, Toyota), insurance companies (Allstate, Geico, Prudential, State Farm) and restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway). As you’ll see in the note below, those “environments” go beyond the Rush Limbaugh show –
“To all Traffic Managers: The information below applies to your Premiere Radio Networks commercial inventory. More than 350 different advertisers sponsor the programs and services provided to your station on a barter basis. Like advertisers that purchase commercials on your radio station from your sales staff, our sponsors communicate specific rotations, daypart preferences and advertising environments they prefer… They’ve specifically asked that you schedule their commercials in dayparts or programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity). Those are defined as environments likely to stir negative sentiment from a very small percentage of the listening public.”
I’ve been waiting for 15 years for this talk radio moment. I’ve studied the medium from every angle and know it well. From my book, which I’ve not excerpted before, from the chapter “It’s All The Woman’s Fault”:
Talk radio king Rush Limbaugh and his fraternity of hacks like Hannity, as well as Sean’s mini-me, Mark Levin, spew misogynistic drivel all day long as part of the freedom-is-only-for-men crowd, while personally demeaning or lying about any liberal woman who stands up to them. Spewing invective like “feminazis” or using “Hillary Rotten Clinton, her thighness,” a sexist slur Mark Levin directed at Secretary of State Clinton, is what masquerades as “entertainment” on right-wing talk radio. Don Imus, the “nappy-headed ho” gasbag, has referred to Hillary as “Satan.” … ..
[...] … .. Besides, in the new-media age, right-wing talk radio is finally seen for what it is: the last sexist outpost of an outdated medium run by men, where women are merely tolerated as totems: a dying, misogynistic format with a mid-twentieth-century mindset. They’ve got their choir, but the majority of Americans just don’t take their sexist, hate-screen rants seriously anymore; certainly new generations will not. … ..
This is one of those moments in time that has the potential to change everything.
Without hate speech, right-wing talk radio could soon be extinct.
Taylor Marsh is the author of the new book, The Hillary Effect – Politics, Sexism and the Destiny of Loss, which is now available in print on Amazon. Marsh is a veteran political analyst and commentator. She has been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her new media blog.
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This is wonderful, and who knows… Maybe in a couple of years we’ll start seeing reasoned, civil discourse return to American politics.
It would be nice if the politicians could start rebuilding OUR wonderful country instead of trying to rip it apart at the seams.
SteveK…I can only add that not only would it be nice to see politicians start rebuilding our country, it will be nice to see the day people could sit around a table a discuss issues from different perspectives without shouting and argueing.
Just watch any of the cable news atations from any leanings and guest will not be allowed to make their points before the host or other guest with differering views begin talking over them.
Agree with you both.
You know, RP, when I called Joe Scarborough out for equating Obama’s contraceptive mandate to the feds mandating Southern Baptists ordain female deacons he blew a fuse & railed at me. He wouldn’t listen to Mika Brzezinski at the time, who called him out on it as well.
We all have seen what Bill O’Reilly does to guests.
It will be interesting to see this play out & whether it’s lasting impact.
“I’ve been waiting for 15 years for this talk radio moment.”
It’s kind of hard to believe that some people are just now figuring this out. Better late than never I reckon.
“They are playing to a (sometimes literally) dying demographic. Rush & Co. rate best among old, white males.”
An embarrassing demographic for we older white males who have always found Limbaugh and his clones to be abhorrent.
“women ages 24–55 are the prize advertising demographic”
This represents an enormous amount of (largely untapped) potential for influence and change imo. Maybe their role in shutting down obsolete, sexist blowhards like RL will be just a beginning…
Given what just happened with Limbaugh that last sentence trying to claim that their antics only upset a very small percentage of the listening public is amusing.
About that last sentence, “Those are defined as environments likely to stir negative sentiment from a very small percentage of the listening public”….
It’s just a way of discounting those with other views. It’s almost whiny as though they are being forced to bow to the negative sentiment of a small minority of people.
As far as raising the political discourse in this country…. well Rush Limbaugh did not force our political leaders to stoop to his methods. Rush may have a lot of influence over their policies and ideas, but the actions of others are purely their own responsibility.
I doubt that political discourse in this country will improve.
One has to believe that it can improve. It’s the good fight.
Taylor,
The same The Daily Beast article goes on to say,
This is specifically talking about the continued discussions about political humorist and activist Bill Maher, who has directed equally offensive slurs at Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, both of whom fit into that 24-55 age group. Rush Limbaugh is as much an entertainer as Bill Maher and his words should not be given the same kind of gravitas as you would a politicians. I’ve seen/listened to Maher’s show in the past and listened to parts of Limbaugh’s show as he was berating Ms. Fluke for her testimony to Congress and I can laugh at both hosts equally. I took Limbaugh’s comments into context, knowing his penchant for the dramatic and understanding that his industry is ratings driven, and dismissed them as they did not fully align with my own beliefs. I did not, however, think he was intending to demean all women or even Ms. Fluke, but was simply taking his own beliefs and stretching them to the extreme in a flourish.
The lost revenue seems to have been enough to garner an apology from Limbaugh, which is otherwise unheard of in recent years. But ultimately, conservative talk-radio (led by Limbaugh) will not suffer long. One thing the The Daily Beast article fails to mention is how many of the 98 companies were previous sponsors of conservative talk-radio programs and decided, in the wake of recent events, to cancel such support. This is a critical oversight, since a company deciding to boycott a show it had not previously supported would be the equivalent of me boycotting Grey Poupon mustard because I oppose their mustard seed harvesting methods (I can’t stand mustard.) Besides, where 98 advertisers withdraw, others will swoop in to replace them to gobble up as many of the 15 million advertising targets as they can.
Consider this LA Times article about the backlash that Limbaugh has faced. It states,
And that’s what it all comes down to: taste. I, like you, have a choice in what I listen to, watch and read. I have the ability to change the radio station, TV station, or what I read online and in print. I also appreciate your right to post your opinions and wish you as much success at it as you desire. In fact, I hope you become so successful that you are able to hire a bountiful staff. I will close on a quote from the same The Daily Beast article that inspired your post, which I think we can both agree on:
You have my prayers and my thanks,
Matt Chacon
Chachi – Rush demeans any woman who disagrees with him. I’ve done a column on the Rush – Maher false equivalency as well.
Link? I’d love to read it.