The Daily - The Legacy of Rush Limbaugh

Episode Date: February 22, 2021

The conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh died last week. He was 70.For decades, he broadcast mistrust and grievance into the homes of millions. Mr. Limbaugh helped create an entire ecosystem of right-wing media and changed the course of American conservatism.Today, we look back on Rush Limbaugh’s career and how he came to have an outsize influence on Republican politics.Guest: Jim Rutenberg, a writer at large for The New York Times and The Times Magazine. Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Background reading: With a following of many millions and a a divisive, derisive style of mockery and grievance, Rush Limbaugh was a force in reshaping American conservatism. Read his obituary here.Weaponizing conspiracy theories and bigotry long before Donald Trump’s ascent, the radio giant helped usher in the political style that came to dominate the Republican Party.  For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. For decades, he broadcast mistrust and grievance into the homes of tens of millions of Americans, helping to create an entire ecosystem of right-wing media and changing the course of conservatism itself. Today, my colleague Jim Rudenberg on the legacy of Rush Limbaugh. It's Monday, February 22nd.

Jim, I wonder if you can tell me about the first time that you met Rush Limbaugh. Wow. It's a funny story, actually, because it was early 2000. I think I've been at the New York Times for about two months. And our media editor at the time assigned me a story. What happened to that guy Rush Limbaugh? He was like a really big deal back in the early 90s. And now we have this thing called the internet. We have cable.

There's Fox News. Does this guy still matter? And I, you know, kind of naively maybe just say, well, let me call him. And I call his producer and who was Russia's right hand man at the time. And I said, you know, I've got this assignment and I'm thinking, you know, they'll probably shut me down. New York Times is one of his targets. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out, does Rush still matter? And it opened up the kingdom of Rush. And I was asked how, you know, not only would Rush meet me, but how quickly could I get down to the studio? So I make my way to his studio.

It's in the old WABC building, right above Madison Square Garden, like incredibly unglamorous, old kind of decrepit New York City office building. I remember taking the old clunkity elevator up to his studios and there was Rush Limbaugh in the middle of a show when I get there. The opinions expressed on the Rush Limbaugh program do not necessarily reflect those of WABC radio or its management. And now his voice is booming from behind some glass. By the way, that's a gutless disclaimer. The views expressed by the host of this show ought to become federal law and the station and sponsors all who heartily endorse them. And when the show is over, I remember Rush comes.

He shakes my hand. He rips me for being a Times guy. I remember Rush comes, he shakes my hand, he rips me for being a Times guy. And then he takes me into his office and he proceeds for a few hours to just berate me. Because asking if Rush Limbaugh mattered in the year 2000 was like asking the sun if it can cause daylight on Earth. You know, it was... Rush reminds me that, you know, he's so big and great that now he's taken for granted. He's, quote-unquote, part of the landscape of America. He tells me they don't talk about Pike's Peak every day. They don't talk about Mount Rushmore every day,

but it's there. And in fact, at one point, he tells me that his talent is on loan from God. Wow. But if you were one of the hundreds of radio stations that subscribe to him, he was on loan from God because he was your number one radio host. Rush Limbaugh, where the New York Times editor of the moment may not be aware of this. He was still grabbing an audience of 20 million people a week. Huge numbers, huge numbers. Huge. And not only that, if you were a Republican officeholder or aspiring officeholder, he was on loan from God because he was going to deliver you to office. There was no bigger person, not only in radio, but actually still at that moment in Republican politics

than Rush Limbaugh. So how did Rush Limbaugh come to be this force that you just described? Well, Rush Limbaugh grows up in this small town in Missouri called Cape Girardeau. And he's from a family of conservative Republicans. And interestingly, one of his family investments is in a radio station. And Rush Limbaugh, even in high school, starts working at that radio station. Because the thing about Rush Limbaugh is he is a born radio broadcaster. In fact, as a child, he had a little toy radio set and he would do his own radio broadcast, whether it was sports play-by-plays or records.

And he wants to be a rock and roll DJ. He gets a job. His first big job is near Pittsburgh. And he becomes Jeff Christie. And he's already showing a talent for kind of playing with the format. And people are noticing. And he's, like, making jokes about the horrible traffic and making fun of the managers because they have a formula they want him to follow. So he kind of makes fun of the formula as he's going through the formula.

Did you hear the phrase that was banned because of that record? The record was banned because of the phrase, huh? A lot of people never did. And I can't say it to this day. This shows that he's willing to take risks and create a new way to do radio. But he's also turning some people off.

And in fact, he gets fired. And it's one of his great humiliations that then in his early 20s, he's got to sort of limp back and move back in with mom and dad. And it's a very interesting time because he is coming home right when Watergate has happened. And Richard Nixon has been ejected from office. And on the coast and among Democrats, this is a great victory of truth and journalism. But in Cape Girardeau, it is an abomination. Rush Limbaugh's grandfather actually writes a op-ed in the local paper arguing against impeachment. Like, what a horrible waste of time and how damaging to the country to bother with impeachments. It's this elite coastal establishment running one of their own out of

office. And we have no say in this. So resignation comes along and Nixon's forced out. It's just not a good thing in Cape Girardeau and certainly not in Limbaugh land. So for Rush Limbaugh and for his family, Watergate is not the story of a Republican president, Richard Nixon, who has betrayed his country, but instead a liberal establishment and media world that has betrayed the country. Exactly. Okay. So what happens next? Well, after a brief stint for Limbaugh out of radio, he starts making his way back into radio and a seminal thing is happening that is

going to change not only his career, but really American politics forever. And that is that the Reagan administration is in the midst of making a change in radio regulation and television regulation. It's getting rid of something that was called the Fairness Doctrine. Tell me about that. The Fairness Doctrine was born in the late 40s from the notion that broadcast media is incredibly powerful. It has a power to illuminate, but it has the power to distort. So there need to be regulations that make sure that if someone is unfairly attacked, they can respond, that if a controversial view is aired, that an opposing view is free to come and counter it, that it's given equal time.

So this often precluded any one view from dominating. It's kind of a government requirement that there be fairness in media. Yes, and it was just a bedrock principle in American broadcasts since its inception. But the Reagan administration decides it wants to do away with it. And why would it do that? Because in the view of conservatives by now, the fairness doctrine is really only serving to quiet their side. Huh. that the press is inherently liberal.

It might be subtle, but it means that strident, conservative voices are kept off the air and they have no counter to this left-leaning press as they view it. And by 1987, the Fairness Doctrine is history. And now Rush Limbaugh is in place at a radio station in Sacramento, where he's finally, as he sees it, and he's right, free to just let loose. And he's finding that

there is this incredible pent-up demand for conservative talk that doesn't have to counterbalance, it doesn't have to pay attention to the other side, it doesn't have to counterbalance. It doesn't have to pay attention to the other side. It doesn't have to respect the other side. It doesn't need an answer from the other side. It is pure conservative talk. And it is like the realization of a decades-old conservative dream. And Jim, what does this brand new style

of talk radio actually sound like? What is Limbaugh doing? Well, one thing that you have to understand before anything else with Rush Limbaugh is love him or loathe him, whatever you think of the content, he is one of the most gifted broadcasters in American history.

He had this incredible ability to fill the air. He just understood radio. He developed his voice, the voice alone, the way it spoke to you. had and has had since the same sense of timing, rhythm, and the innate understanding of what his audience wants. So Michael, that's the baseline, this talent, all known from God, as he puts it. Your guiding light through times of trouble, confusion, this formula, these elements of the Rush Limbaugh style of democracy. The first of those elements is it's kind of trying to turn politics into entertainment, but doing it in this really edgy and in some cases kind of mean-spirited way. The only way liberals win national elections is by pretending they're not liberals. Women should not be allowed on juries

where the accused is a stud. Find for me the latest case of homeless starvation. Evidence refutes liberalism. If the spotted owl cannot adapt to our superior evolution, isn't that nature? But he's playing off of another trend in radio at the time, and that's the rise of the shock jocks. There's a new breed of radio talker, Howard Stern and Don Imus, and these guys are just really pushing the limits and trying to shock the audience,

and they're getting a lot of attention. And Limbaugh's taking this same approach, but he's putting it in this purely political and culture war context. And now without the fairness doctrine, he can go as far as he wants and he goes far. There was one thing he did, it was called safe talk. And he would put a condom over the microphone

to supposedly be protecting the audience from profanity because at the time there was this argument that liberals were hung up on getting condoms into schools and were obsessed with condoms. Then it could get into like some really like super tasteless areas. So he would do this thing in the middle of the really intense abortion wars. He did these things called collar abortions. And that was when a collar was annoying him. He wanted to get rid of the collar. And that was when a caller was annoying him. He wanted to get rid of the collar. He would declare it a collar abortion

and the engineer would play a tape of a roaring vacuum cleaner followed by a prolonged scream. And that was an abortion. And it gets worse. He did something for a time, he called it the AIDS update. And that's when he would read the latest grim news from the AIDS epidemic,

and he would mock it with like a song, like a Dionne Warwick song, I'll Never Love This Way Again, or Gene Autry's Back in the Saddle Again. You know, people were dying indiscriminately. This was a horrible moment. And in fact, that's one of the few things in his entire career that he later apologized for. of shock jock radio to conservative politics and his targets are liberals, Democrats, and their perceived values. Yeah. And let's not forget people of color, women. As many of you know, beginning on June 25th on this show and my national program as well, all women who call in order to get on the air

must have a photo on file with this show. Now, many have again thought this is a sexist and tasteless thing to do, but as is the case with everything that I do, it has point. And in the meantime, he's developing his own lingo, his own code words, his own kind of breakthrough branded terms, and one of the big ones is feminopses. And our holiday gift catalog is something that is always expanding. Here's our latest item, folks.

This year, the EIB Network helps you enjoy an old-fashioned politically correct Christmas. Order your special Someone a Gift from our PC catalog. Featuring the perfect doll for little girls who want to grow up to be flag-waving man-haters, it's the new Feminazi Blabby Doll. Just pull the string, and she gets in your face with a host of nutty expressions. And the Feminazis is a way to just just in one fell swoop, wipe out and diminish the whole feminist movement. Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society. It's at that moment, for instance, where women are

gaining stature in the workplace. If women are a man away from poverty, then you could say that a man has a double dose. He's got to work and support the woman. And then if she leaves, she gets half of what he has. So it's double duty. The culture is changing and Rush is finding a way to fight that for his audience in these very attention-grabbing, evocative terms. This is a special edition of the Rush Limbaugh program, America Held Hostage. special edition of the Rush Limbaugh program, America Held Hostage. And of course, there was no bigger target in those early Limbaugh years than the Clintons. As you know, my friends, we count the days of the raw deal. That's what we call the Clinton administration. It's also a hostage crisis. And just as Nightline was there every day for all of us. During the Iranian hostage crisis, so shall I be here each day during this,

the raw deal. Today is day 394. And specifically, Hillary Clinton. She goes out and tries to sound soft and angelic, and she can't pull it off. She doesn't sound genuine. But when she's genuine, she sounds like a screeching ex-wife.

She was the number one feminazi, according to Limbaugh. I got my favorite name for his nurse, Ratched. I mean, we created this whole concept of the testicle lockbox in connection with Mrs. Clinton. I mean, she has that kind of appeal to people. She has that kind of appeal to people. Just like nothing you would ever really heard on radio before. Again, and we're talking about the first lady of the United States. And if it was a black politician, he would do racist impersonations.

If it was a Chinese critic, he would do anti-Asian impersonations. He would just go in the racist, xenophobic places. And he just reveled in the blowback that he got for it. Because Michael, in his mind, and also in the thinking of his supporters, the people who are complaining are the very people who they view as sort of marginalizing them and pushing them out of the American mix. But there's another element to what he's doing, and that's very important, Michael, that the mainstream press is completely lying to you. That defines the dominant media culture today. They're the ones that think that people are incapable of learning. They're the ones who think that people are too stupid to understand and grasp the details of the great issues of the day. That I am the only one you can trust. In fact, if there was ever a program that inspires independent thought, it is this one. And in fact, in his 1992 book,

The Way Things Ought to Be, it was called, and it was a huge sensation. He delivers what he says is a message to the quote-unquote dominant major media, I'm coming for you. And now that Limbaugh's dispatched with the notion that the mainstream press is telling you the truth, it's to supplant their version of reality with his own conservative version of reality, often embracing the craziest conspiracies and giving them now a platform going out to millions and millions of people, which has never happened to that point in American history. For instance, he's an early proponent, an exponent of this idea that was kicking around early in the Clinton years that a top aide to Hillary Clinton, who had committed suicide, had in fact been killed.

And that's the beginning of this conspiracy about the Clintons as like these political assassins. Right, and we should say that was debunked. That was debunked. It was all debunked, but it didn't matter. He would just keep embracing it. And this would go on throughout his career. And this birth certificate business,

I'm just wondering if something's up. He was an early proponent as well of this idea that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Because we have a president whom the American people don't know whether he was born in Kenya or someplace else. Which was not true. someplace else that represented... Which was not true. So you would listen to him, and you could find any given day of the week, five things that you were going to,

if you knew the truth, you'd be yelling at the radio because it just wasn't true. But he would say it in the most convincing way. And then the denials from people like us at the time saying that's not true was just, again, it all would reinforce why Russia's right and you can't trust them.

Right. This is quite an ecosystem that you're describing and that Limbaugh has created when you pull all these elements together. A world in which Democrats are evildoers. The media are their evil allies, can't be trusted. And these bogus theories of the evildoing Democrats in the media are true. Democrats in the media are true. And this is all delivered in this kind of compelling, sometimes even entertaining next door neighbor kind of way that reaches millions of Americans in their homes and in their cars and their offices. Michael, it taps into this huge audience, the people that Nick Zingis referred to as the silent majority that have been waiting for someone

like Limbaugh to reinforce these same notions that they hold about the Democrats and these establishment forces that they see as aligned against them. Good morning, Your Excellency. How are you, sir? I'm glad you called. Okay. What's on your mind? I love your show. I'll listen to you and you'll come up with something real funny and you just totally make my day by saying something totally outrageous and funny.

And I love your show. I really do. I enjoy it. I regard, and I mean this in all sincerity, I regard speaking to you in much the same sense as if I were speaking to a person of the caliber of Daniel Webster or Alexander Hamilton. And I mean this genuinely and sincerely. Thank you, Michael, very much. I appreciate that.

I just wanted to tell you about a little club that has formed down here in Wilmington, North Carolina. It's called Liberals in Agreement with Rush, or LIAR, as we like to call it for short. And this has incredible power, not only with his audience, but also with the Republican Party that is now living in a world of Rush Limbaugh's making, and that is going to have incredible ramifications, both for them and for the political world at large. We'll be right back.

We'll be right back. So Jim, how does Rush Limbaugh interact with the Republican Party and its leadership as his star keeps growing and growing and his reach keeps widening and widening. Well, he's got such an ego that his starting position is, you all have to come to me. I'm the future. You come to me. And the smart ones did. Huh. Back in the early 90s, there's a rising new force

in the House of Representatives on the Republican side. And that is a House member named Newt Gingrich. And Newt is sort of fashioning himself in a Limbaugh mode where he's very in your face, take no prisoners kind of politician, bringing a whole new aggressive tone to Republican politics in Congress. And he basically gets into league with Limbaugh so that they're working in tandem against the Clinton agenda. But most importantly,

they come together to build a new political movement that will sweep Republicans into the House of Representatives and take control away from the Democrats. And that is a gigantic wave election for the Republicans in 1994. And it completely upends the Clinton presidency. My friends, it's a great pleasure to introduce Rush Limbaugh. And Newt finalizes this sort of Limbaughization of the House caucus

by inviting Limbaugh to address the new troops as they're coming to Washington. One of the questions I was asked as the reporters were peppering me was, do you think Newt will moderate his stance now that he's the Speaker of the House? And I said, better not. And at that orientation, all these freshman lawmakers gather to hear Limbaugh give them effectively marching orders for how they need to comport themselves in the House. And it's a completely new set of directions. If you stay rock rib devoted in almost a militant way to your principles, you will continue to be sent back here until you're term limited.

It's a huge shift from the way Republicans did business because he tells them, don't fall into the trap of working with the other side, basically. He says. And right now, the things that you care about most and the things that you've been sent here to do are being called a war on the poor. And that's designed to get you to moderate, to maybe not follow through as you have intended to on welfare reform and other cultural issues. That their instinct will be to moderate and they absolutely should not do that. This is not the time to get moderate. This is not the time to start trying to be liked. This is not the time to start gaining the approval of the people you've just defeated.

incoming speaker, Newt Gingrich, just as they embark on their careers on the kind of Republicans they need to be, and that is Limbaugh-esque Republicans. And it animates the party for decades to come. It's basically say goodbye to the old GOP. This is a new era. And that brings us to Donald Trump. And Jim, earlier in our conversation, as you ticked through the Rush Limbaugh formula for success in radio, it felt to me like you were reciting the Donald Trump formula for success in politics, right? Politics as entertainment, Donald Trump was a reality TV star. politics as entertainment, Donald Trump was a reality TV star. Treating your opponent as an existential threat to be dehumanized and annihilated, Donald Trump chanted of Hillary Clinton,

lock her up. You spoke of Limbaugh discrediting the press. Donald Trump said that the press were the enemy of the people. You talked about embracing conspiracy theories. I don't think I need to finish that thought. That's essential to Donald Trump's identity. Michael, I don't see how you get Donald Trump as president without Rush Limbaugh. I just don't.

Rush has created the style of politician that Trump becomes. He's the in-your-face, the smash mouth, the dehumanizing of opponents, all as you've laid out there. There's also this media ecosystem that's tailor-made for Trump, and that wouldn't exist without Rush. Rush Limbaugh was the inspiration for Fox News. In fact, Roger Ailes, who spearheaded Fox News, was Rush's producer on a short-lived TV show that Rush created. It was very close to Rush, and Rush showed the world that there was an audience for the conservative viewpoint, a conservative filter of the news. And Fox News takes that and turns it into the most successful cable television network in the country. And Trump then becomes one of that network's biggest stars. Right. And he's

getting talked up by Rush and he's in the Rush mold. I mean, Trump is a child of, a product of the Limbaugh revolution. Here tonight is a special man. And Trump himself acknowledges as much during this incredible moment at the State of the Union last February. Is that he is the greatest fighter and winner that you will ever meet. Rush Limbaugh, thank you for your decades of tireless devotion to our country. Trump points up to the balcony where Rush Limbaugh is seated next to the First Lady. And Rush, in recognition of all that you have done for our nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to and that you inspire.

And announces that he's bestowing upon Limbaugh the highest honor a president can grant. Civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. can grant. Civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And of course, by that point, we had all come to understand that Limbaugh was pretty sick. He's got stage four lung cancer. And while he's still showing up and doing his radio program, he's undergoing treatments and it's brutal. And in February of this year,

a year after that Medal of Honor, it was becoming clear that like, this is really maybe the end. The end is near. And he almost acknowledges it. He has a newsletter for his subscribers. I am one, the Limbaugh letter. And it's cover is God is with me. And it's kind of a thank you and I love

you to his fans. I love you from the bottom of my sizable, growing, and still beating heart. But he's starting to say goodbye. And sure enough, on Wednesday of last week, it's not Rush's voice that shows up on the air during his show. It's that of his wife, Catherine, who announces that Rush has died. And Jim, what were you thinking when you heard the news that Limbaugh had died? It immediately made me think of the arc of Limbaugh's career. When some big figures in American life pass,

what they are kind of leaves the stage with them. And in this case, what I was struck by in my own analysis was that what Rush has created will never go away, that it's living on in countless imitators and in our politics and in our media. The changes he brought were inexorable and his passing will not affect that a stitch. Right. Kind of at all. He is immortalized because the politics and the media that he gave to America outlives him. We will be living in Limbaugh's media universe for some time to come. Jim, thank you very much. Thank you so much for having me. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today.

Roughly a year into the pandemic, the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus is quickly approaching a once unimaginable milestone, half a million deaths. More Americans have now perished from COVID-19 than on the battlefields of World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War combined. As of this weekend, about one in 670 Americans have died from the virus. And... And so we're going to sign that declaration once it's in front of me, and God willing,

it will bring a lot of relief to a lot of Texans. And so thank you all so very much. President Biden has signed a declaration of major disaster in Texas, a measure that will allow the state to access a wide range of federal assistance to recover from last week's crippling winter storm. Among other things, the declaration provides money to pay for temporary housing, home repairs, and uninsured property damage. Biden is expected to visit Texas later this week.

Today's episode was produced by Rachel Quester, Eric Krupke, and Stella Tan. It was edited by Lisa Chow and engineered by Chris Wood. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.