A few weeks back, the House of Representatives held a hearing on the newly-announced requirement from the Obama administration that insurance plans in the United States must include coverage for contraception and birth control. The chairman of the hearing, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), invited an all-male panel of religious leaders claiming that the requirement was an infringement on the First Amendment. Democrats wished to invite Sandra Fluke, a women’s rights activist and law student at Georgetown, to testify on the other life-saving effects of birth control and the added burden of out-of-pocket expenses, citing a friend whose coverage for birth control to treat ovarian cysts fell through, resulting in the loss of one of her ovaries. Issa dismissed Fluke, and the all-male panel on women’s health convened.
Rush Limbaugh, known as one of the nation’s more prominent conservative voices, pounced on Fluke. Over a three-day period, Limbaugh attacked Fluke almost 50 times, calling her a “slut,” a “prostitute,” “round-heeled,” a “Feminazi” and a “babe,” claiming that she “wants to be paid to have sex,” and demanding that she “post [pornographic] videos online so we can all watch” in exchange for her contraception coverage so taxpayers can see where their money is going.
As a result, women’s groups and liberal activists have demanded that Limbaugh’s advertisers disassociate themselves from the talk show or face boycotts. Since Limbaugh made the first comment Feb. 29, almost 100 advertisers have either pulled advertisements or demanded that ads not be placed in or near the show. His show has seen a large spike in unpaid public service announcements created by the Ad Council, and WABC, Limbaugh’s flagship station, aired several minutes of dead air where commercials would normally play. Local stations pay Limbaugh to syndicate his program, and two of them – WBEC in Pittsfield, Mass. and KPUA in Hilo, Hawaii – have canceled their contracts with the show and dropped Limbaugh from their programming.
The protest and boycott is largely being organized over Twitter and Facebook, another step in the rise of social media activism. Companies increasingly try to have social media presences and create fans of products. A Twitter account, @stoprush, has kept a list of companies advertising each day on Limbaugh’s show and asking its followers to demand those companies cease their sponsorship. So far, it’s worked — many companies claim they were unaware they were airing on Limbaugh, noting that they buy ads for certain timeslots called “dayparts,” and stations drop ads into those time periods as they see fit.
Conservatives and supporters of Rush claim this amounts to de facto censorship, and stifles Limbaugh’s right to free speech based on his political views. That’s not an invalid argument — the stated end goal is to make Limbaugh’s show so unappealing to advertisers that the show is no longer profitable and dropped from airwaves.
The main reason for the boycott for most is Limbaugh’s stance on women, not his politics. Limbaugh attacked a private citizen over a three-day period and launched the worst sexual, misogynist and hateful comments at not only her but all women everywhere, and he used public airwaves to do so. He attacked a woman for speaking out and tore her apart as an example to any other woman who dare speak her mind. There’s the free speech issue.
We, as a nation, cannot let this kind of hatred towards women go unanswered, unchallenged and unopposed. Rush may be on the ropes already; his parent company, Premiere Radio Networks, canceled its national ads on his show for two weeks in an attempt to appease affiliates with increased local revenue, but it may be too little too late. Some advertising experts are saying that Limbaugh’s brand is permanently tainted with this scandal, and finding advertisers in the future will be an uphill battle.
I don’t think that would be a bad thing if Limbaugh faded into obscurity. I think that our national discourse — and our nation — would be better suited if we left him in the past.
