Rush Limbaugh's 20th anniversary: Changing the national conversation

By Wes Vernon

Rush Limbaugh has led the charge to penetrate and ultimately break up the liberal monopoly in the national media. Had that not happened, there would today be hardly any debate that involves a challenge to liberal conventional wisdoms. Conservative voices would be a mild whimper, relegated to the fringe of American life — ignored except for the occasional ridicule.

Policywise

Where would we be without Rush? Where to begin? Of course, one can only speculate. Here is this column's guess: Kyoto would be settled policy on "global warming." Open borders would exist — not by stealth and lawbreaking, but with official government sanction. The outrages of the Supreme Court would make the Earl Warren court look like "the good old days." The ACLU would be the "gold standard" for consultation as to what was and what was not an acceptable means of protecting Americans from terrorists and other enemies. Sharia law would be written into statutes of the bluest of blue communities (where local decisions would still be allowed, provided those decisions go the "politically correct" way). The only thing preventing suicide bombings at shopping centers, subway stations, and other public places would be fear of backlash. We would have "national health care," possibly with enough horror stories to send our people over the border to Canada in hopes of getting get better treatment (instead of the other way around as at present). Anyone uttering a conservative thought in the public square would risk being brought up on charges of "hate speech." There would be no sassing back the authorities because they would be the only people allowed to possess guns. Same-sex marriage would be on the national agenda, if not federally sanctioned and encouraged (only those pesky state laws, approved by the voters, would stand in the way, and the accelerated erosion of local and state rights on all issues would be dealing with that).

Others continue what Rush started

To go to the real beginning of the "Rush era," one must credit President Ronald Reagan. In 1987, the Gipper vetoed legislation that would have instructed the FCC to make the so-called "Fairness" Doctrine (we call it the Muzzling doctrine) a matter of law. (It had been FCC policy from 1949 until challenged in court.)

Limbaugh took off like a rocket on KFBK in Sacramento (where his supervisor was Norm Woodruff — a onetime California correspondent for a Salt Lake City-based western states radio news network organized by this writer in the sixties). Rush's introduction to the rest of the nation was not long in coming. He arrived on the national airwaves on August 1, 1988. Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger applied an apt metaphor when he wrote, "Ronald Reagan tore down this wall [the Muzzling Doctrine] in 1987...and Rush Limbaugh was the first man to proclaim himself liberated from the East Germany of liberal media domination."

Ironically most — in and out of the broadcast industry — did not realize at the time the full dimensions of what repeal of the Muzzling Doctrine would generate. After all, Jesse Helms and Newt Gingrich were among those who had voted to sustain the doctrine.

Even after Rush was on what at first was a lonely path, a colleague at a major broadcast company where I worked remarked condescendingly that Rush Limbaugh was actually a good thing because he gave the conservatives (regarded as a "tiny minority," of course) an outlet for their frustrations as the rest of us "mainstream" Americans adhered to what Bill Moyers once euphemistically called "our common knowledge." Another in the same newsroom was miffed that Mr. Limbaugh had been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame because "we don't know yet whether he is just a flash in the pan."

Of course, others have helped widen the national conversation, and most of them — notably Sean Hannity and Mark Levin — have said that were it not for Rush Limbaugh, they would not be doing what they themselves are doing so well.

What Rush means to me

Being a conservative in the national media was somewhat abnormal in the earlier era, even more so than today. In many middle-sized markets, local newsroom off-the-air conversations (and seeping, though with more subtlety, into on-the-air reports) were carbon copies of the supposed pearls of wisdom imparted by the liberal correspondents of the networks with which their stations were affiliated. It was chic, often done with an air of "Doesn't everybody think so?"

Pre-Limbaugh conservatives

Though he popularized the modern conservative talkshow genre, Limbaugh was hardly the first conservative commentator on the airwaves. Even in the pre-Fairness Doctrine days, the Supreme Court in 1943 handed down a decision that the authority of the Federal Communications Commission included the power to regulate "the composition of traffic" on the airwaves. Immediate outrage over the decision was not confined at the time to conservatives. CBS founder William S. Paley said, "The government is moving in to render broadcasters more and more subservient. Soon they will not be able to call their souls their own."

As the late John T. Flynn has reported — "radical sheets" then vowed to force conservatives Henry J. Taylor, Boake Carter, Upton Close, and Fulton Lewis, Jr., off the air. Of those four, only Lewis survived, and he managed that feat by formatting his nightly commentary so it would attract sponsors on the local level, thus making it more complicated for the pressure groups to shut him down.

Additionally, the legendary George Putnam — the longest surviving talk show host — had to battle leftist elements within the industry. Putnam thrived, especially in his very popular nightly TV commentaries in Los Angeles. At one time he reportedly was the most highly-paid news reporter in the history of the business up until that time. Just last month, Putnam celebrated his 94th birthday and is still going strong with his talk show on Cable Radio network (CRN).

But those were exceptions

However, for the most part, being a conservative in the news business of the Muzzling Doctrine days could lead to career endangerment.

Take the case of one young man who wrote and aired conservative-leaning commentaries on a local radio station for a few years. His on-air observations offended a very wealthy and influential man in the community who made it his life's mission, through a whispering campaign, to blackball that commentator for decades wherever he sought employment. Communists in Hollywood were "innocent victims" in those days. But conservatives on local radio? Never!

Rush — a real pro

Rush Limbaugh's oft-proclaimed "talent on loan from God," though seen as a (half) facetious outgrowth of his signature tongue in cheek "braggadocio," is surely not far from the truth.

Listeners can spot a radio phony a mile away. Rush is genuine. What you hear is what you get. The man, while certainly gifted with great talent, has a personality that gives him credibility to more than 20 million listeners. It's a combination of ability, natural personal magnetism...and sincerity.

Big shots in the liberal establishment have approached Rush and told him that he could gain invitations to the "in crowd" of café society if he would just get away from "that conservative stuff." But the college dropout from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, has just renewed his contract at $400 million over ten years. He reached that point by being true to himself. He needs the "swells" of Manhattan like he needs a hole in the head.

What Rush "really" thinks

The master of "excellence in broadcasting" put it this way in a 2005 Wall Street Journal op-ed:

"I love being a conservative. We conservatives are proud of our philosophy. Unlike our liberal friends, who are constantly looking for new words to conceal their true beliefs and are in a perpetual state of reinvention, we conservatives are unapologetic about our ideals.

"We are confident in our principles and energetic about openly advancing them. We believe in individual liberty, limited government, capitalism, the rule of law, faith, a color-blind society, and national security.

"We support school choice, enterprise zones, tax cuts, welfare reform, faith-based initiatives, political speech, homeowner rights, and the War on Terrorism.

"And at our core, we embrace and celebrate the most magnificent governing document ever ratified by any nation — the U.S. Constitution. Along with the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes our God-given natural right to be free, it is the foundation on which our government is built and has enabled us to flourish as a people.

"We conservatives are never stronger than when we are advancing our principles."

The best and most meaningful way to wish Rush a Happy Anniversary would be to use the current congressional recess to put the heat on Democrat congressmen in the name of the right to speak one's mind. All House Democrats are under Speaker Nancy Pelosi's orders not sign the discharge petition to bring to the floor Congressman Mike Pence's bill to outlaw the so-called "Fairness Doctrine." (See Speaker Pelosi's politburo and the Hush Rush Muzzling Doctrine, June 30.) If it is revived, Rush — and Sean, Mark, Laura and the rest — will be shut down.

This is not just a fight to save conservative talk radio, though that is certainly the immediate issue. This is a fight to save free speech in America.

Happy Anniversary, Rush. After we win this fight, we look forward to at least another twenty years on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network. Beyond that? Well, I guess it depends on whether — by then — you have achieved your ultimate pre-retirement goal whereby everybody agrees with you.

© Wes Vernon