Excellence in Broadcasting Network

I think I vomited in my mouth a little bit. I opened the paper today and I see that Rush Limbaugh just signed an eight year, $400,000,000 contract with Premiere Radio Network to keep him making sophomoric Hillary Clinton jokes and racist Obama jokes. That contract also includes a $100,000,000 signing bonus. Rush also makes tens of millions of dollars a year on his newsletter, several major endorsement deals, and his website. Modern talk radio really blossomed in 1987 with the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine. To overly simplify it, the Fairness Doctrine required the media on any given controversial topic to also have an opposing viewpoint be given equal time. Or basically, if Rush Limbaugh wanted to spew four hours of hate every day, that radio station would have to allow someone with an opposing viewpoint equal time to refute. However, Ronald Reagan, in all his brilliance, saw potential great success with conservative talk radio, plus he wanted to destroy the federal government, basically single handedly repealed the Fairness Doctrine. At the time, Rush Limbaugh was just a traveling radio DJ doing stints in Sacramento, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh. It took about seven years and the dawn of the Clinton administration for Rush to begin his era of dominance. Interestingly enough, in the past few years, numerous Democrat senators like Durban of Illinois, John Kerry, and Dianne Feinstein have pushed for the Fairness Doctrine to be reinstated but surprise surprise, conservatives have always blocked attempts. Rush Limbaugh currently averages 13.5 million listeners per day making him the most listened to radio program of all time. Rush’s listeners per day count is actually down. In 2003, he was averaging almost 20 million listeners per day. I will leave my Limbaugh’s thoughts on feminism. "Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society. Regarding feminists, to whom the most important thing in life is ensuring that as many abortions as possible occur.” Yes sir Rush. You are a true patriot.

1. The economy takes another hit. As the stock market continues to tumble, the United States Department of Labor reported a net loss of 62,000 employees. There is no doubt about it, the economy is a in big trouble and economic forecasters are predicting very little light at the end of this tunnel. The airline companies are going bankrupt, General Motors stock is at its lowest point in 50 years and might hit bankruptcy in a year, and even big companies like Microsoft are suffering from lay-offs.

2. I will be off for a few days from the blogging front while I vacation in Chicago for the next few days. I will talk to you all soon.