The advertiser exodus from Rush Limbaugh's Impotent Rage Hour radio program hasn't waned during the days following his anti-Sandra Fluke screed. In fact, it's only picked up steam. The latest to jump ship has been Premiere Networks, the company that syndicates the show. So, how many advertisers have left?
According to ThinkProgress, the number is now a staggering 141, including Rite Aid, Honda, Sam Adams, Advil, Johnson & Johnson, Kohl's, Lifetime, Macy's, McDonalds, Chapstick, The Home Depot, NBC-TV, U.S. Army, Preparation H, Walgreens, Hallmark, Radio Shack, and Yahoo!. While it's a surprise that Lifetime advertised on Limbaugh's program in the first place (or maybe they know something about the secret fondness Rush Limbaugh fans have for movies about women who lose their marbles and kill their husbands or pregnant teenage runaways and their mothers who will not stop until they solve the mystery of why), the full list is pretty humbling.
But perhaps most humbling of all is the most recent move by the company that syndicates the damn program. The Wrap reports that Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel (which itself is a subsidiary of Hell), has suspended its use of the so-called "barter spots" granted the company as part of the syndication deal. The Premiere Networks silence will extend for the next two weeks, presumably to the point where everyone re-forgets what a dick Rush is, so that we can all be shocked and outraged anew when he starts speculating on the menarche status of the Obama daughters in some big roundabout anti-college tax credit tirade.
According to Limbaugh's spokespeople, the latest show dead air opportunity has nothing to do with the fact that he called Sandra Fluke a slut and a prostitute on the grounds that she would like employers and schools to be required to provide contraceptive coverage to their health care plan participants. And it has nothing to do with the fact that even Don Imus is mad at him now. Or the fact that in his apology to Fluke, he said he was sorry for using the words "slut" and "prostitute," presumably because there are better words to describe a woman he obtusely thinks is asking to be paid to have sex.
A small part of me wants to feel sorry for Rush right now, but he was kind of asking for it. If he wants to be paid to call women sluts, he shouldn't be surprised that the people signing his checks aren't on board his sinking ship.
Rush Limbaugh 'slut' fallout grows [The Wrap]