14 July 04:  Rush Limbaugh actually said this today: “If you’re down, turn off the partisan media. Just turn off the TV, don’t read anything. Just listen to this program for three hours every day and be done with it, and go to my website. This is not a plug. I’m just thinking of you.” Hilarious. I should confess that for a few months there, back in the early nineties, my media intake *did* consist solely of Limbaugh three hours a day.  I had no TV, I was in between jobs (and in between girlfriends, obviously), and I was trying to “learn conservative.” At any rate, Limbaugh had not yet become the blowhard he is today; he still made honest attempts to persuade.

—

Addendum: Early on, Rush Limbaugh wrote and published actual books – ‘The Way Things Ought to Be’ was worth reading – attempting to make his conservative case. Starting in about 1994, though, with the rise of Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, Limbaugh put aside persuasion – a real skill he had, that impressed me – and focused solely on enflaming his listeners.