Blogger ethics panel on "Limbaugh ratings"
By John Amato Sunday Mar 08, 2009 6:30amEric Boehlert didn't buy the Washington Post's claim that Limbaugh's ratings have doubled since he became head of the GOP.
Usually a journalist would base the evidence on facts, but...
Yesterday I raised doubts about the claim in a Howard Kurtz article that Limbaugh's ratings have "nearly doubled" since January. The Post offered no hard evidence to back that up. And as I noted, even Limbaugh himself suggested he has no idea what his ratings are since he first announced in late January that he wanted Obama to fail.
Today, the Post's Paul Farhi writes more about Limbaugh's ratings in an article that only raises more doubts about Kurtz's claim that the talker's numbers have increased two-fold since January.
Specifically, I noted that it's basically impossible for reporters to get solid information about nationwide ratings for syndicated talk show hosts since those numbers are not released publicly.
continue on...
There is no data available to make the claims that the Washington Post is talking about. I wouldn't doubt that more listeners are tuning in out of curiosity, but promoting the notion that he's doubled his audience without solid facts supporting that claim is irresponsible journalism.
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I am definitely not a Republican or Rush listener, but I could not stop myself from dialing into ABC station to hear his rants.
Bullshit
Maybe the GOP should run Limbaugh for president in 2012?
He could put that other GOP nutcase, Sarah Palin, on the ticket and they could run on the "Young Earth" agenda?
I think it would be called the "Flat Earth" agenda. But I've been wrong before...
Though related, they are not the same. A young Earth creationist is one who believes that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, (give or take), while Flat Earth is used as someone hopelessly mired in the past. Both groups are science deniers and pretty hopeless
It has to be a jokey thing...
As was mentioned Friday night on Countdown, the real ratings are closer to 1.4 million then 14 million, due to the way Arbitron Radio ratings are figured.
I loved the "Leave Rush Alone" send up. An instant classic!
This sounds like a reasonable number.
With television, especially if a viewer has cable (versus satellite), it is very easy to come up with how many viewers are watching at any given moment of a broadcast. With radio, there is no real way to measure how many "listeners" there are at any given moment of a broadcast so they guess and multiply by 10.
There are times when I am a "captive" member of his audience, if I am taking a cab somewhere, because for some reason, cab drivers in Phoenix tend to listen to Rush a lot.
Working 12 hour plus days driving a taxi, they prob need something to keep them angry (at Rush) and awake.
Ask the driver to turn it down, or off. Otherwise, get out and take another taxi.
irresponsible for a long, long time. Remember Judith Miller?
"There is no data available to make the claims that the Washington Post is talking about."
Didn't this just happen last week (or so) when George Will deliberately misused climate change data to suggest that humans couldn't possibly be a causal link?
Haven't Kurtz and especially Chris Cillizza been shown to make claims based completely on speculation in the recent past? Reading Cillizza during the campaign was like watching Entertainment Tonight: several times a week he'd have some new, speculative gloom and doom scenario for Obama's campaign based entirely on a lie Drudge had cooked up--that was later *shown* to be a lie--but never with a retraction afterward.
Here's a place where there may be meeting ground for "traditional conservatives," "Libertarians," and "Progressives:" all of us know--and have ample evidence--that the mainstream media makes shit up, then using it to give themselves something to "report" (or comment) about, all for the purpose of keeping us at each other's throats.
Lies. Period.
one less reader, but my spouse is walking the dog and I never read him so the most recent survey is incomplete.
Lots of people will tune in from time to time, so they can yell threw their radio at the fat gas bag.
It's never a civil conversation. If a right winger on, I swear a lot.
on face the nation...
that there is a righty theory that obama admin started the rush thing to advance the 'fairness doctrine'...
there it is again...
Maybe doubled his girth but listeners I don't think so
Let me count the ways.
Pigboys' audience is noted for having their heads half way up their kiesters.
Perhaps the polling agency is assuming that they have to pull their noggins completely out to breathe once in a while, doing so uncovers both ears.
Ergo, there's a doubling your listeners right there.
Positive pollers prosper giving the customers what they pay for.
The WaPo has more reporters and the rethug writers blat on about the evil liberal agenda. Bonehead doing a piece (of shit) article last week is one example.
I wish more gop reporters would model Woodward (who is gop) than Flush Limpballs.
It's a freakin' lie!
Well, we could certainly clear all of this up if the Heritage Foundation, or the Cato Institute, or the Club for growth, or the Chamber of Horrors....oopsies(Commerce), or the Free Enterprise Institute, would produce a study showing that indeed Flush Dimbulbs ratings have doubled since January when he stated that he would like to see our President fail.......ahem... in an unbiased report......of course.
I hope his ratings DO go up cause that means he'lll just keep doing the same thing. Meanwhile his and the GOP ratings are taking and Obama and the Dems keep going up. And among indies, which is what the GOP needs to win anything, it's the same thing . . . Rush & the Party he leads way down, and Obama and the Dems way up. I only hope the Right becomes even more rabid.
The demise of rock and roll radio and the subsequent rise of right-wing talk shows is what got us here today -- with a dearth of listenable programming. Bring back rock and roll radio! Rush is so 1990.
But it'll be all Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana.
What killed rock and roll radio, and made everything talk show radio, or Disney outlets, is corporations like Clear Channel taking over all the stations. Good luck find a locally owned or college station.
listener, don't you be getting down on Montana or I'll stop listening. He was the greatest QB ever and his first name is not Hannah; it's Joe!
So we have to put away the iPods, CD players and mp3s?
Dig out the old 6 transistor box with the single speaker, replace the corroded batteries for fresh ones and tune in the oldies?
Paul never died and is the Walrus.
I'm with ya!
I thought rush was the Walrus.
There's always been bad music on the radio, remember Bay City Rollers?
It's just for the most part we weren't chumps enough to fall for that being the next coolest thing, but our younger siblings might fall for it.
The Bay City Rollers is the progenitor of all this prepubescent pap for tweeny-somethings who are now convinced they're the coolest ones on earth for being patsies.
The plaid got me mad but I think the end of the world started after this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANtMdzOFIVQ
Actually that's a tartan, they were from Scotland, like Rod Stewart, but it made them look like Catholic school girls.
Sugar Sugar was the first hit song for Barry Manilow who was the voice of Archie Andrews.
The 70's were a weird decade where songs like The Way We Were, Welcome Back Kotter, Laverne and Shirley, and the Exorcist themesongs become hit radio. We had Art Garfunkel singing about his little town, and Paul Simon about 50 ways to love your liver. But it began with a bang with the first heavy metal of Steppenwolf, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, and Aerosmith. It brought the horror rock of Alice Cooper. Glitter rock immediately followed Cooper's lead with Bowie and Queen fronting it along with my favorite Mott the Hoople. Paul McCartney's Wings went from the rather good Band on the Run to the bilge of Silly Love Songs and Someone's Knocking At My Door. The Rollings Stones were producing pure crap without Brian Jones like Angie and Daddy Don't Cry. Billy Joel I don't think has the faintest idea how to produce rock, so he made essentially show tunes typiefied by the over-played Piano Man.
Then the music went Caliornia mellow and disco, and ended with punk. I remember how relieved I was when I first heard God Save the Queen (She ain't a human being.) Baby We Were Born to Run, Autobahn, and The Angels Want to Wear My Shoes.
But that middle period was simply awful.
Even the metal bands went soft and mellow during the middle part of the 70's. It seemed to have started with Led Zeppelin's, Stairway to Heaven, Alice Cooper came out with Only Women Bleed, and Kiss put the crowning touch by making them love songs like Beth. In fact, Cooper enjoyed a second wave of popularity as a singer of ballads, the aforementioned OWB, You and Me, I Never Cry etc.
Cooper said it was an odd period in his career. His music was gaining in popularity with girls who were turned off by the violence of his stageshow, while the guys were turned off by the ballads, but LOOOVED the violent stage show.
{ Can we get back on topic please? Thank You. SiteMonitor}
Even then they would have attempts at safe teeny-bopper music of Bobby Sherman, Leif Garrison, Andrew Gibb, Sean Cassidy etc.
A toe tapping ditty no Site Monitor could refuse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQN8ztmlILc
And I promise to behave from now on... heh...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qglQ0aiEGA0
Apparently they were HUGE in Germany!
{ Ok, Back on topic please. SiteMonitor}
{ Do You remember the Topic? SiteMonitor}
I do, thank you.
My point was that the media feeding us crap has been going on for quite a long time.
In todays environment the phrase "responsible journalism" is an oxymoron, kind of like Limbaugh shrimp.
All it takes is one douche-face to make a claim then everyone will simply repeat it. Who cares about facts.
I agree. My goofy right wing sister is always saying things like "I heard..." "Someone said..." "Some people say..." etc. When asked to name these sources she cannot.
Well, I heard your a ......( You fill in the blanks).
And if you don't want to take that route. You could always take the nice route and say, Well, I heard that there is ghosts.
Or some people say that Britney Spears is Elvis Presley's and Nancy Reagans Luv child. Conceived on the planet Uranus. During a drought on Mars .
David Frum Vows To Destroy Rush Limbaugh
http://www.newsweek.com/id/188279
Frum’s mistake is to think that the
“dittoheads” really care about
reason and logic.
If they DID, they never would have
been addicted to that bloviating
blowhard in the first place.
Rush’s retards are the same people
who thought that George W. was doing
a great job, right up to noon, January
20th, 2009; they are the same people
who saw nothing wrong with a backwoods
beauty queen going apeshit in Saks
and Neiman’s on somebody else’s dime;
they aren’t rational, and Frum’s
rationality will have NO effect on
them.
The real story is that Rush’s retards
are like the relative hand full of
southerners who donned sheets and
terrorized blacks in the south 50
years ago. They disgraced the majority
of southern whites, and that majority
EARNED that disgrace by being too timid
to disown them.
So too will the “rational” Repubs who
shrink from criticism of the bloated,
bloviating blowhard, AND that demented,
desiccated Anne Coulter. Fuck em all.
And the Rush to Jessie Jackson in the 80's comparison by Frum is the truth.
Howard Kurtz wrote the piece? That's pretty much all we need to know. Just another hired fool (tool)...
I watched the ABC show with George S and Deonne (or whatever his name is) raised a good point. He commented on how the Republicans blasted Obama for associating with Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright. But when Steele criticized Limbaugh for his outlandish remarks nobody defended him.
Seriously people, they may be right due to the fact that Rush's audience must have shrunk to almost nothing in 2008. But the thing that is pissing me off is that this boost in his 'listeners' are us progressives. STOP TUNING IN TO RUSH'S SHOW FFS.
How most of these people can listen to someone that makes more in a month than they do in a lifetime amazes me. This asshole preaches about the American dream and these dipshits eat it up. Limpbag has the luxury if Obama fails, his listeners don't.
Amen to that. It absolutely blows my mind that the very people that listen to him are the very people he harms. Fucking amazing.
has become an oxymoron.
As far as Rush's ratings, even I, the ultimate cynic, do not believe that the United States of America has 14 million complete morons in it. Now, 1.4 million....that's someting else.
I wouldn't be surprised if rash limpballs ratings rose some, unlike his penis.
I mean how long has he been on the air, 25 years?
I'm sure he's lost some of his audience in that time who either got tired of his shtick or gravitated toward even more volatile ranters.
But this repug generated controversy has got their curiosity to return for a bit.
His influence has to be minimal, despite his ego. Remember how reich-wing radio were called in to the White House to rally their support for the 2006 elections and do you remember the results?
El Fatass Limpballs is up in ratings because everyone is dwelling on him. From the left, right, center, and media. It is no wonder his head is the size it is. All you read about online everywhere is this gasbag.
Interesting thing how we so dislike the prevalence of the reichwing on radio, but that might be the best thing for us.
They're so numerous now that they're undercutting each other's audience.
Kurtz wrong? the shock..
At first I thought that headline read, 'Blogger ethics panel on "Limbaugh rantings."'
Gee, middle-aged eyes be fun!!!
billboard design (free bumpersticker too!)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/...
i made one on my printer, covered with some clear vinyl from a sign shop...
even clear 'contact paper' will work for a good while...
be sure to have at least 1/2" all around to stick to surface...
i put mine on magnetic sheeting (also at sign shop)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN-6I4UHBd4
Interestingly, when you look up "rush limbaugh" on google trends, you see that the general number of searches for him have risen, but not more than they did before the election, or before 2005. But, if you look at the number of news references below it, it's going through the roof... hmmm, could it be that the media is pushing this, but no one else cares?
Again, it gives them something to talk about. And it's inexpensive. They don't have to leave their offices, they don't have to do any research. They simply talk to someone on the phone--if that--and tune into the "Oxycontin Hour." It makes great copy, and it's cheap.
Sort of like the way network teevee runs mostly "reality" shows. No story lines needed, no actors to be hired, no writers to be employed. It's all cost-cutting and laziness.
Ah, the 'Murkin free market at work.
Actually I think bad music and talk radio is a deliberate attempt to destroy one of the last vestiges of free entertainment.
Now we have to buy some kind of cable just to get TV reception, and I presume soon we'll all have to get satellite radio. That'll probably jump the number of conservative ranters exponentially.
Birch Barlow's dream come true.
or make one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discone_antenna, will pick up TV 360'
They dont have the gain of a traditional Yagi, but modern TVs have vastly improved input circuits than the older TVs did.
Can always have a Yagi on a motorized rotator as well.
Basic cable with no box, the cable companies are required by law to carry the local stations.
"....promoting the notion that he's doubled his audience without solid facts supporting that claim is irresponsible journalism."
True. But it makes great agitprop for the narrative plot that the Republican Party is rising phoenix like from the ashes of George Bush liberalism, that it is returning to the faith of its fathers, and that it is being led by Reich Fuhrer Jiggly Jello Boy, who will save divine capitalism and the homeland from the magic negro, socialism and the anti-Christ.
And here I thought he was the Stay Puffed Marshmallow sailor.
Limp-Dick is losing listeners and everybody knows that except the ignorant GOP liars.
Why Flush is wrong. By David Frum.
It's an interesting read. Will they listen? doubt it.
Newsweek sucks.
In this modern world, it's not what is true, it's what you can get people to believe. Facts not required. People have short attention spans, are largely incurious, and swallow what they're told. We've (many, I mean) stopped questioning critically, and started accepting talking points as facts. [Go shopping here.]
My good friend's father has FUX news on 24/7 and loves Limpguy, Every time I go over, I ask if he's still watching that crap (with a smile on my face). He is amused by how I dismiss it, and we have a little chat about it. He doesn't get angry with me. I tease him a bit. (I figure I gotta do something-- nicely.)
Technically, I count as a Hannity listener because I tune into the right-wing station on my way home from classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays...
But I always end up laughing hysterically, and then yelling at the radio, and then getting out of the car in a huff...
And I saw Keith's piece on this. 1.4 million is definitely a more reasonable and more realistic number. I'm surprised, though, that nobody has picked up this practice of multiplying the viewership prior to this...
and Face are plastered on every TV station for weeks, I think you've got to figure his numbers are going to go up. Also probably includes those on the left that have never heard his show. Hope they don't get mezmorized.
Frankly, attacking Rush does nothing to help this current housing crisis; it only enables Rush to renegotiate his contract based on a ratings increase.
I'm turning off Rush now to check to see how much my house has gone down in value during the last week. The rest of you, have fun, glad you can afford it.
I have been a lifetime resident of the D.C. metro area and I have seen the Post go from a well respected if not outstanding newspaper to a shell of its' former self. It seems to me that it's only mission is to steal readership from the loonie "Moonie" paper, The Washington Times. Which is akin to a moron trying to steal brain cells from an idiot.Either way,I would no longer believe the Post if it said the sun rises in the east.There is better reporting and fact checking in the local High School papers.
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