Host set tone for conservative talk radio
DIVISIVE FIGURE
WASHINGTON • Provocative and polarizing U.S. talk radio luminary Rush Limbaugh, a leading voice on the American political right since the 1980s who boosted, and was honoured by, former president Donald Trump, has died at age 70 after suffering from lung cancer, his wife said on Wednesday.
Limbaugh, who pioneered the American media phenomenon of conservative talk radio and became an enthusiastic combatant in the U.S. culture wars, had announced in February 2020 that he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. In a statement on Facebook announcing his death, his wife Kathryn Adams Limbaugh wrote, “Rush’s love for our country, and for all of you, will live on eternally.”
Limbaugh’s appeal and the success of his top-rated radio show arose from his brash and colourful style, his delight in baiting liberals and Democrats and his promotion of conservative and Republican causes and politicians. His radio show became nationally syndicated in 1988 and quickly built a large and committed following, making him wealthy in the process.
He was loathed by liberals. Detractors such as Democratic former senator Al Franken — a former comedian who wrote a book titled Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations — criticized him as a divisive figure who distorted facts.
Trump awarded Limbaugh the highest U.S. civilian honour — the Presidential Medal of Freedom — a day after the radio star announced his cancer diagnosis. Limbaugh at the time said he planned to continue to do his program “as normally and as competently” as he could while he underwent treatment.
Speaking on Fox News on Wednesday, Trump said of Limbaugh: “He was very brave. He was fighting until the end.”
Former president George W. Bush said, “While he was brash, at times controversial, and always opinionated, he spoke his mind as a voice for millions of Americans and approached each day with gusto.”
Limbaugh espoused a populist brand of conservatism during a daily show broadcast on more than 600 radio stations across the U.S. He railed against left-wing causes from global warming to health-care reform as he helped shape the Republican Party’s agenda in the media and mobilize its supporters. He ridiculed mainstream news outlets and relished the controversies often sparked by his on-air commentary.
Limbaugh called his followers “ditto heads.” He coined the term “femi-Nazis” to disparage women’s rights activists.
More recently, Limbaugh promoted Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through fraud and irregularities.