Kustra: We don’t need AM radio praising Rush Limbaugh, who poisoned political debate

At the end of my first term as Illinois lieutenant governor, WLS radio in Chicago asked me if I would be interested in expanding my radio gig with the station from the Saturday morning show called, “Ask the Lieutenant Governor” to a full-time job as a daily drive-time host. I said yes and called a press conference to announce my new gig on talk radio, teaming up with another media personality for the show. As I was celebrating my new contract with ABC Disney who owned WLS, I received a call from the first lady informing me the governor was having immediate heart-bypass surgery.

Here was a classic case of poor timing, especially for the governor, who was up for reelection that fall and could not get out and about as the fall campaign was heating up. As for my budding talk radio career, I just had this feeling I would be asked to reconsider my decision to leave office and return to take on governmental and campaign duties in his stead.

I was right. The governor asked me to come back, and I agreed on the condition that he call and explain to my new employer our sudden change in plans. But what I remember about my abbreviated career in radio was my wife, Kathy’s, reaction to the WLS opportunity. She asked me if I had listened to Rush Limbaugh, who seemed to be the poster child for talk radio at the time, and if I had thought how I would reconcile my more moderate views with those of Limbaugh-type listeners on AM radio.

Limbaugh’s death recently reminded me of those days, especially as I read reactions from the far right to the far left about his “contributions” to AM radio. There is no doubt AM radio surged with Rush taking to the airwaves, as Nate Shelman, the KBOI conservative talk show host in Boise said in his observations about the impact of Rush’s career on radio and politics. Rush laid the groundwork for the Trump victory in 2016 and the four years of political strife that followed.

But at what cost to our country and at what cost to the civility and reasoned and informed debate we expect commentators and public officials to model for our nation’s citizenry.

Limbaugh served as a galvanizing force for white supremacists, misogynists and those who harbor racist views. Limbaugh gave them license to air their prejudices and biases which stirred their misguided passions to a boil. Before long, Rush’s followers took to the streets and disrupted the orderly conduct of state and local government. It is no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the insurrectionists who stormed our nation’s capitol a few weeks ago were inspired by his embittered and inflamed rhetoric over the years.

Until Rush Limbaugh, I don’t remember AM radio being a forum for hosts and commentators to just make stuff up, the truth be damned. And that is exactly what Rush did and that’s what Trump did, as millions and millions of gullible listeners bit on it — hook, line and sinker.

At one point early in the pandemic, Rush claimed “the coronavirus is the common cold, folks.” In one of his most disgusting racist jabs at Obama and people of color, he said, “The black frame of mind is terrible, they’re depressed, they’re down — Obama’s not doing anything for ‘em. How is that hoax and change workin’ for ya?”

Although President Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, LImbaugh called him an “affirmative action candidate.” He played a song on the radio called “Barack the Magic Negro.”

Limbaugh’s hate-filled commentaries on women include labeling women seeking equality “feminazis”, but he hit an all-time low when he said “feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.”

Even young women were on Rush’s hit list, especially if they lived in the White House. Once, he commented on President Clinton’s cat and then told his audience the White House also had a new dog as he showed a photo of 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton.

Limbaugh called Mexican immigrants — one of the hardest-working ethnic groups in America today — lazy and government-dependent, when in fact they often do work that white Americans won’t touch, and they are not eligible for the government benefits Limbaugh claimed they received.

I have great difficulty with any radio station that uses the public airwaves to celebrate the life and career of a man who trashed much of what America has worked so hard to achieve — racial, gender and ethnic equality. No doubt, AM radio stations made big bucks off the outrageous diatribes Rush heaped on those with whom he disagreed. But that does not mean, now that he is gone from the airwaves, that radio stations need to credit him with capturing a listenership that tolerated and reveled in his racist and sexist views.

Isn’t it interesting that AM radio is home to the far right and that a countervailing progressive movement never succeeded? Air America tried to offer an alternative to right wing radio, but it failed.

Janeane Garofalo, one of its hosts at the time, offers an explanation that also shows why Limbaugh succeeded. She argues that “conservative or regressive radio has an easier time of it, because what it does is tap into your lesser nature…working for radio that speaks truth to power, that asks people to be better, to be good citizens, to participate in democracy, is not as easy as what regressive radio does, which is ask people to do nothing.”

Limbaugh’s spread of ignorant and baseless factoids in regard to climate change may be the perfect example.

As late as 2019, he opined that “climate change is nothing but a bunch of computer models that attempt to tell us what’s going to happen in 50 years or 30.” Climate scientists called his claims “utter nonsense,” but they give his listeners the security of mind to know they do not have to change one thing about their lifestyle as long as Rush says it’s all a hoax.

If a radio station plays a strong supporting role in airing a commentator that spews false information, debases our culture and turns us against one another, it deserves no listenership. And when he’s gone, it’s best just to move on and spare us the high praise on a radio host who deserves so much of the blame for the divisions he accentuated in the America of today.