Apparently not waiting for the social media protest party to come its way, AOL announced it was no longer sponsoring Rush Limbaugh today.
According to Laura Bassett and Ryan Grim of The Huffington Post, AOL spokesperson Maureen Sullivan said “At AOL one of our core values is that we act with integrity. We have monitored the unfolding events and have determined that Mr. Limbaugh’s comments are not in line with our values. As a result we have made the decision to suspend advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Radio show.”
AOL is the 10th sponsor to drop Rush to my count, and the second, with Carbonite, to do so after Rush issued his apology, which I talked about in my video below:
Now, EIB, the Excellence In Broadcasting company that Rush owns and acts as the holding company for his show, has lost the following sponsors: AutoZone, eHarmony, Quicken Loans, Dominos, The Cleveland Cavaliers, Sleep Train, ProFlowers, LendingTree, and Carbonite and now AOL.
AOL’s action came Monday, after Rush Limbaugh elected to attack Sandra Fluke by calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute” on his radio show Wednesday.
As I said in my first video, Rush Limbaugh hit the perfect storm of American cultural process when he made that statement about Fluke. First, Fluke was already the focus of the media. Second, Rush’s commentary just boosted Fluke’s already rising celebrity status to A-List. Third, Rush did not seem to get that his statement, his insult, did not involve an unknown person calling in to his show, but someone who had just testified before Congress. Thus, Rush Limbaugh, in a way, banged his own head against a ceiling of tolerance for public insults, and for the first time.
Here’s my first video on the subject:
Unlike a public official, Fluke is seen as defenseless and not an established public figure. Plus, she’s a woman, and Limbaugh made comments about a woman who’s the focus of the public such that it seemed as if he believed what he said with respect to all women.
I never thought I’d see it, but this marks the end of Rush Limbaugh’s empire. Rush amassed a vast amount of wealth built on hate speech.
Stay tuned.