The Occasional Observer

For most people, Rush is a polarizing figure. Love him or hate him. I've always enjoyed his radio program, but never thought of him as a guru or a leader. Rather, he's always impressed me as being entertaining. And of taking other people's ideas and making them accessible to the audience--and fun.

That's why I've never understood the constant carping of liberals who bemoan not having a talk radio alternative to Rush. Well, someone a lot more intelligent and widely read than I am--Byron York--has apprarently come to the same conclusion, and written a piece in the N.R. that reminded me again of Rush's talent. Byron's starting point was Rush's opinion on Dem threats to bring back the "fairness doctrine":

“The real practical effect of the Fairness Doctrine was to shut down all controversial programming, because management would not deal with complaints,” Limbaugh told me. “So when you did listen to talk shows on the radio, they were dull and boring and horrible.”

Of course, Limbaugh did occasionally have his troubles with the Doctrine and sometimes found himself forced to share the air with community leaders who objected to something he had said. That made him unhappy, but not because he was opposed to differing viewpoints. It was because he was opposed to bad radio. “The problem with that is that radio is a business,” he explained. “You bring in people who are not broadcast professionals and give them unchallenged time…You try to make it as stimulating as possible, but…” Well, it wasn’t very stimulating.

You could almost hear Limbaugh’s teeth grinding as he discussed putting on a program that was “dull and boring and horrible.” He just can’t do it. And that is why Rush is Rush. He is deeply, deeply offended by the prospect of boring his listeners. And he has worked for years to develop his rather remarkable talent of keeping them interested for three hours a day, five days a week — all by himself.

The bottom line isn’t really about politics. It’s about radio. If Limbaugh were a liberal, we’d probably be talking about why liberals dominate talk radio. So you can talk about ownership and diversity all you want. But the bottom line is that Limbaugh simply knows radio, and what works on radio, better than anyone else in the world. That’s why he wins.