Limbaugh Quotes

(answering a Chris Matthews question about why Hollywood actors sometimes presume to be sophisticated about politics) Everyone`s entitled to express their political beliefs. I don`t presume to tell anybody who to vote for. I am comfortable telling people what my opinions are. But you have to look also to the media, where you have a vast majority of the loudest and most influential political voices in America media from people who came from the entertainment world. You have Rush Limbaugh, was a radio disc jockey. Bill O`Reilly came from "Inside Edition" (1988). Michael Moore`s a filmmaker. Al Franken was on "Saturday Night Live" (1975). The line is increasingly blurred between news and entertainment. Secondarily, the media`s also shoving celebrities down our throats all the time. As a person, I`m much more interested in what an actor has to say about something substantial and important than who they`re dating or what clothes they`re wearing or some other asinine, insignificant aspect of their life.

"The reason I chose Limbaugh (Rush Limbaugh) is, first of all, when I made the decision, it was late `94, right before the congressional elections. He was this huge power, he was being called the `Majority Maker.` ... And I listened to him, I just listened to him. And I thought, how does this guy get away with this? ... Someone`s got to do something that`s funny. Someone`s got to do something in his face." (interview with Mark Schapiro for Salon, February 1996, on-line).

Well, what happened is that I had been the subject of vicious attacks by Bill O`Reilly and Rush Limbaugh.

I will use whatever position I have in order to root out hypocrisy. Democrats have strong moral values. Frankly, my moral values are offended by some of the things I hear on programs like "Rush Limbaugh," and we don`t have to put up with that.

(Regan has been amused, in the intervening years, to watch editors who rolled their eyes at Limbaugh scramble to try to duplicate his success.) What people respond to in this culture is loud and brash and pointed and sometimes vulgar -- that`s what gets people`s attention, on TV and radio and in books, ... Shades-of-gray books are very difficult to sell.

I think they completely overreacted by firing me, but in my mind I think this coming a month after Rush Limbaugh had a lot to do with it.

Even though Rush is not me and the situations were very different, I think, in the Rush Limbaugh thing, ESPN was criticized for not acting, and you remember that after a couple days of controversy over Rush.

I don`t think Fox News or Rush Limbaugh need Clinton it turns out. I think there`s a hunger out there for - whether it`s on the left or right - a more lively and provocative type of political journalism. I think Salon and Fox on the other side have both benefited from that.

I occasionally got called the Rush Limbaugh of Indiana, but most people knew that my style was different.

Second, a quarter to a third of those who listen to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are liberals.

Despite being able to demonstrate a very large audience, major advertisers at first wouldn`t touch Limbaugh.

Because Hightower`s problem, among other things, is that advertisers would be a lot less interested in his show than in Limbaugh`s, even if they have similar ratings, because of what Hightower is saying.

So that what you tend to see is someone like a Rush Limbaugh, he`s the classic case because he`s the most successful, he didn`t sort of like come out of his mother`s womb with the highest ratings in the country.