Attacking Rush Limbaugh By Attacking His Audience Size?

First the Obama Administration attacked Rush Limbaugh directly, which shows just how petty and thin-skinned the Administration can be when critics hone in on major problems with the Administration. On the one hand it's the opposite tact to what the Bush Administration did, which was refuse to defend the Administration against all manner of sordid attacks, but the manner in which the Obama Administration is responding borders on the petty. It's also indicative that the Administration will not tolerate criticism. It will attempt to destroy those who oppose its policies and practices.

Now, the media is picking up where the Administration leaves off. They're now trying to undermine Rush by attacking his audience size.

According to what Limbaugh delights in calling "the drive-by media," the number varies wildly. Is it 30 million (Pat Buchanan on MSNBC), 20 million (Time magazine, ABC News), 19 million (Fox News), 14 million (CNN), or "14.2 million to about 25 million" (The Washington Post)?

Answer: Maybe.

Limbaugh is widely acknowledged to be the most popular talk-radio host, as evidenced by the record $400 million, eight-year contract he signed with his syndicator last July. But estimates of Limbaugh's nationwide (and overseas) audience are exercises in guesswork, slippery methodology and suspect data. Limbaugh himself has muddied the water with the claim that he reaches 20 million people a week, although there's no independent support for that figure.

Arbitron, the radio industry's dominant audience-measurement company, has never publicly released a national estimate for Limbaugh, and it says, in effect, that the job is too complicated, expensive and time-consuming to bother with.

The media is attacking Rush - a private citizen who is freely engaging in freedom of speech on his radio show. They're attacking him, they're attacking his audience size. They'll say and do anything to undermine his credibility such as it is.

Never mind that Rush is an entertainer first and foremost. Yes, he's conservative, and reaches deep into the conservative movement, but his show is about entertainment. That's why he's been so successful.

They complain that no one knows his audience size and that it's all guesswork. Some of that is true. You can figure out what the audience size is in major markets. You can then take those figures and combine them to give an approximate reach. Consider that even if you take a figure of 12 million people per week, it's still more than most of the cable television shows like Larry King or Keith Olbermann or even Bill O'Reilly and most prime time television shows other than say American Idol or Lost.

Meanwhile, Democrats are also busy trying to attack Rush today for claiming that he is somehow attacking Sen. Ted Kennedy by naming the looming health care legislation after him. Never mind that the Democrats themselves were contemplating doing just that only back in January. Kennedy has been deeply involved in health care issues, and some in Congress wanted to honor him with naming the legislation after him. However, apparently when Rush says virtually the same thing, it becomes grounds for an empty attack. Classy.