The New York Times is giving an early look at Zev Chafets' wonderful, fair-minded, up-to-the-second Sunday Magazine story about Rush Limbaugh, who just signed a career-defining deal with Clear Channel that should pay him $400 million to continue broadcasting through 2016.
El Rushbo let down his guard for the Times' second-best chronicler of the conversative movement (after Sam Tanenhaus), and it paid off hugely. This is an archival document in the chronology of a true American success story, a broadcaster I have never failed to admire even as I wonder how anyone can take anything he says seriously.
I really can't believe that Michael Wolff actually thinks Limbaugh's not worth a large chunk of change, as he argued today on CNBC. C'mon, Michael — a party reboot in Washington isn't going to affect the way Rush's show is received in Kansas City or Spokane or Phoenix. Like it stopped Paul Harvey from raking in the millions over two generations. WTF else are they going to put on the radio middays across AM America? As Chafets noted in his story, Rush is only entering his third decade in a business that, for all its turnover, has always had a handful of megastars. No one is on the horizon who can replace him. Classic New York myopia by Wolff.
My pull quote, though, comes almost as an aside at the end of the 8,000-word piece:
At dinner the night before, Bill O’Reilly’s name came up, and Limbaugh expressed his opinion of the Fox cable king. He hadn’t been sure at the time that he wanted it on the record. But on second thought, “somebody’s got to say it,” he told me. “The man is Ted Baxter.”
That's true, Rush, somebody has to say it. And somebody did — Keith Olbermann. In fact, Olbermann routinely refers to his cable rival as "the Ted Baxter of news," also the "Frank Burns of news" and "Bill Orally" and a bunch of other invectives. Now, perhaps Limbaugh knew that and believes that KO isn't a "somebody." He's entitled to that view, but this does underscore the point Rory O'Connor made in his new book on talk radio, which is that other talk radio hosts can't stand this TV interloper.
Anyway, we'll have more on Bill-O and Keith tomorrow. I was preparing a lengthy story for today, but the Times came to my rescue (and perhaps yours as well...).
You can use "WTF" in a Star blog? WTF!
(Hah! Take a look at the navbar in http://inkkc.com --AB)
Posted by: Matt | July 02, 2008 at 04:27 PM
Oh, man.... Rush Limbaugh and I agree on something? Crap. That just kinda ruins my day.
:)
(P.S. I signed in to my TypePad account, but when I tried to save the post, it said an error occurred and it needed my name and e-mail addy. Dunno if the problem is on my end or theirs, but in case its theirs, thought you might want to know.)
Posted by: thorswitch | July 02, 2008 at 06:18 PM
Thanks Thorswitch. For a change, I have logged in to post a comment to my own blog. If you're reading this now, it's on your end.
Posted by: Aaron Barnhart | July 02, 2008 at 06:32 PM
(But that doesn't mean TypePad doesn't suck. Even though I was logged in it STILL did a captcha on my comment. And again I say, WTF.)
Posted by: Aaron Barnhart | July 02, 2008 at 06:33 PM