Rush Limbaugh opened up his radio show Monday by addressing a new report from Politico that he will be dropped from more than 40 of Cumulus Media’s radio stations in the near future.
Rush assured his audience that his show is going nowhere, saying “it is on and is going to be on in the future.”
“Nothing is going to happen that you will notice,” he said. “Nothing is going to change. You are going to be able to get this radio program on as many if not more radio stations down the road than it’s on now.”
“I just want to assure you, everything’s cool and as always what’s on the table for this program is growth,” he added later.
Cumulus may not renew its contracts with either Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, according to sources referred to by the Politico report, while simultaneously reaching out to potential new talent and planning to perhaps fill the airtime with established conservatives including Mike Huckabee and Michael Savage.
Limbaugh has been under scrutiny since he made controversial statements about Georgetown Law student and birth control supporter Sandra Fluke last year. While he typically enjoys solid ratings, Cumulus Media CEO Lew Dickey said earlier this year that the remarks about Fluke contributed to more than $2 million in advertising losses for stations that carry Limbaugh’s program, according to a New York Daily News report. Limbaugh, bristling at the criticism from Dickey, began considering ending his contract back in May, according to one source quoted by Politico.
And while few of Limbaugh’s comments have created the level of controversy that he inspired when he called Fluke a “slut” on his program, he has shown no signs of backing down from his controversial rhetoric this year, recently declaring the end of “white guilt” on the grounds that white Americans have “done more to end” slavery than “any other race.” He’s also been unrelenting in his attacks against President Obama in recent months, comparing him to the Asiana Airlines pilot who recently crash landed in San Francisco, accusing him of “inspiring racism,” and even finding a way to link him to the Cleveland kidnappings. On Monday’s program, Limbaugh targeted Hillary Clinton and her long-time aide Huma Abedin, saying that Abedin was “trying to save herself politically” by protecting her husband Anthony Weiner after new revelations about lewd emails. Late last week he used her religion in his attacks against her as well, claiming that because Abedin is Muslim, her husband Anthony Weiner should be “able to get away with anything.” “Muslim women don’t have any power, right?” he said on the program. “Muslim women are beheaded, stoned, whatever. If they drive, have affairs. In certain countries Muslim women, if they’re raped, they’re killed, It’s their fault.”
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