Shock jock Rush Limbaugh dies of lung cancer, aged 70

Rush Limbaugh, conservative talk-radio icon and pioneer of a thriving right-wing media industry, has died aged 70.

Rush Imbaugh with Donald Trump at a Make America Great Again rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Picture: AFP.

Rush Limbaugh, conservative talk-radio icon and pioneer of a thriving right-wing media industry, died Wednesday, his wife, Kathryn Rogers, announced on his show. He was 70 years old.

Mr Limbaugh in early 2020 told listeners he was undergoing treatment for advanced lung cancer. He said later that year that the cancer was stage 4, terminal and progressing after months of several different treatment regimens.

At the time he reiterated his intent to continue with his show, despite fatigue and other symptoms. “I am extremely grateful to be able to come here to the studio and to maintain as much normalcy as possible,” he said on his program. On Twitter he thanked supporters: “Fear not, I plan to hang around a long time to continue to annoy the left.”

Beginning as a relatively unknown disc jockey at stations in Pennsylvania and Missouri, Mr Limbaugh saw his star rise quickly after starting a talk show in 1984 in Sacramento, Calif., where he began espousing conservative political ideas during the Republican revolution of the Reagan era. In 1988 he began a new show at WABC-AM in New York that was syndicated nationally on AM and FM stations.

Mr Limbaugh remained a staunch supporterof former president Donald Trump other conservatives distanced themselves from him following the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. On his radio show the next day, Mr Limbaugh characterised the rioters as overwhelmingly “well-behaved and respectful” protesters, falsely suggesting that “antifa and Democrat-sponsored instigators” were responsible for the violence.

Melania Trump presents Rush Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2020. Picture: Getty Images.

Nearly a year earlier, Mr Trump had awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his 2020 State of the Union address, a move that drew reactions as polarising as many of the views Mr Limbaugh had championed during his career, yet attesting to the national prominence he had attained.

“The Rush Limbaugh Show,” marked by his signature brash and acerbic conservatism, was the most-listened-to radio talk show in the US, according to Nielsen Audio, reaching more than 20 million monthly listeners on more than 650 affiliates as of the end of 2020.

Mr Limbaugh’s break came shortly after the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, which had required radio and television stations to devote airtime to matters of public interest and to broadcast contrasting views on controversial issues. The Reagan administration’s reversal of the rule meant stations could air editorial commentary without having to present opposing views.

“Ronald Reagan tore down this wall in 1987 (maybe as spring training for Berlin) and Rush Limbaugh was the first man to proclaim himself liberated from the East Germany of liberal media domination,” Wall Street Journal editorial page deputy editor Daniel Henninger wrote in 2005.

Mr Limbaugh’s empire eventually spanned television, book publishing and the web.

While he said that he strived less to become a political figure than a successful radio personality, Mr Limbaugh found an immense market for his right-wing musings and became a larger-than-life force in conservative politics.

Republicans flocked to his show, a must-listen for many in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. His success spawned contemporaries in Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and other political commentators across media, helping sink conservative viewpoints deeper into the national consciousness during a period of increasing partisanship.

Mr Limbaugh hosted a television show from 1992 to 1996, discussing many of the same topics as his radio show, taped before a live audience and produced by Roger Ailes, the late architect of Fox News. The half-hour program was syndicated across dozens of US stations.

A proponent of American exceptionalism — the idea that the founding of the US was fundamentally different from that of other nations — Mr Limbaugh often criticised politicians who rejected that notion.

“The US is the first time in the history of the world where a government was organised with a Constitution laying out the rules, that the individual was supreme and dominant, and that is what led to the US becoming the greatest country ever because it unleashed people to be the best they could be,” he said in a 2013 show criticising Vladimir Putin and President Obama. “Nothing like it had ever happened. That’s American exceptionalism.” Criticised by detractors for disregarding fact in advancing his political opinions, Mr Limbaugh was frequently in hot water with liberals for his discussion of minorities, feminism and environmental issues.

“Enraging liberals is simply one of the more enjoyable side effects of my wisdom,” he once said.

Mr Limbaugh also had a successful run as an author, publishing two No. 1 New York Times bestsellers in the early 1990s, “The Way Things Ought to Be” and “See, I Told You So.” He later wrote five children’s books, beginning with “Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel With Exceptional Americans,” which earned him the Children’s Book Council’s author of the year award. All together, the seven titles sold nearly 15 million copies across formats in the US

Mr Limbaugh’s treatment for cancer was the last of several health issues he dealt with in the public eye. In 2001 he announced he had lost most of his hearing. Cochlear-implant surgery helped restore some of it that year, and then all of it in 2014 when his other ear was operated on.

It was widely speculated that the hearing loss might have been a result of his addiction to prescription painkillers. After the National Enquirer reported that Mr Limbaugh was being investigated for illegally obtaining oxycodone and hydrocodone in 2003 — his former housekeeper said she had supplied him with thousands of pain pills from 1998 to 2002 — he admitted his addiction on air and said he would check himself into a 30-day rehab program immediately following the broadcast. He said he became addicted after he was prescribed medication for pain following a botched spinal surgery, and that he had already checked into rehab twice.

In 2006 he was arrested for “doctor shopping,” accused of deceiving a number of physicians into writing him overlapping prescriptions. Florida prosecutors dropped the charges in 2009, with Mr Limbaugh agreeing to pay $30,000 to defray investigation costs, complete an 18-month therapy regimen, submit to random drug testing and give up his right to own a firearm for 18 months.

He maintained his innocence of the doctor-shopping charge, saying the state’s settlement offer arose from a lack of evidence.

Mr Limbaugh, divorced three times and married four, is survived by his wife, Kathryn. The couple were married in 2010.

In bestowing the Medal of Freedom, Mr Trump thanked Mr Limbaugh for “decades of tireless devotion to our country,” saying the honour recognised “all that you have done for our nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to and inspire, and all of the incredible work that you have done for charity.” Mr Limbaugh also won inductions into the National Radio Hall of Fame and the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Dow Jones