Free Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One by Zev Chafets Page B

he could ever be accepted, even if he wasn’t simultaneously using his show to mock and satirize them as members of the mainstream (later, “Drive-By,” and currently, “State-Run”) media.
    Limbaugh’s “truths” resonated with millions of Americans, which is how he built his audience. But in Manhattan they sounded weird, offensive, or just plain crazy. “What does he mean, evolution can’t explain creation? Who is this guy, William Jennings Bryan (and wasn’t Spencer Tracy great in the movie)? God created the world? Everyone knows the world was created by a big bang and tiny protozoa. That’s settled science.” And how about: “Morality isn’t a matter of individual choice? What’s that supposed to mean, that all lifestyles aren’t equally valid?”
    The most infamous of Limbaugh’s dicta was Number 24: “Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women access to the mainstream of society.” The most politically charged was: “Abortion is wrong.” Those were fighting words in Manhattan, atomic invitation killers.
    When Limbaugh began his show he got relatively little attention in the New York press. AM radio was considered a second-rate medium. Don Imus and Howard Stern were listened to, but they were on during drive-time, not during the middle of the day. In his early days in New York, Limbaugh continued with his invention of a new form of radio, but the supposedly cutting edge critics of the big city didn’t even notice. And those who did pay attention didn’t like what they were hearing.
    Soon after his national show went on the air, Limbaugh got a message from his partner and mentor, Ed McLaughlin. According to Rush, the management of the Parker Meridien wanted him to leave. “They think you’re an anti-Semite,” McLaughlin told him.
    Limbaugh was dumbstruck by the accusation. In Cape the Limbaughs lived next to a Jewish family, and they all got along just fine. If there had been prejudice, it had worked in the opposite direction. In high school, David Limbaugh had a mad crush on the girl next door. When her disapproving parents found out about it, after graduation they had her shipped off to a college where she could find a suitable—i.e., Jewish—husband.
    Rush hadn’t socialized with many Jews on his long journey down the AM highway or in the front office of the Kansas City Royals; neither is a particularly Jewish milieu. They simply weren’t on his radar, nor was he on theirs. One Sunday night Limbaugh saw a 60 Minutes segment about the power of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington, done in reporter Mike Wallace’s tabloid style. It is doubtful that Limbaugh was even aware that Wallace was Jewish (Wallace himself doesn’t advertise it) or that the piece was meant to be negative. Limbaugh knew very little about the nuances of the American-Middle East discourse. He liked Israel for the same reason that most Americans did—it was pro-American, anti-Communist, democratic, and the land of the Bible. What was there not to like?
    The following day on his show, Limbaugh riffed on the power of various lobbies in Washington. He wasn’t putting it down; in his world lobbying is a constitutional right. But someone at one of New York’s Jewish organizations heard about the broadcast and put out the word that the new right-wing broadcaster at WABC was a Jew-hater. To many New York Jewish liberals it was (and remains) an article of faith that conservative Republicans are anti-Semites by definition. This belief has transcended every possible proof to the contrary, including the obvious fact that hostility to Israel and its supporters in the United States is almost entirely located on the “progressive left.”
    A campaign was quickly mounted. People called the station, sent letters of protest to advertisers, and complained to the management of the Parker Meriden, which declared Limbaugh persona non grata . . .
    Needless to say, he was disconcerted. “This incident did not cause me to