We're trying to end his radio career. Rush has already laid the critical groundwork, I'm just helping with the follow-through. And, I'd love to have your help. You see, Rush is in a bit of a bind. As he said today, he's not going to be suspended because he would have to suspend himself. That said, he's certainly not going to fire himself. That would be far too obvious. This is where you come in. By contacting Rush's advertisers and radio stations we can collectively fire Rush. But we need to be relentless and not give up after a few days or even a few weeks. As he adds new advertisers we need to be on them in numbers. We also need to hold the feet to the fire of those advertisers who simply "suspended" their ads and push them to officially sever their ties with The Rush Limbaugh Show.
We also need to suggest/request that advertisers move their ad dollars away from stations that carry the Limbaugh show. Otherwise, as Rush pointed out today, the stations don't really end up losing any money, they just shuffle ads. As such, I've changed my phone pitch from asking, "Are you comfortable having your company or organization associated with Rush's hate speech?" to asking, "Are you comfortable having your company/organization funding right wing hate radio?"
While we each have our approaches, mine has been to avoid threats of boycotts and such. Instead I choose public shaming - hence the questions I ask. In addition to this, I make it clear that I am working with a group of folks organized online - y'all !!! And that we are not going to be letting this one go.
Finally, I've also sent emails to the local Rush outlet requesting that they cancel his show due to its detrimental effect on public discourse in our community. This has nice hot button words that should perk up the station manager's ears/eyes. I learned about these from ipsos' fine diaries a few days ago.
How to take action against Limbaugh at the local level
How to get your local station to cancel Rush, part 2
So what can you do?
Keep up with which advertisers are still with Rush and keep on them to cancel.
Listen to the show (I know, just think of how nice it will be to have him gone.) and make note of his local advertisers, find contact info for them and try to persuade them to pull their ads from the station that has his show. Or at least to specify no ad runs during Limbaugh.
Visit the local station and request to see the public file - see the above links for details on this. It will get attention.
Since many radio stations belong to multi-station media conglomerates. suggest that they might also encounter barriers when it is time to relicense.
As you note local advertisers, compile a list and share it with local activists and also on DailyKos. The more calls the better. For example, the local BMW dealer is rather pissed at me right now for calling him out on his ads that were played yesterday on Rush. (I suspect he's had a few calls in the past day.) He said that he's just trying to sell cars and has advertising for that and has no desire to be involved in anything political. What he fails to understand is that he got himself involved in something political the moment he signed up to advertise on right wing hate radio. Now he is simply reaping the harvest.
And in closing, I wish to include a short inspirational video. I understand that calling strangers about controversial issues can be confronting. It really helps when you can just relax, breathe easily and evenly, and just ... Release Yourself.