During the show today Rush had a caller indicate that she felt that the President "jumped the shark" by doing the slow news jam will Jimmy Fallon. What followed was a lengthy discussion of what the expression "jumped the shark" meant. Rush was very involved in making sure that his Rushians were clear on the expression's meaning. Paraphrasing he indicated that the term meant that a show had abandoned its formula. At the time I thought it was odd that he would waste so much time on such an obscure item.
A little later in the show, Rush announced with great fanfare, that he had a new advertiser - FreedomWorks. Part of his introduction was to invite all Rushians to go to the FreedomWorks site for some free propaganda. To be honest, I almost fell out of my chair laughing. But this does beg the question about shark jumping, and if Rush has indeed abandoned his "formula".
Clearly the loss of mainstream advertisers due to his attacks on Sandra Fluke should now be seen in a new light. Also, the effects to date of #BoycottRush and other social media campaigns against him must have been successful enough for him worry about his paycheck and run to the money men of the GOP (thus he airs ads by Staples and Angies List).
Getting advertising from republican owned for-profit companies is one thing. Getting advertising from a political action committee, a content provider, is something quite a bit different. Rush knows that FreedomWorks not only wants his Rushian's money, but they also want his Rushian's bodies and minds. Things must have been gotten pretty bad in the Limbaugh bunker for him to have jumped over the shark and into bed with Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe.
So who knows how the Rush show is going to be affected by this move? Is Rush going to have some of his content provided by the people who proudly brought us the Tea Party and Ron Paul? Will Rush have to endorse a candidate? Will Rushians finally wise up to the fact that not only are they going to hear Rush's daily FreedomWorks screed but that they will hear ads begging for their money so that Rush can be kept on the air? What happens to the Rush/FreedomWorks alliance after the November election? Only time will tell – in the meantime I am going to imagine Rush in a bathing suit and a leather jacket, on water skis, in mid-air, and it looks like he isn't quite going to make it over the shark tank.