Rush Limbaugh announces he has 'advanced lung cancer'

[Norm dePlume]

Rush Limbaugh announces he has 'advanced lung cancer'

Talk radio king Rush Limbaugh stunned his 20-million member audience Monday with the announcement he's been diagnosed with "advanced lung cancer." The 69-year-old conservative talk pioneer closed his broadcast with the grim news, saying he will be leaving his golden EIB microphone for treatment, but hopes to return later this week.

“This day has been one of the most difficult days in recent memory, for me, because I’ve known this moment was coming,” Limbaugh said. “I’m sure that you all know by now that I really don’t like talking about myself and I don’t like making things about me… one thing that I know, that has happened over the 31-plus years of this program is that there has been an incredible bond that had developed between all of you and me.”

I wish him well, and I hope people show him more sympathy than he showed Michael J. Fox.

[Newman]

Yikes!

Well, I'll hope for the best. The word "advanced" is ominous.

Lung cancer isn't what it used to be, but it's still tough as nails.

[Adam]

I wish him well, and I hope people show him more sympathy than he showed Michael J. Fox.

I knew it was coming. Leftists are utterly incapable of not trolling this.

And don't bother trying to deny that you were trolling, Norm. Everyone knows better. Die in a fire.

[Gingersnap]

I don't listen to the guy but I hope he does well. They have new genetic-targeted treatments now that show a lot of promise.

[Tom Servo]

I knew it was coming. Leftists are utterly incapable of not trolling this.

And don't bother trying to deny that you were trolling, Norm. Everyone knows better. Die in a fire.

Well, damn. I was going to make a joke about how this can't be fixed by buying pills off your housekeeper, but you took the wind out my sails.

Instead, I'll just say that it's good that he has at his access the best medical system on the planet, since he has all the money in the (radio) world.

[Billy Jingo]

I'll just say that it's good that he has at his access the best medical system on the planet ..

And he preaches the evangel that he uniquely deserves it.

[Frostbit]

Well, damn. I was going to make a joke about how this can't be fixed by buying pills off your housekeeper, but you took the wind out my sails.

Instead, I'll just say that it's good that he has at his access the best medical system on the planet, since he has all the money in the (radio) world.

Obsess much?

[Tom Servo]

Obsess much?

The man was in the right place at the right time and saw an opportunity to make a good living. Remember, before he became this national conservative talk radio figure, he was just a regular ol' deejay spinning tunes for minimum wage in Cape Girardeau. But after the FCC eliminated the Fairness Doctrine, he saw the wave of conservatism that helped get Reagan elected and moved into talk radio to take advantage of an audience that was previously underserved in broadcast media.

I haven't listened to his show in probably 25 years, but it was as much entertainment as it was a platform for conservative ideology, and that was a brilliant decision. Politics is boring, but he made it interesting. So many people owe their radio careers to him, like Laura Ingraham and Neal Boortz, people who are/were political-but-funny.

My point was, he's lucky that he got as wealthy as he did, because if he were still spinning records (due to a lack of talent, or due to a passion for the job) he'd only be making about $40,000 and might not even have health insurance depending on which station company he worked for. And we all know how well cheap insurance works in this country.

[Newman]

The man was in the right place at the right time and saw an opportunity to make a good living. Remember, before he became this national conservative talk radio figure, he was just a regular ol' deejay spinning tunes for minimum wage in Cape Girardeau. But after the FCC eliminated the Fairness Doctrine, he saw the wave of conservatism that helped get Reagan elected and moved into talk radio to take advantage of an audience that was previously underserved in broadcast media.

I haven't listened to his show in probably 25 years, but it was as much entertainment as it was a platform for conservative ideology, and that was a brilliant decision. Politics is boring, but he made it interesting. So many people owe their radio careers to him, like Laura Ingraham and Neal Boortz, people who are/were political-but-funny.

My point was, he's lucky that he got as wealthy as he did, because if he were still spinning records (due to a lack of talent, or due to a passion for the job) he'd only be making about $40,000 and might not even have health insurance depending on which station company he worked for. And we all know how well cheap insurance works in this country.

With all due respect, Tom, this persistent portrait by critics of Rush as the luckiest sap on the planet has misled a number of them into attempting to imitate him, and failing completely.

It's certainly true that most stellar successes are flecked with good luck; the same goes for seized opportunities. But being in the right spot at the right time would not turn me into Jeff Bezos. A slot in front of a camera at CNN won't turn Chelsea Clinton into Katie Couric, who I think "started" on CNN.

I listen to Rush when I can, which is not often, and political alignment is of course part of that, but you're right that "entertainment" is the greater part. I don't get most of it: he rambles through incomplete sentences and distracting asides as he manipulates the format, the time available, carved into various blocks, for an hour at a time.

He does this as deftly as a master chef assembling a complex, perfectly prepared dinner plate.

And what's more, he's practicing this thing three hours a day, five days a week, for what, thirty some years now?

If I had practiced the piano half as diligently over that length of time I'd play better than Bill Murray did in Groundhog Day. Hell, maybe I'd be half as good as I want to be.

Another aspect of this radio stuff brings to mind a host I barely knew, Arthur Godfrey. Godfrey was famous for his on-air folksiness, which image wilted a bit in light of his volatile personality off mike. But he shared the ability with Rush to seem casual, as if having a one-sided conversation with people you can't see, for hours a day, and have them keep listening, is as easy as pie.

If I try talking to my wife when I can't see her, I usually get a "What did you say?" if I'm lucky. I don't think even once in forty years has she said, "Y'know what I'd like to do? Just sit in in the next room and listen to you talk for an hour or two."

It's a lot like acting, really. The best stuff seems effortless, and certainly the audience is oblivious to the work of memorizing a script, while enjoying it.

By the way, I don't think Rush is a very good actor, per se. His slack-jawed look of "surprise" at the president's award during the SOTU was a hammy as it was false.

[Gingersnap]

If I try talking to my wife when I can't see her, I usually get a "What did you say?" if I'm lucky. I don't think even once in forty years has she said, "Y'know what I'd like to do? Just sit in in the next room and listen to you talk for an hour or two."

What an interesting take on this.

Mr. Snaps is finely educated, immensely well read, and quite the raconteur at parties. He also knows every witty or salacious joke developed in the past 50 years. I can handle him for about an hour over dinner but 3 hours a day, day after day at one shot, not so much.

That does take a different kind of talent.

I'm not a Rush fan since I've heard him so little but I'm aware that he fundamentally changed A.M. radio. When Air America happened, I made an effort to listen an hour a day. It soon became a chore. Not because the hosts opposed my own views but it simply wasn't entertaining, thought-provoking, or informative. Prager is my guy for talk. I overhear Ark to Midnight and sometimes find that guy very personable and interesting.

Not everybody has the talent to engage an audience for an extended period of time.

[Lanie]

I knew it was coming. Leftists are utterly incapable of not trolling this.

And don't bother trying to deny that you were trolling, Norm. Everyone knows better. Die in a fire.

Okay, so I did say on FB how it was wrong to do pre-grave dancing. Not that this is what Norm was doing. I hope he does get better or at least has eased suffering.


But die in a fire? Adam, I say this as somebody who cares. Get help.