A columnist in The Atlantic takes Rush Limbaugh to task today for insensitive comments about race. Conor Friedersdorf writes under the headline, The GOP Must Choose: Rush Limbaugh or Minority Voters. Friedersdorf writes, "talk like [Limbaugh's] never ceases to amaze me with its incredible lack of self-awareness." He includes a lengthy list of complaints about Limbaugh's transgressions; I'll include the first three here:

1) Stop saying things like, "Why doesn't the Republican Party get credit for Condoleezza Rice?"

2) Stop the shameless race-baiting, like telling listeners, "Obama's America, white kids getting beat up on school buses now. You put your kids on a school bus, you expect safety but in Obama's America the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, 'Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on,' and, of course, everybody says the white kid deserved it, he was born a racist, he's white."

3) Understand that when you commission a song called "Barack the Magic Negro" for your radio show, the average black person is going to take offense. And that if you pretend to be surprised when they do take offense, no one will believe you.

  —Conor Friedersdorf: The GOP Must Choose: Rush Limbaugh or Minority Voters, November 9, 2012

Condoleezza Rice might agree with Conor Friedersdorf; she has just stated that the GOP sent "mixed messages" in the election campaign on immigration and women's issues.

Rush seems undeterred by all of the criticism. Yesterday Rush had a bilingual Hispanic caller who said she was a marketing consultant for the Hispanic market. She had offered to help the Romney campaign get their message out to the Hispanic community, but they never returned her calls.

Rush mentions during the call that he is considering having a Spanish language version of his radio talk show produced. If this call is any indication, he'll need to invest in a translator with censorship skills if he ever mentions his hoped-for audience.

Here's a partial transcript:

     
RUSH: Okay, what would you...? Let's cut to the chase? What would you have told them, had they taken your call?

CALLER: I would have told them — and it's very simple — there's three things, basically, for a Hispanic. In the United States, we have different Hispanics. The Cuban, the Mexican, the people that come from South America.

RUSH: Yeah. You know, I had a sneaking suspicion you were gonna go there.

CALLER: All of that.

RUSH: And I have a sneaking suspicion that the Cubans are not all that popular, are they?

CALLER: (laughing) Uh...

RUSH: They're not, are they? And why aren't the Cubans popular in the overall Hispanic group?

CALLER: Because unfortunately for the Hispanic population, they're all different, and they all have their different local customs, and they're very protective of it. Eventually —

RUSH: Isn't it, Sylvia...? Isn't there a...? I'll whisper this so nobody else hears.

CALLER: (laughing)

RUSH: Isn't there a (whisper) "racial" component to this? The Cubans are not, you know, I mean —

CALLER: A lot of times — and I'll be very frank and honest with you knowing all of the markets that I know — the very society that's very... They're very close to their Cuban roots, and I know some of the older-population Cubanos eventually want to go back to Cuba and they don't want to let it go.

RUSH: Well, but the Republicans get a large part of the Cuban vote, particularly in south Florida already. It's oriented... (sigh) I can't win here.

CALLER: (giggling)

RUSH: I just can't win. It's oriented... The reason that the Cubans are not that popular of the Hispanic divisions you've talked about it's because it's a race thing.

CALLER: Yes, it is!

RUSH: It's a race thing. They're just not quite dark, as dark, and they're oriented toward work.

CALLER: No, the thing that we — and I'm gonna say "we," collectively. The thing that we all have in common is Spanish, and that is something that we're very proud that we can speak a second language. It's helped me in my career.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: And I think that it probably would have helped the Republican Party to have a consultant tell them about the different markets, because they make up a huge market.

RUSH: Yeah, you know something? I have thought, I have really thought that, at some point, we should do a Spanish translation of this program. I think she's on to something there. [emphasis added]

  —Rush Limbaugh: Do We Need El Rushbo En Español?, November 8, 2012

Media Matters For America has the audio.
Media Matters also has audio of Rush accidentally referring to Hispanic voters as "illegal immigrants". Limbaugh's transcript omitted the slip-up.

The Flush Rush group on Facebook gained 433 new members yesterday.

In other news, CBS has three radio stations that carry Rush — St. Louis, Las Vegas, and Hartford. I thought it was of interest that CBS has just reported radio revenue is down five percent. Could be a relationship, since radio industry analyst Norm Pattiz has reported ad revenues down as much as fifty percent in some markets due to Rush.

     
Rush Limbaugh's talk radio career is in a slow downward spiral in part because of the activism of consumers, volunteers, and activists who seek to hold Rush accountable for his hate speech. One very active group in this cause is Flush Rush on Facebook. Flush Rush and other, similar groups use the StopRush Database to inform advertisers about where their ads are appearing.

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