His voice has been heard for more than three decades on the airwaves in the United States. Famous radio host Rush Limbaugh has died aged 70, his family announced on Wednesday (February 17th). Last year, he announced that he was suffering from lung cancer.
“Rush Hudson Limbaugh III will forever be the greatest of all time, a brave and brilliant gentle giant”his wife Kathryn said in a statement posted on the host’s official Facebook page.
Rush Limbaugh was especially one of the figures of the conservative right. His influence was such that he was once called – with sarcasm – “Leader of the Republican Party” by the Democrats. He was also one of Donald Trump’s loyal supporters.
“He supported me from the start. [C’était] a great gentleman “, reacted the former president on Fox News. “He was a unique guy. He had extraordinary insight (…). Rush was convinced that we had won [l’élection présidentielle de 2020], and I am convinced of it as well. I believe we have won in a big way. “
A controversial figure, Rush Limbaugh has been repeatedly accused of spreading false information and conspiracy theories.
” And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, Ruuuuuush… Limbôôôôô! “ This war cry, carried over the airwaves, had found an audience in post-9/11 America more receptive than ever. At noon, every day of the week, the host kicked off, on more than 600 stations across the country, a three-hour program during which he distributed diatribes, admonitions, arrests, distribution of vouchers and bad points …
“I am the media”
A native of Cape Girardeau, a small town in Missouri, he made his radio debut at 17 as a disc jockey. In 1984, a radio station in Sacramento, California offered him its first talk show on current affairs. The model will make school and in a few years, he has established himself as the master of the genre.
His audience and his influence then continued to grow: in 1992, when senators tore each other over the Anita Hill affair, the young woman who accused a Supreme Court judge, Clarence Thomas, of sexual harassment, Mr Limbaugh reads a devastating article for her in Conservative magazine on air The American Spectator. The next day, the magazine snapped up. And Clarence Thomas, appointed the previous year by President Bush, is confirmed to his post by the Senate.
The Clinton couple will also provide him with a good target. Hillary Clinton is the paragon of these “Feminine Nazis” that he laughs at length of emission, and the escapades of the president are for him unexpected.
When, in 1994, the Republicans snatched victory in Congress, paralyzing Bill Clinton, political experts recognize the role of this champion of the populist right, who will then have largely contributed to the radicalization of the Republican Party and favored the rise of radical figures. like Newt Gingrich.
In 2001, with some 20 million listeners, he signed the biggest contract in radio history: $ 285 million for nine years of broadcasting. Before announcing a few months later to his astonished listeners that he suddenly became almost deaf.
But he continued despite this handicap: “I am part of the landscape of America, he explained to the New York Times. I speak to people directly, without going through the media. I am the media. “
In 2020, more than thirty years after his debut, the septuagenarian continued to scold the media, and pour out racist and homophobic remarks. Always with success: every day, 15.5 million people listened to it religiously. He received from Donald Trump in April the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the most important civil honor that can be bestowed on the United States.
