Rush Limbaugh, the influential, controversial radio host who forever changed the way in which United States politics interacts with and is influenced by the media, died on Wednesday, February 17, 2021, of lung cancer. Per Forbes, when Limbaugh launched his syndicated conservative radio program, The Rush Limbaugh Show, in 1988, the format of “talk radio” in which a host discusses current events and encourages listeners to call in and share their thoughts, was a “relatively new medium.” 

As of December 2020, Limbaugh remained the most listened to talk show host in the U.S. with an estimated weekly average of 15.5 million listeners, as reported by Talkers. Limbaugh’s enormous influence on conservative politics was first highlighted in 1992 when, according to the Washington Post, then-President George H.W. Bush invited Limbaugh for an overnight stay at the White House and was reportedly seen carrying Limbaugh’s bags inside himself. Limbaugh later reported: “The president never once asked me about the views of my listeners [or callers] … He did, however, ask me for my views on a few things.” 

In November 1993, Time magazine featured Rush Limbaugh and “shock jock” Howard Stern on their cover, reported Forbes, noting that at that point Limbaugh’s “confrontational and often crude style” was well-known, including his habits of “referring to feminists as ‘feminazis’ and his obsequious fans as ‘dittoheads.'” Limbaugh was also notoriously racist, once laughing at a caller who compared then-presidential candidate Barack Obama to Curious George, the famous monkey from children’s books and television.

All that talk paid off

Drew Angerer/Getty Images