This is about as rapid a rise through the radio ranks as we have encountered in quite some time. Made all the more remarkable because it took place during the usually quiet Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season.

Just six weekends into his Saturday-Sunday KSCO AM 1080/KOMY AM 1340 weekend talk show Lieberman Live, San Francisco media blogger Rich Lieberman is shifting to weekday afternoons (1 p.m.-4 p.m. PT). There will be no programs this coming weekend as he prepares to launch the new, expanded KOMY version of The Rich Lieberman Show January 7.

“We really hit a home run with the program,” Lieberman tells FishbowlLA via telephone. “People reacted so strongly to the content and guests like Patrick Warburton and ex-San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, that the owner of KOMY, Michael Zwerling, decided to go ahead and make me a part of the station’s weekday schedule.”

“No one is being replaced,” he continues. “They’re just moving some stuff around to accommodate me and will continue to feature syndicated people like Rush Limbaugh, Phil Hendrie and Alan Colms.”

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Although the latest ratings have KFI AM 640 awash in market-dominating numbers, the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) is not giving up its fight against weekday personalities Rush Limbaugh, John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou.

In a recent telephone interview with rbr.com, organization president Alex Nogales called once more for Clear Channel to sack the hosts of “The John and Ken Show.” The NHMC has also shared a new video to support its ongoing efforts:

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Over the weekend, the impressive trio of Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinhem and fellow Women’s Media Center co-founder Robin Morgan published a CNN.com op ed entitled “FCC Should Clear Limbaugh From Airwaves.” They argued that for 20 years, radio host Rush Limbaugh has “hidden behind the First Amendment,” and that with his latest incendiary remarks, it’s time to finally do something dramatic about this subterfuge.

But James Hirsen, a law professor, best-selling author and media analyst, has a problem with the fact that Fonda’s name is in the byline. Writing today on newsmax.com, he argues that this is a clear case of the pot calling the talk radio kettle black:

Using Fonda in an effort to stifle free speech is a tactic that drips with Hollywood irony. Fonda is, of course, the individual who in July of 1972 made a celebrity stopover in Hanoi, and as our soldiers braved the battles of the Vietnam War, she sat with the enemy for a photo-op aboard an anti-aircraft gun.

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Following the very contentious recent on-air pronouncements of John Kobylt and Rush Limbaugh, this is the last thing KFI 640 AM management in Burbank want to be dealing with. But thanks to a bulletin from the Black Media Alliance, they will be.

At around 8:40 a.m. this morning, Bill Handel uttered the words “dumb ass women” while discussing Kansas’ new abortion law, House Bill 2598, which if passed, will require women to hear the fetal heartbeat before a procedure. As soon as he said it, colleague Gary Hoffman jumped in with the comment, “You just stepped into it once again… Whatever you just said is going to be taken so completely out of context…”

Not exactly. As far as the BMA is concerned, context is immaterial. Here’s the organization’s reaction statement:

The line was crossed yet again on Clear Channel’s number one radio station in the second largest media market in the country, Los Angeles’ KFI 640 AM. And again this “imaginary line” keeps being crossed at the expense of women.

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Not because we should or shouldn’t agree with it, but because we, as media professionals, ought to be fully informed on the issues we follow and report on. It’s unfair to our readers, listeners, and subjects when we distort the facts and spread misinformation, as Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly , Megyn Kelly, and so many others in the media have recently done.

In honor of International Women’s Day, let’s find out what Sandra Fluke actually said in her testimony before we start calling her names, talking about her sex life, or demanding to see her perform in pornography. Let’s celebrate this holiday by listening to a woman and accurately reporting on what she has to say, instead of calling her a slut and a prostitute because we may not share her beliefs. Because truth and accuracy is our moral and professional duty as journalists, and we owe it to the public to get our facts straight.

A video and transcript of Fluke’s testimony is included after the jump:

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• TVNewser: Keith Olbermann suspends his “Worst Person” segment in response to the Rush Limbaugh/Sandra Fluke controversy.
• GalleyCat: It’s National Proofreading Day! Celebrate by checking your grammar online.
• eBookNewser: The Justice Department is investigating eBook publishers for possible price-fixing.
• FishbowlNY: There’s plenty of corporate ladder-climbing going on at Vanity Fair.

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach has joined nearly 50 other companies in pulling their ads from “The Rush Limbaugh Show.” The Aquarium first announced their decision on Twitter and Facebook Wednesday morning:

More details from the Long Beach Press-Telegram:

Aquarium Communications Manager Claire Atkinson said the popular Long Beach attraction “did not specifically purchase ads on Rush Limbaugh’s show.”
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From the outset of the Rush Limbaugh controversy, more than a few members of the public have tweeted about what they perceive to be an egregious double standard. While the conservative talk show host is going down in flames, equally culpable folks perched at the other end of the TV-radio spectrum like Bill Maher get less overall flack. (Maher appears to have learned a thing or two from his Politically Incorrect ABC days by moving to a network with no advertisers.)

Over the weekend, Daily Beast columnist (and Fox News analyst) Kirsten Powers (pictured) picked up this strand with a vengeance. Starting with a rip-roaring first two paragraphs:

Did you know there is a war on women?

Yes, it’s true. Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Bill Maher, Matt Taibbi and Ed Schultz have been waging it for years with their misogynist outbursts. There have been boycotts by people on the left who are outraged that these guys still have jobs. Oh, wait. Sorry, that never happened.

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Pretty big target. But Jon Stewart‘s take on the latest Rush Limbaugh debacle was particularly good last night–not for its takedown of Rush, but for showing just how many media creatures have been saying the exact same things as Rush in recent weeks, in only slightly more politic terms.

AOL has become the latest company to officially drop its advertisements from Rush Limbaugh‘s syndicated radio show after the host called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” for speaking out in support of birth control on Capitol Hill.

“At AOL one of our core values is that we act with integrity,” said AOL spokeswoman Maureen Sullivan. “We have monitored the unfolding events and have determined that Mr. Limbaugh’s comments are not in line with our values. As a result we have made the decision to suspend advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Radio show.”

Limbaugh issued an apology for his statements over the weekend, saying that when he called fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute,” “[I]did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.”

Riiiiiiight.

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