The Limbaugh Challenge

In a recent LA Times Op-Ed piece, conservative Andrew Klavan criticized the liberals who complained about Rush Limbaugh without ever having listened to his show. Klavan issued the “Limbaugh challenge”- to listen to the show an hour a day for several days. Four local liberals accepted the challenge- Marc Cooper of the USC Annenberg School for Communication, Laurie Ochoa of the LA Weekly, Norman Lear of People for the American Way, and civil rights attorney Constance L. Rice. Their response ran in the LAT Op-Ed page this past Sunday. From Marc Cooper:

I will grant Limbaugh one slim glimmer of genius. Unlike similar demagogues (I’m thinking of Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity), Limbaugh makes no claim to be a little-guy populist. Instead, he’s a perfect mouthpiece for the most elite portions of our society. He’s a virile defender of wealth, privilege and greed. The rather fabulous trick he pulls off is to attract millions of little-guy listeners and make them believe that their interests are somehow the same as those of the jillionaires Limbaugh idolizes and celebrates.

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