Anti-Rush Limbaugh Ads Headed For Radio (Video)

The progressive group Media Matters for America is stepping up its campaign against Rush Limbaugh in an unprecedented way: buying radio ads that attack the host and the stations that air his show.

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For a week and a half, the group said it will spend at least $100,000 to air ads, which begin airing Friday in Macon, Ga., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Louis.

The ads use audio of Limbaugh's infamous “slut” and “prostitute” description of reproductive-rights advocate Sandra Fluke.

“If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want you to post the videos online,” Limbaugh is heard saying in one ad.

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In another ad, Limbaugh says: “She’s having so much sex she’s going broke buying contraceptives and wants us to buy them -- it makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex."

Both ads are below.

The “community service announcements,” as Media Matters is calling them, also encourage listeners to phone the local radio stations that carry Limbaugh’s show, and the number is provided three times in one ad.

“Pick up the phone and tell WLS, ‘We don’t talk about women like that in Chicago,” says a voiceover in an ad set to air in Chicago on a station that competes with WLS-890 AM.

Some of the ads will run on talk shows and some on music stations, a spokeswoman for Media Matters said.

A phone call placed to WLS via the number provided by the ad went to a recorded message at the switchboard, where callers are advised to register complaints via written letter. An option that allows for suggestions via voicemail leads to an announcement by program director Drew Hayes that informs callers that any messages they leave may be “recorded and aired.”

“You can imagine we’re getting quite a few calls,” Hayes says on the recording.

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WLS, though, didn't return calls seeking comment about the Media Matters ads.

Limbaugh's partner, Premiere Radio Networks, issued a statement Thursday saying that the ads are “part of an organized political campaign by professional special-interest groups being waged to silence Rush Limbaugh and intimidate those who want to advertise on his show.”

“This is not about women,” the statement reads. “It’s not about ethics and it’s not about the nature of our public discourse – it’s about a direct attack on America’s guaranteed First Amendment right to free speech. It’s essentially a call for censorship masquerading as high-minded indignation.”

Meanwhile, the right is continuing to point out what it perceives as left-wing hypocrisy, whereby those who criticize conservatives for inappropriate language are held to a lesser standard when it comes to their own behavior. The latest example used Thursday comes from a little-known thrash-metal band called Detente, which posted a song online a year ago called Kill Rush, which makes the argument -- loudly -- that Limbaugh should be killed for using hateful language.

Thanks to links from Breitbart.com and the Drudge Report, the song was getting plenty of attention on Thursday, but listeners didn't seem to like what they heard.

One jokester summed it up thusly: “This is much better than I thought it would be. Here I thought they were going to call someone a slut!”

Hear the song below.

Email: paul.bond@thr.com