Maureen Dowd does a great job of summing up Rush Limbaugh. In this case, she describes the comments that he made about a female law student who testified at a congressional hearing on the issue of insurance coverage for oral contraceptives. He called her a slut by describing the payments for contraceptives as payment for sex. He also claimed that the US taxpayers are the Johns because they are paying for her sex. In this case, Limbaugh may have gone to far. Several advertisers, who don't like being associated with publicity that may be bad for business, have cancelled their ads on his talk radio show.
Limbaugh's talk radio show is all about making outrageous comments that appeal to a large audience that shares many of his social and political fantasies. In this case, his comments appeal to anti-feminists, which includes many of the men and women who feed on his commentary. His comments also appeal to those who view government as their enemy, and to those who love to hate the Obama administration. Unfortunately, this is a big audience and our market system rewards him very well for stirring up hatred. His audience is making rational decisions about the information that it consumes and Limbaugh earns millions because of their rational decisions. The revenues from advertisers that flow to Limbaugh's employer contribute to GDP and the public welfare. Each of his listeners is maximizing his/her utility by listening to Limbaugh stir hatred. They don't even have to pay for it. They get a daily diet of this from Limbaugh that is paid for by advertisers.
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