From: eyc@acpub.duke.edu (EMIL CHUCK)
Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Re: A Critique of the Rush Limbaugh Show
Date: 23 Jan 93 04:54:49 GMT
Organization: Duke University; Durham, N.C.

cb926@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Edmund Joseph Ryan) writes:
!Rush centers around a set number of issues and rarely variates.
!He focuses strictly on issues regarding personal liberties such
!as abortion. He never engage the audience in an issue that the
!news does not cover. He rarely ever takes up a cause and pushes
!it. 
!
!I have virtually no idea how he stands on economic liberties.
!The only thing I know is that he wants less taxes. But he 
!never says where to cut. He as at times criticized social
!security and other government programs but mentions them
!briefly. 
!
!He never criticizes Republicans and apparently never wants
!to. The reason why he never discuses economic liberties in
!depth is he'd probably find the Republicans are just as
!guilty as the Democrats in promoting big government.

I guess you didn't hear Rush when he was concerned about the overplaying
of the "family values" issue during the summer. He criticized Dan Quayle
for saying that successful police work is successful because of 
strong family values. (Something to the effect of) "Hey, wait.
Successful police work means getting the bad guys!"

!Certain issues that I believe he has not covered:
!-- Attempt to break up Microsoft
!-- Attempts at stopping British Air from buying US Air

I think Rush did talk about this situation in the fall.
Unfortunately, I'll have to wait until the indices for the summaries
are typed up into the FTP site (128.174.53.10).

!-- Bush administration's import tax on French wine

I thought he covered this too, but I can't recall. I know there was a
lot of discussion in this forum.
 
!-- Measures in NAFTA that don't make it free trade
!-- Sen. Simpson's legislation to make hiring illegals illegal
!-- Govt. subsidies championed by both Republicans and Democrats
!
!If he would deal with these issues, his show would no longer
!be an ad for the Republican Party. Rush only deals with an
!extremely narrow portion of the news and plugs himself as
!presenting the whole picture.
!
!On the whole, his show at times seems...glib. He only
!covers the surface of politics rather than its innards.

One major reason is he covers what's mainly on front page news (whereas
his updates are pretty fun asides) is that way he can maximize his
audience and connect with them. I certainly don't understand every
single item in every resolution brought to the House or Senate floors,
nor do I feel like Rush should get himself involved in a national
discussion about cafeteria service at Duke, or the French farmers' fears
of European unity.

On the other hand, if the audience wants him to talk more about the
issues you enumerated, they will call him (esp on "Open Line Fridays")
and discuss these issues and let him talk about this. Today he had an
outstanding call from a man who works at HP, and they talked a lot about
international economic competitiveness and American jobs. He won't talk
about it unless he feels that's what his audience wants to talk about.
-- 
Emil Thomas Chuck	eyc@acpub.duke.edu	BSE in BME in 1993
"You just can't promise something like that just to get elected if you
 know there's a good chance that circumstances may overtake you."
	- Bill Clinton, East Lansing MI debate, Mon Oct 19 1992
Newsgroups: alt.rush-limbaugh,talk.abortion