Law in Contemporary Society
I know it's not much, but here's a link to a reddit thread with a list of all the companies (along with contact information) that had ads on his show yesterday:

After every show, contact information for all of his advertisers for that show is readily available on reddit and all over the internet. A lot of companies have already pulled their ads under a lot of pressure from people complaining publicly, so if we keep filing complaints more and more advertisers will follow and Rush's empire will topple. Again, just posting this list isn't much, but maybe it's a start?

-- JohnBarker - 06 Mar 2012

John, thanks for this list. As we talked about Sandra Fluke in class I couldn't help but feel the irony in advertisers now starting to pull their ads from Limbaugh's show. This clearly isn't the first time Limbaugh has made hateful comments towards women or other minority groups. The recent events following Limbaugh's attack on Fluke are refreshing because it shows that this country can take only so much of someones hate filled messages. But as Limbaugh has been known for years to attack other groups of people, I can't help but ask, what took so long?

-- AbiolaFasehun - 08 Mar 2012

But I wouldn't consider the moves by these advertisers as a game changer, Abby. Corporate America is always really quick to react and disassociate themselves from the whatever the controversy is at the time, but as soon as the smoke clears, they always come back. My view is that Limbaugh will turn out just like Tiger Woods in that Woods lost all these sponsors after his scandal but just last year after he began competing again, he gained back some of his corporate sponsors. I would like to think it would be different since like you said it's not the first time that he's made hateful remarks against minority groups. I'm sorry to be a pessimist, but I don't think Limbaugh is having a hard time sleeping in the wake of this mess.

-- LizzieGomez - 08 Mar 2012

Why is organizing such a dirty word? Is it just too hard to do? Is our generation better at mobilizing for "Hope" than against attacks on women?

I've had "causes" here and there, but I cannot claim to be a die-hard activist for anything. This is a scary thought: if a lawyer is to be an advocate, then why not an activist? Why aren't students at CLS, like me, more moved to do something if that's what they've supposedly dedicated their careers (and $250K) to doing?

Anyways, I can identify four simple things here:

1. Women make up half of this country. 2. Limbaugh needs advertiser money to survive. 3. Everyone, including shareholders and executives, cares about some woman somewhere. 4. You and I consume things every day.

If reaching out to companies that sponsor Limbaugh's show, voicing dismay that their company would finance a man who defames a woman, does not work, speaking with money generally does. Would the threat of American women boycotting a company send a message? Companies like AOL, Allstate, Sears, Citrix, and Legal Zoom got the message pretty quickly. I bet they all must have some women on their board of directors. Or fathers, or brothers.

Aside from scheming of a social media backlash and somehow boycotting an outdated internet service, there are legal avenues of remedy. The FCC, which "regulates interstate communications by radio," welcomes consumers to file complaints. Consumers can file informal complaints through the internet for, among many things, "unfair, biased, illegal broadcasts." I am not sure how much traffic FCC's website can handle, but I imagine that if enough people file complaints in a day, it would catch encourage the FCC to act. By the way, the chief of the Enforcement Bureau that handles complaints at the FCC is a female African-American lawyer.

Secondly, if the FCC does not respond to an informal complaint satisfactorily, the next step would be filing a "formal complaint." From what I can gather, it seems like an administrative court proceeding. Wouldn't this be a great project for advocate-activist-law students?

All of the FCC information can be found at this (surprisingly) snazzy government website:

Any takers for a mass-FCC-complaint movement?

-- ArleneOrtizLeytte

[Added Arlene's signature to distinguish posts- Shaked on 22 March 2012]

I actually really dislike it when advertisers pull from controversial programs. This is perhaps especially true when it's someone like Rush Limbaugh, who's schtick has been around for years and who has said far worse in the past. Certainly his sponsors could not have been surprised that he'd say something obnoxious.

Corporate pressure and political correctness is one of the ways in which free speech is severely restricted in our culture. Limbaugh may be an odious bully, but unpopular speech is the kind that has to be protected; popular speech rarely needs defenders.

For more on this see this clip from Bill Maher's show. Also see Bill Maher's op/ed in today's NY Times, "Please Stop Apologizing."

-- ShakedSivan- 22 Mar 2012


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r8 - 22 Jan 2013 - 18:07:48 - IanSullivan
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