Mr. Limbaugh’s cultural influence has been questioned by some listeners and sponsors. Mr. Limbaugh was admonished by ESPN in 2003 for suggesting that the N.F.L. player Donovan McNabb was being praised because the media was “very desirous that a black quarterback do well.” He was also criticized for saying in 2009 that President Obama’s “entire economic program is reparations,” and for using the term “uppity-ism” in reference to Michelle Obama in 2011. And his show suffered in 2012 after he attacked Sandra Fluke, a law student whom he mocked as a “slut” and a “prostitute” after she spoke to a congressional hearing about birth control; many sponsors withdrew their advertising from the show in protest.
In 2008, Mr. Limbaugh signed a $400 million, eight-year deal with Premiere Radio Networks, among the most lucrative deals in radio at the time. He renewed his contract in 2016, promising his listeners four more years. And last month, Mr. Trump revealed at a rally that Mr. Limbaugh had signed another four-year contract, CNN Business reported.
In 2003, Mr. Limbaugh acknowledged an addiction to prescription painkillers and entered a rehabilitation center. He was arrested on prescription drug charges in 2006, but made a deal with prosecutors that spared him a trial. Mr. Limbaugh complained of chest pains in late 2009, but said testing at the time seemed inconclusive.
Mr. Limbaugh, who has said he started smoking cigarettes as a teenager but quit by the early 1980s, and who has often been photographed smoking a cigar, questioned the link between smoking and cancer in 2015.
Talkers, a trade publication covering talk radio, ranked Mr. Limbaugh the second most important radio host of 2019, after his fellow conservative commentator Sean Hannity.
“I wish I didn’t have to tell you this,” Mr. Limbaugh said of his cancer diagnosis on Monday. “And I thought about not telling anybody. I thought about trying to do this without anybody knowing, because I don’t like making things about me. But there are going to be days that I’m not going to be able to be here because I’m undergoing treatment or I’m reacting to treatment. And I know that that would inspire all kinds of curiosity, with people wondering what’s going on.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/business/media/rush-limbaugh-cancer.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
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