Rush Limbaugh, like Donald Trump, is a polarizing figure. Either you loved him, or you hated him.
There is no common ground.
Limbaugh and Trump both gained prominence by catering to the religious
right, Limbaugh, more than
anyone, coarsened American political discourse, paved the way for the rise of
conservative populism, and fed the rawness of the culture wars, which are the
nightly fare offered by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.
Jonathan Chait, writing at New York magazine, captured the
repugnant essence of Limbaugh's appeal:
Limbaugh oozed bile. He did not merely characterize his
targets as misguided, or stupid, or even selfish. He rendered them for his
audience as dehumanized targets of rage. He had special rage for feminist
women, who were castrating harpies, and Black people, who were lazy,
intellectually unqualified, and inherently criminal. The message he pounded
home day after day was that minorities and women were seizing status and
resources from white people and men, and that politics was a zero-sum struggle
— and the victory would go to whichever side fought more viciously.
There
is no denying that Limbaugh had a certain genius, but originality was not a
part of that genius. He publicized conspiracy theories about the Clintons the
way Oliver Stone publicized conspiracy theories about the assassination of JFK.
He demeaned Blacks the way Fr. Charles Coughlin demeaned Jews. He advocated for
states' rights the way George Wallace and John Calhoun had advocated for
states' rights. Limbaugh liked to bemoan others as thugs, but he and his
pedigree damn near cornered the market on thuggery.
Why was Limbaugh successful where Coughlin and McCarthy had failed? In part, because his rise in shock jock radio coincided largely with the rise of the religious right in politics. In this great free country of ours, people can believe and worship as they wish. But bringing millions of voters who think dinosaurs walked the earth a few thousand years ago (until they failed to get a ticket on Noah's Ark and were wiped out by the great flood) into the political mainstream introduced a capacity for credulity without which it is hard to imagine Trump getting away with his lies about building a border wall and making Mexico pay for it. Or Sen. Mitch McConnell's backflip on confirming Supreme Court justices in an election year. Or the Texas Republican lies about the loss of power in their state being the result of windmills freezing.
Limbaugh often said that he embodied talent on loan from God – and his listeners (all 62,000,000 million of them) believed him.
Rush
was on the air for 50 years, staring in 1971, but the seminal Rush Limbaugh
Show, debuted in 1988. He also hosted a television show from 1992 to 1996.
However, he was not the first broadcast celebrity to have talent “on loan from
God” The person that best fits that definition if the Reverend Fulton J. Sheen.
Fulton John Sheen (born Peter John Sheen, May 8, 1895 – December 9, 1979) was an American bishop (later archbishop) of the Catholic Church known for his preaching and especially his work on television and radio. Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in 1919, Sheen quickly became a renowned theologian, earning the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923. He went on to teach theology and philosophy at the Catholic University of America as well as acting as a parish priest before being appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1951. He held this position until 1966 when he was made the Bishop of Rochester
. He resigned in 1969 as his 75th birthday
approached, and was made the Archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_J._Sheen
For 20 years as Father Sheen, later Monsignor, he hosted the night-time radio program The Catholic Hour on NBC (1930–1950) before moving to television and presenting Life Is Worth Living (1952–1957). Sheen's final presenting role was on the syndicated The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–1968) with a format very similar to that of the earlier Life is Worth Living show. For this work, Sheen twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine Starting in 2009, his shows were being re-broadcast on the EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) and the Trinity Broadcasting Network's Church Channel cable networks. Due to his contribution to televised preaching, Sheen is often referred to as one of the first televangelists.
The cause for his canonization was officially opened in
2002. In June 2012, Pope Benedict XVI officially recognized a
decree from the Congregation
for the Causes of Saints stating that he lived a life of "heroic virtues" – a major step towards beatification –
and he is now referred to as "Venerable." On July 5, 2019, Pope Francis approved a miracle that
occurred through the intercession of Archbishop Sheen, clearing the way for his
beatification. Sheen was scheduled to be beatified in Peoria on December
21, 2019, but the beatification was postponed after the
current bishop of Rochester expressed concern that Sheen's handling of a 1963
sexual misconduct case against a priest might be cited unfavorably in a
forthcoming report from the New York Attorney General. The Diocese of Peoria
countered that Sheen's handling of the case had already been "thoroughly
examined" and "exonerated" and that Sheen had "never put
children in harm's way."
Bishop Sheen actually had more weekly listeners than Rush
Limbaugh – an estimated 30,000,000 people.
What forced Bishop Sheen of the air, at the peak of his popularity,
was some skullduggery on the part of the Archbishop of New York, Francis Joseph
Spellman.
In the late 1950s, the government
donated millions of dollars' worth of powdered milk to the New York
Archdiocese. In turn, Cardinal Spellman handed that milk over to the Society
for the Propagation of the Faith to distribute to the poor of the world. On
at least one occasion, he demanded that the director of the Society, Bishop
Sheen, pay the Archdiocese for the donated milk. He wanted millions
of dollars. Despite Cardinal Spellman's considerable powers of persuasion and
influence in Rome, Sheen refused. These were funds donated by the
public to the missions, funds Sheen himself had personally contributed to and
raised over the airwaves. He felt an obligation to protect them, even from the
itchy fingers of his own Cardinal.
Spellman later took the issue
directly to Pope Pius XII,
pleading his case with Sheen present. The Pope sided with Sheen. Spellman later
confronted Sheen, stating, "I will get even with you. It may take six
months or ten years, but everyone will know what you are like." Besides
being pressured to leave television, Sheen also "found himself unwelcome
in the churches of New York City. Spellman canceled Sheen's annual Good
Friday sermons at St.
Patrick's Cathedral and discouraged clergy from befriending the
Bishop. In 1966, Spellman had Sheen reassigned to Rochester, New York, and
caused his leadership at the Society for the Propagation of the Faith to be
terminated (a position he had held for 16 years and raised hundreds of millions
of dollars for, to which he had personally donated US$10
million of his earnings). On December 2, 1967, Spellman died in New York City.
Sheen never talked about the
situation, only making vague references to his "trials both inside and
outside the Church." He
even went so far as to praise Spellman in his autobiography.
Officially, Bishop Sheen would likely
be classified as a conservative preacher, but his ideology really is not
important. Whether you agree with his views or not, the fact remains that he
was a hugely entertaining television personality, and would still be fun to
watch today.
As a matter of fact, you CAN still
watch him today.
The official repository of Sheen's
papers, television programs, and other materials is at St.
Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry in Rochester, New York.
Joseph Campanella introduced the reruns
of Sheen's various programs that are aired on EWTN. Reruns are also aired on
Trinity Broadcasting Network. In addition to his television appearances, Sheen
can even be heard on Relevant Radio. However, you can pretty much find
whatever you like on YouTube. The clip below, in particular, is worth watching,
since it literally predicts the events of today.
Bishop
Fulton Sheen Predicts 2020 - Bing video
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