I have been reading political sites since the Supreme Court gave "W' the Presidency. Had a membership here at DU but lost the password and the email I used at that time. I also have been a frequent reader of Freeperville but only to see what the other side has to say. Knowing the opposition and their arguments is helpful. I have watched their many purges and marveled at the mind set of the echo chamber.
The best thread to scan on a busy day was (and still is) the daily Rush Limbaugh thread. It has been running as long as I have been browsing their site. The usual suspects post almost everyday and although they may disagree on some trival matters, they are for the most part hard core tea party, bible toting, gun toting 'patriots' that hate 'librulls' and 'gubermint' .
The change in the last year has been dramatic. Rush was already losing audience if gauged by the number of posts on the thread.
In the early 2000's an average day was around 300 replies. It was dropping like a stone to less than 40 most days over the last year until as expected, the primaries started.
The posting is back up, over 200-300 a day on the thread but the biggest change is the tone.
Even six months ago, ANYONE saying anything 'anti-Rushb' would be admonished, ridiculed, stoned, etc.
Now, the inmates have taken over. 90% of the comments are anti-Rush. He is viewed as a shill for the GOP elite.
His grumpiness and hostility towards the audience is also mentioned and wondered about... They have yet to realize what the news has covered. Iheart Media, owner of IHeart Radio, formemly ClearChannel, is in debt 20 BILLION dollars. This after Bain Captial with a partner, made a leveraged buy-out of ClearChannel in 2008. Their creditors have them in court for allegedly transferring money in preparation to default, and bankruptcy is the only way out. This matters because Rush's 500 million dollar 8 year contract is up this summer with IHeart. There is no way Rush will get anywhere near that amount from them, nor will anyone else give him 50 million a year anymore. Facing a major pay cut and/or unplanned retirement, Rush of course is grumpy and hating his graying audience.
Full Disclosure: I have only listened to Rush live one time during the last 15 years. Couldn't take it.
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