Rush Limbaugh loses more sponsors after his ‘slut’ statement; apologizes
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh continues to lose sponsors after his verbal assault on a Georgetown student named Sandra Fluke when she asked the university for free birth control.
The 61-year-old radio host, known for his pompous, hard-right commentary, has now lost a total of nine sponsors for “The Rush Limbaugh Radio Show” after calling Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” on air last week when she testified before the House of Representatives on why birth control should be made freely available. Tax Resolutions and Internet giant AOL pulled their ads from his show on Monday, following the mass retreat of sponsors ProFlowers, Legal Zoom and Citrix Systems over the weekend.
The web company of AOL released a statement on their Facebook page in accordance to the insult of Rush Limbaugh on Sandra Fluke: “At AOL, one of our core values is that we act with integrity. We have monitored the unfolding events and have determined that Mr. Limbaugh’s comments are not in line with our values. As a result we have made the decision to suspend advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Radio show.”
One of the sponsors, Tax Resolutions, also announced their decision to pull out on Twitter, writing, “Thank you for your concerns. We have decided to join other advertisers and suspend our sponsorship of The Rush Limbaugh Show.”
On Friday, bedding companies Sleep Train and Sleep Number, as well as Quicken Loans and the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, also pulled out their advertising.
The mass exit of sponsors continue despite the issued apology of Rush Limbaugh, which he posted on his website on Saturday after continuing his assault on Thursday and Friday, when he said that Sandra Fluke was “having so much sex she can’t pay for it” and that women who want insurance plans to cover their birth control should post videos of themselves having sex online.
“For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week,” Limbaugh wrote regarding the Sandra Fluke incident. “In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Sandra Fluke.”