Almost three months after conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh called a Georgetown law school student a “slut” for her support of the administration’s contraception coverage rule, his ratings have dropped in some media markets, reports Politico.
The conservative radio host’s ratings fell 27 percent in the key 25-54 demo in New York City, 31 percent in Houston-Galveston, 40 percent in Seattle-Tacoma, and 35 percent in Jacksonville, according to a selection of the March 29-April 25 Arbitron ratings provided by an industry source.
And while some told Politico the decline is due to fallout over the Fluke controversy, others say that the recent drop is actually a leveling after the controversy boosted listenership earlier this year. After Limbaugh’s incendiary comments, his ratings actually went up as much as 60 percent the following month.
“The most likely reason for these shifts is that Limbaugh talked about Sandra Fluke at the beginning of March, so it brought in a lot of non-regular listeners,” one radio insider told me. “Now that the issue has more or less passed, those people aren’t listening anymore.”
