Conservative news media icon Rush Limbaugh died on Wednesday, his family announced. Limbaugh’s wife, Kathryn, gave fans the news on Limbaugh’s own radio show. Limbaugh had been battling Stage IV lung cancer since January of 2020, and his passing was apparently due to that illness.
Limbaugh has wielded immense political influence for decades, primarily through his talk show, The Rush Limbaugh Show, which began in 1988. His commentary was unapologetically polarizing and slanted conservative even as the meaning of American conservatism shifted over the course of his three-decade career. According to a report by CBS News, President Donald Trump gave Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom just days after Limbaugh’s cancer diagnosis. It is the highest civilian honor an American can receive.
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“Rush Limbaugh: Thank you for your decades of tireless devotion to our country,” Trump said at the time. “Rush, in recognition of all that you have done for our nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to and inspire, and all of the incredible work that you have done for charity, I am proud to announce tonight that you will be receiving our country’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
Limbaugh’s radio show was syndicated on AM and FM radio stations, while his TV show aired from 1992 to 1996 on Fox News. He also wrote seven books, including two New York Times bestsellers. In the last few years, Limbaugh has been one of the highest-paid people in the media.
In all that content, Limbaugh has raised plenty of controversies as well. He had made numerous racist statements and generalizations over the years, including one infamous incident when he told a Black caller: “take that bone out of your nose and call me back.” He has also made homophobic statements and promoted conspiracy theories to justify bigotry for years.
Like so many of his colleagues, these early, politicized conspiracy theories led Limbaugh to promote more dangerous conspiracy theories in the years to follow. In 2010, he speculated on his show that “eco-terrorists” had deliberately caused the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, with no evidence whatsoever. In the years that followed, Limbaugh shared conspiracy theories about the murder of Black Lives Matter activist Heather Heyer, the 2018 mail bombing attacks on Democratic leaders and the Christchurch mosque shootings of March 2019.
His fourth wife, Kathryn, survives Limbaugh. He had no children with her or in any of his previous marriages.
