User Reviews

Nothing but enemies of Rush Limbaugh on this show. Liberals who wrote books about him. It would be ok but that's all they had. Not an opposing opinion. Take this guy Jeff Cohen for example. Never in his life (according to him) had he heard of Rush, but he knew within 20 minutes of listening he was one of the biggest charlatans in the history of talk radio. Direct quote-

"My name is Jeff Cohen. I founded the media watch group Fair that debunked and documented Rush Limbaugh's reign of error. I remember the first time i heard Limbaugh I was in a cab in NYC and I was in that cab for about 20 minutes. In the first 20 minutes I said this is one of the biggest charlatans in the history of talk radio"

These are the kind of people they found for this show. Even on this app, where I'd assume most people are liberals, it's a 4.7. Even they know it's a one sided opinion on one of, if not the biggest talk show host in history.

"The Rise of Rush Limbaugh" chronicles how relatively affluent (I learned) radio enthusiast Rush Hudson Limbaugh became the popular defining voice of Conservative politics throughout the '90s, whose influence continues to this day. From his humble ambition to be a top-40 DJ to one of the most successful talk radio hosts ever, we see what made Rush tick and how various audiences responded to him over the course of his 30+ year career. Most of the talking heads in this episode are anti-Rush (this is DARK side of the '90s, after all), so as the rare Liberal who religiously listened to Rush from my teens to early twenties (even getting on the air three times) let me say this:

I found this episode mostly accurate, with two noteworthy exceptions: 1) Rush's most frequent enemy was the media more than Clinton, which Rush saw as just Left wing propaganda, and 2) Rush's racism. While I do think Rush was a racist and hateful person, I also think that he and most Dittoheads would argue that it wasn't overt, which it wasn't. They'd likely argue that his call screener, James "Bo Snerdly" Golden was Black and that Limbaugh loved Clarence Thomas and other Conservative African Americans. I however, think that most white people, like Rush, don't believe in unconscious racism. This is why I think Rush didn't see the racism inherent in criticizing Donovan McNabb in terms of his race, or describing the NFL as a battle between the Bloods and Crips (as this episode points out). To me, this is the heart of our race problem in this country, and I fear most Conservatives will criticize this episode based mostly on that and the lack of many voices speaking out on Rush's behalf.

That said, I do think Rush was good at what he did (even though what he did wasn't very good), and I feel like this episode of "Dark Side of the '90s" was itself good at captured that. Most importantly, I think it shows that what he unleashed on our society is undeniable, and if it bothers you as much as it bothers me, a very dark side of the '90s.