HILO — A Hilo radio station appears to be the first in the nation to cancel the Rush Limbaugh show in response to his personal attack on a woman who said her college’s health plan should pay for contraception.
HILO — A Hilo radio station appears to be the first in the nation to cancel the Rush Limbaugh show in response to his personal attack on a woman who said her college’s health plan should pay for contraception.
KPUA-AM 670 dropped the nationally syndicated program Monday. Chris Leonard, president and general manager of New West Broadcasting, called Limbaugh’s comments about Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke “egregious.” He added that his decision to cancel the conservative commentator’s show was “in some regards, an easy one, in other regards, a difficult one.”
“This wasn’t framed in political terms,” Leonard said Monday. “Our decision was based on decency and responsibility, and regardless of your views on the issue, his comments were well over the line. It’s a program that we’ve carried for a long time and I know there are a lot of people out there who listen to the program on a regular basis.”
Leonard said he’s received phone calls from numerous national media outlets and “well over a thousand” emails about the cancellation.
“Apparently we were the first in the country to cancel and it has generated a fair amount of national attention, which was certainly not our intent, and we have received a ton of feedback on both sides of the issue over the past several hours,” he noted. “We’ve heard a lot from Rush listeners who are disappointed in our decision and we’ve also heard from a lot of people who are very happy about the decision.”