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WND's 2013 Person of the Year: Rush Limbaugh
'Unlike Nancy Pelosi, I didn't have to read my book to find out what's in it'
WND
Joe Kovacs
12/22/2013
Excerpt:
PALM BEACH, Fla. – On any given weekday, the 62-year-old man sits in a chair in a South Florida radio studio, surrounded by computer monitors displaying news sites such as the Drudge Report.
He has a “stack of stuff,” which is merely a pile of printed-out news reports about events and issues he wishes to talk about, beginning at six minutes past noon, Eastern Time.
As the musical introduction of his show begins, the opening drum and guitar combination from the Pretenders’ classic “My City Was Gone” pounds out a classic 1980s bass riff, which, save for a Cochlear implant, the host would not be able to hear since losing his natural auditory sense years ago.
He then switches on the in-studio video known as the Dittocam and leans into a golden-colored microphone to address the largest radio audience in America, an estimated 15 to 20 million people each week.
And though he tells you what is happening in the news as well as what to think about it from the right side of the U.S. political spectrum with half his brain tied behind his back just to make it fair, none of this has anything to do with why Rush Limbaugh has been named WND’s 2013 Person of the Year.
To put it simply, 2013 is a history-making year for the broadcast giant. Perhaps another, more accurate, way to phrase that is 2013 is a history-celebrating year for Rush.
The radio raconteur who goes by a variety of nicknames including the “doctor of democracy,” “America’s truth detector,” and “harmless, lovable little fuzzball,” has accomplished something that could have a massive and positive ripple effect on generations of future Americans.
In the style of “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling, Limbaugh has commenced a fascinating journey through time to accurately dramatize the founding of the United States for the nation’s children and stop, as he puts it, “the bastardization of American history as taught throughout America today.”
He has written and voiced a book titled “Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims,” telling the story of the Pilgrims’ voyage from Europe to the New World in the early 17th century.
Not only did the book skyrocket to an instant No. 1 bestseller on Amazon.com, it has already become a sensation among youngsters across the fruited plain, and not just the 10-to-13 targeted age group. Countless children of all ages are reading the printed book or listening to the 4-and-a-half hours of audio on CDs. Many are flooding the characters of the book – both the fictional ones and real, historical figures – with fan mail.
Birth of a national phenomenon
It has been two decades since Limbaugh, the perceived savior of AM radio who is now heard on nearly 600 stations, put his ink into books when he wrote the runaway bestsellers “The Way Things Ought to Be” and “See, I Told You So” which have sold more than 8.9 million copies.
During that time, many people have been encouraging, even pestering, him to pen another work.
Among them was Limbaugh’s personal friend Vince Flynn, the famed author of political thrillers who died in June after a three-year bout with prostate cancer.
“Come on, Rushbo!” Flynn kept urging Limbaugh. “Come on, Rushbo! This is it. This is the time. You’ve gotta get it out for the next election.”
But Limbaugh felt like he’s been there and done that, and told Flynn, “Vince, I’ve done it. I mean, the book market is just jammed. Everybody’s writing books these days, and my so-called conservative manifestos are out.”
Rush says Flynn was relentless in pushing him on a new book, and continually tried to spark the fire.
“And on one of those occasions, Kathryn, my wife, had an idea that really lit the fire and then brought everything Vince was trying to get me to do into culmination,” Limbaugh said.
He remembers how Kathryn had said, “Look, you have expressed your concern over what’s happened to elementary education. Well, all of education, but particularly young people. Why don’t you do a book aimed at young people that tells the truth about American history? You could start with the Pilgrims, ’cause that’s where it all really did start.”
“That intrigued me,” says Rush, “and in a professional sense, it was new, something I hadn’t done. It was an audience, young people, that naturally talk radio doesn’t reach. And it was something of great concern, and it still is, of mine – and I know it’s of yours, too – and that is, for lack of a better word, the bastardization of American history as taught throughout America today. Not just the public schools, but all the way through middle school and high school and even into college.”
Limbaugh has railed about the problem for years on his radio program.
“We talk about how we conservatives can actually gain ground and make progress on things. We’ve lost sectors of our culture. We’ve lost pop culture, Hollywood, books, movies, TV shows, this kind of thing. We’ve lost education. The libs own this. So I was really intrigued by this.
“Here’s an opportunity here to, A, write another book, but, B, have it actually be something of substance and oriented around a great purpose that is indeed a passion of mine, and that is the founding of this country and American exceptionalism: Why it’s great, why we are unique as a country. Talk radio doesn’t reach the 10-to-13 group other than as Rush Babies. Young people might be hearing the radio as their parents listen to it. So this became something I got really, really excited about.”
Limbaugh says he’s really sensitive about throwing his name on a product just to hawk, and stresses this project is nothing of the sort.
“This actually has a committed, passionate purpose, and that is the effort to tell the truth of American history in a way that makes it fun for people to learn, for young people to learn.”
.................................................
The inside story
The structure of the book utilizes the Rush Revere character, who is the icon for Two If By Tea iced tea created by Rush and Kathryn, and bears the face of Rush Limbaugh himself.
“We decided to turn him into a substitute teacher at a middle school, and then we gave him a talking horse named Liberty,” Limbaugh explains. “This talking horse can time travel anywhere in American history, with Rush Revere in the saddle, and Rush Revere can take his iPhone with him when he time travels back to American history, and does, and uses the video function to record what he sees and brings it back to the classroom where he is the substitute teacher.”[/I]
.................................................. ....
View the complete article, including videos, at:
http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/wnds-2013...f-the-year-is/
'Unlike Nancy Pelosi, I didn't have to read my book to find out what's in it'
WND
Joe Kovacs
12/22/2013
Excerpt:
PALM BEACH, Fla. – On any given weekday, the 62-year-old man sits in a chair in a South Florida radio studio, surrounded by computer monitors displaying news sites such as the Drudge Report.
He has a “stack of stuff,” which is merely a pile of printed-out news reports about events and issues he wishes to talk about, beginning at six minutes past noon, Eastern Time.
As the musical introduction of his show begins, the opening drum and guitar combination from the Pretenders’ classic “My City Was Gone” pounds out a classic 1980s bass riff, which, save for a Cochlear implant, the host would not be able to hear since losing his natural auditory sense years ago.
He then switches on the in-studio video known as the Dittocam and leans into a golden-colored microphone to address the largest radio audience in America, an estimated 15 to 20 million people each week.
And though he tells you what is happening in the news as well as what to think about it from the right side of the U.S. political spectrum with half his brain tied behind his back just to make it fair, none of this has anything to do with why Rush Limbaugh has been named WND’s 2013 Person of the Year.
To put it simply, 2013 is a history-making year for the broadcast giant. Perhaps another, more accurate, way to phrase that is 2013 is a history-celebrating year for Rush.
The radio raconteur who goes by a variety of nicknames including the “doctor of democracy,” “America’s truth detector,” and “harmless, lovable little fuzzball,” has accomplished something that could have a massive and positive ripple effect on generations of future Americans.
In the style of “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling, Limbaugh has commenced a fascinating journey through time to accurately dramatize the founding of the United States for the nation’s children and stop, as he puts it, “the bastardization of American history as taught throughout America today.”
He has written and voiced a book titled “Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims,” telling the story of the Pilgrims’ voyage from Europe to the New World in the early 17th century.
Not only did the book skyrocket to an instant No. 1 bestseller on Amazon.com, it has already become a sensation among youngsters across the fruited plain, and not just the 10-to-13 targeted age group. Countless children of all ages are reading the printed book or listening to the 4-and-a-half hours of audio on CDs. Many are flooding the characters of the book – both the fictional ones and real, historical figures – with fan mail.
Birth of a national phenomenon
It has been two decades since Limbaugh, the perceived savior of AM radio who is now heard on nearly 600 stations, put his ink into books when he wrote the runaway bestsellers “The Way Things Ought to Be” and “See, I Told You So” which have sold more than 8.9 million copies.
During that time, many people have been encouraging, even pestering, him to pen another work.
Among them was Limbaugh’s personal friend Vince Flynn, the famed author of political thrillers who died in June after a three-year bout with prostate cancer.
“Come on, Rushbo!” Flynn kept urging Limbaugh. “Come on, Rushbo! This is it. This is the time. You’ve gotta get it out for the next election.”
But Limbaugh felt like he’s been there and done that, and told Flynn, “Vince, I’ve done it. I mean, the book market is just jammed. Everybody’s writing books these days, and my so-called conservative manifestos are out.”
Rush says Flynn was relentless in pushing him on a new book, and continually tried to spark the fire.
“And on one of those occasions, Kathryn, my wife, had an idea that really lit the fire and then brought everything Vince was trying to get me to do into culmination,” Limbaugh said.
He remembers how Kathryn had said, “Look, you have expressed your concern over what’s happened to elementary education. Well, all of education, but particularly young people. Why don’t you do a book aimed at young people that tells the truth about American history? You could start with the Pilgrims, ’cause that’s where it all really did start.”
“That intrigued me,” says Rush, “and in a professional sense, it was new, something I hadn’t done. It was an audience, young people, that naturally talk radio doesn’t reach. And it was something of great concern, and it still is, of mine – and I know it’s of yours, too – and that is, for lack of a better word, the bastardization of American history as taught throughout America today. Not just the public schools, but all the way through middle school and high school and even into college.”
Limbaugh has railed about the problem for years on his radio program.
“We talk about how we conservatives can actually gain ground and make progress on things. We’ve lost sectors of our culture. We’ve lost pop culture, Hollywood, books, movies, TV shows, this kind of thing. We’ve lost education. The libs own this. So I was really intrigued by this.
“Here’s an opportunity here to, A, write another book, but, B, have it actually be something of substance and oriented around a great purpose that is indeed a passion of mine, and that is the founding of this country and American exceptionalism: Why it’s great, why we are unique as a country. Talk radio doesn’t reach the 10-to-13 group other than as Rush Babies. Young people might be hearing the radio as their parents listen to it. So this became something I got really, really excited about.”
Limbaugh says he’s really sensitive about throwing his name on a product just to hawk, and stresses this project is nothing of the sort.
“This actually has a committed, passionate purpose, and that is the effort to tell the truth of American history in a way that makes it fun for people to learn, for young people to learn.”
.................................................
The inside story
The structure of the book utilizes the Rush Revere character, who is the icon for Two If By Tea iced tea created by Rush and Kathryn, and bears the face of Rush Limbaugh himself.
“We decided to turn him into a substitute teacher at a middle school, and then we gave him a talking horse named Liberty,” Limbaugh explains. “This talking horse can time travel anywhere in American history, with Rush Revere in the saddle, and Rush Revere can take his iPhone with him when he time travels back to American history, and does, and uses the video function to record what he sees and brings it back to the classroom where he is the substitute teacher.”[/I]
.................................................. ....
View the complete article, including videos, at:
http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/wnds-2013...f-the-year-is/