Front Burner - Front Burner Presents: The Flamethrowers Ep. 2

Episode Date: October 5, 2024

In the second episode of The Flamethrowers, host Justin Ling explores how President Ronald Reagan takes the shackles off right-wing radio and inaugurates a golden era of conservative politics. And Rush Limbaugh — almost by accident — becomes a kingmaker in the Republican party and changes radio forever.The Flamethrowers was originally produced in 2021. More episodes of The Flamethrowers are available here.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, everybody. It's Jamie. So over the next five weeks leading up to the U.S. presidential election, I can't believe it's coming so soon. We're featuring episodes of The Flamethrowers, a CBC podcast series that I really think you're going to enjoy. The Flamethrowers takes us through the rise of right wing radio and how it reshaped American politics.

In today's episode, they dive into the golden era of conservative media, when President Ronald Reagan loosened the rules and Rush Limbaugh, almost by accident, became one of the most powerful voices in the Republican Party. Just a reminder that this podcast was first released in 2021 and doesn't touch on the current U.S. presidential election. And with that, here's episode two, What a Rush. This podcast tells the story of how right-wing radio radicalized America. We use examples of what was actually said on the radio, and some of it is offensive. But it's an important part of understanding this story. Just a heads up. Elvis Presley died today. He was 42. Apparently it was a heart attack.

It's 1977. The other day I told a group of students that my wish for them was that they could know in this land the freedom I'd known when I was their age. Ronald Reagan is spinning some folksy anecdotes. When I was 14, I got a summer job with an outfit that was rebuilding and selling old homes. Little parables about low taxes, low regulations, small government. Before the summer was over, I had laid hardwood floors, shingled roofs, painted, worked on foundations. You know, the kind of stuff that every 14-year-old dreams of. At summer's end, I had my first year's tuition for college. Can that be done today? No.

He's just lost the Republican presidential nomination to Gerald Ford. But after a strong showing, Reagan has some options. He's offered the ambassadorship to the United Kingdom. He's offered the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. He's even offered a weekly primetime spot on the CBS Evening News. But he turns it all down for radio. He launches a daily commentary show. but he turns it all down for radio. He launches a daily commentary show.

You have to get a government license to do just about every kind of work I did. Day in and day out, he's hammering the message that will define his political career. Self-reliance. Handouts are demeaning. They do violence to a man, strip him of his dignity, and breed in him a hatred of the total system. Liberty. Poor men want the same as the rest of us.

They want jobs and control over their own destiny. Then, small government. We seek to harness the creative energy of private enterprise to achieve a solution to America's crisis. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. Keep in mind, political talk radio in the late 70s ain't what it used to be. The Federal Communications Commission has chased most ideologues off the airwaves with its fairness doctrine. But right around the time that Reagan takes to the radio, something changes. Jimmy Carter is president, and enforcement of the doctrine falls out of favor. That leaves an opening for Reagan to get on the microphone

and snipe at the Carter administration. The attorney general has come up with a new twist in the ongoing effort to take away the guns Americans use for self-defense, hunting, and recreational purposes. It's like a shadow presidency on the radio. And he's reaching 30 million Americans a week. Election rules would have meant that, if he were a candidate, he would have had to give equal time to his opponents. So he waits until the last possible moment to step away from the mic and to jump into the next presidential race. I'm here tonight to announce my intention to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States.

His 1980 presidential campaign is rooted in nostalgia for a supposedly golden American past. I would like to see this country become once again a country where a little six-year-old girl can grow up knowing the same freedom that I knew when I was six years old. And I bet that nostalgia is going to sound pretty familiar. You probably know what happens next. NBC News now makes its projection for the presidency. Ronald Wilson Reagan is our projected winner at 8.15 Eastern Standard Time. And four years later, he did it again.

It's morning again in America. Today, more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country's history. For Republicans, this becomes a golden age. Eight years of slashing taxes and regulation and shrinking the role of government. These are the parts of the Reagan legacy that conservatives crow about to this very day. The Americans living in this land today, there isn't any problem we can't solve if government will give us the facts, tell us what needs to be done, and then get out of the way and let us have at it. And in 1987, Reagan quietly

gets the government out of the way of right-wing radio. 25 years before, the Kennedy administration had used the Fairness Doctrine to smother conservative talk on the radio. Reagan axes the Fairness Doctrine entirely. That would bring right-wing radio roaring back to life. And it sets the stage for the biggest star in the history of conservative talk. The Flamethrowers, how right-wing radio took over American democracy with Justin Ling. Sacramento, California, 1984. Just a few months before Ronald Reagan is re-elected in another landslide. KFBK-AM is looking for a new host for its 9 to noon slot.

Let me tell you something. More people have been killed in the name of Jesus. Morton Downey Jr. had been filling the chair. Downey had made his name with an abrasive, confrontational style. And that style blows up in his face in August of 84 when he uses an anti-Asian slur during a joke. Downey Jr. would go on to greater infamy as a pioneering shock jock on TV. a pioneering shock jock on TV. Murder! Murder! Murder! But in the meantime,

he left a mess for the folks at his former station. My name is Kitty O'Neill, and I'm the afternoon news anchor on KFBK Sacramento. Kitty O'Neill had just gotten her start in radio. One of our first jobs was screening calls for Downey's show. When he gets canned, O'Neal finds herself producing for the new guy. I remember the day I met him. We had some fill-ins for a while, and then they brought in Rush Limbaugh,

and they said, this is the guy you're going to be working with now. And I remember he extended his arms and gave me a great big bear hug and said, I'm so excited to work with you. This is going to be great. Limbaugh is stoked. O'Neill, not so much. I thought he was maybe a short timer. I guess I didn't really get him. At this point, nobody was really getting Rush Limbaugh.

He'd recently left radio altogether to take a low-level job with the Kansas City Royals baseball team. After five years there, I was making $18,000 a year. Now, I don't know what kind of money that sounds like to you. But believe me, in Kansas City, Missouri, at age 32, it's an embarrassment if you take yourself seriously. And I was miserable. I was unhappy. I was aimless. I had given up on radio. Sacramento was a chance to resuscitate a radio career that had never really gotten started. Limbaugh had broken into radio at a very young age, thanks in large part to some family connections. My father owned a radio station in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, a little town about 100 miles south of St. Louis.

And I worked there for four years through high school and one year of college. And I got an offer from ABC in Pittsburgh and I went. I quit college after one year to take it. Limbaugh III was working as a DJ at a station owned by Rush Hudson Limbaugh II for four years before he even hit college. His grandfather had a diplomatic posting to India under Dwight Eisenhower. His uncle was appointed by Ronald Reagan to the federal court. His father was a lawyer with other successful business ventures. So he had some help. But even with that huge leg up, things didn't go particularly well. And no wonder.

I mean, for a while, he used the pseudonym Bachelor Jeff Christie. 14K. 903 and 14K on the award winning Jeff Christie Rock and Roll Radio Show. By the time he gets to Sacramento, he's been fired from radio gigs in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Kansas City, Missouri. But in Sacramento, he finally developed a formula that would click with listeners. You know, when I would come in, he'd be sitting at his desk with his sport coat and a big stack of newspapers and a single-edged razor blade, cutting up all the articles that he was going to refer to during his show. He was a very studious preparer, carried a briefcase.

When Limbaugh walked into the studio, he always did so with an armful of clippings. This was the raw material for his show. It was really topical, but it was not overtly political. Talk radio writ large wasn't that political. It was entertainment-focused. You had your Howard Sterns. You ever listen to my show, Howard Stern Show? Yes. You do? You like it?

Not particularly. No, what don't you like about it? You're rather crude. You had your Larry Kings. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Larry King Show. Two terrific guests tonight. A return visit with Robert Prosky in our number one.

Mr. Prosky plays the stage manager in our town. If you wanted to be a conservative host, you would probably have to get a gig as the house conservative on a local rock radio station. And even then, you'd probably be consigned to late-night shifts. I've heard you, Lord David, David Duke. You've had him on your program at least twice. The best you could hope for was to be a guy like Bob Grant, who was huge in New York City,

but he was popular mostly because he couldn't stop getting into shouting matches with his listeners. You want to invoke David Duke. I'll tell you why. I'll answer the question for you, pal. Because you know your argument is empty. It's meaningless. So you could be conservative

or you could be national. But you couldn't be both. The vast majority of national... Oh, and the phone lines are lighting up again. Hi, I'm Brian. Long-time listener, first-time caller. Brian Rosenwald is also... The author of Talk Radio's America, how an industry took over a political party that took over the United States.

Thanks for calling, Brian. Today's phone-in question. In 1988, was political talk radio really a thing? Talk radio was not really a thing. By the early 80s, the audience and the advertising dollars are all flowing to FM. And AM just is struggling, and they need something new. And talk is sort of in its very early days.

But the talk that there is at that point, for the most part, is very different than what we think of as talk radio today. Let's go to some calls for Charlie Sheen. I want to ask him about 8 Man Out. Young Guns opens this Friday. Larry King was the one guy who succeeded in national syndication in this period overnight, and he too could talk about everything from presidents to abominable snowmen

or yetis or, you know, paranormal stuff with some caller who wanted to talk about it at 3.30 in the morning. His views didn't really come across on the air. When he started out, all Limbaugh really wanted was a Larry King career. He's not a particularly political animal. He loves radio. He goes out there to put on a great entertaining show. He tells U.S. News and World Report that people listen to the radio for three things.

Entertainment, entertainment, entertainment. And he's trying to put on the best possible show. And it's zany. It's fun. He's got nicknames. He's got skits. His tongue is firmly planted in cheek a lot of the time. And obviously it's conservative. That's what he believes. He would talk to people off mic like, hey, you know, Susie over there making copies by the machine. What are you doing? You know, he would talk to people. He would, you know, I don't have any here. He would rustle paper on the air. And I was always taught, don't make any noise, you know, make everything real quiet.

But he would purposefully, you know, make lots of noise. And he just was a rule breaker from what I could tell. But as he developed the winning radio formula, Limbaugh's politics began to define his show. He made a lot of fun of things and yet laced it with kind of a conservative ideology, which took a while for people to figure out. No one knew what to make of him. Like, who is this guy and what is this guy? Trumpet fanfare update time. Here we go, ladies and gentlemen.

You see, Limbaugh wasn't a conservative who happened to be on the radio. He was a radio host who happened to be conservative. He actually told a newspaper reporter around that time that he wasn't even registered to vote. This is one of our most misunderstood features. Many think it tasteless, but it's not. You have to listen very carefully. This is our animal rights update theme. Adding some gunshots are we must be new jersey people getting it out of their system before the guns are taken away from them all this shtick it's getting a pretty visceral reaction people love him and people absolutely hate him when kitty o'Neill screens his calls, she's hearing a lot of both. Some of them were pretty much in step with what Rush was saying, but some of them were

very angry and they took offense at a lot of things he was saying, even then. In 1988, he was the subject of, as he calls it, one of the greatest billboards in the history of billboards. The billboard showed a car radio with push buttons on the AM dial. And the billboard read, For Limbaugh, this is the sweet spot. Being loved and hated is his rocket fuel. Limbaugh triples his audience in the four years he's in Sacramento. He was a local celebrity.

They made him the Grand Marshal of the St. Patrick's Day Parade. He's tapping into something. Listeners want something visceral. They want reactionary. They've been looking for someone to say what they're thinking. And there's an audience that's been waiting for this kind of show, not just in Sacramento, but across America. Gosh, I didn't even know that.

It was a day of well-wishers and autographs and a limousine ride to the airport. Very few broadcasters get this kind of send-off, but then again, few enjoy the kind of impact that Rush Limbaugh had here. You know, you're a quality talk show host. We've never had one this good, and it's sad to see someone like you go. I can understand that. Limbaugh said goodbye to Sacramento this morning. He's taking his act to New York City,

where his radio show will be nationally syndicated. This is the kind of thing that you dream of happening. But then it's bittersweet, too, because I'm really not sure I want to leave. I remember the last lunch we had together before he left, and he said, before he left for New York, and he said, I am scared to death, but I have to do this. I cannot pass up this opportunity. I don't know what's going to happen, and it frightens me, but I can't not do it. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections.

Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo. 50%. That's because money is confusing.

In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. Next, we'll take you to WABC radio in New York City. The host of today's show is Rush Limbaugh, reported to be the most listened to radio talk show host in the country. The first episode of the nationally syndicated Rush Limbaugh show hit the airwaves on August 1st, 1988. He's on a bigger stage, but at first his shtick is the same.

He had these regular features, like he'd cut off a caller mid-conversation and call it caller abortion. Mr. Limbaugh, let me tell you something. I can't help you. Mr. Wimble, let me tell you something. I can't help you. He famously calls feminists feminazis. The National Organization for Women, known affectionately here as the Now Gang, and the NAACP, known affectionately here as the National Association for the Advancement of Liberal Colored People, should be the NAACP. He invented a seemingly endless series of nicknames for democrats and he often put those to music here's one of his favorites for senator ted kennedy and what he did was he combined three traditions of radio.

One was conservative talk that had gone back at least to the 50s and in some cases earlier. You could even say it goes back to Father Coughlin in the 30s. And he combined that kind of conservative sermonizing with the interactive talk that was more state and interview and caller based, but it was interactive. And the third strand is he was a DJ, the kind of DJ who had that kind of impus streak of like, he's going to call the pizza place and order 500 pizzas and tell them he's from the competitor radio station.

And it just absolutely upends the radio business. This whole routine, the jokes, the funny songs, the taboo topics, it offends a ton of people. But for Limbaugh and his fans, offending people is the whole point. He's always focused on deriding civil rights activists, women's rights activists, feminism in general. And, you know, in a lot of ways it definitely wades into racism and misogyny on a regular basis he is saying the quiet parts out loud the media has been very desirous and a black quarterback do well and you're not supposed to be able to do this on the airwaves and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he really

didn't deserve the f FCC won't allow it. Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society. Guy at the laundromat. Ching-chong, ching-chong-chong-chong. To some listeners, this stuff was horrifying. But to others, it was a breath of fresh air. Thanks to a couple decades of dramatic social change, like women's reproductive rights, universal suffrage, gay rights, a lot of Americans felt like they couldn't speak freely anymore, and that no one spoke for them or to them. In the universe of right-wing media,

compared to the Wall Street Journal and later Fox News, Limbaugh's listeners are older, whiter, more conservative, and more religious. For this slice of America, Limbaugh has created a safe space. And that's the best of talk radio, which is the mimicry of kind of a conservative neighborhood bar or a conservative dinner table, where whatever people are talking about they're talking about and even though there's still a republican in the white house limbaugh convinces his listeners that because they are white male and conservative that they are disenfranchised look down on he tells them that they form a sort of counterculture a resistance against the liberals and the progressives and the feminists. In the late 80s, he syndicated to maybe 50 stations across the country.

But by 1990, he's got 450 affiliates. He's tapped into something he didn't even realize he was looking for. His most dogmatic groupies call themselves Ditto Heads. Ditto Head has been misdefined by mainstream members of the press as a mind-numbed robot who agrees and marches in lockstep with me. That is not what a Ditto Head is. Very simply, Ditto Head and the word Ditto simply means Rush, I love you, this is a great show, please don't ever go away. It has nothing to do with agreeing with me. And they do love Rush.

For his legions of fans, he's kind of a rock star. And what do rock stars do? Arena tours. This is the largest crowd in the history of the Rush to Excellence tour. Thank you! You heard that correctly, it was called the Rush to Excellence Tour. Thank you! You heard that correctly it was called the Rush to Excellence Tour. I love you! And it involved Limbaugh doing an hour of shtick in sold-out rooms of as many as 10,000 people. My friends there is a culture war that is going on in the country.

a culture war that is going on in the country. Limbaugh is declaring a culture war, and he's naming something that a lot of listeners are feeling. What are rights? This culture war illustrates precisely what's going on. We in America today are in the midst, it's an exciting time to be alive, we're in the midst of a redefinition of who is going to define right and wrong and what the punishment is going to be

for those who violate the limits that we place on our behavior. We're arguing about who has the right to tell us what's right and wrong. We're arguing over what censorship is. And to me me it's pretty scary anyway the whole rush to excellence tour was rock and roll meets c-pack meets a carrot top las vegas residency when does life begin at conception or when you get laid oh during that tour he would strap a condom over his microphone. He would talk about how it was lubricated and they would say, you know, you're all laughing. But look, this is safe talk. This will protect you from all the evil words I'm enunciating. If you're thinking, man, this sounds like a Trump rally.

Yeah, you're not alone. Limbaugh himself would later make the comparison. Limbaugh goes from a rich kid washout to a national champion for the working class. And you know what? This ride is not over yet. Limbaugh had become impossible to ignore. Even outside the conservative bubble, people had started to take notice and to try and cash in. In New York City, restaurants opened what were called rush rooms. Special rooms where Limbaugh fans who couldn't get a good AM signal could come listen to the show while they ate lunch. And then there's the Pat Sajak show.

You probably know Sajak from But at this point in the early 90s, he had his own Johnny Carson man behind the desk talk show. And he asked Limbaugh to guest host for an evening. The week he tapes the show, Idaho state legislators just passed one of the most restrictive abortion bills in American history.

Outraged liberal groups are threatening to boycott Idaho potatoes. And Limbaugh decides to go there. The news that I got just before coming out to start this excursion into televised excellence, the governor of Idaho has vetoed the bill. And when he wades into the audience to do some light crowd work, they want to talk about it. He's suddenly face to face with the opposing forces in the culture war.

You were the first woman up. You are obviously very happy about this. I'm quite happy. You think that bans and economic boycotts like this have a role? I think women's lives are more important than any potato. On his radio show, he is the voice of God. It is a one-way street. And now, he's facing people who don't like him and who do not like his ideas. Calm down.

Calm down. Calm down with the blood of women. Calm down. That's not what this is all about. That's what it is about. You don't know what it's about. You'll never have a baby. You'll never be pregnant. You'll never have to have an abortion. Madam. And more of the audience chimes in. Limbaugh is quickly losing control. We are going to be wherever you are, and we're going to denounce and expose you.

The no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners king of tough talk is feeling pretty wounded. You have just called me a liar. You are! I am not a liar. You are! You are reacting. You've got blood on your hands. I have no blood on my hands. I have never killed anyone.

I have never taken a death penalty. My words do not kill. Limbaugh cannot hide the fact that he is very shaken. By the end of the show, like magic, every last member of that audience had been cleared out. Limbaugh retreats back to where he's comfortable. A one-man show. This is a program also, I should say, devoted exclusively to what I think. So the Sajak show was a bust, but Limbaugh mania would continue its rapid spread across the country. Despite his disastrous debut, he gets his own TV show. The views and opinions expressed on the Rush Limbaugh show do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of KCPQ-TV or the Kelly Television Company.

In October, he publishes a bestseller. It's called The Way Things Ought to Be, and it go on to be one of the best-selling non-fiction books in American history. We're at 2.5 million on the hardcover list. That's number two behind IACOCA for all time. Best seller hardcover nonfiction. We're only about 200,000 behind IACOCA. You could not bring this guy down. America is in the midst of 12 years of uninterrupted Republican control of the White House. It has been a golden age of conservatism.

And Limbaugh had just said goodbye to the president that he held up as an avatar, the embodiment of conservative virtue, the man he called Ronaldus Maximus. I have to rank Ronald Reagan as one of the greatest presidents of all time and certainly of my lifetime. Ronald Reagan demonstrated that all you have to do is unshackle the American people, let them exercise the freedom that is the natural yearning, God-given, of the human being, and that nobody can stop them. And Reagan says, you know better than anybody else what's best for you, and you'll do better for yourself if people just get out of your way. The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant. It's just that they know so much that isn't so.

Now, is that not true? Now, see, now that's diplomacy here. He's just called them a bunch of idiots. But in a way that they wouldn't understand or maybe even wouldn't be offended by. When Reagan left office in 89, Limbaugh made it clear he wasn't as impressed with the new guy, George H.W. Bush. The conventional wisdom is that conservatism has had it. Conservatism is over. The conventional wisdom is that Bush erred by embracing conservatives at his convention. And I'm here to tell you and everybody else that the president got into trouble when he abandoned his conservative roots and his conservative loyalists and appeared to

move to the left. That's when his troubles began. But even if Limbaugh was cool to George Bush, the Republicans were so desperate for his approval. Limbaugh even snagged an invite from the president to come to the White House for dinner and a sleepover in the Lincoln bedroom. It was reported at the time that the president even carried Limbaugh's bags into the White House. Limbaugh would later describe that as one of the most memorable nights of his life. And we got a phone call saying that the vice president was going to be in New York today. And would it be okay if the vice president came by? And we said absolutely that we'd be honored if he did.

And lo and behold, it's 2 o'clock and the vice president of the United States, Dan Quayle, is sitting right here to my right. Great to have you behind the golden EIB microphones, Mr. Vice President. Great to be here. And you talk about dogs coming in and checking out your office. I had a story when I was in the Senate at a meeting. That's Bush's vice president, Dan Quayle. He stopped by Limbaugh's studio during the 1992 presidential election to kiss the ring. And Limbaugh ends up doing a lot of the talking.

And I know that at times it looks bleak, but I'll tell you, you have more support out there than you know. And I say this to you because I want you guys reelect i want you guys re-elected i say flat out openly and i don't want you to compromise what got you there in the first place uh in order to satisfy this group of critics or that group of critics because you have the silent majority the people who are made fun of in the dominant media every day they make up a majority of people all you got to do is stay true to them and you'll win. I think you're absolutely right. And the reason that we are attacked so much is because they know I have a very specific agenda. Limbaugh spent a ton of the campaign playing off Bush's competition as an utter joke.

In a castle deep in the heart of Parksylvania, there lives an evil as old as the Democratic Party itself. Taramount Pictures presents Bill Clinton in Taxula. Count Taxula, arise. It is I, your faithful servant, Al Gore. Your agenda requires that you feed. Thank you, Al Gore. Have you raised the cafe standards yes master shredded my draft records yes master good good then i am off happy hunting master he lays and waiting until his hunger calls then he pounces on anyone who makes over 36 000 per year sucking the light spoiler alert bill clinton wins here is Rush Limbaugh. As you know,

my friends, we count the days of the raw deal. That's what we call the Clinton administration. It's also a hostage crisis. And just as Nightline was there every day for all of us during the Iranian hostage crisis, so shall I be here each day during this, the raw deal. Day 91 of the raw deal. Day 108, the Clinton presidency, i.e. the U.S. hostage crisis, i.e. the raw deal. Limbaugh starts going after the Clintons on every single show. His skewering of the first family was becoming Limbaugh's brand. It becomes so core to his identity that when the Simpsons parody him in 1994, his caricature is obsessed with taking down the scandal-ridden Democrat. Our six-term mayor, the illiterate, tax-cheating, wife-swapping, pot-spoking,

spandocrat, Diamond Joe Quimby. It was an obsession that Limbaugh would cultivate throughout his career. It was a campaign of vilification that would echo for decades in American politics. Today is day 394 of the raw deal. Even his first ever appearance on Letterman was an opportunity to take some shots. Hillary Clinton is the lousiest, the worst example for a woman who wants to follow the feminist route because she didn't. Let's look at what Hillary did, Dave. Want to follow me on this?

Sure. What choice do I have? No, Hillary... No, now, here's an example. You know, a lot of people are clearly bugged by me, Dave, and it's because I have... I have almost a monopoly on the truth.

And I'm going to give you an example. The audience is laughing at that last line, including David Letterman, who literally laughs in Limbaugh's face. But not Limbaugh himself. He means that. The feminist movement tells you that what you ought to do is strike out on your own, be dependent on no one, and certainly don't be beholden to anyone for what you get. But what did Hillary do? She attached herself to a guy that she saw was going someplace, and when he got there, she took over.

No, no, no, no. He even went after Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, who was just 12 at the time. Cute kid. Let's take a look and see who is the cute kid in the White House. No, no, no, no. That's not the kid. That's the kid. That's Limbaugh comparing Chelsea, unfavorably, to the family dog. Again, she was 12. And as if that's not taking it far enough. Again, she was 12.

And as if that's not taking it far enough. Okay, folks, I think I got enough information here to tell you the contents of this fax that I got. Brace yourselves. There's a Washington consulting firm that is scheduled to release a report this afternoon that will appear, that will be published, that claims that Vince Foster was murdered in an apartment owned by Hillary Clinton. So here's the deal. Vince Foster was a childhood friend of Bill Clinton. He joined the Clinton administration as White House counsel.

He was overworked. He was implicated in a series of scandals that, in hindsight, were pretty minor. He was depressed and he was anxious. Good afternoon. I have just met with the White House staff to basically talk with them a little bit about the death of my friend of 42 years, Vince Foster. It is an immense personal loss to me and to Hillary and to many of his close friends here, and a great loss to the White House and to the country. His death was investigated by two police agencies, a coroner, two independent councils, and two congressional committees. They all determined his death was a suicide.

determined his death was a suicide. But that's not the story that Rush Limbaugh tells. Because Rush Limbaugh got a fax. And Limbaugh wasn't the only one spinning stories about Foster. Depending on where you get your news, you might learn that Foster was assassinated to keep from testifying against the Clintons, or that he had been blackmailed by Israel over a secret Swiss bank account, or that his death was the result of a secret tryst with the First Lady. Of course, all of it was lies. I have almost a monopoly on the truth.

But that didn't matter. This is also a benevolent dictatorship. I am the dictator. There is no First Amendment here except for me. The conspiracy theory was now here to stay, thanks in large part to Rush Limbaugh. No longer were the Clintons conventional political villains. They were now murderers. But whether or not the Vince Foster story really took hold in the minds of voters, Limbaugh was leading a political crusade, and he was winning. There is a seismic shift to the right in the political landscape of America tonight.

It's measuring 10.0 on the Richter scale, at least. It's midterm election night, November 8th, 1994. History is being made. Across the country, there is a Republican sweep that is underway. The last time the Republicans took control of the House was 1954, when Elvis Presley was a 19-year-old unknown and color television was just being introduced. The Republicans have picked up 54 seats in the House and the seven seats they need to reclaim the Senate. It is a major blow to the Clinton administration agenda, and it is the worst midterm loss suffered by a sitting president in nearly 50 years. I think when we wake up tomorrow, the big political star in Washington is going to be Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich, the newly minted House leader, calls himself the most serious, systematic revolutionary of modern times. You cannot maintain civilization with 12-year-olds having babies, 15-year-olds shooting each other, 17-year-olds dying of AIDS, and 18-year-olds getting a diploma they can't read. What he really was was a pugilistic bomb thrower who was ready to tear down the entire American political structure with his bare hands if he had to. Or as Cokie Roberts said on election night.

Some of the moderates there have doubts about the man who would be the next speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. One of them said to me, you know, Newt is the Che Guevara of the Republican Party. He's a great revolutionary. Without him, we probably wouldn't have gotten where we are. But he may not be the right guy to govern. In other words, he was Rush Limbaugh's kind of guy. Now, quickly, Newt Gingrich would ascend. He's kind of percolating, but he's ascending hand in hand with Limbaugh. You know, we're talking about someone, he called him Mr. Newt.

They vacationed together at one point. And they're not just golf buddies. Gingrich is turning to Limbaugh for strategic advice. You know, Gingrich was always calling in whenever he had a problem. Whenever he had an issue with his base, he was calling in to reach them. One time, he's driving to visit his daughter on I-95 South, and he hears Limbaugh railing about something, he pulls off to the side, he calls and he says, you know, when I get off with you, Rush, I'm going to call staff for this committee and we're going to solve this. We're going to take care of this. And that was like the second or third time he had called him in like a 10 or 12 day span or something. So they're ascending together. Gingrich shared Limbaugh's contempt for the Clintons.

His mother infamously said her son thought the First Lady was a bitch during a primetime news interview on CBS. But together, they remade the language of politics. Liberals are anti-flag, anti-child, traitors, thieves. Conservatives are all about liberty. Freedom. This was all in a communications manual that Gingrich gave out to the Republican troops. This was the language of revolution.

Thank you, Rush, for giving us all the courage to take back our country. And when it came time to welcome the newly elected members, Gingrich invited Limbaugh to come to Congress and fire up the troops. My friends, it's a great pleasure to introduce Rush Limbaugh. At the official orientation event, Limbaugh was named an honorary member of the incoming congressional class. This is not the time to get moderate. This is not the time to start trying to be class. This is not the time to get moderate. This is not the time to start trying to be liked. This is not the time to start gaining the approval

of the people you've just defeated. In case you're wondering how Limbaugh saw his role in all of this, he's wearing a pin that reads, Majority Maker. We just wanted you to get a look at a group of women who are active in government and politics, and there's not a feminazi amongst us. On behalf of the freshman class, all of us women of the 104th Congress want to present this plaque to you tonight. It reads, Rush was right.

sent this plaque to you tonight. It reads, Rush was right. Limbaugh's radio show was syndicated on more than 600 stations. He had a television program on 225 more. Tens of millions of Americans were hanging on his every utterance.

He now basically runs the Republican Party and yet there's an audience of one that Limbaugh cares about more than anyone else. But it is, to this day, one of the most meaningful gifts that I have ever received. He had received a letter from Ronald Reagan himself. He says, thanks, Rush, for all you're doing to promote Republican and conservative principles. Now that I've retired from active politics, I don't mind that you've become the number one voice for conservatism in our country.

I know the liberals call you the most dangerous man in America, but don't worry about it. They used to say the same thing about me. Keep up the good work. America needs to hear the way things ought to be. Sincerely, Ron. All right, you have been listening to The Flamethrowers. If you want to jump ahead, search for The Flamethrowers wherever you get your podcasts. Next week in episode three, we enter the world of conspiracy and paranoia.

It's an exploration of how a tragic act of domestic terrorism pushed some broadcasters away while others doubled down on their anti-government message. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.