On Tuesday Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves to warn his listeners of a horrific and impending danger. He valiantly sought to protect them from a threat that would cause grave harm were they not prepared. This warning came just a couple of weeks after Hurricane Harvey devastated much of Texas. And now Hurricane Irma was rapidly bearing down on Florida.

However, Irma was not the threat that Limbaugh was referring to. It was something far more devious and destructive. What Limbaugh feared was that the media focus on Hurricane Irma was really just part of a liberal plot. The plotters, he said, were conspiring raise TV ratings and help markets sell more bottled water and other supplies. It’s Limbaugh’s confirmation of the notorious cabal between Democrats and the dreaded convenience store lobby. Furthermore, Limbaugh disclosed the unsavory connection between coverage of Irma’s approach and the “hoax” of climate change:

“So there is a desire to advance this climate change agenda, and hurricanes are one of the fastest and best ways to do it. You can accomplish a lot just by creating fear and panic. You don’t need a hurricane to hit anywhere. All you need is to create the fear and panic accompanied by talk that climate change is causing hurricanes to become more frequent and bigger and more dangerous, and you create the panic, and it’s mission accomplished, agenda advanced.”

That was two days ago. On Thursday morning Limbaugh made an announcement that undermined his prior alarm. Apparently he would be evacuating from his home and studio in Florida ahead of Hurricane Irma’s arrival. He said (video below):

“OK, I may as well go ahead and announce this. I’m not going to get into details because of the security nature of things. But it turns out that we will not be able to do the program here tomorrow. That will be in the hands of Mark Steyn tomorrow. We’ll be on the air next week, folks, from parts unknown. So we’ll back on Monday, it’s just that tomorrow is gonna be problematic.”

Problematic? That’s a cute way of saying that a life-threatening natural disaster is about to destroy much of the region. Limbaugh made additional comments that continued to belittle the Hurricane’s potential harm. He said that he couldn’t legally stay and do the show, presumably because of the mandatory evacuation. The implication was that absent that decree he would remain and ride it out.

Limbaugh’s persistent downplaying of a historically unprecedented storm is criminally irresponsible and lives may hang in the balance. His claim that the media was hyping the story for ratings and disaster supply consumption was bad enough. But now he’s giving people a reason to stay in harm’s way by pretending that he’s being forced to evacuate without any real need. Odds are Limbaugh is actually scared out of his drug-addled mind.

A conscientious broadcaster would be imploring people to get out and seek safety. But Limbaugh has issued no such advice. And his listeners are such blind followers (self-proclaimed “Ditto Heads”) that they might very well ignore the official warnings. After all, Rush wouldn’t steer them wrong, would he?

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

After claiming Hurricane Irma was a liberal hoax, Rush Limbaugh evacuates South Florida pic.twitter.com/NVvceqZWwx

— Media Matters (@mmfa) September 8, 2017