Limbaugh Says He Feels Reborn After Treatment November 24, 2003
News Summary
Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, who returned to the airwaves after undergoing treatment for his addiction to painkillers, says treatment didn't turn him into a "linguini-spined liberal" but rather was "sort of like being reborn here at age 50," the Charlotte Observer reported Nov. 18.Limbaugh, who is the most listened-to radio personality nationwide with an audience as high as 20 million, apologized to listeners for hiding his drug use.
"I knew it was wrong the whole time," he said.
Limbaugh also blasted critics for what he called misrepresenting his view on drug offenders. In 1995, he made a comment that more white drug addicts needed to be jailed.
Limbaugh said his statement was "taken totally out of context."
"This business I've been hard on drug addicts, I think there are a lot of phantom quotes out there," he said. "I avoided the subject of drugs on this program for the precise reason that I was keeping a secret."
Keith Larson, who has a talk show that precedes Limbaugh's in some areas, including Charlotte, N.C., has been sober since 1982.
"One of the key challenges for most addicts or alcoholics is to come to grips with their own personal powerlessness over their addiction and the need to reach out for the power to overcome it," said Larson.
Mike Mangan, general manager of WSTP-AM in Salisbury, N.C., believes Limbaugh's recovery from addiction will help him in the ratings.
"I think that as a whole, Rush is going to have bigger numbers than he had before," he said. "There aren't that many goody-two-shoes who listen to Rush."
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