In this Jan. 13, 2009 file photo, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh talks with guests in the East Room of the White House in Washington.
Controversial radio personality Rush Limbaugh is joining one of the platforms that drove sponsors from his show. The conservative talk show host announced his plans to begin tweeting under his handle, @limbaugh, Politico reports.
Though Limbaugh created the Twitter account in 2009, he told listeners it was merely to protect his domain name from imposters. “I’ve had a Twitter account just to lock it up, a genuine Rush Limbaugh Twitter account, not a fake phony one, just to keep it under my domain control.” he said on his show.
(LIST: 6 Rush Limbaugh Career Controversies)
But Limbaugh, whose remarks about law student Sandra Fluke led to public outcry and sponsors dropping his show, took to Twitter on Thursday to share a blog post on the corporate boycott.
[tweet https://twitter.com/#!/limbaugh/status/180370404525883393%5D
The blog post, written by Cornell Law School professor William Jacobson, highlights non-profit Media Matters as a driving force behind the advertising boycott. “…The secondary boycott was initiated by and driven by Media Matters, which had a ‘Stop Limbaugh’ campaign on the shelf waiting to be used, and was executed by Angel Carusone, Director of Online Strategy for Media Matters,” the post reads.
Limbaugh’s recent “slut” remarks about Fluke sparked outrage, with detractors blanketing Facebook and Twitter with hashtags like #stoprush and #boycottrushsupporters. The result cost Limbaugh some of his biggest sponsors, including AOL, Sears and Allstate.
It seems Limbaugh is embracing the power of social media, and has since tweeted another article regarding Media Matters from Daily Caller’s Jeff Poor. But will Twitter be seeing daily updates? Probably not.
Limbaugh prefaced his social media debut on his show, proclaiming that his plans for Twitter are simply to share things with his fans. “I’m not going to be hanging on Twitter 15 hours a day and tweeting, ‘Just had breakfast, had a wonderful day! Bye! Here’s a picture of me eating some cornflakes!’ None of that stuff,” he said. “Just things I want people to see and there’s a really good one today that I want people to see, and I’m going to tweet it out.” The account has drawn more than 100,000 followers already.
LIST: 140 Best Twitter Feeds