The recent campaign to silence conservative radio legend Rush Limbaugh is led by ten liberal activists engaged in a more than four-year long effort to destroy Limbaugh by targeting his advertisers, including a Media Matters executive vice president.
A former Kent State university professor even targeted a small businessman advertising on Limbaugh's show using her official university email account.
Information compiled by Limbaugh's team -- and first provided to The Daily Caller -- demonstrates that nearly 70 percent of the tweets targeting Limbaugh's advertisers come from the same ten Twitter users, all of whom are actively involved in the "Stop Rush" campaign, which keeps a database of all of Limbaugh's advertisers.
While the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is presenting its current anti-Rush campaign as a genuine repudiation of out-of-context remarks Limbaugh made on his radio show (replete with a fundraising email from Sandra Fluke), the Stop Rush effort is small, organized, and existed long before the most recent controversial Limbaugh comments.
The activists even use technology to "machine-tweet" anti-Rush comments in robotic fashion to ensure maximum Twitter exposure for their insular group's efforts.
"Angelo Carusone is the self acknowledged originator and head of the StopRush protest, in his professional role as executive vice president of Media Matters for America," Limbaugh spokesman Brian Glicklich told TheDC. "But since they prefer it look grassroots and made up of real customers, he faded into the background long ago, reemerging only this week as he senses the danger of this illicit scheme being exposed for the fiction at it's heart."
Conrad Walton, owner of the emergency supplies company Survivor.com, revealed in a blog post that he began receiving emails from the small group "within 20 minutes" of his local advertisement airing during Limbaugh's show on the Los Angeles station KEIB.
"It seemed to be a very organized campaign, from people who don't listen to the show and know nothing about our company," Walton wrote. "I just checked and they put one of my responses on their site, with my phone number."
"Please stop advertising on Rush Limbaugh's program," former Kent State University professor Nancy Padak wrote to Walton using her "kent.edu" email address. "He stands for hatred and bigotry. Do you want customers/ potential customers associating your business with these values?"
Padak told TheDC that she has been retired from the university for four years.
Here are the names of the Stop Rush Ten, as identified by Limbaugh's staff:
Angelo Carusone: Executive vice president of the George Soros-funded liberal attack group Media Matters for America. "Stop Rush, I initially rolled it out in late 2009 and early 2010," Carusone told the Village Voice in 2012. "At the time, the Beck work was doing well...I started Stop Rush in 2009, 2010, and when I went to register the domain, I saw that Rush owned StopRush.com." Carusone also agreed with the Village Voice that Sandra Fluke represented Limbaugh's "Waterloo." Carusone is responsible for leading the Stop Rush efforts and then "handing off" responsibilities to less well-known activists to create the appearance of grassroots outrage, according to Limbaugh's staff.
Matthew Mitchell: An Altamont Springs, Florida resident who tweets as @CaptMurdock.
Nancy Padak: A former Kent State University education professor who emails advertisers about Limbaugh from her official university email account.
Jason Rey: Georgia resident who tweets as @FranticQuark.
Lauren Reynolds: Los Angeles resident who uses Internet rating systems to downgrade companies for advertising on Limbaugh's show.
Cherie Richards: Ohio resident and fellow Internet rating aficionado.
Sarah Smyea Rivers: California resident who actively tweets as @eurekasue49.
Dennis William Rohner: Florida resident.
Linda Kotsenburg Swanholm: California resident responsible for creating "target lists" of businesses linked to Limbaugh.
Carol Kernahan Wallin: California resident and anonymous Daily Kos writer who tweets as @Flushfools and @hrhprincess.
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A former Kent State university professor even targeted a small businessman advertising on Limbaugh's show using her official university email account.
Information compiled by Limbaugh's team -- and first provided to The Daily Caller -- demonstrates that nearly 70 percent of the tweets targeting Limbaugh's advertisers come from the same ten Twitter users, all of whom are actively involved in the "Stop Rush" campaign, which keeps a database of all of Limbaugh's advertisers.
While the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is presenting its current anti-Rush campaign as a genuine repudiation of out-of-context remarks Limbaugh made on his radio show (replete with a fundraising email from Sandra Fluke), the Stop Rush effort is small, organized, and existed long before the most recent controversial Limbaugh comments.
The activists even use technology to "machine-tweet" anti-Rush comments in robotic fashion to ensure maximum Twitter exposure for their insular group's efforts.
"Angelo Carusone is the self acknowledged originator and head of the StopRush protest, in his professional role as executive vice president of Media Matters for America," Limbaugh spokesman Brian Glicklich told TheDC. "But since they prefer it look grassroots and made up of real customers, he faded into the background long ago, reemerging only this week as he senses the danger of this illicit scheme being exposed for the fiction at it's heart."
Conrad Walton, owner of the emergency supplies company Survivor.com, revealed in a blog post that he began receiving emails from the small group "within 20 minutes" of his local advertisement airing during Limbaugh's show on the Los Angeles station KEIB.
"It seemed to be a very organized campaign, from people who don't listen to the show and know nothing about our company," Walton wrote. "I just checked and they put one of my responses on their site, with my phone number."
"Please stop advertising on Rush Limbaugh's program," former Kent State University professor Nancy Padak wrote to Walton using her "kent.edu" email address. "He stands for hatred and bigotry. Do you want customers/ potential customers associating your business with these values?"
Padak told TheDC that she has been retired from the university for four years.
Here are the names of the Stop Rush Ten, as identified by Limbaugh's staff:
Angelo Carusone: Executive vice president of the George Soros-funded liberal attack group Media Matters for America. "Stop Rush, I initially rolled it out in late 2009 and early 2010," Carusone told the Village Voice in 2012. "At the time, the Beck work was doing well...I started Stop Rush in 2009, 2010, and when I went to register the domain, I saw that Rush owned StopRush.com." Carusone also agreed with the Village Voice that Sandra Fluke represented Limbaugh's "Waterloo." Carusone is responsible for leading the Stop Rush efforts and then "handing off" responsibilities to less well-known activists to create the appearance of grassroots outrage, according to Limbaugh's staff.
Matthew Mitchell: An Altamont Springs, Florida resident who tweets as @CaptMurdock.
Nancy Padak: A former Kent State University education professor who emails advertisers about Limbaugh from her official university email account.
Jason Rey: Georgia resident who tweets as @FranticQuark.
Lauren Reynolds: Los Angeles resident who uses Internet rating systems to downgrade companies for advertising on Limbaugh's show.
Cherie Richards: Ohio resident and fellow Internet rating aficionado.
Sarah Smyea Rivers: California resident who actively tweets as @eurekasue49.
Dennis William Rohner: Florida resident.
Linda Kotsenburg Swanholm: California resident responsible for creating "target lists" of businesses linked to Limbaugh.
Carol Kernahan Wallin: California resident and anonymous Daily Kos writer who tweets as @Flushfools and @hrhprincess.
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