27 Oct 2003 Poll Results on Limbaugh Nearly Unanimous

Speaking of WMAL, here’s a report from their website about the reaction fo Rush Limbaugh’s fans to news of his drug dependency:

By a nearly unanimous margin, Rush Limbaugh’s listeners are sticking with the nation’s No. 1 talk radio host, despite his current absence from the airwaves and recent admission that he is addicted to prescription painkillers.

In a survey of Limbaugh’s audience conducted last weekend for Critical Mass Media by Burke Incorporated, an independent polling firm, more than nine out of ten listeners said that news of Limbaugh’s drug dependency had not diminished their regard for him. Indeed, 22% of those questioned said they had gained respect for Rush “because of the way he is handling his problems,” while only 8% said they had less respect for him.

An overwhelming 95% of the sample agreed that “Rush is human, he has made mistakes, and is entitled to a second chance with a clean slate.” And more than 99% of those surveyed said they expected the show to be just as good if not better when Limbaugh returns.

Limbaugh continues to inspire enormous trust among his listeners. When asked to rate on a scale of one to 10 how much trust they “usually have” in Limbaugh (one being “no trust” and 10 being “complete trust”) roughly half of those questioned put him at 9 or 10. His mean score among the entire sample was an impressive 8.2. When respondents were asked how much they will trust Limbaugh when he returns to the airwaves, the numbers were virtually identical….

There’s more, but you get the idea.