|
 Limbaugh, 69, said on the air he first realized something was
wrong over the weekend of his Jan. 12 birthday, after he began
experiencing shortness of breath. He said his diagnosis was
confirmed on Jan. 20 by two medical institutions.
Otherwise, Limbaugh told his listeners, he was for the moment
"experiencing zero symptoms."
A mainstay of U.S. talk radio and the culture wars for more than
30 years, Limbaugh said he would be absent from the broadcast
for "the next couple of days as we figure out the treatment
course of action and have further testing done."
"But as I said, I'm going to be here as often as I can," he
added. He said he hoped to return to the airwaves on Thursday.
The radio host began his announcement expressing discomfort at
talking about himself, then went on to say: "I have to tell you
something today that I wish I didn't have to tell you."
"The upshot is that I have been diagnosed with advanced lung
cancer," he said. The shortness of breath he had thought might
have been asthma turned out, he said, to be "a pulmonary problem
involving malignancy." He made no mention of a prognosis.
Limbaugh has been a leading voice of the political right and a
nemesis of the left since launching his show in 1985 amid the
Republican revolution of Ronald Reagan, a man he has called "the
greatest president of the 20th century."
Espousing a provocative, populist brand of social and political
conservatism, Limbaugh has commanded a weekly audience of about
20 million listeners - he calls them "ditto heads" - during a
three-hour daily broadcast airing on some 600 radio stations
across the United States.
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Detractors such as liberal former Senator Al Franken - a onetime
comedian who wrote a book titled "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Liar" -
have criticized him as a divisive figure who routinely distorts the
facts.
Still, Limbaugh's success helped shape the Republican party's agenda
in the media and spawn a wave of conservative commentators on radio,
television and the internet, among them Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity,
Glenn Beck and Alex Jones.
Much of Limbaugh's appeal has been attributed to his brash, colorful
style, and his delight in baiting liberals.
He coined the term "femi-Nazis" to disparage women's rights groups
and once said the "difference between Los Angeles and yogurt is that
yogurt comes with less fruit."
Limbaugh has experienced a variety of medical problems over the past
couple of decades, including a loss of hearing reversed by a
cochlear implant, as well as an addiction to prescription
painkillers that landed him in rehab for several weeks in 2003.
(Writing and reporting by Steve Gorman in Culver City, California;
Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Culver City; Editing by Tom
Brown and Bill Berkrot)
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