RUSH: Anybody watch the college football championship game last night?\u00a0 Donald Trump walks on the field at the 40 yard line for the national championship game, national anthem, singing along, heart covered by his right hand, and, I mean, the place erupted in cheers.\u00a0 Now, the Drive-By Media is saying there were some boos.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t talked to anybody who heard any boos.\u00a0 Now, there had to be some of course, I mean, the place was filled and the law of averages is such. But the cheers and the support for Trump is overwhelming.<\/p>\n
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And, you know, ESPN\u2019s televising the thing, it had to just destroy them to see Trump show up and then to have this kind of reception and this kind of support that he got and for showing up in the national anthem and standing and putting his hand over his heart and singing along with it.\u00a0 And then you find out after the game last night that the college football ratings were through the roof.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, ratings for the NFL wild card weekend were down double-digit percentage-wise all four games Saturday and Sunday.\u00a0 And Trump in a little bit of a microcosm last night, the college football championship, illustrated exactly why.\u00a0 In addition to the college football ratings being way up where there are no kneelers, where there is no disrespect for the American flag or the country, the NFL playoff games double digital ratings decrease and the Golden Globes ratings were down from 2017.\u00a0 They fell to a six-year low.<\/p>\n
Now, what do these two things have in common?\u00a0 The National Football League plummeting ratings throughout the season and the Golden Globes show, ratings down, a six-year low.\u00a0 What is the thread that runs through both of these?\u00a0 Yeah, yeah, yeah, the protest thing, but what\u2019s behind the protest thing?\u00a0 Liberalism is what the thread is.\u00a0 Liberalism is running through this, the left.<\/p>\n
The forgotten people in flyover country do not want to see all of these wealthy millionaires lecturing them on how horrible they are and how horrible the country is.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t compute.\u00a0 Your average, ordinary American watching Hollywood celebrities with their vast displays of wealth and power, you know, just entertain us and go home. Don\u2019t preach to us. What gives you the right to preach to us?\u00a0 They can try it, they can do it, but it isn\u2019t working, and the more they preach in actual movies and in their award shows, you see what is happening.<\/p>\n
And what is being demonstrated here is that people are demonstrating, proving slowly that they can live without Hollywood awards shows.\u00a0 And more and more people apparently can live without the National Football League.\u00a0 Now, what if that establishes as a habit? \u00a0What if this establishes a new normal for people to begin tuning out these two entities that have become major institutions, dominant institutions in America.<\/p>\n
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And this I don\u2019t think is a one-year one-off.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something peculiar to 2017.\u00a0 This I think is a major trend.\u00a0 Look, if this were happening in your business, if you were losing audience like this, if you were losing customers like this, you would be deathly concerned.\u00a0 You\u2019d be panicking.\u00a0 You\u2019d be working on ways to reverse it.\u00a0 These people aren\u2019t.\u00a0 They are doubling down every time the American people show their displeasure by walking away from these events and not watching them. This is typical of the liberals, by the way.<\/p>\n
The Democrat Party is the same way.\u00a0 They get rejected, and they don\u2019t try to find out what went wrong. They double down on that which is driving people away, which is why I am not part of a group of people that thinks the Democrats are automatically going to win the House in 2018 or the Senate or the White House in 2020.\u00a0 But the media is, aren\u2019t they?\u00a0 The media\u2019s convinced they\u2019ve already won 2018.\u00a0 “The American people,” they\u2019re convinced, “already hate Trump.<\/p>\n
“They now believe Trump\u2019s insane. They believe Trump\u2019s a lunatic. They believe Trump should not be where he is.” As such, they think they\u2019ve already won the 2018 races.\u00a0 They are in such bad shape that they\u2019re having to look at somebody who\u2019s never run for office as their savior, after spending the last two years criticizing that very kind of candidate!\u00a0 They have spent the last two-to-three years ripping Trump for all the reasons under the sun, and what are they now doing?<\/p>\n
Producing their own version of Trump!\u00a0 This is a party that is seeking an identity that they have lost, that they have no idea how to modify or modernize, and if Trump continues to succeed — which he will.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: We start on the phones with Ann in Akron, Ohio. Great to have you. Welcome on the program.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hi. Thanks for having me.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You bet. My pleasure.<\/p>\n
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CALLER: Hey, I personally think that the NFL would have had worse ratings if it wasn\u2019t for fantasy football. Because the way fantasy football works is prior to the season, everyone got together, they pick their players, the players play on various teams. You watch throughout the weekend various games. It doesn\u2019t matter who you actually like because you want to watch your team do well for fantasy football. And then it lasts two weeks into the playoff season. So this past weekend when the ratings really went down, these past playoffs weekend, is because I believe it\u2019s because of fantasy football.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You know, it\u2019s an excellent point. Do you play fantasy football?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes, I do.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You do! I figured you\u2019re in Akron, Ohio, you must.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes. So I personally believe that if fantasy football didn\u2019t exist that the ratings of the NFL would even be more disastrous than they are. That\u2019s my personal opinion.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You know, you may have a point. You really have a point about the fall-off here for the playoff weekend. The NFL, for the longest time, tried to hold off fantasy football. And not just because of the illusion that the NFL does not like to get involved with gambling. They actually try to tell you that.<\/p>\n
The reason they tried to hold it off is because fantasy football eliminates rooting for a team. And rooting for a team is the foundation of TV ratings. It\u2019s the foundation of licensed merchandise sales. It\u2019s the foundation on which the league has been built. It\u2019s the foundation of the television philosophy.<\/p>\n
And when fantasy football came along, people stopped caring. The people playing it — and it\u2019s an increasing number every year — the people playing it stopped caring who won. It didn\u2019t matter. Only how the individual players on their team did. Well, when the regular season ends and you\u2019re down to, you know, eight teams playing on a weekend, there\u2019s much less fantasy football action going on and much less reason to watch. So she may have a point about this, folks. That\u2019s probably right on.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: I just had this stupid story called to my attention.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s a Mediaite story, and the headline: “