RUSH: Chris, in Memphis, as we start on the phones. And this is gonna be not related to anything I\u2019ve said, but that\u2019s what Open Line Friday\u2019s all about. So, Chris, you\u2019re up. What\u2019s happening? How you doing?<\/p>\n
CALLER: I\u2019m doing well. Thank you for taking my call, Mr. Limbaugh.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You bet.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I just wanted to let you know that if you try to give James Comey\u2019s book less than a four-star review on Amazon, not only will they block you from doing so, but they basically warn you that you could lose your privileges, your Prime privileges for what they deem abuse.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Is that right? If you try to give it only three stars or two stars, they threaten you with losing your Prime subscription?<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/650-060717-Amazon-Bezos.jpg\")
CALLER: You basically get a message that says they\u2019re not going to accept it for worries about abuse. And then you\u2019re referred to their terms and policies which basically say that if you are somebody who engages in abuse, that you could lose your privileges.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Okay. Just so I understand, because I don\u2019t do ratings at online stores, so I\u2019ve never done this. Are you telling me — I imagine you can give it one to five stars. Right? Is that the way it works?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes, sir.<\/p>\n
RUSH: So if you try to give Comey\u2019s book three stars you are given a message warning you that you are abusing the system?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes, sir. If you look on Amazon and you see the book, you can see that there\u2019s only four- and five-star reviews on there, so it\u2019s misleading not only for the fact of rating, but people who are potentially buying the book, when you look at an item, you look at the review, like if other people have liked it. So if you look at his, you know, you see however many reviews, and every one of them, and they\u2019re mostly five-star, but they\u2019re four- and five-star.<\/p>\n
RUSH: And so you think this whole thing is illegitimate because they\u2019re not allowing people who don\u2019t like the book to review it?<\/p>\n
CALLER: If you\u2019re worried about problems of abuse, it seems like you would just disable all ratings, but I feel like it\u2019s dishonest to only disable bad ratings, again, because people potentially looking to buy the book —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Aw, come on. If what you say is true — Snerdley, are you attempting this right now? Is that what you\u2019re doing? The Official Program Observer is seeing if this happens to him. You know, I don\u2019t read reviews of anything. I don\u2019t look at stars or ratings or anything. If I want something, I buy it. If I don\u2019t, I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/APP-041318-Comey-face-BW.jpg\")
I don\u2019t look at reviews for movies. I don\u2019t look at reviews for TV shows. I read them for show prep, but not to determine whether or not to watch \u2019em or buy them. As a powerful, influential member of the media, I have to absorb all this stuff anyway. And a lot of it is offered to me gratis, but I don\u2019t accept it. I don\u2019t want any obligation to anybody. But look, Steven, we\u2019ll check this out. If what you say is true, is anybody surprised? Is anybody surprised that Amazon would not permit anything less than a four-star review for the book by St. Comey? Come on!<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Okay. The caller was correct. We had numerous staffers here attempt to rate Comey\u2019s book with less than four-stars. Here is the message that you get: “Sorry. We are unable to accept your review of this product. This product currently has limitations on submitting reviews. This may be because we detected unusual review behavior on this product or to maintain the best possible shopping experience. For more details, see the customer review guidelines.”<\/p>\n
However, one of my staffers got the same message when he tried to give it a four- and five-star review, not just a one-, two-, or three-star. When he tried to rate it anything, he got the same message. Now, Amazon has the ability, folks — (laughing) — they may know who you are. They know your purchase history.<\/p>\n
All you have to do is log on and everything you\u2019ve ever done with Amazon is right there on the screen if you want to find out. You want to see your orders, you want to see your searches, it\u2019s right there instantly, the minute you log on. So if you\u2019re the kind of person that reviews things, reviews political books, they know it. And if they know that you routinely give negative reviews to liberal writers, they may decide to shut you down.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/APP-042018-Amazon-A-Logo.jpg\"){kind=logo}
Everybody talks about Facebook, and everybody talks about Google. But you have to include Amazon in this. You know, Amazon Web Services — do you people know about that? Have you ever heard of Amazon Web Services? Amazon has the largest server farms in the world. Apple leases space on Amazon servers for iCloud and iCloud Drive. The U.S. government buys space from Amazon Web Services to run some of their data.<\/p>\n
This is one of the first things Amazon did at the same time they were going Big Retail. They\u2019ve got the largest data server business. It is massive. They have worldwide clients. You didn\u2019t know that? Amazon Web Services, AWS. Google it. Look \u2019em up on Wikipedia. You\u2019d be shocked. So if you start talking about Facebook and Google and so forth, you gotta throw the Amazon guys in there as well. They lease server space, cloud data storage space to practically everybody you\u2019re doing business with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: Is anybody surprised that Amazon would not permit anything less than a four-star review for the book by St. Comey? Come on!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":271712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n