RUSH: Open Line Friday, Rush Limbaugh, serving humanity simply by showing up. And this is Alicia in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you with us.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Thank you. And I hope you have a great holiday.<\/p>\n
RUSH: I hope you do too. I really do. I hope everybody has the greatest holidays they\u2019ve ever had and I hope it meets every hope and expectation that you have. What are you doing for the holidays, do you know yet?<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/APP-113018-bUGS-bUNNY-map.jpg\")
CALLER: Yeah, we\u2019ll be home but we\u2019ll probably have some visitors. Yeah, I don\u2019t want to fly anymore because every time I fly, you know, I have to go into Albuquerque, go through three airports, two or three airports to get anywhere.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n
CALLER: I am so sick of being force-fed CNN at every airport. I mean, you just can\u2019t get away from it. It\u2019s in the lounges, it\u2019s in the bars, it\u2019s all over. What do we have to go to get rid of CNN?<\/p>\n
RUSH: I wish I knew. They\u2019ve got an exclusive arrangement with — I don\u2019t know who. I don\u2019t know what entity it is that is in charge of which cable news network. I mean, there are other channels available on TV stations in airport bars and lounges. I do not know who — they\u2019re obviously paying for it, but I don\u2019t know who they pay. I don\u2019t know how the arrangement works. All I know is that you\u2019re by no means the only person that complains about it. And if it weren\u2019t for that they really have no audience out in the general public, compared to others. I mean, their audience is like 300,000, 400,000, prime time, for something that\u2019s supposedly a national network.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yeah. And that\u2019s only because they force-feed it to us at airports. There\u2019s gotta be a way, what do they have, a lifetime contract?<\/p>\n
RUSH: No idea. Like I say, I\u2019ll have to look into this \u2019cause I really don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
CALLER: If you look into it and you get an answer, please tell us.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Oh! I wouldn\u2019t keep that information from you, where I to find out. You know, it\u2019s actually my bad for not looking into it further. I know they\u2019ve got a monopoly in there and I\u2019ve just never been focused on finding out how and why.<\/p>\n
CALLER: As I said, if I have to go anywhere I have to go through at least two, probably three airports.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You\u2019re in Rio Rancho —<\/p>\n
CALLER: Just north of Albuquerque.<\/p>\n
RUSH: So you have to drive to the Albuquerque airport.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You\u2019re in suburbia there?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n
CALLER: So you go from Albuquerque to either DFW or Atlanta, up to New York. You know, if you\u2019re going that way. Going the other way you gotta go from here to Denver, Denver to wherever you\u2019re going.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/APP-043018-CNN-FNN-Fake-News.jpg\")
CALLER: And there\u2019s no way around CNN.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Look, I can turn it off here. And the most I\u2019m exposed to CNN in a day concentrated would be maybe 30 minutes. I mean, it\u2019s always on, but the total aggregate time I spend paying attention to it is 30 minutes. But you, if you\u2019re in an airport and you want to watch news, it\u2019s the only chance you have, the only opportunity you have.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yeah. Absolutely.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, actually, it\u2019s not. You have an iPhone or an iPad or a tablet, something like that?<\/p>\n
CALLER: I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You don\u2019t?<\/p>\n
CALLER: I\u2019m very old-fashioned. I\u2019m calling you on a landline.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Wow. Would you like an iPad?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Oh, I would love an iPad.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Good. Okay, hang on, because with an iPad you can get a streaming service like DirecTV Now or YouTube TV, and watch any cable news network you want on your iPad as long as you got a connectivity. We\u2019ll send you a cellular version so you can do — hang on. Don\u2019t hang up.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Figure a way to get it to you.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Thank you.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Now CNN and the airports. It turns out, ladies and gentlemen, that CNN has paid for the exclusivity in airports. They are paying about 60 of the largest airports in the country. They have agreements with CNN requiring CNN to pay for the televisions and all of the cable infrastructure.<\/p>\n
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, airports also get up to six minutes each hour to promote the airport or local attractions as part of the tit-for-tat deal. And the CNN programming at an airport is not exactly that programming you see. It\u2019s especially tailored — much of it is the same — but it\u2019s a special feed that gives the airports six minutes an hour to run commercials for in-house shops or restaurants or whatever the airport wants to advertise about itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cCNN Airport covers the costs related to the TVs and related infrastructure, provides programming specifically geared for airports, and pays us for the opportunity to be in our facility,\u201d said a representative from Minneapolis-Saint Paul International.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/APP-062518-CNN-Fake-News-1.jpg\")
There is weather, various entertainment programs, even some live sports, which would probably be soccer or lacrosse or some typical left-wing, sophisticated sports endeavor. And these are long-term contracts that CNN signs. And because of that the network is able to curate content seen by travelers whether they approve of it or not.<\/p>\n