Conservative talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh told his listeners Monday that the advanced lung cancer he announced this year is terminal.
Limbaugh, whose program is nationally syndicated, said he received lung scans last week that showed “some progression of the cancer” after it was previously reduced to a manageable level.
“You measure a happy life against whatever medication it takes, and at some point you decide, you know, this medication may be working, but I hate the way I feel every day,” Limbaugh, 69, said on the air. “I’m not there yet, but it is part and parcel of this. It’s tough to realize that the days where I do not think I’m under a death sentence are over.”
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh speaks during a news conference at The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu. Limbaugh says he’s been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File
“We all know that we’re going to die at some point,” he added. “But when you have a terminal disease diagnosis that has a time frame to it, then that puts a different psychological and even physical awareness to it.”
Limbaugh announced his cancer in February with few details other than that he had been diagnosed by two doctors after experiencing shortness of breath on his birthday, Jan. 12. He said at the time that he would soon begin treatment.
Roughly 600 radio stations carry Limbaugh’s program, which since 1988 has influenced mainstream Republican thought and attracted a loyal following of listeners who call themselves “Dittoheads” to express their agreement with him. His program often criticizes feminists – whom he has called “feminazis” – environmentalists, the media and Democrats.
Limbaugh’s show, featuring political commentary and satire, was at one point the United States’s top-rated radio program. He has been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame and the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom days after announcing his cancer diagnosis.
Limbaugh is also one of the most polarizing figures in radio and has racked up controversies, including promoting the false “birther” theory that former president Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
In 2003, ESPN removed Limbaugh as a football commentator after he said Donovan McNabb, an African American quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, got more credit than warranted because “the media has been very desirous that a Black quarterback can do well.”
Advertisers briefly boycotted Limbaugh’s program in 2012 after he called Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” for pushing for mandatory insurance coverage of contraceptives. Limbaugh ultimately apologized for his remarks.
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The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi contributed to this report.
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