• October 22, 2001
• Vol. 56
• No. 17

A Sudden Silence

By Lori Rozsa, Ron Arias

In a Startling On-Air Confession, Radio Talk Show Superstar Rush Limbaugh Reveals He Is Going Deaf

Waging a two-pronged tongue-lashing against liberals and Osama bin Laden these past few weeks, conservative talk radio titan Rush Limbaugh seemed to be in fighting trim. So his 20 million listeners were stunned Oct. 8 when, halfway through his daily broadcast, he made a somber medical confession. "From May 29 up until about, I'd say, 10 days ago, I lost hearing every five days, to the point, ladies and gentlemen, I'm now totally deaf in my left ear," he said. "Hearing aids, the most powerful made, mean nothing." With 80 percent of the hearing already gone in his right ear as well, "I am, for all practical purposes, deaf. And it's happened in three months."

Limbaugh said that the cause of his rapid deterioration has not yet been pinned down. One ear specialist, UCLA's Dr. Akira Ishiyama (who is not treating Limbaugh), says that in many such cases "a virus is the most reasonable, rational thing to blame."

Whatever the cause, Limbaugh's hearing loss "is unfathomable and tragic," says conservative commentator Mary Matalin, who's now counselor to Vice President Cheney "But if you know Rush, you know the depth of his strength. We will never lose his voice." Indeed, Limbaugh—a conservative of such clout and celebrity that his 1994 marriage to third wife Marta Fitzgerald was officiated at by justice Clarence Thomas—is determined to stay on the air. In July he signed a $250 million, eight-year contract with his distributor, Premiere Radio Networks, making him the highest-paid personality in radio.

Although there is no other similarly impaired host on the radio, Limbaugh has "always been very practical," says former Speaker of House Newt Gingrich, who says Limbaugh confided the news to him a few weeks ago. "He's dealing with this in a practical way." Probably relying on the latest technology—one program, for instance, transcribes phone voices into TelePrompTer type—he has continued to field listeners' calls from a studio not far from his $14.5 million Palm Beach, Fla., estate.

Meanwhile he subscribes to a heavy regimen of unspecified medicines. "I've been popping pills and shooting up," Limbaugh joked on-air. The last resort, he added, would be a cochlear implant, which involves inserting an electrode in the inner ear. That surgery is performed only on the profoundly deaf who would not be helped by hearing aids.

Despite the crisis, "Rush is as emotionally together as I've ever heard him," says Al Peterson of The Radio & Record, an industry newspaper, who interviewed him by e-mail Oct. 8. Still, the days ahead will be tough for Limbaugh. The battle isn't political but very personal—even with the support of family and fans. Says Hardball host Chris Matthews: "Now he's really got to go it alone."

Lori Rozsa in West Palm Beach and Ron Arias in Los Angeles