Speaking yesterday on the Ed Schultz radio show, industry insider Holland Cooke credited a persistent online activist movement with completely destroying right wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh’s business model by using the very free speech that El Rushbo claims gives him carte blanche to do what he does.

With the latest round of ratings just emerging, Cooke revealed that, in the largest markets, Limbaugh’s stations are in terrible shape:

In fact, in New York–where Limbaugh moved to Clear Channel’s WOR a few months back–there are four stations ahead of Limbaugh’s that aren’t even English language stations. He is also being beaten by a classical music station.

Cooke pins the blame for talk radio’s struggles squarely on Limbaugh’s shoulders and points to the right wing talk show host’s 2012 attack on Sandra Fluke as the “shot heard round the world.” Here are some excerpts from his comments:

The conversation really picked up on February 29, 2012, Leap Year Day which was Day 1 of this three-day Rush Limbaugh/Sandra Fluke faux pas. And, if we were studying the history of talk radio, you stick a pin in the timeline there because at that moment, a very well organized […]