NEW YORK – You didn't have to like or even listen to Rush Limbaugh to be affected by what he did. Conservative talk radio wasn't a genre before him.
Without Limbaugh, it's hard to imagine a Fox News Channel, or a President Donald Trump, or a media landscape defined by shouters of all stripes that both reflect and influence a state of political gridlock.
To his fans, Limbaugh's death Wednesday of lung cancer at the age of 70 was an occasion for deep mourning. For his foes, it was good riddance.
Somewhere, Rush could surely appreciate it. He left a legacy. “He was the most important individual media figure of the last four decades,” said Ian Reifowitz, professor of historical studies at the State University of New York and author of “The