Citrix pulls out of Rush Limbaugh advertisements

After a metric assload of complaints regarding their advertising on the Rush Limbaugh Show, Citrix has pulled their advertisements. They posted on their Facebook wall:

Over the past day, we’ve heard from many great Citrix customers about our advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Show. These customers have expressed their growing concern that some of his recent comments seem inconsistent with the core values Citrix has always stood for – humility, integrity and respect.

While Citrix obviously does not control any show’s content or endorse opinions of their hosts, we do take the concerns of our customers seriously. When they are upset about something, we listen. After careful consideration, we have decided to discontinue our advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Show.

Sincerely,
Brett Caine
SVP and GM, Online Services Division
Citrix

Considering Rush publicly called a law school student a “slut”, you basically made the only choice you could, Citrix. A true shame you chose to advertise with his show to begin with, and a true shame you took so damn long to finally cave to the pressure, but at least you made that choice rather than stubbornly doubling down and doing more damage to your brand than you need right at the moment. You know, by supporting the systematic destruction of women’s rights.

Update: More advertisers are pulling out over Rush saying the law student — who began petitioning her university insurance to cover contraception because her friend had ovarian cysts, by the way — was just looking to have her sex life subsidized.

{advertisement}
Citrix pulls out of Rush Limbaugh advertisements
{advertisement}

47 thoughts on “Citrix pulls out of Rush Limbaugh advertisements

  1. 2

    The government should not be telling insurance companies what they must cover, since insurance is heavily math based. Government intervention in actuarial tables increases the costs for everyone. Math cannot be fooled.

    If a customer does not like the coverage his/her insurance company provides, he/she can get a different insurance provider.

    If no insurance company provides for what he/she wants, then the math must not pencil out, and he/she must pay for the services instead.

    What Rush said is right. Mandating health insurance companies to pay for contraception is the same thing as paying for/supporting someones sex life.

    And lest anyone be confused, I am an atheist, and I’m tired of paying for everyone else’s crap all the time when I have a family of my own to support, which is getting harder and harder to do.

  2. 4

    Maybe health insurers should only cover the necessities like chicken soup and a damp rag. That’d cut down on costs. I don’t want to be paying for other peoples meds they can pay for them themselves I’ve got a family to take care of. The math can’t be fooled!

    *I’ve got a head cold and I’m not afraid to turn up the snark!*

  3. 5

    Jason Thibeault, #3: And you are why your country needs single payer.

    He’s also why our country needs a progressive tax structure.

    I suspect he also votes for the candidates who work the hardest against his best interests, so he’s also why our country needs a functioning education system and a media that informs.

    Damn, he’s why our country needs a whole lot of things!

  4. 6

    ss123, #2: …and I’m tired of paying for everyone else’s crap all the time when I have a family of my own to support….

    Actually, the things to be covered here are preventative health care which is in the long run are far cheaper than covering the inevitable pregnancies and baby health care (and the maternal complications that sometimes comes up).

    Not covering this crap actually keeps your costs higher than they should be.

  5. 8

    “he’s also why our country needs a functioning education system”

    Sorry, I have an electrical engineering degree. This debate has nothing to do with intelligence. $15 trillion in debt does though.

    It is irresponsible for a “free” society to continue to allow increased government intervention in our lives. There will be no “free” pretty soon.

  6. 9

    Updated the main post with a link to a Daily Kos list of more advertisers withdrawing.

    The worst part of all this is I use Citrix on a nearly daily basis for work. I’m not going to be able to stop thinking of the ridiculous anti-woman bullshit Rush (and his cohorts, e.g. O’Reilly who’s sided with him) pulls on a regular basis.

  7. 10

    What Rush said is right. Mandating health insurance companies to pay for contraception is the same thing as paying for/supporting someones sex life.

    Would paying for maternity care and delivery of a baby also, arguably, be paying for someone else’s sex life? You did say you have a family.

  8. 12

    @#10… No. Government (as I want it to operate, and I know my opinion differs from most on freethoughtblogs), should not mandate anything an insurance company provides.

    If an insurance company wants to provide contraception or, say, delivery, than they certainly can and their rates will reflect such services. Math cannot be fooled.

    This has nothing to do with what insurance companies provide as stated in my original post.

    It’s about how much encroachment and lessening of freedom we allow as a society.

  9. 13

    Government (as I want it to operate, and I know my opinion differs from most on freethoughtblogs), should not mandate anything an insurance company provides.

    I suspect our electrical engineer is one of those looneytarians who doesn’t give a damn about anyone but themselves and the immediate family. The EE has decided contraception is not necessary in the family’s immediate future and therefore NOBODY should have insurance pay for it.

    Damn but I hate selfish looneytarians.

  10. 14

    ss123, #12: If an insurance company wants to provide contraception or, say, delivery, than they certainly can and their rates will reflect such services. Math cannot be fooled.

    It seems to have fooled you. Contraceptives — inexpensive, lower premiums, more money for you to take care of your family. Prenatal care, delivery, maternal complications, post-birth care of the child — expensive, higher premiums, less for you to use for your family.

    This has nothing to do with what insurance companies provide as stated in my original post.

    Right. It really has to do with women’s sex lives. Limbaugh, Santorum, and the rest have pretty much made this clear.

    It’s about how much encroachment and lessening of freedom we allow as a society.

    Right. Forcing women to choose between celibacy or unwanted pregnancy is all about freedom.

  11. 15

    ss123
    Our health should NOT be a profit center for any company. Insurance companies pay for Viagra (paying for someone else’s sex life) and circumcisions (an optional operation) but when it comes to women’s health suddenly the math doesn’t add up? What you’re trying to do is rationalize sexism.

    Guess what, we’re already helping to support you through our tax dollars. I pay more in auto insurance because you don’t have to, if you really believe in what you say, I have a paypal account for you to refund the money I spent helping you.

    Guess what, there are legit medical needs for the pill that are unrelated to contraception. Paying for that does not mean you’re supporting someone’s sex life. Now Rush using insurance to pay for Viagra when he goes down to the Dominican Republic, an known hot spot for the child sex trade, THAT is paying for someone else’s sex life. Why don’t you rant about that?

  12. 16

    drivebyposter, #11: Apparently electrical engineering has nothing to do with intelligence.

    I’m told that engineers are over represented among creationists, cdesign proponentists, and climate change denialists.

    Engineers, it seems, aren’t particular immune to being unable to think critically outside their area of expertise.

  13. 17

    To add to what 14 is saying… if BC is covered it means poor people have greater access to BC. Poor people with access to BC means fewer poor families with kids they can’t afford. This means the government bleeds less money on various forms of support to these poor people who now have kids they might not have wanted in the first place. Which means more of your money can go to dealing with that whole debt problem.

  14. 18

    Gah. I hate seeing failures of scepticism among engineers, being one myself, but there probably is something lacking in engineering education that contributes to it. I’m not sure if there’s anything about engineering which actively interferes with critical thinking, but it’s not something we’re really actively taught…

  15. 19

    What Chiroptera said at 14 plus for every $1 spent on BC, $4 saved. Insurance companies love that kind of preventive care, but they’re shy about mandating ‘fertility control’ since some pious folks demand that the rest of us fund their quiverful of children. The math doesn’t lie, which is why the insurance companies are thrilled to be allowed to provide free birth control.

    Tree, healthcare finance geek

  16. 20

    If a customer does not like the coverage his/her insurance company provides, he/she can get a different insurance provider.

    Actually most people I know have little choice but to take the health insurance offered at their job. Buying individual policies is out of the question. Some self employed ones will look for a job specifically for the health benefits.

  17. 21

    ss123:

    I really resent you barging in here, waving your electrical engineering degree around, for an argument that isn’t actually about numbers, or even freedom, but about encroaching influence of male-dominated religious codes on secular society.

    I, too, have an electrical engineering degree. And I’m female. And you are spouting bullshit.

  18. 22

    s123 #8: It is irresponsible for a “free” society to continue to allow increased government intervention in our lives.

    But it’s OK to allow our feudal overlords to intervene in our lives? The people who have the money get to set all the rules? What progress!

    mcbender #18:but there probably is something lacking in engineering education that contributes to it.

    Ask anyone who majored in science about plug and chug vs. deep understanding.

  19. 23

    Before adding to the verbal flogging you’re receiving, ss123, I’d be interested to know what you think insurance legitimately pays for. Obviously, since you have a family, you’re all for obstetrics, because, you know, that’s about YOU and YOUR wallet, but what about gynecology? Think insurers ought to pay for pap smears (which may be medically unnecessary in non-sexually active women)? How about Viagra? Think that’s a necessity? Is necessity even one of your metrics, or do you just limit yourself to condemning medicine that has to do with the sexual health of women?

  20. 24

    So this ss123 guy is against government controlling our lives, but he’s okay with government telling women what they can or can’t do with their vaginas?

    Talk about cognitive dissonance.

  21. 25

    Soooooo…. with advertisers performing coitus interruptus on Rush’s show, does anyone think he could lose his radio show???

    … I’m getting all giddy about the possibility

    oh, and ss123… like Jason said, you need single payer. It’s called ‘socialized medicine’, that’s right, it’s socialism….. ooooooo boogeyman

  22. 26

    Insurance in a “free” society, is all about profit. They will happily take your money and pay out as little as possible. They will let people, let children, die to make their profits. Without government control they will take your money and pay out nothing.

    ss123 is a pathetic dupe who is so simple-minded that when his masters shriek “paying for someone else” he starts salivating and shrieking right along with them and getting all excited. And while they are getting him off, he doesn’t notice that their other hand is in his pocket, relieving him of his wallet.

    I wish that ss123 could spend a day in the world he thinks he wants.

  23. 28

    Chiroptera:

    I’m told that engineers are over represented among creationists, cdesign proponentists, and climate change denialists.

    Engineers, it seems, aren’t particular immune to being unable to think critically outside their area of expertise.

    Retired Mechanical Engineer here. I spent pretty much the last 40 years among engineers and you’ve got it exactly right. Also 9/11 conspiracy theorists & TWA 800 “shot down by the Navy” nuts.

  24. 29

    Retired Mechanical Engineer here. I spent pretty much the last 40 years among engineers and you’ve got it exactly right. Also 9/11 conspiracy theorists & TWA 800 “shot down by the Navy” nuts.

    Any idea why that might be?

  25. 30

    Drivebyposter,

    I’ve noticed that too (I did software design but at a major technical college). Many who go into more engineer-y disciplines have a kind of can-do dunning-krugerish bent and an also attraction to libertarianism. (The good hippies I knew warned me away from Ayn Rand when I went off to college all those decades ago.)

  26. 31

    echidna, #21: I really resent you barging in here, waving your electrical engineering degree around….

    I think he was responding to my previous post where I implicitly blamed his misinformed attitudes on a poor education.

    He evidently misunderstood that I was implying he had very little formal education.

    My actual point was that in the US, even if you graduate from college, even if you graduate from a high level professonal program or PhD program it is possible that in all those years of schooling you may have ended up with only a thin, superficial veneer of “broad based liberal arts” education, and very likely nothing deep enough to teach you how to tell that the politicians you are voting for are stupid, insane liars.

  27. 32

    “ss123 is a pathetic dupe who is so simple-minded that when his masters shriek “paying for someone else” he starts salivating and shrieking right along with them and getting all excited.”

    I think you’ve got almost right. I had a friend point out to me that it’s not ebil socialism, but it’s also a matter of “I had to pay it for it, so everybody else should, too.” I had a someone tell me that–since she (yes, she) had to pay for her BC, pregnancies, deliveries, etc., and she wasn’t about to start paying for every woman out there who was stupid enough to have sex. OTOH, start asking questions about social security and Medicare, and it’s all “The gummint needs to keep its hands of my SSI and Medicare!!!” I suppose it’s different when you directly benefit from the socialism that so many rant and rave about.

  28. 33

    Have a feeling RL is on his way out; this is way over the top even for him. He not only insulted and degraded one female student, he insulted and degraded every woman (and most definitely every American woman) using any type of birth control who receives said pills “free” through her insurance provider or picks up “free” condoms at the University’s health center!!!!!

    And the truly stupid part was he didn’t even make a logical argument!!! Just incredibly giant leaps from one statement to the next pretending they were connected!! Didn’t know whether to laugh or shoot the TV Elvis-style! Chose to be astonished and vocally derisive as it wasn’t the TV’s fault.

    Further, I watched a bit of O’Reilly last night when this schmuck Adam Corolla was ranting on about how the 99% are “envious” of wealthy men with “good-looking girl-friends with boob-jobs” and then “ashamed that they hadn’t the smarts or the work ethic, or the intestinal fortitude to accomplish what rich people have” – all with Billo’s approval and agreement. I shit you not!!! I could not believe any living person could make such odious and absolutely STUPID comments – let alone believe them.

    Can’t wait for that burly old redneck brother welding for a living at some average-paying job whose wife is on her feet all day waiting tables at a local hash-joint to supplement the family income comes into contact with this rude, crude, and anti-social asshole. Then Corolla will learn the true meaning of the phrases “intestinal fortitude” and work ethic”!

    I include this because it is of the same type of attack on fellow citizens as Limpball’s and many others. It is also fast becoming the “new wave” of attack on the 99%. This could easily and quickly come back to bite them all (including the GOP’s “nominatees”) on the ass. I can’t wait; keep yer powder dry.

  29. 35

    Uncle Glenny, #30:

    This is entirely anectdotal, but when I was in college, the students who I noticed were the most resentful of having to waste their time with “unnecessary” humanities or social science courses were the engineering students. I’m not going to claim that this is scientifically confirmed survey, though.

    The rest of us kind of dug them. In fact, my two favorite courses in college — a freshman poly sci course and one on freshman lit — weren’t anywhere near my majors (physics and mathematics). I was resentful that I didn’t have more time to take all those other courses in all those other departments.

  30. 37

    If a customer does not like the coverage his/her insurance company provides, he/she can get a different insurance provider.

    Really. And how is one supposed to do that? When I was a graduate student, I faced the prospect of having no university employment for a year. While I had enough to live on, it would mean the loss of my health insurance, so I called around to see what it would cost. Answer: $3500 per month (and this was in 2000). Which would not include prescription drug coverage for my pre-existing condition, which is my main medical cost. How would you propose to deal with that with no income after having lived on $12k/year for the previous three years?

  31. 38

    Chiroptera@35:

    I’m sort of the opposite, as I dropped out (Chem major) before I got to most the humanities. Because of that and some funny business in high school I’m I was reallly lacking in the social studies sorts of stuff (nor the swim test nor PE I would have needed to graduate), but I’ve had 35 years to catch up a bit.

    btw, one of my classmates is a woomeister that Orac savages on occasion. Mech E major.

  32. 39

    Drivebyposter said:

    Any idea why that might be?

    Not really. Engineering is an intensely reality-based profession — if you don’t do it right people might die. Perhaps some just need a bit of unreality in their lives to counter their jobs. Or something.

    I should also point out that while there are some real fruitcakes in engineering, it’s a pretty small minority. Probably a high percentage of mainline Christians, however.

    As a couple of people have pointed out above, libertarianism is pretty high among engineers as well. I’d probably lean that way myself if it weren’t for the fact that every avid libertarian I’ve met was batshit crazy.

  33. 40

    Not really. Engineering is an intensely reality-based profession — if you don’t do it right people might die. Perhaps some just need a bit of unreality in their lives to counter their jobs. Or something.

    Perhaps engineering is a pretty black and white field where the variables are well defined with little gray area and that kind of thinking spreads to other areas…? I don’t really know much about engineering, but libertarians seem to have a very nuance free view of how things ought to be.

  34. 41

    I don’t know about engineers and libertarianism, but in regard to engineers who are religious supporting creationism, I read somewhere that this may have to do with many engineers being very literal-minded. If they decide they believe in a certain religion, they treat that religion’s holy text like a technical manual that is to be taken literally, without any allegory or other nuance.

    I have no idea if this is true or not, though.

    I used to be sort of a libertarian myself, and I still have some sympathy for the libertarian point of view without really subscribing to it. I don’t think it’s as simple as being “selfish”. I think that it’s connected to a desire to be, or at least to see oneself as, independent and self-reliant, which are actually pretty positive traits in my opinion. It’s no accident that it is much more common in the USA, with its strong cultural traditions (some would say myths) of self-reliant individualism. It is also connected, I think, with a strong feeling that other people are taking advantage of you. In that respect, it is actually similar to socialism, with the key difference that the “others” seen as taking advantage of one are the government rather than private business.

  35. 42

    About engineers–it seems to me like they suck at systemic analysis. I mean, they may be good at determining how thick the concrete must be in order to hold back X tonnes of water behind a dam, but nobody ever bothers to teach them that a.) it’s also worth analyzing whether it’s a net gain to put a dam in that particular spot and b.) how to perform such an analysis if they should decide to. Such considerations are outsourced to planners, ecologists, sociologists, economists, and conservationists–professions which have a bad reputation as being too “soft” within engineering circles. The artificial divide between “hard” (read: less complex, less nuanced, male-dominated, less concerned with human behavior) sciences and “soft” (read: complex, nuanced, egalitarian or female-dominated, concerned with human behavior) sciences doesn’t help the situation any.

  36. 43

    I will never understand how anyone could agree with a nasty, bitter, mean, hate-filled gasbag like Rush Limbaugh.

    Do any of you have mothers….or did you all crawl out from under rocks, like Rush did?

  37. 44

    @ SallyStrange: Drifting further and further off topic, but I’ve got to disagree with you on the economic analysis thing. It’s not the engineers who decide to build the dam in the spot, it’s usually politicians. And we know how good they are at economic analysis! Most engineers I’ve met would do a better job of analyzing the economics of a project than the executives who use the power of magical thinking to decree that the project can be done for half the development cost that the engineers have already determined it will take.

  38. 45

    I’d say perhaps to use open source alternatives, but there are some significant members of the open source community who agree with everything Rush says *eric raymond*cough* and are a good deal battier besides.

  39. 46

    I’m wicked late to all this, but, yeah, engineers (and programmers) are disproportionately wingnuts and libertoonians. (Not all, obviously, as several in this thread prove.) The Muslim Brotherhood were all engineers.

    To echo several people here, my impression has always been that this is borne of extrapolating fallaciously from one’s work, which requires extreme linear thinking and which can be controlled entirely, to the messy human world.

    But also, as Chiroptera said, the U.S. is shit at teaching liberal arts. They’re regarded as “frills” and were the first educational subjects to get whacked with the anti-tax budget axe back in the ’80s. The linear thinkers can’t deal with fields of study in which the data cannot be boiled down to “hard” numbers. They can’t handle that kind of uncertainty and complexity, so they dismiss it as “bullshit.”

    Also, what Sally said about how different fields are considered to be gendered differently.

    Shit Sandwich 123:

    I’m tired of paying for everyone else’s crap all the time when I have a family of my own to support,

    And the rest of us pay for your child tax credits and for your kids’ education. This country’s energy policies also subsidize the minivan or SUV you undoubtedly cart your kids around in, as well as the roads you drive it on. And, if you have a house, you get additional tax credits.

    It is irresponsible for a “free” society to continue to allow increased government intervention in our lives.

    How loud do you scream about right-wing intervention in our lives? How about all the money that goes to the military?

    Marta, he’s probably OK with obstetrics, because, y’know, women “bear men” babies. At least, obstetrics for married women. But not for any gynecological healthcare that doesn’t directly benefit men.

    “I amafreeman”: Adam Corolla not only stumping for the 1% but using language that presumes the Occupy movement is all heterosexual men, or at least presuming that nobody’s listening to him except het men… I’m shocked, I tell you.

    BrianX: Eric S. Raymond… dear FSM, what a wretched human being. Words fail to limn the depth of that wretchedness.

  40. Ray
    47

    I remember, long ago in the bad days when Mike Harris was Premier of Ontario (=Governer of a state, for American readers, but with more actual power), the Premier’s smug face on the cover of a magazine, with the caption, ‘Governing Ontario – it’s not rocket science.’
    How utterly right he was – government is not rocket science – it’s infinitely more complex and vastly more difficult. Every problem in engineering has one, or a very few solutions, which are almost all known beforehand: a certain (known) quantity of such-and-such material of (known) tensile/compressive strength in such-and-such a (known and tested) configuration, will do the job. No such certainty appears in politics.

    As a sidelight on the above, ‘Harris Conservative’ is roughly equivalent to ‘hardline Republican’ in Canadian dictionaries. Another sidelight, Harris and his successor, finally defeated at the polls, left the province with a 5 billion dollar debt, which they had managed to conceal till after the election.

Comments are closed.