The campaign conceived, organized and run by Media Matters to silence Rush Limbaugh by drying up the well of advertisers for his radio talk show appeared to be working early on. Many on the left declared victory and spiked the ball. But William A. Jacobson wasn’t convinced that it would have any lasting success:

The statistics put out by Media Matters and others always spoke in terms of advertisers who refused to advertise on Limbaugh’s show, but that’s a meaningless statistic.

One of the things I learned from my research was that prior to Limbaugh’s Fluke comments, a huge number of advertisers stayed away from political talk radio, be it conservative or liberal, precisely because of the types of intimidation campaigns run by anti-Limbaugh groups and others. Media Matters and others effectively poisoned everyone’s well.

Indeed, Rush’s distributor, Premiere Radio Networks, simply went out and found new sponsors to replace those that were intimidated by the left wing group’s political tactics. Now Premiere Senior VP Dan Metter says the El Rushbo show is doing doing very well, thank you:

They’re pacing ahead of this time last year, Metter said — and while January was a bit slow, the second quarter is picking up for the company that distributes Limbaugh and other talkers such as Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.

Limbaugh is looming large on the radar screens at the increasingly politicized Pentagon, and the left is still getting outraged by his provocative pronouncements, including his latest commentary in agreement with Herbert Meyer that the country is in the midst of a coup attempt by its own president.

If Rush Limbaugh no longer matters, why is he still atop the ratings heap, still turning a profit with his radio program, and still making headlines? Through it all, the undefeated champ of talk radio sails along, exasperating those who hate him and want to shut him up “with half my brain tied behind my back,” as he loves to remind them.