Six days after Media Matters for America sent a letter to NBC requesting that radio host Rush Limbaugh not be included in the network's election night coverage, Limbaugh announced that he had declined an invitation to appear on NBC's presidential election coverage because he was offered too little airtime.
From the November 1 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
Ladies and gentlemen, I forgot to mention this to you last week. So many people have been emailing me and asking me if I'm going to be appearing on television on election night coverage. The answer is no. I was invited back again this year by NBC to be part of their coverage with [NBC Nightly News anchor and managing editor] Tom Brokaw and [NBC Meet the Press managing editor and moderator and NBC Nightly News political analyst] Tim Russert, but their coverage is so extensive. They're covering the whole country. This is a presidential race. In 2002, it was midterm elections and the focus was on the House and the Senate, and they had a little bit more time and they had fewer people, and I was featured a little bit more in the coverage. They just don't have the -- and do not take this the wrong way.
They were as accommodating as they could be, but as I allocated my time and ways to spend it on election night, they basically said, “We'd like you for two three-minute to four-minute shots between 8 p.m. and 2 or 3 a.m. Which is what, five, six hours? And the rest of the time sitting around watching and so forth. I need to be doing other things then. It just wasn't enough to do it, and this is not a criticism of them. Please don't take it this way. It's just I made a decision that I have better things to do on election night in order to prepare for this program on Wednesday as much as anything, rather than the limited time afforded by NBC because they've got to get so many other people on, and they've got this big elaborate set at Rockefeller Center. I think a lot of this is going to be done outside if I've got this right. They've got this ”Democracy Plaza" set up there, and they offered, “Well, go over on MSNBC all you want.” And so forth. I said, “I appreciate that,” but I turned it down, and [talking to staff] what was it, H.R.? This came in about two weeks ago? And we thought about it. We thought about it. We talked to 'em for a long while in trying to hash this out, but it couldn't get to a commitment any more than those two attempts.
Media Matters for America has documented Limbaugh's use of extreme, hateful speech and his reckless disregard for facts and the truth.