RADIO HOST LIMBAUGH ADMITS HE'S ADDICTED

New York -- Rush Limbaugh, the nation's most popular radio talk-show host
with an audience of 20 million people a week, announced Friday that he is
addicted to prescription pain relievers and would check into a
rehabilitation center.

Limbaugh, who has been in the forefront of conservative talk radio since the
mid-1980s and is widely credited with mobilizing support for the Republican
sweep of Congress in 1994 and the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in
1998, made the announcement nine days after he resigned as an ESPN sports
analyst because of race-related comments he had made about Philadelphia
Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.

Limbaugh -- a college dropout who soared to nationwide fame with acid
comments about Democrats and environmental "wackos," among others -- made
the announcement at the end of his midday program.

Pulling his golden microphone closer to his mouth, rubbing his nose,
scratching an eyebrow, Limbaugh told his audience on 600 stations
nationwide, including KSFO in San Francisco, that he wanted "to once and for
all break the hold that this highly addictive medication has on me."

Limbaugh, who has regularly told his listeners that drug users should be
jailed, said he began taking painkillers after undergoing spinal surgery in
the 1990s. But the operation did not ease the discomfort in his lower back
or his neck. He said that instead of having more surgery, "I chose to treat
the pain with prescribed medication, and this medication turned out to be
highly addictive."

He said that he had tried to end his dependence on pain pills before, twice
checking into "medical facilities." This time, he said, he had agreed with
his doctor about "the next steps" he needed to take.

CIGAR BOXES FILLED WITH CASH

He did not say what drugs he is addicted to. He was linked to an
investigation in Florida last week after his maid was quoted in the National
Enquirer as saying she met him in parking lots where he handed her cigar
boxes filled with cash and she handed him cigar boxes filled with pills,
including OxyContin, a time-release narcotic that has been widely abused.
OxyContin is known on the streets by the term "hillbilly heroin."

Friday, the Associated Press quoted law-enforcement officials it did not
name as saying that Limbaugh was being investigated by the state's
attorney's office in Palm Beach County, Fla.

Limbaugh's lawyer, Roy Black, did not return a telephone call for comment.
On the air, Limbaugh said he would not discuss the details "until this
investigation is complete."

He took issue with reports on the investigation but said he would not
comment on them.

"I'm only going to say that the stories you have read, the stories you've
heard, contain inaccuracies and distortions," he said, "and I'm going to
clear those up when I am finally free to speak about them." He did not say
when that might be.

Nor did he say what rehab center he would check into. He said he would spend
30 days there, beginning immediately after his broadcast Friday.

Michael Sitrick, a spokesman for the company that syndicates Limbaugh's
program, said there was "no relationship" between Friday's announcement and
Limbaugh's comments about McNabb. "These are completely unrelated issues,"
Sitrick said.

REFUSED TO COMMENT

Limbaugh had declined to discuss the drug issue last Friday, his first day
on the air after reports of the Florida investigation had been published. He
said he had received thousands of positive e-mail messages.

But on Monday, the Wall Street Journal said in an editorial that he had let
his listeners down by not discussing the drug allegations.

"It strikes us that what people are really waiting to see is whether he will
take the consequences of his actions like a man," the editorial said.

Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor, said he believed that
Limbaugh's departure for rehabilitation was intended to "pre-empt the
story." He also said he did not believe that Limbaugh should be prosecuted.
Prosecutors rarely charge people who misuse prescription drugs, he said,
though they sometimes do file charges against celebrities.

"You get more bang for the prosecution buck -- you get an enormous deterrent
effect," Dershowitz said. "So the question is whether his status as a
celebrity trumps the standard that you usually don't go after users of
illegal pharmaceuticals."

In 15 years as a syndicated radio star who prided himself on directness,
Limbaugh had made headlines before with surprise announcements to an
audience that includes fans so devoted they call themselves dittoheads. In
2001, a few months after signing a nine-year, $285 million contract that was
the largest in the history of radio, he said his hearing had all but
disappeared. He had surgery to have an electronic device placed in his skull
to restore his hearing.

NOTHING 'QUITE LIKE THIS'

Friday, Tom Taylor, the editor of Inside Radio, a radio industry newsletter,

said Limbaugh had headed into "terra incognita."

"We've never really seen anything quite like this before," Taylor said.
"It's certainly a test of Rush's relationship with his audience. The analogy
would be what we saw a couple of years ago, in the crisis with his hearing.
Most of his listeners have stuck with Rush for 15 years."

Michael Harrison, the publisher of Talkers, a radio trade magazine,
predicted that the Limbaugh show's long-term ratings would not be hurt.

"It's going to help his career because Rush is now humanized -- people love
when people show a human side," he said. "It may make some of his people
scratch their heads and say: 'Oh, my gosh. Rush is a human being and not a
god. ' "