LIMBAUGH, TELLING OF PILL ADDICTION, PLANS TO BE TREATED

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

Mr. Limbaugh, who has been in the forefront of conservative talk radio
since the mid-1980's and is widely credited with mobilizing support for the
Republican sweep of Congress in 1994 and the impeachment of President Bill
Clinton in 1999, made the announcement nine days after he resigned as an
ESPN sports analyst because of race-related comments he made about
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.

Mr. Limbaugh - who went from a college dropout 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,
Mr. Limbaugh told his audience on 600 stations nationwide, including
WABC-AM in New York, that he wanted "to once and for all break the hold
that this highly addictive medication has on me."

Mr. Limbaugh, who has regularly told his listeners that drug users should
be jailed, said he began taking painkillers after spinal surgery in the 1990's.

The operation did not ease the discomfort in his lower back or neck, he
said, and 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 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.

He did not say what drugs he is addicted to. News reports have said he is
being investigated by law enforcement officials in Florida. Last week, his
maid was quoted in The National Enquirer as saying that 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.

Mr. Limbaugh's lawyer, Roy Black, did not return a telephone call for
comment. On the air, Mr. 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 center he would check into. He said he would spend 30
days there, beginning immediately after his broadcast yesterday.

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

Mr. Limbaugh, 52, 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 accusations. "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 M. Dershowitz, the Harvard Law School professor, said he believed that
Mr. Limbaugh's departure for rehabilitation was intended to "pre-empt the
story." He also said he did not believe that Mr. Limbaugh should be
prosecuted. Prosecutors rarely charge people who misuse prescription drugs,
Mr. Dershowitz said, though they sometimes do file charges against celebrities.

"You get more bang for the prosecution buck - you get an enormous deterrent
effect," he 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,
Mr. 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.

Yesterday, Tom Taylor, the editor of Inside Radio, a radio industry
newsletter, said Mr. Limbaugh had headed into "terra incognita."

"We've never really seen anything quite like this before," Mr. 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.' "