# Limbaugh Audience - Declining? Smarter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 26, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995 "2006-10-26T16:19:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/1 "2006-10-26T16:19:01Z")
A couple of posters have mentioned that Limbaugh’s audience is in decline. What’s the basis for that? I found this [poll](http://thepoliticalpost.blogspot.com/2006/08/limbaugh-audience-twice-as.html) which claims that his audience is “smarter” than the average based on succesfully answering three political questions. Assuming that the “audience” debate will evolve… anybody know how Olberman’s audience racks up against his nemesis O’Reilly? ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/2 "2006-10-26T18:30:03Z")
Well, those knowledge questions were rather limited…Namely, they tested whether one could name the President of Russia, the Secretary of State, and correctly say which party was currently in control of the U.S. House of Representatives. To paraphrase Mark Twain, Will Rogers, or whoever the hell is credited with saying this: It is not what Rush’s audience doesn’t know that scares me…It’s what they do know that just ain’t so. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/3 "2006-10-26T18:38:24Z")
[QUOTE=What the … !!!] I found this [poll](http://thepoliticalpost.blogspot.com/2006/08/limbaugh-audience-twice-as.html) which claims that his audience is “smarter” than the average based on succesfully answering three political questions. [/QUOTE] They forgot to subtract 3 points for listening to Limbaugh in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/4 "2006-10-26T18:48:17Z")
Reminds me of Spinal Tap: "You used to play 20 000, 30 000 seat arenas now you are playing 2000 5000 seat arenas does that mean the band’s popularity is waning? No… No… No… I think it is that the band’s appeal is becoming more selective" ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/5 "2006-10-26T20:28:01Z")
[QUOTE=kingpengvin] Reminds me of Spinal Tap: "You used to play 20 000, 30 000 seat arenas now you are playing 2000 5000 seat arenas does that mean the band’s popularity is waning? No… No.. No.. I think it is that the band’s appeal is becoming more selective" [/QUOTE] Wasn’t that right before they opened for the Puppet Show at Disney? With their new Jazz-Fusion direction? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/6 "2006-10-26T21:23:29Z")
[QUOTE=What the … !!!] Assuming that the “audience” debate will evolve… anybody know how Olberman’s audience racks up against his nemesis O’Reilly? [/QUOTE] No cite handy, but I’ve seen numerous polls showing Fox News viewers are much more likely than the general public to believe Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 and had WMDs. I doubt that’s true of MSNBC viewers. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/7 "2006-10-26T21:36:37Z")
Your presence is required [here,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=393605) **What the … !!!**. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/8 "2006-10-27T10:23:48Z")
So, this tells me that those people who listen to a political show are likely to have a greater knowledge of politics and current events? Why is this a surprise? I’m fairly sure that regular watchers of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money are probably more likely to know how the Dow closed, who T Bone Pickens is, and what price range Google is trading at. Doesn’t make them any more intelligent than those who can name the president of Russia. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/9 "2006-10-27T10:36:06Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Your presence is required [here,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=393605) **What the … !!!**. [/QUOTE] Woa… that was painful!!! I didn’t see anything on the audience declining though. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/10 "2006-10-27T10:39:36Z")
To tell you the truth, I don’t know a single person who listens to him or thinks he’s anything but a pathetic windbag. I mean, I’d hope my friends didn’t think he was a smart guy, but even people I work with, friends of friends…No one! I don’t know how he stays on the air! Do any of you know anyone…or know OF anyone…who thinks this guy is on the ball? ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/11 "2006-10-27T13:15:39Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] To tell you the truth, I don’t know a single person who listens to him or thinks he’s anything but a pathetic windbag. I mean, I’d hope my friends didn’t think he was a smart guy, but even people I work with, friends of friends…No one! I don’t know how he stays on the air! Do any of you know anyone…or know OF anyone…who thinks this guy is on the ball? [/QUOTE] Conservative here. The people I know who are more or less ideologically aligned with Limbaugh don’t listen to him because they are working at jobs which preclude radio listening during his afternoon time slot. I used to listen to him from time to time when I would find myself in the car during his slot, but I’m more likely to listen to local public radio or Fresh Air than to Limbaugh. Anyone who does any amount of independent reading on political topics can easily identify the sources of most of what he has to say, and can read the original rather than endure commercials and bombast and Rush’s amazingly dilatory style. I would rather spend five minutes reading a well-written political opinion piece on [Real Clear Politics](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/index.html) than spend a painful hour getting Rush’s rehash. I think his audience consists mainly of people who don’t read political commentary. As to his ratings, I have found it difficult to find information about that, but I suspect that they are down. I think his comments about Michael J. Fox were an attempt at getting attention via jumping the shark. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/12 "2006-10-27T13:36:41Z")
[QUOTE=What the … !!!] Woa… that was painful!!! I didn’t see anything on the audience declining though. [/QUOTE] I just figured you’d want to participate, owing to the topic. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/13 "2006-10-27T15:05:09Z")
My brother-in-law listens to Rush and thinks he’s brilliant. My occasional amusement with the more entertaining portions of his show has passed. I think if his ratings were seriously suffering, we’d see stations start to dump his program. I don’t see that happening anywhere. Can anyone cite a city where a radio station has dumped Rush lately, even if he was immediately picked up by another station? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/14 "2006-10-27T15:17:18Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] No cite handy, but I’ve seen numerous polls showing Fox News viewers are much more likely than the general public to believe Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 and had WMDs. I doubt that’s true of MSNBC viewers. [/QUOTE] [Yup.](http://www.randomlengthsnews.com/archive/outfoxedaugust6.html) > [@](#): > > In fact, “Outfoxed” merely presents the tip of the iceberg of PIPA’s findings. Based on seven polls taken from January through September 2003—but with a core focus on three polls from June through September—PIPA’s study (later reported in Political Science Quarterly [PSQ], Winter 2003-2004), found that “a [60 percent] majority of Americans have had significant misperceptions and these are highly related to support for the war with Iraq.” Of three major misperceptions, PIPA found that 48 percent mistakenly believed that evidence of Iraqi-al Qaeda links have been found, 22 percent believed that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) have been found, and 25 percent believed that worldwide public opinion favored the US invasion. > “Standing out in the analysis are Fox and NPR/PBS, but for opposite reasons.” The PSQ article stated. “Fox was the news source whose viewers had the most misperceptions. NPR/PBS are notable because their viewers and listeners consistently held fewer misperceptions than respondents who obtained their information from other news sources.” What’s more, “In the case of those who primarily watched Fox, greater attention to news modestly increased the likelihood of misperceptions.” For example, “Among those who did not follow the news at all, 42 percent had the misperception that evidence of close links to al Qaeda has been found, rising progressively at higher levels of attention to news to 80 percent among those who followed [Fox] news very closely.” In other words—the more Fox you watch, the less you know. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/15 "2006-10-27T15:33:17Z")
That single poll is meaningless as an arbiter of the Knowledge of Rush’s listeners. It is quite possible that Rush mentioned all three the day before the Poll was taken. On the other hand, the poll really says nothing about intelligence or smarter. I does show who is more up to date on current political events, and yes, I am not suprised that “dittoheads” are more up to date on such things. Even though I claim the poll isn;t accurate as it takes a msall snapshot, certainly those who listen to a political radio show shoudl be more up to day on current political events. Rush may have loony reactionary opinions, but he rarely gets stuff like the name of the Pres of Russia incorrect. By no means is Rush stupid. It is interesting to note that those who listen to religous radio are - by far and away- the _least_ knowledgeable. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/16 "2006-10-27T16:15:01Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] I just figured you’d want to participate, owing to the topic. [/QUOTE] Nah, that would clearly be a waste of time. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/17 "2006-10-27T16:18:18Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] Do any of you know anyone…or know OF anyone…who thinks this guy is on the ball? [/QUOTE] I think you can find a few in [this thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=393605) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/18 "2006-10-27T16:43:18Z")
[QUOTE=ITR champion] [Yup.](http://www.randomlengthsnews.com/archive/outfoxedaugust6.html) [/QUOTE] Thanx. I hope nobody will have to explain to **What the … !!!** how these findings, while saying nothing about Olbermann/MSNBC viewers, do clearly indicate that O’Reilly/Fox viewers are in fact stupid, or at least sadly and stubbornly misinformed, compared to the general population. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/19 "2006-10-27T16:50:12Z")
[QUOTE=jshore] Well, those knowledge questions were rather limited…Namely, they tested whether one could name the President of Russia, the Secretary of State, and correctly say which party was currently in control of the U.S. House of Representatives. To paraphrase Mark Twain, Will Rogers, or whoever the hell is credited with saying this: It is not what Rush’s audience doesn’t know that scares me…It’s what they do know that just ain’t so. [/QUOTE] Obviously, there is an inherent bias in the selection of questions. I could write a list of questions (e.g. “Which country was primarily responsible for helping Osama perpetrate the 9/11 attacks?”) that would make Limbaugh’s listeners look like absolute ignoramuses. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995/20 "2006-10-27T17:11:53Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Thanx. I hope nobody will have to explain to **What the … !!!** how these findings, while saying nothing about Olbermann/MSNBC viewers, do clearly indicate that O’Reilly/Fox viewers are in fact stupid, or at least sadly and stubbornly misinformed, compared to the general population. [/QUOTE] You’ll have to prove it to me. Two of the three items can be nitpicked “48 percent mistakenly believed that evidence of Iraqi-al Qaeda links have been found, 22 percent believed that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) have been found”. There _was_ evidence of Iraq- al Quada links. **Just not any significant ones**. One of Saddam’s leaders met with one of their leaders for example. _That’s a link._ They did find WMD- a few old rusted out peices of junk left over from the Operation Desert Storm era. Still- those were WMD- **Just not any significant ones**. And, SH had illegally modified some of his mid-range missles to be long-range missles. Now, that one depends on what the definition of “WMD” is. They aren’t CBR weapons certainly, but long range missles that could only be aimed at large tragets like cities- and were doubtless made for attacks on Isreal- were considered “WMD” by some. I’d consider them so. I’d consider the fire bomong of Dresden or Tokyo “WMD attacks” also, however. So, if you asked me “were evidence of Iraqi-al Qaeda links been found?” without using the word “significant” I might well have to answer **yes.** Again, if you asked me “were WMD found?”, leaving out a defintion of WMD that included only CBR weapons or leaving out the word “significant”, I’d also have to answer **"yes**". Very, very poorly worded poll. Thus, the results are crap. Note that I have no problem _believing_ that dudes who watch Fox or listen to Rush are morons. 😛 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limbaugh-audience-declining-smarter/377995.md?page=2)