MORE LIMBAUGH FACTS

(h/t Media Matters)

Pew Research did a nice "reality-based" study of Limbaugh and other conservative gasbags and it is true that:

Limbaugh’s audience was the most conservative. That is, conservatives made up a greater share of his regular audience than of the regular audiences for the “O’Reilly Factor,” “Hannity & Colmes” (now called “Hannity”), or any of the 39 programs or networks tested.

What's a little surprising is Pew's claim about the real size of Limbaugh's audience:

It is important to note, however, that Limbaugh’s syndicated radio show does not have the reach of O’Reilly’s nightly cable program. Among the general public, 10% said they regularly watched O’Reilly, compared with 7% who regularly watched Hannity & Colmes and 5% who regularly listened to Limbaugh. Among conservatives, 19% said they regularly watched O’Reilly, compared with 12% for Hannity & Colmes and 10% for Limbaugh.

This means that Limbaugh's true audience size is a small fraction of the 20 million Clear Channel claims and even Talkers Magazine's 15 million is a gross exaggeration:

In general, O'Reilly and Hannity draw an audience of between two and three million viewers on Fox News. Based on that Pew survey, it would appear Limbaugh's real-time audience hovers between one and two million fans. "The clout of Limbaugh - and the legion of talkers who parrot his narrative - has been over-estimated," Cooke wrote in his August newsletter.