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The conservative pundits on the radio like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly have little direct influence on the teenagers of America. Although they rule the radio during their time slots the teenagers hear very little of what they say.

Being a teenager myself, when I stumbled upon this topic I had to do a little research on who these three men were. I had heard of Rush Limbaugh but only because of him being in the news for something lately. I pay attention to politics, the news, and a do my fare share of reading up on current topics. I know I do this much more than many of my friends. The fact that a teenager who pays attention to this kind of thing doesn't even know who these men are should be show an example of how little influence they have over my peers.

I did ask a few of my friends who do keep up on news and such and one of my friends, said they also knew Rush Limbaugh was from something he did back when Bill Clinton first took office. My friend had read an article talking about how he had made fun of Chelsea Clinton, and how Hillary had retaliated about his attacks. Other than that she said she had heard of the conservative talk shows and that was it.

I then asked a friend who had been raised a conservative himself. His parents happened to be big fans of Limbaugh's and he knew exactly who he was. He told me that he had listened to his show a few times and liked what he heard. He said his parents were constantly talking about the show and how much they loved him and what not. But my teenage friend himself had little experience or knowledge on the subject.

This conversation brought up a new point to think about. How our parents influence more than anyone. So I guess the fact that my second friend's parents had listened to one of the show, this influenced him. If his parents had not been fans he would have known very little. While we are young our thoughts and values very much follow what our parents have taught us for so many years. We hear what they say and start to agree with them. We hit a certain stage where we begin making our own decisions and our own ideas and thoughts begin to form.

Another thing that affects the fact that teenagers aren't really influenced by the shows is that most teenagers aren't involved in politics, and don't listen to the show, or care too. Most teens are busy with having complete lives like working, school, and a social life. Time isn't something that many teenagers have and so we simply don't listen to them. If and when we do have the time we are very unlikely to listen to the talk show of some old guys who are talking about things most teenagers see as things that don't affect us anyways. The majority of the teens have an attitude that politics don't matter and they don't listen to people like Limbaugh.

After doing my research on the topic of the conservative pundit radio talk shows I started to think like the shows were bigger and that I listened to them. If I did listen to them, and they were played for me to hear then yes they would influence my generation greatly. Their comments on the opposite parties ideas leave a huge impact on either side. The fact remains though that most of the teenagers do not listen to them, either because of time issues or attitudes, or values, and are therefore influenced by these men and their shows very minimally.

Learn more about this author, Cody Keeble.
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