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Considering the political stance of todays Colleges and Universities, the conservative views and values of Limbaugh, Beck and O'Reilly are usually brought up as something to demonize. Something that is often looked at as anti-American. Some students of those studies may then take it upon themselves to research these people and in doing so they may or may not be influenced by them.

Considering the domination that liberalism has on the University Campuses and on the media it is more likely that they are not so much influenced by the conservative pundits as they are the rest of the media. The only true outlets for the conservative base to get their message out is through one major TV network and through AM talk radio. The liberal pundits have several TV networks at their disposal as well as a few talk radio shows. No one has illustrated this more than President Obama himself when he recently made the rounds on Sunday morning TV talk shows. He appeared on five of the TV networks in one day. The only major network he REFUSED to appear on was that of the conservatives. The White House has all but declared war on the conservative network and the pundits. This may very well be working against the Administration. The notoriety that the Administration has given these pundits, has peaked the curiosity of some people. They want to know the whole story so they listen to them for themselves.

People that actually listen to most of these conservative pundits hear them say what the other networks don't tell them. Not only do Beck and Limbaugh tell their listeners things that they don't hear on the other networks, Beck and Limbaugh tell their listeners where they got the information from and where their listeners can research the information for themselves. Unlike the liberal show hosts, most Conservative talk show hosts encourage their listeners to do the research for themselves and not take what they report to be the gospel. They live by the saying of 'Trust but Verify'.

After the major media report about former President Bush 43's Military record that was reported as fact and then turned out to be a forgery in the '04 election campaign, some people started to realize that the major media was not telling them the whole story. During the campaign of the '08 election and since the election of President Obama, the major news networks have slowly been questioning this administration and raising some questions about what he said and what he is doing. They are doing so days after the stories come out on the Conservative shows. This, in turn, is showing people that the major networks may not be telling them the whole story so they are turning to the conservative shows to find out the rest.

So, the answer to the question would most certainly be yes. The real debate however, isn't, are they, but rather, why are they now becoming a bigger influence?

Learn more about this author, Dean Ralph.
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