Reply #7: but the problem is most of their listeners don't

[unpossibles]

some will claim "it's just a joke/entertainment" when they get exposed for some hypocrisy, but far too many people take that crap seriously.

As an old for instance, the meme that "the media is liberal," originally started by the Nixon camp as a campaign attack tool, was pushed hard by Limbaugh, partially to help set up the also ridiculous idea that FOX was the only "fair and balanced" alternative - which gets people to distrust other sources of information, of course. But this was a huge selling point of Limbaugh and FOX, and it's become so pervasive that I've heard Liberals say it, or refer to a media company which is conservative (NBC comes to mind) as being the Liberal alternative to FOX.

As for whether Beck, Rush, et al believe their garbage - I agree Beck doesn't for a lot of it, but I am not so sure about Limbaugh, especially when it comes to economics, women's rights, etc.