There was an article in the LA Times from a man who talked about how liberals don't 'listen' to Rush Limbaugh. He said when many pundits comment about Limbaugh they do it from sound bites. He said they don't listen like his audience listens, every day for a long period of time. He put forth the proposal that if they did they would 'get Rush.'

FoxNews is considered a conservative network yet many commentators say the people who speak up against it never listen to the station. Like Limbaugh, they get their information second hand, or they don't watch for a sustained amount of time to get what's going on. Also, those folks would contend that the ratings of FoxNews and Limbaugh confirm that many people like those arenas.

OK, let's take a small step back. As a good example, Battlestar: Galactica was a ratings juggernaut for the Sci-Fi channel, yet Heroes is faltering in the ratings. Looking at the ratings of Galactica, more people watched the show Girlfriends, a canceled show from the WB, than saw Galactica at its ratings zenith. Heroes gets 2-3 times the ratings Galactica does. The difference in perception is the big fish in the little pond syndrome. Galactica with 2 million viewers is a hit because the Sci-Fi channel, in most cases, gets around 1 million viewers for a show, and that's being REALLY generous. Heroes has to compete with shows that can get 7-20 million viewers or more, plus they are in the big leauges of network TV. There are many shows waiting to take the place of Heroes, so a dip in the ratings is a real danger. Galactica had to do well and if not, it still could have some time to improve because once it was on the schedule there wasn't another show ready to replace it.

Limbaugh and FoxNews are the only game in town for people who cling to the old American concept of America First, America Right. That group has nowhere to go but to the few venues they have. It like with the science fiction fan. No matter what, they're going to end up on the Sci-Fi channel because other than a few shows on the networks, the Sci-Fi channel is the only place to get science fiction shows. They've got that demographic locked in.

I get Rush Limbaugh. I don’t have a choice in getting Rush because he’s on the most powerful radio station in town. The progressive radio station gets knocked off the air if the wind blows hard while the Rush station can be heard almost through the whole state. I’ve had to listen to the man and I used to watch FoxNews a lot. I get where their coming from in feeding the base, but both are more concerned with keeping the ratings up with their market than actually giving knowledge to people. Both cater to the anxieties and fears of their audience, thus perpetuating myths about the views and proposals of the other side.

The best example of misguided information had to be Joe the Plumber. Now Joe took the whole hook, line and sinker story from the Republican Party that the Democratic plan taxed ‘the rich.’ Joe didn’t like this and when he had the chance to mention this to Obama he did. Well, in the world of soundbites both sides edited the exchange enough to make it seem like their point of view was met. Early on, however, stations carried the full exchange and Joe comes off like a wise guy who, when full facts are put in front of his face, still tries to make it seem like he’s on the right end of the block.

The full conversation shows that Joe, who wasn’t rich, didn’t want to hear that 1) he’s not rich now and 2) if he does get rich the money he’d pay wouldn’t be missed. You find that many Joes out there want to project their future earnings they will live the same life they are now, which is never going to happen. They look at their taxes now and know they’re struggling, but figure if they make more money they’ll somehow get so much taken out in taxes they’ll be worse off.

Now our friend Joe was making, according to him, somewhere around $120,000 a year. If we use his scenario and say he gets the business where he’s going to make $250,000 a year, that’s more than double his salary now. If we assume he gets hit with 50% on taxes (understand the tax rate would be around 38% but let’s be dramatic on the thing) that would mean our plumber would get, after taxing the new income, $60,000. So for Joe, instead on $120,000 he would have $180,000 a year. Now if he doesn’t go crazy and buy yachts, million dollar homes and $100,000 sports car, that’s a good amount of money. Oh, wait, I think I made a slight mistake, which was the same mistake McCain and other Republicans made and was corrected by Obama. The 38% tax would be on any money OVER $250,000, so my little quick math thing was wrong because Joe would make $250,000 and only money over that would get the higher tax. In other words, Joe will still have a good amount of money before he hit the mark and only money over the mark, not the whole pot, would get the higher tax.

See, the Limbaughs of the world can’t think that way. They’re all black and white conservatives. Nuance is something lost on them. This writer for the Times wants to defend Rush by saying liberals don’t hear him. The point is they do hear him and they don’t like what he says. Sure, his base will love him, but they won’t grow. They will stay stagnant while the world changes around them.