Rush Limbaugh heads the list of highest-paid political pundits

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There is only a limited amount of money to be made as an elected official or bureaucrat, but the sky is the limit for those who talk about elected officials and bureaucrats. In a new list compiled by Newsweek with the assistance of research firm Wealth-X, the top 50 opinion-sharers are ranked by estimated annual wealth, with 49 chasing Premiere Radio’s Rush Limbaugh.


Those included on the list came from one of four categorie: politicians, ex-politicians, media personalities, journalists, and political consultants. Conservatives took the top four slots, and the three directly following Limbaugh have all done radio: Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. The radio and conservative strings are both broken in the five slot by Daily Show host Jon Stewart.

Here then, is the top 50, ranked by estimated income.

1 Rush Limbaugh,Talk show host, $58.7 million

2 Glenn Beck, Talk show host, $33 million

3 Sean Hannity, Talk show host, $22 million

4 Bill O’Reilly, Talk show host, $20 million

5 Jon Stewart, Talk show host, $15 million

6 Sarah Palin, Current or former government official, $14 million

7 Don Imus, Talk show host, $11 million

8 Bill Clinton, Current or former government official, $7.7 million

9 Keith Olbermann, Talk show host, $7.5 million

10 Rudy Giuliani, Current or former government official, $7 million

11 Laura Ingraham (tied with 10), Talk show host, $7 million

12 Newt Gingrich, Current or former government official, $5.5 million

13 Madeleine Albright, Current or former government official, $5 million

14 Stephen Colbert (tied with 13), Talk show host, $5 million

15 Arianna Huffington (tied with 13), Journalist, $5 million

16 Mark Levin (tied with 13), Talk show host, $5 million

17 Chris Matthews, Talk show host, $4.5 million

18 George W. Bush, Current or former government official, $4.2 million

19 Bill Maher, Talk show host, $4 million

20 Barack Obama (tied with 19), Current or former government official, $4 million

21 Jorge Ramos (tied with 19), Journalist, $4 million

22 Joe Scarborough, Talk show host, $3.5 million

23 Fareed Zakaria, Journalist, $3.1 million

24 Bob Barnett, Power broker, $3 million

25 Alan Greenspan (tied with 24), Current or former government official, $3 million

26 Frank Luntz (tied with 24), Political strategist, $3 million

27 Mark Halperin, Journalist, $2.5 million

28 John Heilemann (tied with 27), Journalist, $2.5 million

29 Bob Woodward (tied with 27), Journalist, $2.5 million

30 Thomas Friedman, Journalist, $2 million

31 Al Gore (tied with 30), Current or former government official, $2 million

32 Rachel Maddow (tied with 30), Talk show host, $2 million

33 Jon Meacham* (tied with 30), Journalist, $2 million

34 Charlie Rose (tied with 30), Talk show host, $2 million

35 Karl Rove (tied with 30), Current or former government official, $2 million

36 Condoleezza Rice, Current or former government official, $1.8 million

37 Charlie Cook, Journalist, $1.5 million

38 David Plouffe, Political strategist, $1.5 million

39 David Remnick, Journalist, $1.3 million

40 Roland Martin, Journalist, $1.1 million

41 Tina Brown, Journalist, $1 million

42 Dick Cheney (tied with 41), Current or former government official, $1 million

43 John McLaughlin (tied with 41), Talk show host, $1 million

44 Colin Powell* (tied with 41), Current or former government official, $1 million

45 Eduardo ‘Piolin’ Sotelo (tied with 41), Talk show host, $1 million

46 Richard Stengel (tied with 41), Journalist, $1 million

47 Paul Krugman, Journalist, $900,000

48 Mary Matalin*, Current or former government official, $800,000

49 Ann Coulter, Journalist, $750,000

50 David Axelrod, Current or former government official, $720,000

* Disputed estimates, but declined to provide further information on the numbers.

Source: Newsweek, Wealth-X

RBR-TVBR observation: Radio doesn’t often come in first place in media rankings these days (not even first among media in dire straits – thanks, newspapers!). But thanks to the ubiquitous Limbaugh, it leads this list and has its fair share of nominees who earn all or part of their cash via radio.