It’s been 3-and-a-half years, have things changed for Fox viewers?
“A study by the Pew Research Study shows that viewers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report have the highest knowledge of national and international affairs, while Fox News viewers rank nearly dead last:
Despite significant technology shifts, however, Pew found that “today’s citizens are about as able to name their leaders, and are about as aware of major news events, as was the public nearly 20 years ago.”
The results about Fox News echo findings of previous surveys. In 2003, University of Maryland researchers studied the public’s belief in three false claims — that Iraq possessed WMD, that Iraq was involved in 9/11, and that there was international support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The researchers stated, “The extent of Americans’ misperceptions vary significantly depending on their source of news. Those who receive most of their news from Fox News are more likely than average to have misperceptions.” Fox News viewers were “three times more likely than the next nearest network to hold all three misperceptions.””
3 Comments
June 21, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I find it interesting that MSNBC was not even mentioned. I guess you can pretty much assume anyone watching MSNBC has absolutely on [sic] idea what is happening and is pretty much a complete idiot.
Also, please note that O’Reilly’s show ranked higher than any of the typical left wing outfits which didn’t even make the list.
[ed note: you know what happens when you ASSume, Doug. The article is on Fox, not MSNBC; therefore, only an idiot would try to make some sort of non sequitur comparison between some wanker on Fox and the entirety of MSNBC.]
August 10, 2009 at 2:31 pm
[...] for the People & the Press No. This one? Pew Research Study: Are Fox viewers still stupid? Pew Research Study: Are Fox viewers still stupid? The Litterbox No. Not that one either. Must be this one. Another ELECTION coverage story. Not about the [...]
October 17, 2009 at 2:51 pm
This poll isn’t exactly scientific… considering it “echoes” a UMd study in 2003, which takes the absolute position that Iraq did not, or does not, possess WMDs.
Considering everyone knows Iraq used WMDs on their own Kurdish population in the 1980s, we know they at least HAD the weapons… and in 20 years, Iraq has been unable or unwilling to show that they have dismantled their programs or any remaining WMDs.
And somehow, this poll determines that if a particular viewer believes that “Iraq possessed WMDs,” they were under a “misperception” and therefore less intelligent than other viewers.
Note that the “selected” knowledge items are very, very “selective.” Daily Show/Colbert viewers receive a 54% “high knowledge group,” while O’Reilly viewers get a 51%… and yet if you average the scores of the four “selected” items, Daily Show/Colbert viewers average 51.25% while O’Reilly viewers average 51%.
It makes you wonder what the other questions were that caused such a jump in the “overall score” of DS/C viewers. Perhaps they were the types of unanswerable questions like “Does Iraq have WMDs?”
Lastly, comparing the viewers of DS/C (who are generally young and either in college or recent graduates) to the entire viewership of a cable news network (the #1 ranked cable news network, by the way) is simply too big of a jump to make. Who’s more likely to be able to name Scooter Libby: A 23-year old PoliSci graduate student, or a 65-year-old reverend in South Dakota?
Any first-year statistics student could debunk this ridiculous poll.
[ed note: I stopped reading upon your assertion that Iraq had WMD's in the 1980's. Hell, if we all went to war based on what someone had decades earlier... ah, hell. I'm not gonna get stupid like you.]