Don't you love survey results? Always something interesting turns up. This one is from the Pew Center for the People & the Press [full article on Editor & Publisher]. It's a general news knowledge survey, and the results show that people who watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report tied with people who read major newspapers when it comes to knowledgeability! Very interesting, considering that those don't claim to be news shows... whereas the least knowledgeable people were regular watchers of morning news shows and Fox News! Well, golly-gosh-darn, hoodathunkit? OK, the Fox News part is not surprising at all, but I'm a little surprised that they were able to beat out the morning news shows.Check it out, there are some interesting results. For instance, only 69% knew that Cheney was Vice-President. Sometimes I wish I didn't know that. Ignorance might be bliss.
Graphic from Colbert/Stewart 2008
Tags: Colbert - Stewart
7 comments:
How is it possible that 31% don't know that Darth Cheney is (Vice) President?
I bet you more people know who the father of anna nicole's baby is than know what office alberto gonzo holds.
It actually makes sense.
When I came here, I started watching Leno's "Tonight Show", in order to get educated on news and humor.
I simply got tired of the 'breaking news' of a cat that got trapped on a tree in San Francisco, and the likes. I also couldn't stand the teaser-like way of showing the news here, just to get higher ratings. quite different than what I was used to, and mostly a waste of time.
I do think you absorb more when something is told in a humoristic way, which is the case with all these talk shows. Well, the better ones, at least.
I don't like network TV news, whether local or national. It's all spun according to who the sponsors are. (A political agenda may be biased, but a corporate agenda is deceitful and hidden)
I've thought some more about why watchers of Fox News would rank higher than watchers of network morning shows (verrrry mysterious...), and I really think it might be because watchers of Fox News are watching "news" whether it's spun all to hell and completely unbalanced (but at least they know who Cheney is) -- and a lot of people watching the network morning shows like GMA are just doing it for the celebrity guests and tuning out all the unpleasantries (like who Cheney is). That's the only explanation I can think of for that.
As for there being more Democrats than Republicans in the most uninformed group, all I can figure is that most poor people would probably declare themselves to be Democrat (and if not... why not?), and truly poor people can't afford cable TV, and probably not internet access either (or even a computer, dammit!) so if they happen to have a rabbit-eared box sitting there, it picks up only a few network stations.
If by "real" news they man Faux's nonstop coverage of Anna's baby daddy - then it's no wonder!
The media has become a JOKE in this country. SO much so that the comedians do a better job of reporting than the idiot reporters.
I will second that with a "HELL Yeah"!
Maybe this is an indication that people vote according to what they believe, not what they actually know.
Same could be said for australia, I suspect.
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