Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
If Fox News viewers want to be informed about current events, they might as well turn off the TV.
A poll released by Fairleigh Dickinson University on Monday found that people who get their news from Fox News know significantly less about news both in the U.S. and the world than people who watch no news at all.
…Fox News fans flunked questions about Egypt and Syria when compared with people who don’t watch the news. Fox viewers were 18-points less likely to know that Egyptians toppled their government and 6 points less likely to be aware that Syrians have not yet overthrown theirs.
“Because of the controls for partisanship, we know these results are not just driven by Republicans or other groups being more likely to watch Fox News,” Dan Cassino, a Fairleigh Dickinson professor who served as an analyst for the poll, said in the report. “Rather, the results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions than those who don’t watch any news at all…”
The most informative outlets were found to be the Sunday morning news shows as well as outlets like the New York Times, USA today and NPR.
Har.
You can’t argue with empirical, scientific data. My own non-scientific observation concurs with these findings.
Sure you can, witness the comments that eventually appeared. This one follows the pattern: when such data is released it takes a day or two for the Fox-heads to get the counter argument from their providers and start parroting. Nobody says a word until Rush tells them what to think.
WOW! So this survey confirm that Fox News viewers are dumber than a door knob!! This is a shocker!!!
Most likely they were asked who the greatest President was and these people didn’t say Obama.
Yeah, the dumb idiots probably said Reagan, what ignorant bozos!
I know a couple people that only watch Fox news and if I want to know their current political views that day, all I have to do is turn on fox news and listen to their current talking points. It’s scary that most people just seem to be sheeple and believe all the crap that’s dished out on fox news and the other news channels. None of these supposed “NEWS” channels unbiased or interested in the truth. Most are just infomercials for their owners political view or agenda with some current events thrown in. Does anybody remember when a news station would give a editorial view, they would offer equal time to rebut it? All these news outlets are now owned by huge corporations now and have a agenda they push,they have no interest in truth,justice or whats good for the country.
deowll,
>> Most likely they were asked who the greatest President was and these people didn’t say Obama.
You wish.
This study is not alone. Here is one example:
A 2010 Stanford University survey found “more exposure to Fox News was associated with more rejection of many mainstream scientists’ claims about global warming, [and] with less trust in scientists”. A 2011 Kaiser Family Foundation survey on U.S. misperceptions about health care reform similarly found that Fox News viewers scored lower for factual knowledge than other news viewers. A 2010 Ohio State University study of public misperceptions about the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” found that viewers who relied on Fox News were 66% more likely to believed incorrect rumors than those with “low reliance” on Fox News.
A study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs, as published in the Winter 03-04 issue of the Political Science Quarterly, reported that poll-based findings indicated that viewers of Fox News, the Fox Broadcasting Company and local Fox affiliates were more likely than viewers of other news networks to hold three purported misperceptions:
67% of Fox viewers believed that the “U.S. has found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the al Qaeda terrorist organization” (Compared with 56% for CBS, 49% for NBC, 48% for CNN, 45% for ABC, 16% for NPR/PBS).
The belief that “The U.S. has found Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq” was held by 33% of Fox viewers and only 23% of CBS viewers, 19% for ABC, 20% for NBC, 20% for CNN and 11% for NPR/PBS
35% of Fox viewers believed that “the majority of people [in the world] favor the U.S. having gone to war” with Iraq. (Compared with 28% for CBS, 27% for ABC, 24% for CNN, 20% for NBC, 5% for NPR/PBS)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_Channel_controversies#Polls_and_surveys
I was trained to do science. I remember when it was first discovered that CO2 was rising. I read their predictions and what they based them on. Their predictions have been _wrong_.
Rule one if the hypothesis can’t predict what is going to happen it is wrong.
The data they based much of their claims on was high graded beyond a doubt because enough information was still in the open to prove it.
The last few winters in England have not been warm and balmy as predicted. They have in fact set record lows.
Sea level is now falling. It is supposed to be rising. Some people at NASA say this is due to world wide flooding but if we have any new permanent massive bodies of fresh water I missed it. Try looking at Google Earth and let me know if you can locate them.
The hypothesis the climate alarmist based those theories on have been disproven: That is the truly modest increase in C2, which is a trace gas, didn’t cause a large increase in water vapor at altitude. The satellite data is in. End of story. They need a new explanation for the warming which has occurred in the past and which they claim humans are causing.
Bottom line: The fluctuation of climate during the recent past are well within the limits of known climate swings. A look at the charts over longer time spans would suggest that the last 150 years has been exceptionally stable.
Man made global warming is scam designed to separate naive fools from their wealth and grow the power of central governments.
Green energy is a scam. If the people that supported it would actually bother to look at what has happened to Scotland, Spain, Germany which is now going back to goal, and various other locations they would know this is a con game.
The jobs gained by falling for these hucksters are fewer than than the private sector jobs lost and there is little or no reduction in fossil fuels used because you have to keep the bleeping fossil fuel plants on line for those occasions when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind isn’t blowing at exactly the right speed.
Let me pick the questions and decide what the correct answers are I’ll prove beyond a doubt that you and you buddies are a bunch of ignorant naive fall guys that shouldn’t be allowed to drive.
Dude, you’re doing what most people (Left, Right, and Center) do when faced with something they don’t like: they change the subject. You went on a Global Warming riff in response to a study of media consumption… Really?
You love Fox, don’t you?
“I was trained to do science.” I was going to say something both witty and urbane. Then I said fuck it because I just can’t compete with idiocy of your statement.
I just have to ask, were you trained “to do science” through the vocational tech program at ITT tech? Is it an associates degree? bachelors? Windows certification?
One douche used global warming as backing up how this study was fact, he destroyed global warming, therefore what else was wrong in response to his original post. Long winded perhaps, but detailed. Polls like this are meant to stir people to think others are stupid, cause division, etc. People are, but using it like this never helps.
Long winded detailed and completely frivolous. He jumps from global climate to local weather, then to green energy. He provides no evidence or links for his statments. He also failed to address the other 5 or so studies in support of the Banner statement. His claim of being “trained to do science” is simply one of the funniest things I have ever seen him post. I just want to know which college or university has a training class on how to do science.
I was “trained to do science” as well.
Although my B.S. degree did not make me an expert, it did teach me to not get my science from Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.
(I don’t get it from Al Gore, either.)
I get it from the many many peer reviewed studies indicating that global warming is real humans are contributing to it.
Me too, I received by B.S in Biological Sciences some 35 years ago. Which is why I found his statement “trained to do science” so funny. I think I would have recalled that particular course.
No duh.
Are they stupid because they watch Fox news, or do they watch Fox news because they’re stupid?
Yes.
You bring up an interesting chicken and egg mystery.
I believe that those who are Fox News believers are both natively pedestrian to a certain degree, enhanced and reinforced by the continuous misleading, agenda-driven, thoroughly Republican, off-kilter and unfair stream of crap Fox puts out.
If a person of uninspired mentation wishes to improve themselves and learn about the world, Fox News is not the place to spend their time studying.
This drives another set of questions:
What’s the average IQ of Republicans? Of Democrats? Of the Fox News Team? Of NBC News viewers? Etc.
When a news channel declares themselves as “fair and balanced” you can bet they are not.
They meant, “Unreasonable and Unstable.”
disclaimer: I DON’T watch FOX, or any other 24news, or network news.
1- FDU did no publish their results, 2- If you read the press release by FDU they have several examples of how peoples knowledge is limited by what you news you watch. 3 -anyone who believes in a phone poll is ignorant, 4- and finally they polled 600+ people in New Jersey!!! C’mon, it’s New Jersey!!!
” Buzz Mega says:
11/23/2011 at 10:56 am
Where’s that story about how Fox News viewers end up testing lower in current affairs knowledge than people who view all the other news sources including those who view NO TV news?
Reply
Kiwini says:
11/23/2011 at 11:32 am
“Where’s that story about how Fox News viewers end up testing lower in current affairs knowledge than people who view all the other news sources including those who view NO TV news?”
Dear BM- The answer you’re seeking is located somewhere on our star’s seventh planet.
Reply
Buzz Mega says:
11/24/2011 at 2:03 pm
Nope. Now it’s the LEAD STORY! “
So much for Kiwini’s (body part redacted).
Remember Howard Stern’s survey of Obama’s voters.
Duhhh….
http://goo.gl/rg2C0
This little tidbit comes from the same study concerning the OWS protestors, “Watching the left-leaning MSNBC news channel is associated with a 10-point increase in the likelihood of misidentifying the protesters.”
Dimocrats are such snobs.
I heard people who use the Opera browser are smarter than people who use other browsers too.
Marcello said above “600+ people in New Jersey!!! C’mon, it’s New Jersey!!!”
I think Marcello nailed the real reason for the results, New Jersey
Pollsters can get any result they wish by carefully phrasing the questions and carefully picking the people asked. Of course some of the just lie.
But if a study/poll proved a point you supported (i.e.- Global Warming is bunk), you’d probably have a hard time poking holes in it…
I don’t want to live on this planet anymore because no one tries to discredit views they DO agree with in the same way they can pick appart opposing views.
Think Critically About The Things You Believe In Most Of All
DOH!
“People who watch no news at all” selects for people who get their news elsewhere. Of course they’re more aware of the world than those who rely on the MSM, Fox OR NBCBSABCNN.
I’m on the fence on this one actually. I have great coworkers who are smart and well informed but when it comes to anything near foxnews subjects, mainly politics, they revert to the dumbest sht responses ever. This is what baffles me the most to be honest, that smart people would disregard everything (common sense, science, morals, etc) just to state what they’ve heard on foxnews.
It is just sad imo.
I work with the same people.
Really? Egyptians toppled their government? I only watch Fox news for the legs.
Hey man watch the boobs too. Those bitches may be republicans but they are smokin hot.
warning: look for an adam’s apple before you let the fantasy get too far.
I suspect that, like Eideard with his illustration of this topic, confuse the news component of Fox with the conservative rhetoric component. I don’t watch Fox news but, on the surface, the survey seems flawed to me if you compare an “entertainment” outlet like Fox with newspapers. Fox is a passive activity a housewife might do while changing diapers while reading the NY Times requires some concentration (though not as much as it used to).
More agenda-driven junk “science.”
I watch Fox sometimes for the lulz and often catch the audio on my XM. Their problem is the mixture of opinion and news with no apparent desire to separate the two or identify each as separate. It’s more of a homogeneous blend, actually. The supposed straight news talking heads are all Hannity wanna-be’s, drawing their personal (or corporate) biases into the news. This is especially true of the idiots on that insipid morning show, and the numerous blonde fembots. (Shep is an exception, he’s quite good.)
Which means the Fox political narrative-of-the-day (it’s been proven that they do this) gets reported by the news staff as fact which probably explains the results of this survey.
I am one of those people who watches no news at all, and I’ve got news for you. We’re smarter than the people who watch CNN and MSNBC, too.
So, do you attend all the events in the news personally, or do you get information from these outlets but filtered through bloggers, or what?
One only has to look no further then the birthers to figure this one out.
I think you’re all full of shit. FOX informs better than the others and with much less bias. Just look who the non-Fox watchers put in office as president. I don’t give a damn where he was born . . . he’s just totally incompetent and corrupt!
Obama is not the one who managed to get this country into two wars, utter financial collapse, make lots of money for the people who didn’t need any, while killing lots of US citizens, ten times more foreigners, wiping out the middle class back home through his corrupt pals and insane trickle down fiscal mathematics.
I’m sure he would have been a lot happier following in Al Gore’s footprints. So would have been most others Americans.
I’m glad that you think that of Obama. Imagine if we would have had someone who was last in his class at the Naval Academy, and older than dirt, with a VP who’s a quitter. Talk about incompetent.
Technically he was fifth from the bottom so not last.
When I was at Queens College (New York) we used to call it:
“Fairly Ridiculous University.” I guess it still applies.
Remember, Fox News went to court to win the right to lie to you.
As you know, the media has little credibility with the general sheeple. However, Fox Sheeple still considers Fox as ‘news’.
Hence, you have two things:
(1) A dumb ass Fox viewership as shown by the scientific, undisputed study and correlation with other studies
(2) Politicians act now as if there’s no accountability and can say whatever they want. Fox is a great outlet for Teapublican lies because as in point (1), the audience is a collection of dumbasses
Last I knew Stewart/Colbert had better informed viewers.
One thing I don’t understand is Gretchen Carlson…. she worked at a local station here and didn’t seem nearly as angry or stupid. Maybe it’s Steve?
And of course the classic…. how do the tides work? God did it! or perhaps the moon. Sounds like Jugalos asking about magnets 🙂
Liberal academics love producing these studies that let them believe they are right. Most likely their is some weak statistics in the studies, and some rigged questions either by wording or choice of topic. I remember one of them had a question like Saddam was linked to 9/11, you are more likely to believe this if you are a conservative. Anyone doubt liberals are more likely to believe 9/11 was an inside job?
“Most likely,” “Anyone doubt,”
That some strong analytical evidence you have there.
In other news, 100% of Eitards think correlation implies causation
Correlation often does imply causation. What it doesn’t do is prove causation.
If you’re going to be critical, at least try to be right.
If fox news viewers are so uninformed why is Ed Schultz one of the least influential people alive. 🙂
http://mediabistro.com/tvnewser/gq-thinks-ed-schultz-is-one-of-the-least-influential-people-alive_b99225
What does some jock with only only his own self interest in mind have to do with your low IQ.I guess he would be more popular if more idiots watch him like Fox news.
Well duh! Faux news believers are far too stupid to know that they ARE stupid!
Fox isn’t a mouthpiece for the GOP. It has become its own political party that just “informs the world” what Rupert Murdoch thinks about an issue.
When will that Old Man ever retire? I’m sure his employees are counting the days.