Fox news makes you stupid

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There’s much gloating across the left-leaning blogosphere at the release of this study from Worldpublicopinion.org which argues that Fox News viewers are, on average, more "misinformed" on public policy and economic issues than consumers of other news outlets. This is an old argument, but it’s worth looking at what the study’s authors consider “misinformation,” a judgment that might strike readers as, in some instances, rather subjective.

If you don’t think that the stimulus "increased the number of full-time equivalent jobs by between two and five million," you were considered by Worldpublicopinion.org to be “misinformed.” (They are using numbers from the CBO, whose methodology and modeling was questioned in these pages by Peter Suderman). And you are considered misinformed if you disagree that the "healthcare reform law…would not increase the deficit and would modestly reduce it." Really? Does anyone still believe that the health care bill is not only neutral, but will actually reduce the ever-expanding deficit? Again, I defer to Peter Suderman’s very smart, “misinformed” writing on the matter.

Here are some of the other questions asked by Worldpublicopinion.com:

“The bailout of GM and Chrysler occurred under Pres. Obama only (not Bush as well)”
“The stimulus legislation did not include any tax cut”
“When TARP came up for a vote, most Republicans opposed it”
“It is unclear whether Obama was born in the US—or, Obama was not born in the US”

There is a question about the Chamber of Commerce receiving foreign funds, thrown in for good measure, but the questions are weighed heavily towards “misinformation” likely to be believed by the right, including the requisite birther question. It seems pretty clear that one could develop a series of questions specifically targeting misperceptions commonly held by those on the left and generate a blogworthy headline about MSNBC viewers. Indeed, MSNBC and PBS viewers and NPR listeners were most likely to believe the Chamber of Commerce myth, which is based on no evidence at all—unlike the contentious and controversial idea that the health care bill will help reduce the deficit, which is disputed by many very clever people.

The authors write that “one striking feature [of the survey] is that substantial levels of misinformation were present in the daily consumers of all news sources,” concluding that “misinformation cannot simply be attributed to news sources” but to the general climate of partisanship. It’s unarguable that Fox and MSNBC are irritatingly reductionist and aggressively ideological, but by ignoring both the biases of the study and the hedging found in its conclusions, those across the blogosphere gloating that Fox viewers alone are half-wits and troglodytes are demonstrating that they are—dare I say—themselves misinformed.

and the more you watch it, the stupider you become.


That is the result of a study just released by the University of Maryland that tested how accurately informed voters were on several issues that Fox has LIED to the public about. This is not the first nor the only time Fox has been shown to be spreading more lies than truth.



To quote that article:
"The fact that Fox News is so blatantly dishonest, and the effects of that dishonesty have become ingrained in an electorate that has been been purposefully deceived, needs to be made known to every American. Our democracy cannot function if voters are making choices based on lies."

I already knew this, and have known it for years. Many other people already knew it too. There are many though who rely upon Fox news as their primary source of information. I hope and pray some of them will consider opening their minds to other sources before they become brain-dead puppets of right-wing propaganda.

It tells it's viewers what they want to hear. It's quite an ingenious money making scam.

I'm going to guess that you watch Fox News.

The boys over at Reason have a little rain for this parade:

“The bailout of GM and Chrysler occurred under Pres. Obama only (not Bush as well)”
“The stimulus legislation did not include any tax cut”
“When TARP came up for a vote, most Republicans opposed it”
“It is unclear whether Obama was born in the US—or, Obama was not born in the US”

It seems pretty clear that one could develop a series of questions specifically targeting misperceptions commonly held by those on the left and generate a blogworthy headline about MSNBC viewers.

all polls are slanted.

How about all news television and talk radio makes you stupid?

How about all news television and talk radio makes you stupid?

I can get behind that. Part of why I'm more tolerant than many of Fox is that I've always viewed the media as biased, so to me having as many different biases represented as possible is a good thing. Now we just need a Marxist network and an Anarchist channel...

I can get behind that. Part of why I'm more tolerant than many of Fox is that I've always viewed the media as biased

My problem is that they promote an agenda that is essentially class warfare against me both in terms of being a libertine and also in terms of being on the low end of the income scale.