Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

~~~

~~~

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

FOX NEWS, HISTORY MORONS

If you're getting your "news" from Fox, you're getting dumbed down. But we Liberals already figured that out years ago.

A nation-wide survey taken a few years ago confirmed that people who regulary watch Fox News were the most uninformed of any cable news watchers. Why? Because Fox never lets the facts get in the way of their Republican propaganda and disinformation.

Here just the lastest in their idiocy:

FOX NEWS Shows Frederick Douglass in reference to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates:



Hillary Clinton grabbed some headlines this past weekend by challenging Barack Obama to a "Lincoln-Douglas style" debate. Of course, she was referencing the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during their Illinois Senate race.

Watch it:

7 comments:

Patrick M said...

Ok, I can confirm I'm not getting dumbed down by my copious Fox News Channel Viewing, as I was able to identify the picture as Frederick Douglas the first time I saw it. So either they didn't see the pic, or they forgot to have a cup of coffee, because they were asleep at the wheel.

But you're using Fox and Friends as an example of the quality of their news reading? That idea almost took a point off my IQ.

But as for that survey, who took it. CNBC? I do find it interesting that it seems to be the left that despises Fox News, yet Fox News seems to get more and more viewers across the spectrum, while CNN and PMSNBC continue to spiral happily downward. And with the amount of fact-checking out there, no one can fire out propaganda for very long without getting unmasked.

On a side note, Hillary Clinton will be going on The O'Reilly Factor tonight. I'm just wondering when Barack is going to go there.

libhom said...

Ms. Clinton's debating style reminds me of "Point-Counterpoint" on the old Saturday Night Live with Jane Curtain and Dan Ackroyd. I keep waiting for Clinton to say...

"Barack, you ignorant slut."

Shaw Kenawe said...

Patrick,

Here's the information on that Fox survey:

"In 2004, the nonpartisan Annenberg Public Policy Center released its National Annenberg Election Survey, which found Daily Show viewers to be better informed on campaign issues than consumers of other late-night television programs, newspapers, network news, or cable news. In a press release, Annenberg senior analyst Dannagal Goldthwaite Young said: "Daily Show viewers have higher campaign knowledge than national news viewers and newspaper readers -- even when education, party identification, following politics, watching cable news, receiving campaign information online, age, and gender are taken into consideration."

The survey asked respondents to answer a six-question quiz designed to measure "political knowledge." Daily Show viewers ages 18 to 29 scored higher than those who consumed any amount of network news, any amount of newspapers, or one to three days of cable news; young Daily Show viewers scored the same as young viewers who watched four or more days of cable news. The survey did not say what percentage of Daily Show viewers regularly consumed news from other media outlets. Overall, Daily Show viewers scored the highest out of any group surveyed, with Daily Show viewers answering, on average, 60 percent of the questions correctly.

Also, according to CNN, Nielsen Media Research statistics show that when directly compared with O'Reilly Factor viewers, "Stewart's viewers are not only smart, but more educated than O'Reilly's.":

"Daily Show" viewers are 78 percent more likely than the average adult to have four or more years of college education, while O'Reilly's audience is only 24 percent more likely to have that much schooling.

Additionally, an October 2003 study conducted by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy (PIPA) found Fox News viewers were "significantly more likely to have misperceptions" about the Iraq war than all other media consumers. The study was "based on a series of seven US polls conducted from January through September" 2003 and measured respondents' "key perceptions and beliefs" on "US policy" in Iraq. The study found that "[t]hose who receive most of their news from Fox News are more likely than average to have misperceptions." For instance, of the "three key misperceptions" -- which the study listed as "the beliefs that ... links between Iraq and al-Qaeda have been found, that WMD have been found in Iraq and that world public opinion approved of the US going to war with Iraq" -- Fox News watchers were found not only to be the "most likely to hold misperceptions," but "were more than twice as likely than the next nearest network to hold all three misperceptions." The PIPA study found that 80 percent of Fox News viewers held at least one of the three misperceptions.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200605250003

Shaw Kenawe said...

libhom:

Apparently Mrs. Clinton appeared on the O'Really Factor and when asked about Obama's ex-pastor, she hedged and gave an answer that I interpreted as suggesting he [Obama] should pay the consequences of having associated himself with Wright.

IOW: She was quite gleeful.

Patrick M said...

http://mediamatters.org/items/200605250003

Shaw: Last time I checked, Media Matters seems to have a leaning toward attacking those they perceive as conservative. While I don't wholly dispute the statistics, I have to question due to bias.

And if the Daily Show is where smart people are getting their knowledge of politics, our country is up shit creek.

Libhom: That's the funniest thing I've read today.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Patrick,

I think you addressed your own reservations about believing Media Matters.

They did not conduct the study on Fox News, they simply reported it.

They had nothing to do with gathering the information nor the poll.

You may think they're left leaning if you wish, but I see Media Matters as a watchdog on the Republican Noise Machine.

I dare you to read what MM has documented on Limbaugh. ;-)

Shaw Kenawe said...

PS. You are aware that Media Matters was started by David Brock who worked for the Republican Party for many years before he left.

He was the Republican operative who, during the Clarence Thomas hearings said about Anita Hill that she was "...a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty."

He was one of their best attack dogs. And he knows where all the bodies are buried.

I read his book "Blinded by the Right."

Some funny passages in it about his drinkin' and druggin' buddy, Anne Coulter.