File under Things We Already Knew:
To perhaps nobody’s surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers.
The University of Maryland study, called “Misinformation and the 2010 Election,” looked at “variations in misinformation by exposure to news sources,” among other things, and specifically newspapers and news magazines (in print and online), network TV news broadcasts, NPR and PBS, Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN.
These are some things Fox viewers believe, all of which are patently not true:
Most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely)
Most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit (31 points)
The economy is getting worse (26 points)
Most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring (30 points)
The stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts (14 points)
Their own income taxes have gone up (14 points)
The auto bailout only occurred under Obama (13 points)
When TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it (12 points)
And that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States (31 points)
To us over here in Reality Land, to hold even one of these beliefs is beyond stupid. But Fox’s genius has been to feed easily led people complete bullshit in service of the Almighty Dollar while simultaneously convincing them that allegiance to their network is part of a larger tribal war for “Real Murrika.” The fact that so many people have, like peasants, pledged their heartfelt fealty to this paradigm is a sad statement about our country, but that’s just how it is.
[h/t Joe]
The study and its list of questions are available here.
Other news sources were untrustworthy, also — including public broadcasters.
“There were cases with some other news sources as well. Daily consumers of MSNBC and public broadcasting (NPR and PBS) were higher (34 points and 25 points respectively) in believing that it was proven that the US Chamber of Commerce was spending money raised from foreign sources to support Republican candidates. Daily watchers of network TV news broadcasts were 12 points higher in believing that TARP was signed into law by President Obama, and 11 points higher in believing that most Republicans oppose TARP.”
The most interesting thing about Fox and it’s viewers is the lack of attention to the foreign ownership and control of Fox. All the likely Republican Presidential candidates are on Rupert Murdoch’s payroll, except for Romney. They are all beholden on some level to a foreign boss. Nobody seems to talk much about how a foreign entity has virtually taken over the American conservative movement.
My sister and her husband (older white hetero male) are fox republicans (or more accurately) sheep republicans. I can get more worthwhile (international) news from 30 minutes of BBC America and DWTV (Deutsche Welle) TV than from hours of standard American ‘news’.