Quelle surprise, wingnuts. When we call you dumb, it’s not because we have nothing else to say, but that we have no interest in speaking to particularly dumb brick walls:
Fox News viewers are less informed than people who don’t watch any news, according to a new poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
The poll surveyed New Jersey residents about the uprisings in Egypt and the Middle East, and where they get their news sources. The study, which controlled for demographic factors like education and partisanship, found that “people who watch Fox News are 18-points less likely to know that Egyptians overthrew their government” and “6-points less likely to know that Syrians have not yet overthrown their government” compared to those who watch no news.
Oh, my god. You would think Megyn Kelly would take at least a second out of her day to tell the idiots something, but no. She is “the smart one” around there, you know.
Now you know that when they use the term “low information voter,” they’re talking about wingnuts.
[h/t Justice]
I watched both videos. They were terrific. Thanks for sharing this.
Given the extreme limits of its geographical range (only polled from liberal state of New Jersey) and the negligible number of those polled (a whole 612 people), it is difficult to see this study as irrefutable evidence of anything, and perilous to promote it as such for ideological benefit. Really, do some research before you start going around quoting anything that backs up your views, as unbalanced as they are.
Some people got so excited by the press release they never made it to page 2 pf the study:
“New Jerseyans are not necessarily more likely to be knowledgeable about domestic politics than international events. Just 47% are able to identify the Occupy Wall Street protesters as predominantly Democratic: 11 % think they are Republicans.
Viewers of cable news on MSNBC are the most likely to think the protestors are Republicans. Watching the left-leaning MSNBC news channel is associated with a 10-point increase in the likelihood of misidentifying the protesters.”
Lean Forward and smell the coffee!
As to the question about Egypt, here is the actual text:
“To the best of your knowledge, have the opposition groups protesting in Egypt been successful in bringing down the regime there?”
I note that, although the HuffPo article linked her mentions Mubarak in their victory lap, as does the study press release, the actual question refers to “the regime”. I infer from current events in Egypt that the locals themselves have serious doubts about whether they succeeded in bringing down “the regime”.
“I infer from current events in Egypt that the locals themselves have serious doubts about whether they succeeded in bringing down “the regime”.”.
You’re obviously a fox news viewer.
“You’re obviously a fox news viewer.”
LOL,and wrong – after two decades of watching broadcast news while wearing a tinfoil hat and mumbling “Stop lying to us”, I found the transition to Fox to be impossible.
Meanwhile, as if torn from today’s headlines, here is today’s new report from Amnesty International:
“Egypt: Military rulers have ‘crushed’ hopes of 25 January protesters
Egypt’s military rulers have completely failed to live up to their promises to Egyptians to improve human rights and have instead been responsible for a catalogue of abuses which in some cases exceeds the record of Hosni Mubarak, Amnesty International said today in a new report.
…”The human rights balance sheet for SCAF shows that after nine months in charge of Egypt, the aims and aspirations of the January 25 revolution have been crushed. The brutal and heavy-handed response to protests in the last few days bears all the hallmarks of the Mubarak era.”
Maybe Amnesty analysts are secret Foxies too. Meanwhile, I would say that the proposition that regime change has actually succeeded in Egypt remains unproven at best. One might argue that the former power behind the throne has now assumed the throne – time will tell.
Oh, for completeness, here is the controversial poll question:
“To the best of your knowledge, have the opposition groups protesting in Egypt been successful in bringing down the regime there?”
Tom, its a different regime, Mubarak was obviously brought down, no one said anything about the new regime being any better than the Mubarak regime. If you think the poll question answer is debateable you are obviously misinformed.
The words are slightly ambiguous to my subtext sensitive ears.
The facts are: the people brought down the previous regime, not the current one.
The moral angle is: but there doesn’t seem to be much difference between the actions of old regime and those of the new regime.
The political implication is: since (I believe) it is the military running things now, and the military used to be Mubarak’s military, the regime hasn’t changed at all.
Does this help?
To #2 and 3: this isn’t the first time nor the first study that has shown that fox news viewers are more ignorant of political facts than the average non foxer. Media Matters has documentation as thick as the Manhattan phone book on the lies and misinformation that has been ‘reported’ on fox. I know people who are republican fox watchers. Some of them are smart and some of them are quite stupid, but 1 thing they all seem to have in common is that they are either angry (a perpetual chip on their shoulder) or very fearful. Fearful of gays, blacks foreigners, Spanish speakers, Asians, ‘intellectuals/elites’. Here are a couple of examples of their mind-blowing stupidity. A woman I work with (who thinks the economic disaster we have now is Obama’s fault) was ranting one day because of all the foreigners in this country now. A woman from Russia was standing right near her (I told her later that Russians don’t count because they’re white). What started this tirade about foreigners? She found out that her daughter’s new boss was from Hawaii!!! (Yes we know it’s the same as Kenya). She actually didn’t know that Hawaii was a state. Another day she asked me if Argentina was in Europe. And another republican fox watcher I work with thought that when Russia attacked the country of Georgia a few years ago, that they had attacked the *state* of Georgia! I told him if they had done that it would have started WWIII. I know LOTS of people who watch MSNBC and especially Rachel Maddow. I’d pit our intelligence and knowledge against an average fox ‘news’ watcher any day.
I’m sure Fox viewers do know less–but cable news isn’t the best source of information anyway.
When one of Fox’s brightest (you all know to whom I’m referring) literally asked from where the “sun came” I think it’s quite clear that the network sports the most uneducated “journalists” in all of television.
“If you think the poll question answer is debateable you are obviously misinformed.”
Really? The long-time defense minister under Mubarak is now running the SCAF. Is that really regime change we can believe in, or did the military just swap out figureheads by dumping Mubarak?
To which I should add – if I am misinformed, don’t be blaming Fox – I am getting my bad information from the NY Times and the mean streets of Cairo. Torn fro today’s headlines:
The Old Order Stifles the Birth of a New Egypt
…Egypt’s version of an autocrat’s legacy was on display Tuesday, as a military accustomed to decades of privilege refused to surrender real power, for now, and a political class cowed by years of authoritarianism — the Muslim Brotherhood being the most prominent example — seemed opportunistic, defensive or unimaginative.
…
“What we’re still dealing with is the system of Mubarak,” said Mustafa Tobgi, a 56-year-old government employee. “They’re all graduates of Mubarak’s school.”
…
In the square, the object of the crowd’s ire was not only the country’s de facto ruler — Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the 76-year-old army chief who served as Mr. Mubarak’s defense minister for two decades — but also the entire military leadership that, by most accounts, has made a mess of a transition that it originally said would last six months.
“Stay steadfast!” protesters shouted. A banner nearby said: “Save Egypt from the military and thieves. Surrendering power to civilians is the demand of all Egyptians.”
“The revolution that happened in February, however beautiful it was, left us with a coup,” said Afifi Ahmed, a 52-year-old chemist, who joined the protest. “Tantawi was never persuaded there was a revolution. All he wants to do is renovate the old system.”
Evidently there is strong Fox viewership in Cairo.
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