May 23, 2012
Last November a poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University found that people who watch Fox News are less informed than people who get their news from any other source. They even polled worse than people who watch no news at all. As you can imagine, this didn’t sit well with Fox News viewers who reportedly creased their brows in confusion and murmured ‘no new taxes’ over and over, until Greta Van Susteren told them to leave the television on, and go to bed.
Of course, that’s a joke; they’re Fox News viewers, so they probably were never informed of the study, at all. Or if they were, they were told it was Obama’s fault.
Well in the spirit of fairness, we’d like to present you with an updated study from Fairleigh Dickinson University that says Fox News Viewers are less informed than any other group, including those that watch no news at all.
It’s official; it’s science!
Fox News is to information what Big Macs are to weight loss.
The study asked subjects 4 on international events (Egypt, Syria, Iran), as well as 5 questions of national interest (Congress, the Republican primaries, the Keystone pipeline), and averaged their correct responses.
“The largest effect is that of Fox News: all else being equal, someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer just 1.04 domestic questions correctly — a figure which is significantly worse than if they had reported watching no media at all. On the other hand, if they listened only to NPR, they would be expected to answer 1.51 questions correctly; viewers of Sunday morning talk shows fare similarly well. And people watching only The Daily Show with Jon Stewart could answer about 1.42 questions correctly.”
Unsurprisingly, the people who rely on NPR and The Daily Show, two outlets always under fire from conservatives, fared best.
