CONFIRMED: Watching Fox News makes you more stupid
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CONFIRMED: Watching Fox News makes you more stupid
I think I've mentioned this before, but watching Fox News a lot actually makes you dumber. Now, researchers have confirmed it:
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.
This study comes out of New Jersey, so it must be true. And you know, it would be funny if ill-informed news consumers had no impact on the broader American society. But unfortunately they have a huge impact. The most egregious example -- in something I've mentioned many times here on Attytood because I think it's both so outrageous and so important -- is when Fox News viewers were more likely to falsely believe that Saddam Hussein and Iraq had something to do with al-Qaeda and 9/11, thus fueling popular support for a lie-based and immoral invasion. And of course Fox News' repeated lies about climate changes could have severe consequences for your children or grandchildren.
Indeed, you could make the case that Fox News and its dunderheaded, sensational brand of conservatism is destroying the Republican Party. How so? Check out the official party platform of the Iowa Republican Party, ripped from the headlines of Fox News (with an assist from talk radio). In addition to a detour into tin-foil-hat birtherism about President Obama, it calls for this:
We support the elimination of the departments of Agriculture, Education, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Energy, Interior, Labor, and Commerce as well as TSA, FDA, ATF, EPA, National Endowment for the Arts, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.
The platform also calls for a federal investigation of ACORN -- which has ceased to exist since 2010 but continues to be a major American problem in the world of Fox News. This bizarre document is an inevitable consequence of what happens when the political conversation is hijacked by an organization whose top priority is higher ratings.
And so now viewers of a certain late-night comedian are better informed than Fox News watchers. Unfortunately, that's no joke.
Slow day at Media Mutters = fall back on the "Fox News is Bad" topic.
Been a while since we've seen a Sarah Palin post from you, Will. Perhaps it's time to recommend they put that back in the playlist.— General Turgidson- I like how the MSNBC failure is buried deep in the Fairly Ridiculous University press release. The partisan press release makes one wonder about the wording of the poll questions.— 2ndNlong
- The Iowa Republican party has a solid platform.— RG
- Maybe FNC watchers are are not the brightest, who knows. I don't think Al Sharpton caters to the MIT crowd, but who really cares. Using this sophomoric logic(which Will loves to do ) Americans are"smart" because they elected Obama, but in 6 months if Ronmey wins, we will all be "rubes" again-very weak— Tom813
- Speaking for the RV "Resist we much" Sharpton, he allowed a caller to speculate that Travon Martin was murdered so Dick Cheney could harvest his heart, only problem is that Cheney got the heart several wks before-does that mean all his callers are stupid?— Tom813
- Highlight the whole poll. Nine questions were asked. Fox viewers got only 2 right, NPR listeners, the most informed, got 3.5 right. In other words, America is dumb.
Also, there was this:
"Moderates and liberals who watched only Fox did worse than conservatives who watched it. "
No wonder your editor quit.— RG - Haters going to hate.— Timo3004
Bunch spent 10 minutes trying to decide if the headline should say "more stupid", "stupider", or "more stupider". His new Editor thinks it is "stoopit".— Mr. Smith- This blog is so silly I cannot even comment. I will nevertheless
But if you cannot make an arguement, namecalling will work, especially if one's a left.— Crazybrave1 - Nothing stirs up the uninformed commenters like a fact. Makes 'em go crazy!— Archimedes
- Yes, why do we need the FDA after all? Let the free market figure it out through creative destruction -- rather than test the safety of marketed drugs, just have them marketed, and if people start dropping, well people will stop taking that medication, and the invisible hand has worked again.— Murrayman
- No defense of FoxNews? LOL, reading Attytood is at least making wankers smarter.— montani semper liberi
- "Moderates and liberals who watched only Fox did worse than conservatives who watched it. " . . . . . Only the dumbest moderates and liberals would bother to watch it.— montani semper liberi
- Murrayman, social darwinism died around the turn of the last century, only to be revived by the Nazis. If you apply its principles to the chances for survival of the concept itself, you can see its lone usefulness.— montani semper liberi
- "This blog is so silly I cannot even comment. I will nevertheless" . . . . . . It speaks for itself.— montani semper liberi
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