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Taycat wrote on 2013-02-20 03:14
A new survey of American voters shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources.
December 14, 2010 |
Yet another study has been released proving that watching Fox News is detrimental to your intelligence. World Public Opinion, a project managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, conducted a survey of American voters that shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources. What’s more, the study shows that greater exposure to Fox News increases misinformation.
So the more you watch, the less you know. Or to be precise, the more you think you know that is actually false. This study corroborates a previous PIPA study that focused on the Iraq war with similar results. And there was an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that demonstrated the break with reality on the part of Fox viewers with regard to health care. The body of evidence that Fox News is nothing but a propaganda machine dedicated to lies is growing by the day.
In eight of the nine questions below, Fox News placed first in the percentage of those who were misinformed (they placed second in the question on TARP). That’s a pretty high batting average for journalistic fraud. Here is a list of what Fox News viewers believe that just aint so:
91 percent believe the stimulus legislation lost jobs
72 percent believe the health reform law will increase the deficit
72 percent believe the economy is getting worse
60 percent believe climate change is not occurring
49 percent believe income taxes have gone up
63 percent believe the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts
56 percent believe Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout
38 percent believe that most Republicans opposed TARP
63 percent believe Obama was not born in the U.S. (or that it is unclear)
The conclusion is inescapable. Fox News is deliberately misinforming its viewers and it is doing so for a reason. Every issue above is one in which the Republican Party had a vested interest. The GOP benefited from the ignorance that Fox News helped to proliferate. The results were apparent in the election last month as voters based their decisions on demonstrably false information fed to them by Fox News.
By the way, the rest of the media was not blameless. CNN and the broadcast network news operations fared only slightly better in many cases. Even MSNBC, which had the best record of accurately informing viewers, has a ways to go before it can brag about it.
The conclusions in this study need to be disseminated as broadly as possible. Fox’s competitors need to report these results and produce ad campaigns featuring them. Newspapers and magazines need to publish the study across the country. This is big news and it is critical that the nation be advised that a major news enterprise is poisoning their minds.
This is not an isolated review of Fox’s performance. It has been corroborated time and time again. The fact that Fox News is so blatantly dishonest, and the effects of that dishonesty have become ingrained in an electorate that has been been purposefully deceived, needs to be made known to every American. Our democracy cannot function if voters are making choices based on lies. We have the evidence that Fox is tilting the scales and we must now make certain its corporate owners do not get away with it.
Source
Old article but I'm laughing.
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Yoorah wrote on 2013-02-20 03:42
I still remember that time during the Lybian uprising, when there was a group of international journalists reporting and the one from Fox made up some BS that was simply untrue. The CNN guy on the ground with him got so pissed off. xD
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Kelta wrote on 2013-02-20 03:46
there is one thing that i disagree with that study on one thing. i think the economy will be getting worse.
think abotu it, most of our paychecks have decreased by 2%. the price of alot of tings including gas have gone up. plus as it is a new year, some of our benefits have increased.
People are buying less stuff. less stuff means less revenue from buisnesses, and that could mean potential layoffs so the people on the top can keep their paychecks right where they are. or worse, pay cuts.
but for the most part fox news is total and utter bullshit.
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Taycat wrote on 2013-02-20 15:21
Quote from Kelta;1035695:
there is one thing that i disagree with that study on one thing. i think the economy will be getting worse.
think abotu it, most of our paychecks have decreased by 2%. the price of alot of tings including gas have gone up. plus as it is a new year, some of our benefits have increased.
People are buying less stuff. less stuff means less revenue from buisnesses, and that could mean potential layoffs so the people on the top can keep their paychecks right where they are. or worse, pay cuts.
but for the most part fox news is total and utter bullshit.
The only reason that the economy is getting worse is because so many jobs are outsourced into other countries that it's horrifyingly cheap to do so. That is mostly why it is so hard to find a job in America. You also need to put into consideration that many, many baby boomers are still working, so they take up precious space needed for the younger generation to get jobs.
Until the baby boomers retire, the economy will not come out of the deep recession we're in.
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Ashikoki wrote on 2013-02-20 17:44
Meanwhile, no one reads/watches BBC because its too true and boring.
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Kingofrunes wrote on 2013-02-20 18:39
Sadly this article fits the description of my Dad. All he does is watch Fox News and believes the likes of Bill O' Reilly and Rush Limbaugh.
Arguing with him is futile too. He doesn't believe climate change exists either and I...it's pointless at this point. He's lost and he's getting old.
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Chiyuri wrote on 2013-02-21 01:14
am I the only one who though that it mgiht not be the tv show that is turning people dumb but just that more dumb people watch it than others?
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Dracius wrote on 2013-02-21 02:38
My parents are Asian conspirators.
They believe the government is out to uneducate its people in any way possible, and corruption takes over every last aspect of the people.
Wonderful, isn't it?
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Kingofrunes wrote on 2013-02-21 14:41
Quote from Dracius;1036305:
My parents are Asian conspirators.
They believe the government is out to uneducate its people in any way possible, and corruption takes over every last aspect of the people.
Wonderful, isn't it?
Your parents might actually be on to something in all honesty.
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Sumpfkraut wrote on 2013-03-27 23:34
Our democracy cannot function if voters are making choices based on lies.
More like "our democracy can not function if voters are not from the ground up given the adequate skillset to be able to identify the nonsense".
Quote from Chiyuri;1036227:
am I the only one who though that it mgiht not be the tv show that is turning people dumb but just that more dumb people watch it than others?
No, you're not. It's like this:
You're dumb -> you go watch dumb TV -> you get dumb information -> you get dumber.
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Reyaxris wrote on 2013-03-28 00:59
Quote from Sumpfkraut;1056914:
More like "our democracy can not function if voters are not from the ground up given the adequate skillset to be able to identify the nonsense".
No, you're not. It's like this:
You're dumb -> you go watch dumb TV -> you get dumb information -> you get dumber.
I lol'd.
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Drizzit wrote on 2013-03-28 01:51
Quote from Chiyuri;1036227:
am I the only one who though that it mgiht not be the tv show that is turning people dumb but just that more dumb people watch it than others?
Exactly, correlation does not equal causation. There's also the fact that anyone doing a study about whether Fox news makes you stupid is almost certainly biased.
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Sumpfkraut wrote on 2013-03-28 21:00
Quote from Drizzit;1056968:
Exactly, correlation does not equal causation. There's also the fact that anyone doing a stody about whether Fox news makes you stupid is almost certainly biased.
Totally irrelevant if they stick to scientifically proper methods.
IF, mind you. I haven't read their paper yet either, but it is logical, I mean after all being exposed to misinformation tends to make you misinformed in all other cases too, especially if it's not balanced with factually correct information once in a while. Fox News would be the very, very, very odd one out here, and that would have to be explained.
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Drizzit wrote on 2013-03-28 21:38
Quote from Sumpfkraut;1057344:
Totally irrelevant if they stick to scientifically proper methods.
Yeah, but they never do. When conducting surveys, it's pretty easy to word questions in such a way as to get the answers you're looking for.
Also, it looks like the study doesn't even prove Fox news makes you stupid; it just implies that Fox news gives you beliefs that are supposedly false. Knowledge is not the same as intelligence, so the title is misleading.
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Sumpfkraut wrote on 2013-03-28 22:47
Quote from Drizzit;1057379:
Yeah, but they never do. When conducting surveys, it's pretty easy to word questions in such a way as to get the answers you're looking for.
Also, it looks like the study doesn't even prove Fox news makes you stupid; it just implies that Fox news gives you beliefs that are supposedly false. Knowledge is not the same as intelligence, so the title is misleading.
That claim stands on a shaky fundament, sorry. There are actually some scientists and statisticians who do have a trace amount of work ethic and professional skill and make sure to avoid this nonsense. Of course one can only really tell after reading the paper and being accustomed to what sort of question introduces bias and what not, but still.
Yeah, journalism works like that and in some other dubious ways [S]sometimes[/S] worryingly often. Another reason why reading the actual paper is important if you want to make sure you get everything right about it. However, that doesn't change anything about the basic issue illuminated here, which is that Fox News is CRAP.
And personally I don't see how a person who can actually make use of their intelligence would use Fox News as source. The utter stupidity of the format is blatant enough. Maybe those who never were accustomed to something less retarded may not notice anything weird about it, but that then is called ignorance, which is a form of stupidity. Potential may be there, but definitely untapped.