Pew: Americans show some interest in IRS lost emails; not much in World Cup

American Thinker ^ | 07/01/2014 | Rick Moran

[SeekAndFind]

ESPN has been hyping the World Cup for weeks, showing video from venues across the country where large crowds have gathered to watch the US play.

But it's a mirage. Only about 17% of Americans are showing interest in the World Cup soccer matches as opposed to 12% who are following the IRS lost emails story and 26% following events in Iraq.

Pew Research:

So far, the growing crisis in Iraq has not drawn strong interest from the American public. As Sunni militants extend their control of large swaths of Iraq, 25% say they are paying very close attention to the growing violence and political instability in Iraq. By comparison, 28% of Americans surveyed June 26-29 say they followed news about problems with care at veterans’ hospitals very closely and 21% paid very close attention to news about the IRS losing employee emails.

The new national survey by the Pew Research Center conducted among 1,002 adults finds that fewer Americans tracked news about the World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil (17%), the 2014 midterms (16%) and recent Supreme Court rulings (15%). (The survey was conducted before the court’s Hobby Lobby decision.)

Young people typically express lower levels of interest in news stories than older Americans, and the age differences are striking when it comes to Washington news and violence in Iraq. Just 13% of those younger than 30, and 19% of those 30-49, say they tracked news about Iraq very closely. That compares with 36% of those 65 and older and 34% of those 50 to 64.

However, the World Cup is a different story. About a quarter (24%) of those under 30 say they are closely following the World Cup

[mkboyce]

This is a good thing.

Sports are great. Slavishly following them to the detriment and neglect of more important matters is not.

[Goldsborough]

Soccer is called “invader ball” by some of the wags here in Oregon.

[hinckley buzzard]

The title is backward: The story reveals more interest in the World Cup than in the IRS emails. Last Thursday at noon the American team played Germany before 18 million American viewers. That is not a trivial audience.

One wonders why the anti-soccer faction is so defensive. It's only a game boys and girls.

[dfwgator]

The soccer ratings aren’t bad, considering the games are played in the afternoon on weekdays.

Should the US beat Belgium today, they would next play this Saturday.

I would expect the ratings for that game to shatter all previous records for any soccer game in this country.

[snowstorm12]

The ratings should be through the roof with the way they are hyping this soccer world cup. They are telling everyone they need to watch on almost every news channel all day long. With that amount of free advertising plus having the built in audience of espn, the ratings should be much higher than they are.