Survey says PBS viewers more clearly informed than Fox News

Brad Messer radio show & website ^ | 10/21/03

[call meVeronica]

Fact-Free News ".. researchers discovered that large minorities of Americans entertained some highly fanciful beliefs about the facts of the Iraqi war. Fully 48 percent of Americans believed that the United States had uncovered evidence demonstrating a close working relationship between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Another 22 percent thought that we had found the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq... The fair and balanced folks at Fox, the survey concludes, were 'the news source whose viewers had the most misperceptions.' Eighty percent of Fox viewers believed at least one of these un-facts; 45 percent believed all three."

Added 4:45 p.m. The source of the study. It's all here www.PIPA.org

[call meVeronica]

I didn't find this anywhere else. So here goes.

[South40]

More informed on Lawrence Welk reruns, sure.

[AD from SpringBay]

Survey finds that regular PBS viewers are more likely to give "correct" liberal survey answers than regular Fox news viewers.

[fqued]

came out a week or three ago.
all depends on what questions are asked, and what the questioner claims are the "right' answers.
Look at the questions, and what they consider the right answers. They say no WMD have been found in Iraq, but many people say that in fact such things have been found.
In essence, what the study shows, is that different people who listen to different news sources have different views.

[buzzyboop]

posted many times previously. Actual story links to Washington (Com)Post.

[Carthago delenda est]

I guarantee you that the researchers here picked the questions they thought would be most likely answered incorrectly by Fox News viewers. Notice the absence of a question asking whether, say, Bush ever said that the threat from Iraq was "imminent." He never said it - but I hear it repeated all the time.

[Shermy]

close working relationship

One can run a steam roller through the holes in that phrase.

I read the report. The poll takers were desperate to spin away the common sense and reasonability of most of the American people.

[Texas_Jarhead]

Another article of this subject (PIPA survey) was posted a few days ago under a title like, "Fow news viewers most misinformed".

[wizardoz]

Ah, yes, those who stick with PBS know the *truth*, that Saddam was just a benevolent ruler of a socialist utopia cruelly bombed to pieces by the Bush/Cheney junta to eradicate the danger of a good example which would inspire the whole world to embrace loving collectivism thereby over turning the military-industrial complex by which Zionists rule the world. Did I miss anything? Oh yes, that Al Qaeda hasn't been proven responsible for 9/11 and if we don't give all our money to Third World despots to "fight world hunger," desperation will cause them to do it again. Get that? They didn't do it and if we don't shape up, they'll do it again. But wait, the whole thing was really planned by the Bush/Cheney junta, so we'd better give all our money to Al Qaeda or the Bush/Cheney Zionist-controlled puppets will do it again! No, wait... it's the Zionists who control Al Qaeda... no, wait... I need to go back and listen to PBS some more so I can get it straight this time.

[harpseal]

Fully 48 percent of Americans believed that the United States had uncovered evidence demonstrating a close working relationship between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.

It all depends on the meaning of close. is there unified command and control between teh two organizations? No Have they cooperated in the past yes.

Another 22 percent thought that we had found the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq... We have found some weapons that were included in the banned weapons we have also found Botulinus weaponized there in a researchers house.

[fhayek]

Are you sure they didn't mean "deformed"?

[Paul Atreides]

Yeah, and more celebrities are inclined to believe the L.A. Times. What's their point?

[libbylu]

HAHAHA.. once i a while i watch a local gardening show on pbs...

[alnick]

I don't believe that anyone who watches FNC, or any other news channel, thinks that we've found large stockpiles of WMD, which is how these liberals choose to define "finding WMD."

We have indeed found vials of WMD and evidence of a WMD program. Liberals want to pretend that that "doesn't count."

Idiots.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Survey says PBS viewers more cleverly disinformed than Fox News
 

[fat city]

Fox has smarter gardeners, too.

[OESY]

To understand this piece, you have to consult the original story:

Fox News fans misinformed, study finds
St. Paul Pioneer Press ^ | Oct 17, 2003 | BRIAN LAMBERT

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1002993/posts

Note the three questions and the answers Lambert deems correct. This is not unlike Josef Stalin's famous quote: "It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes."

Those who disagree with the "approved answers" should contact Brian Lambert at blambert@pioneerpress.com, or at 651-228-5424.

[IronJack]

'[Fox is} the news source whose viewers had the most misperceptions.'

I can believe this, if by "misperceptions" they mean "deviating from the drumbeat of the establishment media." In some circles, during a more enlightened age, that was once known as "truth."

[Agnes Heep]

Poll PBS viewers and you'd probably find that at least 90 percent of them think that France is a great nation.

[Amelia]

I didn't find this anywhere else.

I found it here and here.