Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid

[lame54]

http://www.alternet.org/media/149193/study_confirms_that_fox_news_makes_you_stupid/

Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid
A new survey of American voters shows that Fox News viewers are significantly more misinformed than consumers of news from other sources.
December 15, 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)

[randr]

1. America, are we ready for poll testing to qualify voters?

I would love to see some enterprising people put this question of a few state ballots next election cycle.

[Orsino]

2. You don't want this Congress determining who gets to vote.

Or any likely future Congress, either.

[valerief]

5. They already do via electronic voting. nt

[Orsino]

27. I don't think that's Congress calling the shots there. n/t

[lame54]

4. how about if we send all our jobs over-seas...

then deny the jobless the vote

[sweetapogee]

16. oh

careful my friend.

[tridim]

3. At least their viewership is dropping (or dying of old age) every year.

I have no doubt that my Faux newz watching parents believe all of these things, even though I have informed them that it is all BS. The other day I compared Faux to the TV Quack, Dr. Phil. It made my Mom very angry, but I thought it was a very good comparison.

[renate]

6. well, this explains a lot, and I'm trying to be a good person here

No wonder Fox viewers are so mad, if they're being told all of this on a "news" channel and therefore have no reason (that they know of) to doubt it. They probably think there are FCC rules about lying on TV. So in a way, I can forgive them their teabaggery, for they know not any better.

Having said that, I have to admit that my first question when I saw this report was "How did they correct for the fact that Fox viewers are stupid in the first place?"

[valerief]

7. Aren't you already stupid if you actually spend time watching Fox? nt

[lame54]

8. The Chicken or the Egg

[ChoppinBroccoli]

10. I Was About To Say The Same Thing

We'll never know if Faux makes you stupid or if the stupid are just naturally attracted to Faux. It's a chicken-egg argument.

[DirkGently]

26. Yep.

[Johonny]

14. No, I think people are angry or afraid

then find fox is a welcoming friend that tells you what you want to hear and gives you easy outlets to your anger. I think that's why you find general ok intelligent people sucked into the alternative universe of fox. I think people watch fox for psychological reasons not intellectual ones. But when required to disbelieve reality to satisfy your beliefs in a made up world of fox, your ability to know what is really happening must suffer.

[valerief]

24. No, if they watch and believe it, they're not intelligent. There are

more intelligent means of escapism without resorting to delusions.

[progressoid]

20. Seems like a cyclical thing.

Stupid people watch Fox. Watching Fox makes you stupid.

And the cycle grows into a vortex sucking an entire nation into it's downward spiral.

[valerief]

25. I think No Child Left Behind means all of us "child" citizens are not to be left behind.

Because the elite think of us as children, uninformed minds waiting to be molded. We're all supposed to become believers. However, some of us got the special sunglasses early (John Carpenter reference).

[upi402]

9. THEY need to see this, but we all knew it long ago. n/t

[Octafish]

11. That's the plan.

Roger Ailes knows the truth just kills his side.

[Ganja Ninja]

12. Right wing hate radio also deserves some credit for spreading ignorance too. n/t

[valerief]

13. And mainstream teevee and newspapers and periodicals. They're RW. nt

[lpbk2713]

15. And hosting a program on Faux makes one even more so.

[Blue Owl]

17. Rupert's Noble Mission:

To dumb down his loyal zombie audience to the lowest bottom-feeding level possible.

What pride Mr. Murdoch must feel in his work.

[the redcoat]

18. Does anyone have a link that shows all the results of the study (including other news)? nt

[Jamastiene]

19. You have to be kind of stupid to watch it in the first place...

at least voluntarily. Then again, studies that confirm what we already know may help in the long run.

[1badjedi]

21. Didn't need a study

to know this.

[jmondine]

22. Study confirms that folks who need a study to tell them that Fox makes you stupid are stupid

[lame54]

23. .