Study Shows Fox News Makes you Stupid

[Tinker]

http://www.alternet.org/story/149193/st ... you_stupid

[crashtech]

[Yukon Cornelius]

I think you guys are thinking of television news in general.




You can't sum up anything -- except maybe Paris Hilton's latest drug possession arraignment -- in under six minutes.

[Hans Bulvai]

You can add these to the list of as .

[Azrael]

[crashtech]

[~]

Way over my head too.

[cincinnatus]

Or the correct answer to the question is...in your best Wednesday Adams voice, "wait."

Who the f-ck actually takes surveys anyway? They always call between 6:30 and 9:00 P.M., when a good chunk of the population is busy with family, watching the news, surfing, playing Halo, responding to BS discussion topics, etc.

Besides, did you see the survey where people who give a sh!t about who watches Fox News and project an IQ level on those viewers are pathological authoritarian child molesters?

[~]

[Tinker]

[crashtech]

So no one think a poll could be designed to make Democrat voters look like dumbfucks?

No one seems worried that this polling organization is passing off assumptions as facts. Since when has the CBO been right about anything? Of course a massive new entitlement will raise the deficit, especially long-term.

[noddy]

[crashtech]

I'm not sure why I felt the need to defend drooling idiots that think they can actually learn something from TV news. I really don't care too much.

But just for the sake of conversation, I want to comment on the questions that alternet said were asked:

* 91 percent believe the stimulus legislation lost jobs
Did the economy gain or lose jobs during the time the stimulus was being implemented? Even though the stimulus added a lot of government jobs, in the net there was there still a loss?

* 72 percent believe the health reform law will increase the deficit
I believe this too, CBO be damned. It will increase the deficit if implemented as written, guaranteed.

* 72 percent believe the economy is getting worse
It's not? Is someone fudging the numbers? At best it's pretty damn flat.

* 60 percent believe climate change is not occurring
Well, OK. Climate change is occuring, and has occurred since the dawn of time. Change is a given. But the REAL question is, "Do you agree that drastic action is necessary to mitigate the effects of man-made global warming?" To which I answer, not right now, given the evidence.

* 49 percent believe income taxes have gone up
Not so much, unless I was to count them as a ratio versus my disposable income.

* 63 percent believe the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts
I think I remember something about a withholding reduction during the first part of the year. I had to download a new chart to write paychecks. Really, I plead as ignorant as a FOX News viewer on this one. Maybe it was a marketing problem?

* 56 percent believe Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout
Of course he didn't. The management of GM and Chrysler did. Bullish on Ford now, btw.

* 38 percent believe that most Republicans opposed TARP
Wishful thinking?

* 63 percent believe Obama was not born in the U.S. (or that it is unclear)
Wow, I thought that had been laid to bed...

[Tinker]

[crashtech]

I'm not too concerned, though these types of polls paint with a pretty broad brush, which ought to raise objections wherever it's done for whatever reason.

I'd prefer to see aggregated examples of the "blatant lies," for example, instead of a poll of questionable merit.

[Tinker]

[Colonel Sun]

There's a lot I liked about living in the US, but I'm sorry to say that TV news was not one of the them.

I though that the presentation and reporting was abysmal across the board with the notable exception of [what was then] the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour.

As for Fox News, it's to news as former SU Pravda was to news.

For English language news, it's the Beeb [BBC]. Or the English language versions of DW, F24, RT, or Al Jazeera.

[Azrael]

[crashtech]

[~]

[crashtech]

So you trust in the accuracy of CBO predictions, too? Or does that change depending on who is in power?

Demagogue? Seriously?

[Colonel Sun]

_____

"Study Shows Fox News Makes you Stupid"

My view is that these types of headline claims are stupid - a stupid attempt to score cheap points in the ongoing US red vs blue culture war.

Watching a TV station that spins news as propaganda may make one poorly informed, but I don't think it will make one stupid - less intelligent over time.

[Azrael]

[~]

[Azrael]