Study: Fox News makes you dumber
By Ben ReiningaDecember 16th, 2010, 7:09 pmComments (6)
"Study confirms that Fox News makes you dumber." When I read that headline, I thought: "No, that's not right. Maybe dumber people gravitate towards Fox, but Fox can't actually make you dumber, can it?"
As it turns out, it can and it does — at least if you define dumb as "believing in things that aren't true." And if we can accept that definition, Fox News definitely makes you stupid. A new study out of the University of Maryland finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news-viewing group. More compellingly, the study also found that the more Fox you watch, the more misinformed you become.
Here are some data about the beliefs of Fox News viewers. None of which are subjective. They are just plain false.
- 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)
So, not to get all partisan. But Fox sucks.
Commentarium (6 Comments)
I didn't need a study to know this, but I am glad it solidified my understanding. I will probably use this study as reference in debates.
If only the article didn't have a typo in it...
Hey, Ben, I'm the gerbil in your butt and I think you need to get rid of a stinky. By the way, these "facts" aren't "facts".
Hello Gerbil, Ben said the propositions were false, therefore they are, by definition, not facts. Ben never used the word fact in his post btw.
The climate *is* changing, and there is very little argument against that. The dispute is over the human contribution to that change, with the two extremes attempting to out-stupid the other. As with most issues that end up being politicized, the fact of the matter is most likely somewhere in the middle: we're likely affecting the climate to some degree, but nowhere near as much as the scare-mongers (i.e. Al Gore) would like us to believe.
@Truth Is Out There: The scientific evidence is clear and damning: anthropogenic (man-made) emissions of CO2 are the dominant cause of the current change in climate. The consequences of this climate change are dire, ranging from acidification of the oceans (affecting seafood = human food), to more extreme weather events (snow, drought, rain in various parts of the world), to melting ice caps leading to sea level rise, to environmental disasters that cause mass migrations. The Pentagon is concerned about these consequences, and how they destablilze the world. This ain't no conspiracy or plot. This is just a whole lotta science. We can work toward mitigation and adaptation, or we can wait for coping and recovery. Again, the science points to mitigation as the least costly.
Now you say something