Pew Survey looks at Americans' knowledge of the news …

Posted by Joshua Holland at 9:30 AM on April 16, 2007.

Joshua Holland: What do they know and where did they learn it?

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Coverage of the latest Pew poll on Americans' media consumption and knowledge of current events will no doubt feature much hand-wringing over the fact that viewers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are much more knowledgeable about current events than viewers of Fox News, although I'm not sure why that would be a surprise to anyone.

And the "reality based community" shouldn't take too much comfort in that fact, given that Comedy Central viewers only scored slightly higher than Bill O'Reilly's septuagenarian audience, and NPR listeners knew as much as Rush Limbaugh fans.

And of course there are the usual punch-lines about how stunningly ignorant Americans are of the world around them: only slightly more than a third could name Russian president Vladimir Putin; fewer than one in five know who the Senate Majority leader is and three out of ten can't name the Vice President, even after six news-packed, controversial years in office (fewer can name Darth Cheney today than were able to identify the bumbling Dan Quayle in 1989).

The question that should be asked, but probably won't be, is why Americans are so out of touch with politics. It's a much-debated question, but the easy answer is that they're divorced from the workings of their large and remote DC-based government; they feel they have no power to change the status quo in any way and that feeling, more than anything, leaves way too many of them disinterested in the specifics of exactly who's screwing them and how. (I've written about it before, in the context of corruption.)

I personally believe that this is the result of a more-or-less intentional campaign to convince people of their supposed powerlessness, and every time I hear someone say of politicians, "they're all the same" or ask "what's the difference?" I think to myself: 'that right there is a huge a win for the plutocracy.'

Tagged as: media, fox news, daily show, pew poll

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.

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Study Shows 'Center-Right Nation' Narrative Spiked Immediately After Election Day We're not talking about theory anymore - we're talking about empirical fact. Post by David Sirota. November 21, 2008.	Will Gen. Jim Jones Be Obama's National Security Advisor? Although not as bad as keeping Gates as Secretary of Defense it would still be a very disappointing selection. Post by Chris Bowers. November 21, 2008.	Obama's (Rumored) Pick for Secretary of the Treasury Makes Wall Street Happy He's going to be the Secretary of the Treasury in the midst of a financial crisis, so it's probably worth taking the time to get to know him. Post by Steve Benen. November 21, 2008.

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surprise [Report this comment] Posted by: bookie on Apr 16, 2007 9:36 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] I'm surprised the Fox viewers scored as high as 35%, I would have thought they were lower [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] another reason [Report this comment] Posted by: mike1997 on Apr 16, 2007 10:01 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] I think another reason most people are so divorced from politics is the lack of a multi-party system. When you have a single party (the Corporate Party) with two wings (the pro-life and pro-choice wings) then people who are not aligned with corporate America don't have much of a reason to follow what is going on. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Bentonville is the capitol of what I vote for [Report this comment] Posted by: eddie torres on Apr 16, 2007 10:30 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Also in the Pew survey: - Has the US House of Representatives or the Senate passed legislation this term to increase the minimum wage? Correct answer: House of Reps. Correct responses: 24%. And that's a 50-50 question. - Followers of the two major branches of Islam are seeking political control in Iraq. One branch is the Shi’a, whose members are known as Shiites. Can you name the other one? Correct answer: Sunni/Sunnis. Correct responses: 32%. - In the past few years, have people in the US bought more foreign goods than we have sold to people overseas, or have we sold more to them than we have bought, or has it pretty much balanced out? Correct answer: bought more foreign goods than sold. Correct responses: 68%. Political pollster's perspective: I don't earn minimum wage, and I don't shoot Iraqis, but why does everything I buy at Wal-Mart say 'Made In China'? Political candidate's orders: write me up a paper on that whole 'Made in China' thing, maybe it's worth a precinct or ten. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: Bentonville is the capitol of what I vote for Posted by: Jesse » Utopia = long-term best interests Posted by: eddie torres ABOUT JON STEWART AND STEPHEN COLBERT VIEWERS [Report this comment] Posted by: VZEQICVA on Apr 16, 2007 10:58 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] I think the misconception here is that viewers of these two popular shows get their news from these two guys. We know what's going on in the first place, or watching the programs wouldn't make any sense. Satire is based on truth. It's necessary to have the original fact if you're going to laugh at a humorous version of it. Fox/ O'Reilly get laughs for an entirely different set of reasons. I won't go into that. Thanks, ANNA [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: ABOUT JON STEWART AND STEPHEN COLBERT VIEWERS Posted by: Dboy » RE: ABOUT JON STEWART AND STEPHEN COLBERT VIEWERS Posted by: Mycos » RE: ABOUT JON STEWART AND STEPHEN COLBERT VIEWERS Posted by: lessbread Since I don't have cable [Report this comment] Posted by: UnEasyOne on Apr 16, 2007 8:46 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] The Daily Show is one of the best things about the net for me. Since August, I've reveled in it. It's interesting that a program that requires a certain awareness and intelligence is so successful considering that at least 90% of the intelligent sitcoms on MSMTV are quickly cancelled. Usually when I like a sitcom, I know that's the kiss of death. Satirical news programs were on MSMTV several times in the past. (The first I remember was TW3 - That was the week that was.) They were usually cancelled quickly (TW3 was a top show when it was cancelled.) not for failing to attract an audience, but for offending the powers-that-be with too much truth. There is a long list of highly popular comedy shows (Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was the top show on tv when cancelled for refusing to kowtow to network censorship) cancelled for an excess of honesty. We got HeeHaw instead. Ah, that liberal media. I found it interesting that (having gone to the website and read the data) the increase in college degrees doesn't translate into increased awareness. Not surprising though - I've been calling college "Higher Indoctrination" for a long time now. Please don't mistake that as my belittling education, btw. Some people really gain useful knowledge and insight - others, not so much. Monica Goodling comes to mind. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » Don't miss Colbert and Palast Posted by: eddie torres No surprise, but not mentioned [Report this comment] Posted by: chaoslegs on Apr 17, 2007 11:49 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Is that the fellow bottom dwellers with Fox News are Morning Network Talk Shows and Local News. Because I get up, shower, feed the cat, and grab the paper, before leaving, I miss the Morning Shows which are total crap and fluff. Local News is usually crap also. I was home sick one day and caught some of the local news, and the talking heads were very dismissive of security guard demands in France for wanting (I think) more breaks. If I hadn't been as sick, I would have a big hole in my TV. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

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» RE: Bentonville is the capitol of what I vote for Posted by: Jesse

» Utopia = long-term best interests Posted by: eddie torres

» RE: ABOUT JON STEWART AND STEPHEN COLBERT VIEWERS Posted by: Dboy

» RE: ABOUT JON STEWART AND STEPHEN COLBERT VIEWERS Posted by: Mycos

» RE: ABOUT JON STEWART AND STEPHEN COLBERT VIEWERS Posted by: lessbread

» Don't miss Colbert and Palast Posted by: eddie torres

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