Fox News Strikes Again

A survey by Maryland University has revealed the total misinformation that impacted the last election. Basically the Republicans lied and the electorate bought it. Who were the most misinformed? Fox News viewers were by far the most misinformed about national events. And, surprise, surprise, they were always misinformed to the conservative Republican side of the issue.

In case you haven’t noticed, the Republicans lie and Fox News swears to it.

Now guess which folks tended to be the least misinformed? Those who got their news from Public Broadcasting (NPR and PBS). I guess that explains why the Republicans are trying so hard to kill the appropriations for those two organizations.

Let’s get to the numbers shall we.

The Reality: Most economists that have studied the effect of the stimulus package estimate that it has created between 2.0 and 2.5 million jobs.

The Misinformation: 88% of the general public, and 91% of those who watch Fox News, believed the Republican line that it created very few jobs or it actually lost jobs. The least misinformed viewers were MSNBC, "only" 64% got it wrong.

The Reality: The CBO has concluded that the health care reform bill would either not raise the budget deficit or slightly reduce it.

The Misinformation: 53% of the general public, and 72% of those who watch Fox News, believe that economists felt it would increase the budget deficit. The least misinformed viewers were Public Broadcasting, only 40% got it wrong.

The Reality: The U.S. economy began to recover in the 4th quarter of 2009 and has continued to grow since then.

The Misinformation: 55% of the general public, and 72% of those who watch Fox News, believe the economy is still getting worse. The least misinformed viewers were Public Broadcasting, only 34% got it wrong.

The Reality: Since January of 2009 (under the Obama Administration) Federal Income Taxes have gone down.

The Misinformation: 38% of the general public, and 49% of those who watch Fox News, believe that taxes have gone up. The least misinformed viewers were CNN, only 26% got it wrong.

An informed electorate is essential to the proper working of a democracy. Based upon this study, the American electorate just elected members of congress under gross misconceptions of the state of the economy which was cited as the single most important issue.

One more point, although it probably had nothing to do with the elections, The National Academy of Sciences has concluded unambiguously that climate change is occurring. Note that this has nothing to do with whether or not they are right, but simply with what is the scientific view. Well, incredibly, 60% of Fox News viewers believe that either scientists do not believe that climate change is occurring or that scientists are evenly divided.

The list goes on and on. The only conclusion that any intelligent human being can reach is that Fox News is purposely skewing their “news” content. Either that or they’re incredibly incompetent. Either way, we’d all be much better off if people stopped watching them altogether.