I read this story about Farleigh Dickinson’s latest “study” which claims viewers of the Fox News Channel are the “least-informed” national audience and let out an audible chuckle. Seriously?
I suppose if the measure of how well informed someone might be is based on how well they recite liberal talking points, then the study might have a case. But how informed are Fox viewers compared to others when it comes to issues that actually matter?
Take for instance the lawsuits filed by various Catholic groups against the ObamaCare contraception mandates. If you’re a Fox News viewer, you’ve undoubtedly heard about this piece of news — arguably one of the biggest stories on the defense of religious freedom against an encroaching federal government in U.S. history. But how much do viewers of other networks know — how “well-informed” are they on this topic?
The May 21 editions of ABC’s World News and NBC’s Nightly News failed to report the story altogether and CBS Evening News gave this historic news story a mere 19 seconds of air time.
The Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell calls this the media’s “worst bias by omission” that he’s seen in the last 25 years:
This is not a mistake, nor is it an editorial oversight by the broadcast networks. This is a deliberate and insidious withholding of national news to protect the ‘Chosen One’ who ABC, CBS and NBC have worked so hard to elect and are now abusing their journalistic influence to reelect Obama. And when a network like CBS mentions the suit ever-so-briefly, they deliberately distort the issue by framing it as a contraception lawsuit instead of what they know it to be: a religious freedom issue. It’s bogus, dishonest – a flat out lie.
The fact is that the Catholic Church has unleashed legal Armageddon on the administration, promising ‘we will not comply’ with a health law that strips Catholics of their religious liberty. If this isn’t ‘news’ then there’s no such thing as news. This should be leading newscasts and the subject of special, in-depth reports. Instead, these networks are sending a clear message to all Americans that the networks will go to any lengths – even censoring from the public an event of this historic magnitude – to prevent the release of any information that will hurt Obama’s chances of re-election.
The so-called ‘news’ media have sunk to a new low. This is despicable.
Further, an analysis by MRC’s Matt Balan found that of all the Big Three networks’ 36 stories, interviews and mentions of the HHS contraception mandate from January 30 to February 15 earlier this year, morning and evening guests favored politicians over church officials by a margin of 60 to 9. NBC News (not surprisingly) had the worst ratio, hosting 25 politicians to speak on the subject and just 3 members of Catholic Church clergy.
So, Farleigh Dickinson, I’m sure your analysis would be correct… if we wanted to measure how much NBC viewers know about why Obama is right and the Catholic Church is wrong. But we don’t. Instead, in the context of history and the preservation of freedom, the blatant bias of your favorite networks is turning out more rhetoric than news.
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Shameless plug of the day: All of this is a moot point anyway because we all know the most-informed viewers are tuning in for some Real News on GBTV.
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Jack America
Jun. 5, 2012 at 11:35amWow,
Big problems, in little study.
1. There was no question asked that separates the news outlets, so you cannot say that people who watch Fox News are less informed as they may have listed multiple news sources. (This implies researcher bias)
2. These questions were read to the population so how were they asked -inflections, tones? (This allows for researcher bias)
3. Where are the population numbers for each group of people classified into a political party?
4. Why is it that in the results on every question Republicans had more correct answers, but in the calculation of the results the Democrats are said to answer questions in every category correct? (This implies researcher bias)
5. The leaning of independents should have no bearing as you do not know if they are leaning on a question or not. I understand why they created these categories, but they should not have.
6. So the only conclusion that may be made is that independents are more informed, but the conclusion would be invalid as the study lacks both internal and external validity.
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PhillipH
Jun. 2, 2012 at 8:09pmReading the comments, I partially agree with virtually everyone here – yes, the survey was biased, and yes, the mainstream media has gone quite clearly from “liberal-leaning” to “freaking hardcore liberal” in news coverage, providing an incredibly selective view of the news as it stands. Examining the questions asked, however, most were quite basic. The real issue is who they picked for the survey – just from reading the comments sections here on The Blaze, it’s quite easy to tell that if you watch Fox News you sure aren’t stupid! (Of course, Hustler magazine might disagree…)
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dfite08
May. 26, 2012 at 5:24pmRofl this article is hilarious. The Catholic Church wasn’t even mentioned in this study. It was done on basic things, who controls congress? What are payroll tax extensions hinging on? Has Syria overthrown their leader? These are just basic facts, and Fox viewers did the worst, sorry. If it’s any consolation MSNBC was right behind them.
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Individualism
May. 24, 2012 at 3:51pmTV Media now is as credible as the Nazi Newsreel because its goverment propaganda. that is why people go to the internet and all TV news is going down hill.
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atlblackops
May. 24, 2012 at 12:25pmI can’t wait to see Fox News, or any conservative hack conduct their own indepent survey, rather than hijack others.
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NormalAmerIcan
May. 26, 2012 at 12:35pmYou have proven the authors point. You are very uninformed. There are several conservative and independent surveys readily available. What you call “hacking” is merely correcting mis-information and blatant lies. Have you watched NBC lately? They fabricate everything to match their liberal bias! You are trolling and misinformed.
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