Juan Cole: Fox Viewers think Mubarak Still runs Egypt

[pampango]

http://www.juancole.com/2011/12/fox-viewers-think-mubarak-still-runs-egypt.html

A study by Fairleigh Dickenson University researchers has found that frequent viewers of Fox Cable News are worse informed than people who watch no news at all! It is not that Republicans (more likely to watch Fox) are less informed. The researchers took that possible source of bias into account in their finding. No, it is watching Fox itself that makes people more ignorant.

The discrepancy showed up in a question on whether the Egyptian protests last February managed to unseat Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Among respondents over all, 21% said that the movement had failed, and 26% said they just don’t know! I don’t know whether it is more unsettling that a fifth of Americans may think Mubarak is still president of Egypt or that a fourth of Americans has no idea whether he is or not! A bare majority of 53% gave the correct answer that Mubarak was overthrown.

But Fox Cable News viewers were less likely by a full 18 points to get the right answer than people who said they never watched the news at all! The best informed consumers of news media were those who listen to National Public Radio or read a daily newspaper such as the New York Times.

Fox News’ graphic department has been known to misplace Egypt on the map, which can’t help.



One of the comments to this OP talks about 'belligerent non-learners':

In education, we call these people “belligerent non-learners.” They refuse to learn anything that upsets their world view. Fox News is the culprit in the sense it provides Republican belligerent non-learners with an excuse.

I'm sure we all have recognize the phenomenon of teabagger, fox-viewers penchant for making the 'news' fit their world-view, but I had not seen the term 'belligerent non-learners' applied to that before.

[CJCRANE]

1. K&R