Daily Show and Colbert Report Viewers Are Better Informed Than O'Reilly's Audience (King and Dobbs Too)

News Type: Event — Seeded on Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:32 PM EDT

Article Source: The New York Times

Well, this certainly won't lead to any insufferable late-night smugness: "The results of the new Pew Survey on News Consumption (taken every two years and released this afternoon) suggest that viewers of the 'fake news' programs 'The Daily Show ' and 'The Colbert Report' are more knowledgeable about current events (as judged by three test questions) than watchers of 'real' cable news shows hosted by Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly and Larry King, among others — as well as average consumers of NBC, ABC, Fox News, CNN, C-SPAN and daily newspapers," reports Greg Mitchell at Editor and Publisher.

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Groups: Headline Discussion, Left of Center, Media Watch, Open Minded, Political Analysis, Skeptics, The Big 2008 Election, US News and Views
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{"commentId":2495195,"authorDomain":"tacitus13"}

Tacitus13

How come I never get to do these surveys? I regularly watch O'Reilly and Dobbs and all three questions were very simple, not that I depend on the two for all of my news by any means. But how do so many Americans not know the answers to the two American questions? Mindboggling!

The Daily Show with Craig Kilborn was great but I never cared for Jon's version. Colbert is sometimes funny but I never remember when or where his show is on TV.

{"commentId":2495195,"threadId":"334452","contentId":"1759814","authorDomain":"tacitus13"}

#1 - Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:54 PM EDT

{"commentId":2496140,"authorDomain":"killfile"}

Killfile

They only survey a few thousand viewers. The power of statistics and all that.

{"commentId":2496140,"threadId":"334452","contentId":"1759814","authorDomain":"killfile"}

1 vote

#1.1 - Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:57 PM EDT

{"commentId":2497515,"authorDomain":"jaredpariah"}

jaredpariah

More Republicans than Democrats or independents know which party currently controls the House of Representatives: 64% of Republicans know that Democrats have a majority compared with 54% of Democrats and half of independents. Members of both parties struggle to identify Gordon Brown, while Republicans (48%) are slightly more likely than Democrats (41%) to know that Condoleezza Rice is the secretary of state.

This is a quote from the original report (http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1356). I find this to be a very interesting statistic. Since we can expect that Rush & O'reily's audience is primarily Republican, this suggests that Rush & O'reily's listeners are severely under-informed (or listening to Rush & O'reily's significantly reduce your understanding of basic news facts).

But I guess it is mostly pretty embarrassing for Democrats--come on only 54% know the Dems control the house!?

{"commentId":2497515,"threadId":"334452","contentId":"1759814","authorDomain":"jaredpariah"}

1 vote

#2 - Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:42 PM EDT

{"commentId":2616882,"authorDomain":"talitha-1016"}

Eli-454903

Not to wonder, my fellow knowledgeable people, the shows mentioned are runned by pundits that only repeat what their narrowminded public wants to hear. Except maybe Larry King, all the rest are what I call the "Egomaniacs Happy Hour", because their shows have the only purpose to exacerbate bigotry, social disent and agendas of their own,. Missinformation is the tool of the dictatorships. And we have people out there implementing that system, so they can "fool you once, and twice"..., and over and over, because many don't bother to check the facts somewhere else. They would rather wear the tarnished information suit that has been tailored expressedly for the minds of this people and the ones interested on keeping the public ignorant. Even in the Bible is said "my people perish for the lack of knowledge. What more clear than that? Wake up people! form opinions on your own, don't let others do that for you. Be thinkers, culturize yourselves so your decisions won't be what others dictate subliminally to your ears!

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#3 - Thu Aug 28, 2008 1:00 AM EDT

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Daily Show and Colbert Report Viewers Are Better Informed Than O'Reilly's Audience (King and Dobbs Too)

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