Study from the University of Maryland (2003): Fox viewers are the most misinformed

[bluestateguy]

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1020-11.htm

Misleading America
Commentary by Shaun Waterman

WASHINGTON -- It's official -- watching Fox News makes you ignorant.

To be precise, researchers from the Program on International Policy at the University of Maryland found that those who relied on Fox for their news were more likely than those who relied on any other news source to have what the study called "significant misperceptions" about the war in Iraq.

Pollsters asked more than 9,000 Americans about three commonly held canards: that the United States had hard evidence Saddam Hussein had been working closely with al-Qaida; that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq; and that world public opinion was in favor of the U.S.-led war.

Overall, a scary 60 percent believed at least one of these fallacies. Eight percent believed all three.

The most commonly held was -- unsurprisingly -- the Iraq/al-Qaida link. Fully 48 percent of respondents believed this. The totals for the other two were in the 20 percent to 25 percent range.

But among those who get their news from Fox, 80 percent had at least one "misperception" and 45 percent -- nearly six times the overall average -- had all three.

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http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/714.html

[kristopher]

1. K&R

[onehandle]

2. I remember that study. They need to do a new one. It would be even worse now. nt