Twelve
years ago that WaPost article validated what I knew to be true of my
homeboys, almost all hidebound Maryland Democrats. When it came to
discussing politics they were dumb as sand. Don't need more
validating to know nothing's changed, but it is nice to know someone is
noticing.
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The
Pew Research Center conducted a survey to see what the audiences of the
various political shows knew about politics, and what they found goes
against the conventional wisdom about whose audience is better informed
about current events. With a simple three-question survey about
politicians in high office, it turned out that the audiences of Rush
Limbaugh and Sean Hannity answered more questions correctly than fans
of the "Colbert Report," "The Daily Show," and CNN.
The quiz asked the names of two of the world's leaders and one party in
power to determine what audience is most well informed. Survey
participants were asked the names of the Secretary of State, the
British Prime Minister, and the name of the party currently controlling
the House of Representatives.
According to the report on livescience.com, the audiences of the Daily
Show and the Colbert Report have more college graduates than that of
Hannity and Colmes, yet the Hannity audience answered more of the
questions correctly than did that of Colbert and Stewart. Apparently
the audiences of conservative shows are more politically informed than
those of liberal shows.
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The results were based on ability to identify political players.
Had the study included critical thinking ability, well, there would be
no Daily Show, and no Obama, would there?
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