I bet if you would hold a similar poll in the Netherlands, you’d find that Telegraaf readers and SBS6 watchers were less informed (or misinformed!) than those who don’t watch any news at all. And that’s what right-wing parties prey on.
A new survey of New Jersey voters comes to a provocative conclusion: Fox News viewers tend to be less informed about current events than those who don’t watch any news at all.
Fairleigh Dickinson University recently questioned 612 adults in New Jersey about how they get their news, offering as options traditional outlets like newspapers and local and national television news, or blogs, websites and even Comedy Central‘s “The Daily Show.”
They then asked a series of factual questions about the major events of the last year, from the “Arab Spring” to the Republican race for president.
For example, respondents were first asked whether, to the best of their knowledge, opposition groups in Egypt had been successful in bringing down the Mubarak regime.
Among NPR listeners, 68% correctly said they had been; only 49% of Fox News viewers answered correctly. In fact, the survey found, Fox viewers were 18 percentage points less likely to answer correctly than those who watched no news at all.
“The results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions than those who don’t watch any news at all,” said Dan Cassino, a political science professor at Fairleigh Dickinson.
Those who watched Sunday public affairs shows tended to be the best informed on current events, the survey found. Readers of national newspapers also were more likely to respond correctly.
And it seems Jon Stewart may be more reliable than cable news anchors. On Occupy Wall Street, the survey found viewers of “The Daily Show” were 12 percentage points more likely to say protesters were predominantly Democratic. MSNBC viewers were the most likely to say the protesters were mainly Republicans.
“Jon Stewart has not spent a lot of time on some of these issues. But the results show that when he does talk about something, his viewers pick up a lot more information than they would from other sources,” Cassino said.
The overall survey, conducted from Oct. 17 to 23, had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. Because of the smaller sample size among those who selected a specific news source, the margin of error would be much higher.
The Occupy Wall Street protests have now grown large enough to attract the attention of the Right Wing Distortion Machine. The guy above, pressed by a Fox News interviewer, nevertheless provides some brilliant rhetorical opposition to the propaganda channel. If the movement’s in need of a spokesman, they might solicit this hero.
Sarah Palin’s ride through Washington on a Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG) motorcycle yesterday as part of the Rolling Thunder “Ride for Freedom” put her back in the national spotlight as the race for the Republican presidential nomination is revving up.
The former Alaska governor joined about 400,000 bikers for the annual ride, which coincided with the first leg of a bus tour that is renewing speculation about her 2012 White House ambitions.
Palin, who had no official speaking role at the event, arrived wearing a helmet and rode on the back of a Harley from the Pentagon toward the Vietnam War Memorial. Rolling Thunder, which began in 1988, was established by Vietnam veterans to draw attention to missing service members and prisoners of war. Palin’s husband, Todd, and daughters Piper and Bristol also took part in the ride.
In a posting on her political action committee website, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate said Rolling Thunder, through the roar of tens of thousands of bike engines, keeps alive the Memorial Day spirit of honoring veterans.
“I love that smell of emissions,” Palin told Fox News at yesterday’s rally.
Palin’s campaign-style “One Nation Tour” by bus from Washington through New England could be a prelude to a bid for the Republican nomination — or an effort to command the spotlight as the competition heats up.
“Is this bus tour a trial run for a planned race, or is it an attempt to remain visible and relevant?” asked Charlie Cook, publisher of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington. “You can count all the people who really know what Sarah Palin is thinking and planning on one hand.”
Gaat Sarah Palin zich mengen in de strijd om de Republikeinse nominatie voor het presidentschap? Met die vraag worstelen politieke commentatoren en kiezers al maanden, zoniet jaren. Na haar gooi naar het vice-presidentschap in 2008, heeft Palin zich vooral geprofileerd als talking head bij conservatieve media en als jagende, vissende en houthakkende hockey mom van vier in Alaska. Haar PAC (Political Action Committee: officiële organisatie die campagnegeld ophaalt) is al ruim twee jaar bezig met het verzamelen van campagnegeld, maar het duurt nu wel erg lang voordat Palin zich officieel als kandidaat presenteert. Omdat ze zo lang op zich liet wachten begon het gemeengoed te worden dat ze uiteindelijk niet zou gaan voor een presidential run, want ze verdiende immers miljoenen met haar werk als spreker, politiek commentator en televisiemaker en zou het risico niet willen lopen. Een enkeling ging nog uit van een kandidaatschap. Gisteren kwam er echter nieuws naar buiten dat er sterk op wijst dat ze toch mee gaat doen.
Het blijkt namelijk dat ze al maanden, samen met regisseur Stepen K. Bannon, stiekem aan het werk is aan een documentaire. Deze 1 miljoen dollar kostende rolprent gaat over haar inmiddels neergelegde werk als gouverneur van de staat Alaska, een gevoelig onderwerp waarop ze recentelijk hard is aangevallen door haar politieke tegenstanders. Met deze docu wil ze laten zien dat ze echt wel een goede gouverneur was, hoor, en dat ze dus heel serieus genomen kan worden als ambtsdrager. Waarom besteed je een miljoen dollar aan zo’n documentaire? Juist… omdat je niet kan schrijven en toch president wil worden. Of haar ego moet zo groot zijn dat ze ten kosten van alles en zonder enig doel een smetteloze reputatie nastreeft. Het lijkt er in ieder geval sterk op dat ze expres lang gewacht heeft met het aankondigen van haar kandidaatschap om er vervolgens in een later stadium hard in te komen, met deze documentaire, genaamd The Undefeated, dus.
Ze gaat runnen. Maar gaat ze ook winnen? Blijkt na de primary in South Carolina dat ze de Republikeinse kandidaat wordt en verslaat ze daarna Obama in november? Waarschijnlijk niet. Palin is nog steeds maar bij een minderheid van het Republikeinse electoraat populair (35%) en haar favorability onder alle Amerikaanse kiezers is nog een stukje lager (31-32%). Ter vergelijking, Obama scoort op dit moment 44% en dat is al erg laag, en Palin’s belangrijkste tegenstander Mitt Romney scoort 45%. Of een zelfgeproduceerde en ingesproken documentaire daar iets aan zal veranderen is de vraag. Dat moet dan een documentaire worden met de overredingskracht van 10 keer Michael Moore. Onder het Tea Party-volk is ze nog steeds populair. Maar om straks een meerderheid van alle Amerikanen achter zich te krijgen heeft ze nog wel erg veel werk te verzetten. Het zal vooral neerkomen op de indruk die ze achterlaat tijdens de grote televisiedebatten. Als ze zich daar kan neerzetten als meer dan een goedlachse, oneliner-uitspuwende, krijsende moeder en ook als een inhoudelijk sterke en representatieve ambtsdrager, dan zou ze misschien op bredere steun kunnen rekenen.
Haar optredens tijdens interviews en debatten in de aanloop naar de verkiezingen in 2008 voorspellen voor haar wat dat betreft helaas weinig goeds. De McCain-campagne kwam meerdere malen voor vervelende verrassingen te staan als Palin weer iets doms had gezegd. Zelfs Roger Ailes, de directeur van Fox News, noemt haar tegenwoordig een “idiot”. Haar campagne zal meer in de traditie liggen van die van Donald Trump: een belachelijk circus, dat zorgt voor veel media exposure voor de “kandidaat”, dat journalisten doet handenwrijven vanwege een gestage stroom aan gaffes, rellen en malle oneliners, maar waar Obama uiteindelijk zijn schouders voor zal ophalen. De race om het presidentschap is een serieuze zaak voor serieuze mensen en niet bestemd voor clowns. Het Amerikaanse volk, hoewel (net als andere volken) erg gevoelig voor populisten en andere raddraaiers, zal uiteindelijk eieren voor haar geld kiezen en stemmen op een geloofwaardige kandidaat.
Here’s another reason why a Sarah Palin victory in 2012 is not at all unthinkable. The latest Nielsen ratings are out, and Fox News absolutely destroys every other cable channel. At this point, they don’t have any real competitors anymore on U.S. cable television.
Frightening how one media outlet can pretty much take over the entire journalistic landscape in one country.
The Top 5 Cable News Programs in Average Total Viewers
1. The O’Reilly Factor: 3,191,000
2. Hannity: 2,294,000
3. Glenn Beck: 2,248,000
4. Special Report with Bret Baier: 2,111,000
5. On the Record: 1,889,000
Top 5 Cable News Programs Among 25-to-54-Year-Olds
1. The O’Reilly Factor: 781,000
2. Hannity: 585,000
3. Glenn Beck: 572,000
4. On the Record: 481,000
5. The O’Reilly Factor (repeat): 447,000
If you’re ready for some puking in the morning, Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald provides an overview of the response of rightwing American media and pundits to the whole WikiLeaks affair.
Unsurprisingly, since we haven’t treated the problem seriously, it has gotten worse. Julian Assange at Wikileaks has released massive amounts of classified data. Some of it is embarrassing. Some of it is very sensitive. Some of it could have political ramifications for our friends around the world, and worst of all, some of it could lead to the deaths of people who’ve risked their lives to help America. That’s the first reason why the CIA should have already killed Julian Assange.
1) Julian Assange aided the Taliban and risked the lives of Afghans who helped American forces.
(…)
2) Killing Julian Assange would send a message: Julian Assange is not an American citizen and he has no constitutional rights. So, there’s no reason that the CIA can’t kill him. Moreover, ask yourself a simple question: If Julian Assange is shot in the head tomorrow or if his car is blown up when he turns the key, what message do you think that would send about releasing sensitive American data? Do you think there would be any more classified American information showing up on Wikileaks?
(…)
3) You can’t run a government without secrets.
(…)
4) Releasing the information to the world is even worse than giving it to a single foreign government.
(…)
5) We need to regain the confidence of our allies who’ve been burned by these leaks.
Well, they’re probably going to have their way, as I wouldn’t wage any bets on the lifespan of Julian Assange – who has already announced that Russia and big corporations are next. Either that, or he’ll be arrested by Interpol.
Do that, and you make him a martyr.
- Update: Mark adds another shocking example, showing that this kind of reasoning is not confined to the U.S.
This clip shows Tom Flanagan – the former chief of staff to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Howard of the Conservative Party of Canada and Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary – also suggesting that the United States should assassinate Assange on the CBC. Flanagan seems to be advocating a special version of masculinity whereby your toughness is associated with appearing on television advocating that someone else ‘man up’ (as if the suggestion that the rule of law be tossed out the window is not deranged enough).
Appearantly, the BP oil spill was caused by environmentalists! Sarah Palin wrote on Facebook yesterday:
With [environmentalists'] nonsensical efforts to lock up safer drilling areas, all you’re doing is outsourcing energy development, which makes us more controlled by foreign countries, less safe, and less prosperous on a dirtier planet. Your hypocrisy is showing. You’re not preventing environmental hazards; you’re outsourcing them and making drilling more dangerous.Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country’s energy needs, but your protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It’s catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it.
And, according to Bill O’Reilly being gay is as bad as being an Al Qaeda terrorist:
Sarah Palin’s speeches – at Fox News, Tea Party rallies, or elsewhere – often contain mysterious utterances. Rather than in full sentences, words hang in a sort of word cloud, conveying feelings and sentiments rather than arguments and statements. Quite postmodern, actually.
Slate has gone there, and has put the literal quotes of Sarah Palin, all sentences taken verbatim and unchanged from speeches, in a more poetic form. This way, she really sounds like an oracle. Tip: read it slow and carefully, like you read poetry.
“That Mr. Klein Is No Pal of Mine”
What a piece of work
That Mr. Klein is!
For the piece
That he wrote, that is
Something else, you know
You would hope,
That the powers that
Be at a, quote, unquote,
“Reputable” organization
Like Time magazine
That they would hold
Their employee-e-e—
And I assume that
Mr. Klein gets paid
For the columns that
He writes—that they
Great destiny, our destiny!
To be reached by—responsibly!
Developing our natural resources, this land,
Blessed with clean air, water, wildlife, minerals, and:
Oil and gas! It’s energy!
We gaan door met onze “fair and balanced” verslaggeving van de “Dutch Tea Party movement”. Deze bij voorbaat mislukte operatie probeert zichzelf nu te promoten met een nieuw filmpje. Een amateuristische interpretatie van een Fox News-reel, vol dreigende echo’s en Rambo-muziek. Inhoudelijk raakt het kant nog wal. Eerst sprongen ze op de bres voor de hypotheekrente-aftrek, en nu voor de kinderbijslag. Ze zijn erg bevreesd dat deze staatssubside inkomensafhankelijk wordt, zo blijkt uit het filmpje. Kortom, strijden tegen “potverteerders” en ander “links tuig”, maar ondertussen wel willen blijven profiteren van allerhande staatssubsidies. Hoe valt dat in godsnaam te rijmen? Ach, het maakt ook eigenlijk niet uit dat het inhoudelijk voor geen meter klopt, met publiekstrekkers als Joshua Livestro, Bart Jan Spruyt, Eddy Bilder en Eline van den Broek zal het Plein stampensvol staan, dat kan niet missen!
New Left Media strikes again. In the clip below the brilliant reporter from New Left Media interviews participants in the Tax Day Tea Party in Washington. Some ignorant reactions from the tea partiers and some very disturbing lines from the speakers, which by now have unfortunately become very familiar. Especially disturbing when they talk about Fox News. I’m beyond the point that I find these opinions funny or appalling, it just makes me very sad. It makes me sad that politicians like Sarah Palin and media like Fox News are brainwashing these people, of whom most probably have no bad intentions at all. They blind these people and withhold them policy that truly improves their situation. For example, at one point the reporter asks a woman: “So you don’t think billionaires should pay more taxes than you?” “No, I think there should be a flat rate”, she answers (standard “fair tax” Palin/Tea Party rhetoric). The the reporter then asks: “Do you struggle financially at all?” She answers: “Yes, absolutely. I struggle to make my house payment every month.”
Glenn Beck, the far right populist talk show host who fires up Tea Party crowds, is increasingly becoming an embarassment to his colleagues and the Fox News Network.
In just over a year, Glenn Beck’s blinding burst of stardom has often seemed to overshadow the rest of Fox News.
And that may not be a good thing for the top-rated cable news channel, as many of its staffers are acutely aware.
With his celebrity fueled by a Time cover story, best-selling books, cheerleading role at protest rallies and steady stream of divisive remarks, Beck is drawing big ratings. But there is a deep split within Fox between those — led by Chairman Roger Ailes — who are supportive, and many journalists who are worried about the prospect that Beck is becoming the face of the network.
By calling President Obama a racist and branding progressivism a “cancer,” Beck has achieved a lightning-rod status that is unusual even for the network owned by Rupert Murdoch. And that, in turn, has complicated the channel’s efforts to neutralize White House criticism that Fox is not really a news organization. Beck has become a constant topic of conversation among Fox journalists, some of whom say they believe he uses distorted or inflammatory rhetoric that undermines their credibility.
(…)
The internal tensions are fueled by two views of Beck’s success. He is either a self-promoting independent operator, as some at Fox believe, or a team player who regularly talks up his new colleagues, as the Beck camp sees it. Some journalists and other staffers who are upset about Beck’s language declined to be identified criticizing a fellow employee.
(…)
More than 200 companies have joined a boycott of Beck’s program, making it difficult for Fox to sell ads. The time has instead been sold to smaller firms offering such products as Kaopectate, Carbonite, 1-800-PetMeds and Goldline International. A handful of advertisers, such as Apple, have abandoned Fox altogether. Network executives say they believe they could charge higher rates if the host were more widely acceptable to advertisers.
(…)
Beck sparked criticism from some Christian leaders last week when he urged parishioners to leave churches that promote “social justice” or “economic justice,” saying these are “code words” for communism and Nazism.
(…)
But that growth has come at a price, at least for those at Fox who believe that Beck is beginning to define their brand. Glenn Beck is a media phenomenon married to a phenomenally successful network, but away from the cameras, theirs is a troubled relationship.
Fox News is building a TV studio in the home of Sarah Palin in Wasilla, Alaska. My god.
Check this interesting article in the NYTimes on the Palin phenomenon:
Her growing cast of advisers and support system could be working in the service of any number of goals: a presidential run, a de facto role as the leader of the Tea Party movement, a lucrative career as a roving media entity — or all of the above. Ms. Palin represents a new breed of unelected public figure operating in an environment in which politics, news media and celebrity are fused as never before. Whether she ever runs for anything else, Ms. Palin has already achieved a status that has become an end in itself: access to an electronic bully pulpit, a staff to guide her, an enormous income and none of the bother or accountability of having to govern or campaign for office.
I accidentally found this one year old video in which Fox’s Glenn Beck defends legalization of marihuana in the U.S. Didn’t see that one coming. It’s interesting to watch because the discussion on marihuana in California/Mexico is very similar to the current debate in The Netherlands on legalization.
Before you start liking Beck, here’s yesterday’s Glenn Beck Show, in which he is ranting about Iran and the Antichrist, and defending Premillennial Dispensationalists and calling Obama “the clown from Chicago”:
Yesterday, Bill O’Reilly interviewed The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart on the O’Reilly Factor.
Some quotes:
Stewart on Fox News: “They have taken reasonable concerns about this president and this economy and turned it into a full-fledged panic attack about the next coming of Chairman Mao”
According to O’Reilly Daily Show watchers are “stoned slackers who love Obama”.
O’Reilly on Glenn Beck: “He just spouts, he spouts for what he believes. If you think Beck spouts for the Republican Party, you’re out of your mind.”
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