ALL media outlets are crap...... sorry FOX.

[ericire12]

Yes, I said ALL!



http://hotair.com/archives/2009/03/08/whose-audience-is-better-informed/

Whose audience is better informed?

by Ed Morrissey

Pew Research did a survey to test the audiences of various media outlets in order to determine how well each informs their listeners or viewers — and came up with some surprising results.  They asked three questions based on current events, and then ranked the outlets by the percentage of their audience who got each right, and all three correct.  A few surprises hit the top of the market (via Mark Impomeni):

   

When the Pew Research Center tested the public’s political knowledge earlier this year, the best-informed news audiences crossed the ideological spectrum. Nearly half of regular readers of The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Harper’s Magazine (48%) answered three political knowledge questions correctly. Regular listeners of NPR (44% three correct), and regular viewers of Hardball (43%) and Hannity & Colmes (42%) also fared well compared with other news audiences.

    The survey, conducted April 30-June 1 among 3,612 adults ages 18 and over, found that about half of Americans (53%) knew that the Democrats have a majority in the House of Representatives, while 42% could identify the secretary of state (Condoleezza Rice). Fewer than three-in-ten (28%) could name the prime minister of Great Britain (Gordon Brown). Just 18% of the public answered all three questions correctly.

This follows on John Ziegler’s work at How Obama Got Elected, although in a less partisan manner.  Ziegler also conducted his surveys of Obama and McCain voters to demonstrate the fecklessness of media coverage, a theme he put together as a documentary in Media Malpractice. Pew essentially finds the same problem working from the other direction — most of the mainstream media outlets fail to inform their audiences properly for political discourse.

Here is the top ten, as an example, with their aggregate scores:

   1. New Yorker/Atlantic - 48%
   2. NPR - 44%
   3. Hardball - 43%
   4. Hannity & Colmes - 42%
   5. Political magazines - 39%
   6. Rush Limbaugh - 36%
   7. Business magazines - 36%
   8. BBC - 34%
   9. Colbert Report - 34%
  10. News Hour (PBS) - 33%

Hannity and Rush were the only two outlets where over 80% of the audience could correctly identify the majority party in the House.  Only a handful of others scored in the 70s.  How did we do?  Not too bad.  “Online news” ranked 14th, with an aggregate score of 29%.

And where were the rest of the American media?  In rather poor positions.  In fact, ESPN — a sports network — outranked almost all of them:

    * MS-NBC: 19th (25%)
    * ESPN: 23rd (21%)
    * NBC Evening News: 24th (21%)
    * ABC News: 27th (19%)
    * CNN: 28th (19%)
    * Fox: 29th (19%)
    * CBS News: 38th (10%)

Of all the listed news outlets above, only CBS failed to inform their audience well enough to get a majority that knew Democrats controlled the House.  That’s really pathetic.

EXIT QUESTION: Colbert Report at #9? What the..... ?

[tombogan03884]

 No one hit 50% ? does that say scarier things about the media, or the public ?
Am I the only one who noticed that the score of the best rated information source (New Yorker) was also the percent of voters who voted against B Ho ?
I am surprised that WSJ was not listed, I would have expected them to be at the top.

[twyacht]

"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves."
Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson was right on this one.

Plenty of "inattentive" masses of voters showed up last Nov. Now even Whoopi Goldberg is saying "enough" regarding taxes.

Even though BHO is hers and alot more sheeple's candidate.

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."
Mark Twain

The MSM has done a good job in this area as well.