New Poll shows that Viewer of Fox News are Less Informed...Wow! [[sarcasim)

**HistoryNotHisStory** · November-23-11, 10:09 PM

A poll performed by Farleigh Dickinson University confirms what many Americans already knows.

Fox News make you more informed of the facts. Go Figure!
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/314919

**Detroit Stylin** · November-23-11, 10:35 PM

Now who woulda thunk it.....[[extreme sarcasm)....

**Hamtragedy** · November-23-11, 10:51 PM

They only have one viewer. .

**jdayer** · November-23-11, 10:54 PM

Here is a link to the actual poll results. http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2011/knowless/

Anytime I read descriptive adjectives or adverbs in a poll summary it concerns me. Descriptive writing, "the boy ran fast", is an opinion. "The boy ran 100 meters in 6 seconds" is not an opinion.

Logical deductions have their place in theory and they should never be expressed as fact. I would always caution against accepting logical deductions made from the information available as fact.

The most famous inaccurate deduction, in my opinion, is Aristotle’s geocentric universe deductions. The facts were that people did not go flying off the planet and stones thrown straight up fell straight down. The logical deduction Aristotle made was that the Earth did not move and this belief remained the academically predominate opinion for many years, even after Copernicus and Galileo.

Remembering Aristotle, Galileo and my own experiences with academic professors I tend to err on the side of fact rather than accepting theory derived through logical deductions as a fact.

Why weren't internet news sources asked about? Are people who watch Fox and MSNBC less likely to read the news on the internet and people who watch PBS more likely? Education level of the respondents? Age versus knowledge?

Interesting results though.

**Mikeg** · November-23-11, 11:01 PM

According to this FDU press release, their conclusions are based on a telephone survey of 612 New Jersey residents. Accordingly, this thread ought to be moved either to the "Discuss Newark" forum or over to the "Non-Detroit forum".

Note that the press release also concludes that:

New Jerseyans are not necessarily more likely to be knowledgeable about domestic politics than international events. Just 47% are able to identify the Occupy Wall Street protesters as predominantly Democratic: 11 % think they are Republicans. Viewers of cable news on MSNBC are the most likely to think the protestors are Republicans. Watching the left-leaning MSNBC news channel is associated with a 10-point increase in the likelihood of misidentifying the protesters.

**jerrytimes** · November-23-11, 11:42 PM

It's funny how wrong a poll can be. If you take a poll of 500 liberals, sure, you can come to this conclusion. New Jersey, from what I've read, is a very Liberal state. Of course they would come to this conclusion.

Ravine · November-23-11, 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by jdayer

Here is a link to the actual poll results. http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2011/knowless/

Anytime I read descriptive adjectives or adverbs in a poll summary it concerns me. Descriptive writing, "the boy ran fast", is an opinion. "The boy ran 100 meters in 6 seconds" is not an opinion.

Logical deductions have their place in theory and they should never be expressed as fact. I would always caution against accepting logical deductions made from the information available as fact.

The most famous inaccurate deduction, in my opinion, is Aristotle’s geocentric universe deductions. The facts were that people did not go flying off the planet and stones thrown straight up fell straight down. The logical deduction Aristotle made was that the Earth did not move and this belief remained the academically predominate opinion for many years, even after Copernicus and Galileo.

Remembering Aristotle, Galileo and my own experiences with academic professors I tend to err on the side of fact rather than accepting theory derived through logical deductions as a fact.

Why weren't internet news sources asked about? Are people who watch Fox and MSNBC less likely to read the news on the internet and people who watch PBS more likely? Education level of the respondents? Age versus knowledge?

Interesting results though.

Yeah, that's great.
It looks a lot like you wanted to deliver that little homily and added the final paragraph just to make it look like it belongs in this thread.

**Big Dog** · November-24-11, 08:43 AM

Fox news misinforms? I'm shocked.

**Mikeg** · November-24-11, 09:51 AM

Originally Posted by Big Dog

Fox news misinforms? I'm shocked.

Do you live in New Jersey, too? If you would take the time to read the press release, you would know that the survey concludes that a high percentage of New Jersey viewers of cable news stations like Fox News and MSNBC aren't paying attention. They surveyed New Jersey viewers of Fox News - they did not assess the veracity of the Fox News reports.

**HistoryNotHisStory** · November-24-11, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by Mikeg

Do you live in New Jersey, too? If you would take the time to read the press release, you would know that the survey concludes that a high percentage of New Jersey viewers of cable news stations like Fox News and MSNBC aren't paying attention. They surveyed New Jersey viewers of Fox News - they did not assess the veracity of the Fox News reports.

If you want a fact-finding of the Fox News, many reports have been made of Fox reporters misquoting and producing inaccuracies.

To state that Fox News is a non-bias, factual is insane.

**HistoryNotHisStory** · November-24-11, 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by jerrytimes

It's funny how wrong a poll can be. If you take a poll of 500 liberals, sure, you can come to this conclusion. New Jersey, from what I've read, is a very Liberal state. Of course they would come to this conclusion.

If this poll was done in Utah or Montana the results would have been the same. Fox News presents bias falsehoods.

**Mikeg** · November-24-11, 04:24 PM

Originally Posted by HistoryNotHisStory

.....To state that Fox News is a non-bias, factual is insane.

Please quote the words I supposedly used to state that. All I said is that the survey never claimed to be measuring the level of Fox News' factual correctness. Perhaps you are the one who is insane.

**firstandten** · November-24-11, 05:47 PM

Let's try it this way. People who are less informed because of Fox news tend to be mis-informed to begin with. They do learn something from watching Fox news, but because the information from Fox tends to be suspect, when questioned by a third party they seem to come off as misinformed.

Thats why surveys like this don't move me. Like the other poster stated there is no control group no definition of the group polled, such as education level, age, etc.