Study confirms that Fox News makes you stupid...

[Chip]

This study claims that watching Fox News makes you dumber (or, at least, makes you have a higher degree of false information on various current news topics.)

I'm not going to argue that the study is an end-all, be-all, or even that it's unbiased, but it was conducted by someone at U of Maryland, not by some democratic operative.

Not that this is *any* surprise to most of the EC community.

[crystaltriforce]

this seems like something from the onion

[midwestblues]

This is no surprise at all, but it's still amusing to read.

[maverick]

This is kind of like a study confirming that McDonald's does indeed make you fat over time with repeated exposure to Big Macs.

[RedState]

Well, there is no doubt that Fox has a conservative lean to it.

I imagine the same could be said who get their news completely from the New York Times...it's all relative.

Oooh! A study from a University! I love those. It's like being on the Okra Winfrey Book Club list I suppose

I would be interested to see who actually paid for this "study". Simply for the fact that Higher Ed are the biggest whiney bitches when it comes to Federal Appropriations. "Don't cut our funding here...don't cut our funding there...if you cut that we will have to shut our doors..blah blah."

In a time of massive budget shortfalls in higher ed (as they constantly claim) I'm glad to see that The University of Maryland could spare the extra money for something as imperative as this...but hey, I guess it gives them a reason to raise tuition.

[xequar]

Originally Posted by bamaboy

Well, there is no doubt that Fox has a conservative lean to it.

I imagine the same could be said who get their news completely from the New York Times...it's all relative.

Oooh! A study from a University! I love those. It's like being on the Okra Winfrey Book Club list I suppose

I would be interested to see who actually paid for this "study". Simply for the fact that Higher Ed are the biggest whiney bitches when it comes to Federal Appropriations. "Don't cut our funding here...don't cut our funding there...if you cut that we will have to shut our doors..blah blah."

In a time of massive budget shortfalls in higher ed (as they constantly claim) I'm glad to see that The University of Maryland could spare the extra money for something as imperative as this...but hey, I guess it gives them a reason to raise tuition.

Just because Fox News agrees with your political leanings does not mean it provides correct information.

[RedState]

Originally Posted by xequar

Just because Fox News agrees with your political leanings does not mean it provides correct information.

Well...just because the New York Times or MSNBC or (insert any given news outlet) agrees with your political views doesn't mean they constantly peddle correct information either does it?

As I said , it's all relative.

I admit I'm not a fan of Beck or Hannity, but I think that Bret Baier and Gretta Van Susteren do a pretty good job.

Even though he touts the MSNBC company line time to time I actually watch Joe Scarborough early in the morning

[ANightDude]

Well, to be honest, in my opinion, both Fox News and MSNBC just suck. Plain and simple.

Fox seems to get its point across by yelling at guests, not giving them a chance to speak in order to prove their points correctly and ending interviews when it seems to be going against them (at least O'Reilly does).

MSNBC always seems to invite on conservatives and bashes them completely without yelling, and (rather brilliantly) making them seem like they know what they're talking about because they react calmly and specifically invite weak guests so they can seem like they know more, and make huge deals out of little issues.

Personally, I stick to CNN, because at least they TRY to get to issue from both sides. I very much admire Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Larry King (gonna miss him, watching his farewell show right now), the works.

NBC and ABC are just kinda... there.

Let me say this: if watching Fox News makes you stupid, watching MSNBC should make you equally stupid as well. On both channels you don't watch news: you watch opinions.

Mostly I agree with Bamaboy here, but I've just got two questions for you, Bamaboy:

I would be interested to see who actually paid for this "study". Simply for the fact that Higher Ed are the biggest whiney bitches when it comes to Federal Appropriations. "Don't cut our funding here...don't cut our funding there...if you cut that we will have to shut our doors..blah blah."

But uh... isn't a university closing it's doors a pretty huge deal? This is education we're talking about here - the key to success of any nation.

In a time of massive budget shortfalls in higher ed (as they constantly claim) I'm glad to see that The University of Maryland could spare the extra money for something as imperative as this...but hey, I guess it gives them a reason to raise tuition.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but these studies are extremely cheap, if not free. This was just a survey someone did and then made a study out of it. I can't imagine it'd cost a lot, if anything.

Just curious of what you mean.

[RedState]

Be glad to answer your questions.

1) Of course closing the doors on a university is a huge deal. My point was simply that every time there is mention of a cut..or a suggestion that they tighten their individual budgets our friends in higher ed constantly act as if the sky is falling. It's kind of interesting to watch actually. Most Federal legislators (yes, even democrats too) do what they can for Federal assistance to higher ed, but they also look at them as "The Boy that cried wolf". Because there is a lot of waste within that system.

2) I have no idea how much this cost. The costs on surveys and polls are always based on the size of the questioning universe and how many questions are included. For example (and I am talking about a political poll here) the average poll for a U.S. House race runs about $10,000-$15,000
It also depends on how it was conducted. Phone banks and gathering the scientific geographic data for an accurate representation are expensive...whereas sending out a couple of college kids for free asking questions in a mall is obviously cheap, but the downside is that it is not very accurate.
This thing may not have cost anything. It was a waste of time more than anything IMO.

[Chip]

Originally Posted by bamaboy

It was a waste of time more than anything IMO.

But if it had come back talking about how valuable Fox News was, something tells me you wouldn't consider it a waste of time

[RedState]

Originally Posted by Chip

But if it had come back talking about how valuable Fox News was, something tells me you wouldn't consider it a waste of time

Haha...if you excluded Beck and Hannity you might be on to something

[ANightDude]

Originally Posted by bamaboy

Be glad to answer your questions.

1) Of course closing the doors on a university is a huge deal. My point was simply that every time there is mention of a cut..or a suggestion that they tighten their individual budgets our friends in higher ed constantly act as if the sky is falling. It's kind of interesting to watch actually. Most Federal legislators (yes, even democrats too) do what they can for Federal assistance to higher ed, but they also look at them as "The Boy that cried wolf". Because there is a lot of waste within that system.

2) I have no idea how much this cost. The costs on surveys and polls are always based on the size of the questioning universe and how many questions are included. For example (and I am talking about a political poll here) the average poll for a U.S. House race runs about $10,000-$15,000
It also depends on how it was conducted. Phone banks and gathering the scientific geographic data for an accurate representation are expensive...whereas sending out a couple of college kids for free asking questions in a mall is obviously cheap, but the downside is that it is not very accurate.
This thing may not have cost anything. It was a waste of time more than anything IMO.

Thanks a bunch.

I totally agree, it was a waste of time. It proved the same point everyone already knows: biases news sources lead to biased viewers. Oh yeah, totally shocking.

[midwestblues]

+ YouTube Video

Fair and balanced FAIL.

[ANightDude]

Originally Posted by midwestblues

Youtube Video

Fair and balanced FAIL.

Go back and read what I said. I said they TRY to stay fair and balanced. There's a reason why Rick Sanchez was fired, and why he never gained popularity on the network. He tried to hard to make to show MSNBC like, and he even failed at that. Bloody fool.

[starfish]

Well this is going to end well.

[midwestblues]

Originally Posted by ANightDude

Go back and read what I said. I said they TRY to stay fair and balanced. There's a reason why Rick Sanchez was fired, and why he never gained popularity on the network. He tried to hard to make to show MSNBC like, and he even failed at that. Bloody fool.

I was referring to Fox News. Fox News touts they are "fair and balanced." They aren't. The video is of CNN pwning Fox News.

[RealityCheck]

Originally Posted by ANightDude

Well, to be honest, in my opinion, both Fox News and MSNBC just suck. Plain and simple.

Fox seems to get its point across by yelling at guests, not giving them a chance to speak in order to prove their points correctly and ending interviews when it seems to be going against them (at least O'Reilly does).

MSNBC always seems to invite on conservatives and bashes them completely without yelling, and (rather brilliantly) making them seem like they know what they're talking about because they react calmly and specifically invite weak guests so they can seem like they know more, and make huge deals out of little issues.

Personally, I stick to CNN, because at least they TRY to get to issue from both sides. I very much admire Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Larry King (gonna miss him, watching his farewell show right now), the works.

NBC and ABC are just kinda... there.

Let me say this: if watching Fox News makes you stupid, watching MSNBC should make you equally stupid as well. On both channels you don't watch news: you watch opinions.

This is exactly how I feel about the news networks. I stick to CNN. Mainly because I think Anderson Cooper is kinda cute!

[RaRa]

Originally Posted by RealityCheck

This is exactly how I feel about the news networks. I stick to CNN. Mainly because I think Anderson Cooper is kinda cute!

He is. And that's all that's important, the eye candy.

I don't watch any news networks because they're boring and they're all the same shit.

My mom swears by ABC and it brainwashes her so bad. Not in a political way but in an "omg there was a local killing" way. Paranoia at its finest.

[djt820]

ITT: People arguing over which news station is better even though ALL news stations are steaming piles of shit vomiting out lies and misinformation all the time.

[ANightDude]

Originally Posted by midwestblues

I was referring to Fox News. Fox News touts they are "fair and balanced." They aren't. The video is of CNN pwning Fox News.

Oh. Now I feel bad.
But I still dislike Rick Sanchez. Juss sayin'.