Monday, April 16, 2007

Comedy bests "news" for solid information

Okay, I shouldn't have my knickers in a knot that Jon Stewart is a better historian (and wonk) than Ambassador Bolton. (yesterday's post)

Stewart's and Colbert's audiences have now been established as more knowledgable thatn others about the who's who and what's what of politics and international affairs.

Per the NY Times today: The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released the results of a survery that found that "respondents who seemed to know the most about what’s going on — who were able to identify major public figures, for example — were likely to be viewers of fake news programs like Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”; those who knew the least watched network morning news programs, Fox News or local television news." Here's the poll and the findings:
www.people-press.org

But is it that smart people watch fake news or that the fake news is contibuting to real knowledge? I'm going with 50-50.