Well, If You Don't Have Anything Good to Say . . . .

The May 25 Quarterly Report on news coverage by the Project for Excellence in Journalism ("PEJ") reveals that Fox Noise viewers received less information about the Iraq War than did viewers of any other cable news program. (We already knew that Fox Noise viewers were the least informed overall.)

Now, we learn that, according a PEJ study of over 17,000 stories aired or published in the media during the first quarter of the year, Fox Noise viewers received about half the information on Iraq that viewers of CNN or MSNBC received.

The study tells us that, among the three cable news television outlets, coverage of Iraq accounted for about 28% of the news aired on CNN and MSNBC. Over at Fox Noise, their under-informed devotees got about half that -- 15%. But, the Noise channel had to fill that information gap with something. So, the Noise viewers will likely be pleased to know that they received more coverage of Anna Nicole Smith than anyone else in the cable universe. (In fact, Fox Noise gave its fans exactly twice as much coverage of the dead celebrity than the average of CNN and MSNBC.)

More interesting than the gross figures, is the breakdown of the nature of the Iraq coverage. PEJ coded the Iraq news as reports on the policy debate, on events on the ground in Iraq, and homefront coverage.

Overall, the policy debate over the Iraq war accounted for about 12% of the 17,000+ stories reviewed from all media sources (including newspapers, radio, network and cable news). This was more than the combined coverage given to events on the ground and homefront impacts of the war.

Considering that the policy debate on Iraq is just about the most important national debate we have had in at least a decade, covering it seems appropriate regardless where one's seat on the political spectrum may be. On cable news, Fox's coverage of the policy debate was exactly half that provided by the other cable news outlets. One-Half!

This is what happens when a news outlet abandons any semblance of impartiality and invests itself in the outcome of the events that it covers (we examined this from a local perspective last fall in "Trashing the First Amendment"). The Noise ownership and staff were cheerleaders for war and, now that things have gone even worse than most expected, they are eager to fill their time with non-news such as the Anna Nicole Smith nonsense.

Fox Noise defends itself by claiming that they publish a more balanced perspective -- producing more so-called "positive" stories on Iraq than negative. I'm not sure in what universe 3500 dead American kids, tens of thousands maimed American boys and girls, hundreds of thousands dead and maimed Iraqi civilians, and millions of Iraqi forced to leave their homes, produce many positive stories, but so be it.

That doesn't answer why the tiny comparative coverage of the policy debate. The Noise Channel gave about the same amount of time to events on the ground in Iraq as its competition -- it is in the coverage of the policy debate that Noise viewers are the least informed.

After pimping the war and promising rose petals at the feet of Americans, when the shit storm happened, Fox Noise simply retreated, pretending it was all okay.

Calling this travesty a news organization fouls the water.

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It's Official: Fox Noise Viewers "Least Informed"

A recent independent survey on public affairs awareness levels has shown (big surprise here) that viewers of Fox Noise are the least informed people in the world (okay, the "in the world" is hyperbole) (if you are a Fox Noise viewer, go here).

A couple of weeks ago, the Pew Center released the results of its survey. Over 1500 adults were given a news quiz and also queried about the new sources they read, watch and listen to. Presenting a challenge to the reality-based community, the top scoring group were those who listed the Daily Show and Colbert Report amongst their daily viewing diet. Seventy-nine percent in that group demonstrated a high or moderate level of public events awareness. Rounding out the top three were consumers of major US newspaper websites (80%) and the News Hour (72%). Fox Noise viewers were at the bottom of the list (just a smidgen above the folk who watch the morning news shows) with 66% scoring low - to moderate and the lowest (35%) scoring high.

Nearly twice as many college grads and men scored in the high category as did non-grads and women. Independents had a higher percent of "high" scores than did Democrats, who had more high scores than Repubs. Northeast adults were the most well-informed regionally.

These findings comport with the 2003 World Public Opinion group's extended survey and study on misperceptions of the Iraq war. From their summary of the findings:

The polling, conducted by the Program on International Policy (PIPA) at the University of Maryland and Knowledge Networks, also reveals that the frequency of these misperceptions varies significantly according to individuals’ primary source of news. Those who primarily watch Fox News are significantly more likely to have misperceptions, while those who primarily listen to NPR or watch PBS are significantly less likely.

You can take a shortened version of the News Quiz here (and don't come back if you get any wrong -- it is an absurdly easy quiz); and you can measure yourself against the political typology here.

(h/t to Revolt Today)

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The Delusions of the Right

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The Bush Administration has so destroyed the coalition of the extreme -- the wingnutz, christianistas, anti-choice, and pro-gun single issue voters -- on which the Republican Party, and in particular their neo-conservative conservators, have relied of late, that their apologists are routinely adopting the same kind of self-delusion which was so common among real liberals who tried to defend the Clintonistas.

A prime example was front and center in the, aptly named, "gang" segment of Fox Noise Sunday. In pressing for a pardon of Scooter Libby -- the top White House operative accused of lying under oath to the grand jury investigating the smearing and outing of Valarie Plame as retaliation for her husband speaking truth to power and calling out "liar" to the Bush regime -- the Republican operatives posing as journalists on Fox Noise struggled to differentiate their calls for impeachment of President Clinton for lying under oath about an extramarital affair, from their call for a pardon for Libby for lying under oath about the abuse of the power of the American government to cover-up the lies perpetrated by the Bush regime to fan the flames of war.

Hume insisted that it was different, after all, he said, people went to jail over the Whitewater scandal. Reminded that Whitewater was not pertinent to impeachment, Hume recovered and pointed out that Clinton deserved impeachment because he had, after all, lied to the American people (about extramarital sex). Of course, the milquetoast journalist pretender who hosts Fox Noise Sunday let that slide, not bothering to point out the lies Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and Powell told to the country, on their own show, and to the World from the podium of the United Nations.

All that was deluded enough, but the real self delusion was yet to come -- when Hume insisted that a pardon of Libby would only get short and passing news coverage, and wouldn't play a significant role in the 2008 elections.

He, and the other Bush apologists, are either crazy or think the rest of us are. Anyone who believes that the incompetence, deception, and arrogance of the Bush administration is not going to be front and center in the next elections are themselves demonstrating the same startling levels of those qualities which have destroyed the great coalition of the extreme which has propped up the Bush regime and republican party, until now. To the contrary, if past trends are any indication, and if the 2006 results are relevant, and if the public polling are informative, the winner of the 2008 contest will be the candidate who appears to present the strongest opposite qualities from those which resulted in the abject failure of the Bush regime.

Hume, Kristol, and their ilk can whistle past the graveyard all they want. But, Brit, it won't change the fact that that is exactly where you're headed.

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