Some News Leaves People Knowing Less

dreunc1542 · Nov 24, 2011

franklin lincoln said:

dreunc1542 said:

If you really think someone would be as informed (or not) if they watched Fox or listened to NPR, then you really shouldn't be in the news business.
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I chose not to go into journalism, and this is in part why: Too many journalists are not very smart.

Let's look at some methodological flaws in the poll:

1. It's only sampling New Jersey voters, not national voters, so to extrapolate to the entire country would be problematic.

2. "Oh, but Franklin Lincoln, this was a sample of 612 people, which should mean the margin of error is less than four percent!" No, when considering Fox News viewers, this was a sample of 64% of 612 people -- less than 400 people, meaning the margin of error is probably in the neighborhood of 6-7 percent. Furthermore, the percentages for NPR and the Daily Show are minuscule (21 and 18 percent), meaning that only about 120 NPR/Daily Show listeners/viewers were polled, leaving the margin of error somewhere near 10-12 percent. (I don't have my charts on me at this point).

3. "But the difference on the Egypt question between Fox and NPR/the Daily Show was 19 percent, which is more than 12+6, the margin of errors for each group!" Read the question: "Have the opposition groups protesting in Egypt been successful in bringing down the regime there?" Now, read the survey date: Oct. 17-23. By that point, there were growing calls to end the "transitional" military regime. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/world/middleeast/egypts-military-expands-power-raising-alarms.html?pagewanted=all) The dynamic had changed dramatically from the time when Egypt was revolting against Hosni.

4. "But look at ALL these questions. Clearly Fox is lying, making people dumber." Correlation does not equal causation. Logical regressions do not account for self-selection bias.

Too many journalists believe whatever a "study" says. Critical thinking is a skill that should be nourished and developed. It's been sorely lacking in this thread.

I find it highly ironic that people here will claim that that flawed interpretations of data proves that a news network presents flawed interpretations of events.
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Oh, I agree that the study is flawed. My statement was of a general nature, not tied to this study.

Ben_Hecht · Nov 24, 2011

Too many broad defenders of Fox's so-called "news" coverage on this board clearly have agendas.

It's an old story.

Fetch me a beer.

SF_Express · Nov 25, 2011

Oddly, I DO watch Fox News, more than the others. And no, our politics aren't very close.

They drive me nuts, but I find them entertaining too, and let's face it, Republican politics is more interesting right now than the Dems.

I know what I'm watching, and "Fair and Balanced" and "We Report, You Decide" are preposterous, absolute lies, but it's all part of the deal.

Starman · Nov 25, 2011

SF_Express said:

Oddly, I DO watch Fox News, more than the others. And no, our politics aren't very close.

They drive me nuts, but I find them entertaining too, and let's face it, Republican politics is more interesting right now than the Dems.

I know what I'm watching, and "Fair and Balanced" and "We Report, You Decide" are preposterous, absolute lies, but it's all part of the deal.
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Unfortunately our nation is getting wrecked in the process as the populace is continually dumbed down.

More specifically the profession and credibility of journalism is being trashed by association. The vast majority of people either know consciously or understand subliminally that everything FOX pumps out is bullshit, so it feeds the widespread belief that all media is bullshit (a belief FOX furiously fuels).

It's Uberclass propaganda.

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Some News Leaves People Knowing Less

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