One of the funniest things I’ve heard lately was a comment by FoxNews’ Bernard Goldberg. He and the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart have been waging a war lately, and after a recent Stewart pounding of Fox’s ongoing anti-liberal bias, Goldberg lashed out. He told Stewart, via an appearance on Bill O’Reilly’s TV joyfest, that if Stewart wants to be “more than a comedian … you better find some guts.” Then, Goldberg let loose his inadvertent joke of the day, calling Stewart’s viewers “your incredibly unsophisticated audience.” Coming from a commentator on any other news network, it would have just been an insult; from a Fox talking head, though, it’s hilarious.
Now, you’ve no doubt talked to people who rely almost exclusively on Fox News for their knowledge of what’s going on in the world. Kinda scary, isn’t it? The mistaken or out-of-context information, the paranoid beliefs, the inability to hear new information that could contradict what they’ve heard from Glenn Beck. And, of course, there’s the stubborn, willful ignorance that turns discussions into surreal trips to conservative wonderland. I guess these are the people Bernard Goldberg would rather have listening to him, rather than Jon Stewart’s “incredibly unsophisticated audience.”
There’s no need to argue about the relative knowledge or sophistication of Daily Show and Fox News audiences — the research has already been published. One famous study from 2003 studied the public’s belief in three false claims — that Iraq possessed WMDs, that Iraq was involved in 9/11, and that there was international support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The study showed that Fox viewers were “three times more likely than [viewers of] the next nearest network to hold all three misperceptions.”
Then in an extensive 2007 Pew Research study of Americans’ knowledge of national and international affairs, researchers found that “viewers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report have the highest knowledge, while Fox News viewers rank nearly dead last.” The study is worth checking out for its wide-ranging look at what Americans know and how they get their information. The one thing you won’t find is any support for Bernard Goldberg’s opinion of Stewart’s audience.
Stewart answered Goldberg’s criticisms, by the way, and here’s a video of his FoxNews smackdown.
This article appears in Apr 20-26, 2010.
I bet one of the questions that helped the Daily show was “Did Bush arrange 9/11” if you answered yes then you are one of Stewart’s so called intelligent fans. Nothing like a non biased pew research study.
Most liberals probably do not even watch the news and that would explain their lack of understanding.
No matter where you get your news from it leans to the left or to the right. The problem with news shows, more specifically Fox, is that they are providing their right wing view and then tagging it with a paranoid statement that is so far out there one has to wonder how folks believe what they are saying? I watch Daily Show because I find it to be the only place where I can get factual information with some humor. Stewart never tags any facts with anything but a punch line.
Regarding Frank’s comment, “I bet” and “probably” basically sums up the overall attitude of Fox new’s idea of what is considered “true”.
I’ve tried watching other news commentary shows, that’s what we’re discussing here, right? But every three minutes, they’re slamming Fox News commentators instead of actually commenting on the news! What’s comical is that the news commentary shows on other networks only have half or less the viewers that Fox News commentary shows have. That’s downright hilarious!
Years from now this run by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show will be looked on as one of the great tenures in television history.
He hit ’em hard. Right where the crux of their fallacy is. A strong blow when you consider that millions of people watch the daily show online.
No, what we’re discussing here is the fact that a late night comedy / satire show actually has a better grip on what is going on in the world than a so-called “News” network does. The Daily Show is a comedy show posing as a news show. Fox News, on the other hand, is a comedy network (with a terrible writing staff) posing as a news network. It’s become more and more obvious over the years.
And if the “news commentators” you’re watching are slamming FOX every three minutes, sorry, but you’re not watching the news. Neither the Daily Show nor the Colbert Report are news programs. They are late night comedy / satire programs. Always have been, always will be. That’s why it’s so funny to see any “News” network go after them in a critical sense. All those ratings, and they still feel threatened by the court jesters…
One of these days they’re going to go too far and the whole thing will go crashing down. And then you’ll see them on other networks singing a completely different tune, just like comparing Beck from about 4 years ago to now. And you’ll have thousands of previously “informed” viewers wondering how they could have been so easily fooled. Or, more likely, they’ll just start buying into some more rubbish that the snake oil salesmen will start selling them on TV.
And to whoever said they bet that DS viewers answered yes to a question concerning Bush arranging 9/11 – I’ll bet that you’re wrong. Throw up a link to a valid source, and I’ll gladly admit I’m wrong. But since you won’t be able to, I won’t hold my breath.
” Nothing like a non biased pew research study.”
-Fox News
im pretty sure you forgot to quote fox news when you made that comment… just fixing it for you.
Hey Frank,
I’m sure you watch all of the ‘news’ shows. Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck. The only “Fair and Balanced” sources available. Jon picks on Fox because they give him such a rich source of comedic material. The right just provides an extraordinary treasure trove of satirical fodder. Can you really blame him for exploiting the stupidity of the fox lemmings.
My advice for you, Frank Griffin, Travel. Meet with students abroad, Germany, Canada, heck Singapore even.
Let me tell u this, the students are learning about bias news networks and they are using FOX news fair and balanced as the main culprit.
Even an Australian comedy show is making fun of FOX news.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swLExEmedtw
“November will expose who is providing the truth and who isn’t. If the Democrats get hammered as predicted then FOX has yet more proof of it non bias and the left bias of the MSM. The opposite would be ture of course if the Democrats do not get beat badly in 2010.” – By this extremely faulty logic, the truth was already revealed in the last election, when Obama hammered McCain. Or when the Dems won big in the last midterm elections. Why would these past results from 2008 and 2006 not be truthful, but suddenly the results would be truthful for 2010?
“FOX has been found to be the most fair and balanced.” – Who’s your source? Limbaugh? Sarah Palin? FOX itself?
Frank,
Maybe I’m missing something here but I didn’t know that the conspiracy theory that 9/11 was constructed by Bush was a liberal point of view? Maybe becasue it’s something against Bush conservative automatically assume it’s a liberal point of view. I thought it was a very small minority of people who thought this. Again a fox viewer generalizing what they think all liberals feel.
Chris H says it best “late night comedy / satire show actually has a better grip on what is going on in the world than a so-called “News” network does.”
Of course the Democrats will lose seats in November. Only the least educated Americans (FOX viewers?) don’t know that the party of the president almost ALWAYS loses seats in the midterms. Since the World War II era, this has happened 15 out of 17 times. But if Frank likes to believe he’s being some sort of prophet I guess that’s his right.
And yes, it was predictable that the libs would come out of the cracks to defend the Daily Show. The only thing more predictable was Frank crawling out to defend FOX and feebly bash libs for the 1,000th time.
Fox News or Faux News can’t get their facts straight. They only show media and news with a lots of bias and opinion.
When every news station had reports about the earthquake in Haiti, I did not see any detailed broadcast on this on Fox News. They are propaganda and nothing else.
Jon Stewart as far as I know talks about the left especially when Charles Rangel was found out about owning property in the Dominican Republic. He did point out Rangel’s wrong doing.
Fox reported on Haiti for a few days. CNN and the liberal media wanted to avoid the health care topic so they ran with Haiti for an entire month and probably lost a few million more viewers in the process. After a few days there isnt much more to say about an earth quake that hasnt been said before.
My previous post provided a link to the zogby poll and the Fox non bias stuff. We will have to wait to see if the CL makes the post visible again.
To your point about Fox only reporting on Haiti for a few days, then immedietly going back to Healthcare, while the other, more responsible journalists continued to report on the story – that really did Fox a lot of good in the end didn’t it? Without them doing that, i’m sure that the healthcare bill would have never been defeat… oh, wait a minute! FAIL.
Won’t bother pointing out any of the other flaws in any of your last posts, since doing so would be useless. Everything that needs to be said on this topic has already been said and every point made, no need to feed the troll any further in this thread.
However, since you’ve made the comment that libs are “coming out of the cracks” twice in this same thread, and since you seem to be so fond of bringing up surveys and polls that are supposed to indicate to us who is trustworthy, who is not, who believes this, who believes that – it seems that you’re clearly not in the majority here when it comes to this issue – you could even say you’re getting HAMMERED, as you said yourself. Your radical viewpoint is the one on the fringe here, so maybe it’s you that needs to crawl back into the hole or “crack” you came from, if you’re so convinced that opinion polls mean so much.
Frank, going to Gastonia once a week to bang hookers does not qualify as extensive travels.
And http://www.informationclear is a dead link, you imbecile, even after adding .com or .org to the end.
And your FOX link doesn’t prove that they’re the most balanced; it shows that of the people polled, most thought they were the most balanced. That’s quite a difference. Using that same logic, you should agree that Obama was the best choice for president since he won the majority vote. It would do you well to actually read the article you reference before commenting on it. Or was this just another FOX talking point you picked up from the network without researching it yourself?