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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Fox News:  The Fox News "Effect": A Few References

Clearly, there's much concern about Fox coverage. But many critics of the network seem unaware of what may be their best argument: the existence of several public opinion studies showing a correlation between watching Fox and being misinformed about one or more public policy issues.

These studies tend to take the same basic form. First, they survey Americans to determine their views about some matter of controversy. Inevitably, some significant percentage of citizens are found to be misinformed about the core facts of the issue--but not just that. The surveys also find that those who watch Fox, or watch it frequently, are more likely to be misinformed.

Here are five such studies—and note that this list may be incomplete. This is just what I've come across so far:

1. Iraq War ....
2. Global Warming ....
3. Health Care ....
4. Ground Zero Mosque ....
5. 2010 Election ....

For details about the studies, see The Fox News "Effect": A Few References by Chris Mooney's, May 18, 2011 at DeSmogBlog.com.

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