Could you answer the questions correctly? - Pew Poll

[Aardvark154]

This past Spring the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, did a survey of the political knowledge in the U.S. 3,612 U.S. adults were asked to name the controlling party of the U.S. House of Representatives, the name of the Secretary of State of the U.S., and the name of the British Prime Minister.

A rather dismal eighteen percent answered all correctly, however, perhaps more interesting is how the most knowledgeable went across the political spectrum and perhaps unsurprisingly how that had to do with regular reading and watching of real news, for instance 44 percent of regular listeners of National Public Radio and 42 percent of regular viewers of "Hannity & Colmes" on the Fox News Channel answered all of the questions correctly.

However, only thirty-four percent of viewers of "The Colbert Report" and 30 percent of viewers of "The Daily Show" were able to answer correctly.

However, it should also be noted that but 44 percent of BBC viewers correctly named the British Prime Minister.

http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1356

 

[The Crunge]

This past Spring the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, did a survey of the political knowledge in the U.S. 3,612 U.S. adults were asked to name the controlling party of the U.S. House of Representatives, the name of the Secretary of State of the U.S., and the name of the British Prime Minister.

A rather dismal eighteen percent answered all correctly, however, perhaps more interesting is how the most knowledgeable went across the political spectrum and perhaps unsurprisingly how that had to do with regular reading and watching of real news, for instance 44 percent of regular listeners of National Public Radio and 42 percent of regular viewers of "Hannity & Colmes" on the Fox News Channel answered all of the questions correctly.

However, only thirty-four percent of viewers of "The Colbert Report" and 30 percent of viewers of "The Daily Show" were able to answer correctly.

However, it should also be noted that but 44 percent of BBC viewers correctly named the British Prime Minister.

http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1356

What a sad, dismal statement about disenfranchisement, across all segments (I'm sure you took particular fun at pointing out the Colbert and Stewart data). I wonder what these results would have been 25 years ago, 50 years ago, 100 years ago.

Bill Maher goes on and on about the stupidity of Americans. Stupid might be a harsh word, but man, are they ever uninformed and apathetic. And that likely goes for Canadians, too.

 

[Aardvark154]

What a sad, dismal statement

Yes it is.

It also is interesting if you look at the report, that being well informed has far less to do with where you are on the political spectrum or whether you have a university education than it does about how interested you are in what is going on in the world.

 

[capncrunch]

Yes it is.

It also is interesting if you look at the report, that being well informed has far less to do with where you are on the political spectrum or whether you have a university education than it does about how interested you are in what is going on in the world.

This is so true.

What's sad is that negative campaigning - whether by the right or the left - tends to turn people off the political process. That may lead to people simply losing interest in what's going on in their world, a sort of deliberate ambivalence.

Is this why voter turnout is so low?

 

[onthebottom]

Although Republicans scored higher across the board than Dems or Indies....

Not surprising.

OTB