TPM: "Poll: *Fox* Is The Most Trusted Name In TV News"

[Bucky]

Before you unrecommend this, remember that voting to unrec means you don't want to warn people about what shit like this means. From TPM:

Poll: Fox Is The Most Trusted Name In TV News (source)

A new national survey from Public Policy Polling (D) finds an amazing result: The most trusted name in TV news, the only one that more Americans trust than distrust, is...Fox!

Respondents were asked whether they did or did trust the various news outlets. Fox turned out to be the only one with a positive score, at 49% yes to 37% no. CNN was at 39%-41%, NBC 35%-44%, CBS 32%-46%, and ABC 41%-46%. The pollster's analysis finds a high level of polarization, with 74% of Republicans trusting Fox, and no more than 23% of Republicans trusting anybody else. Smaller majorities of Democrats trust all the other outlets and distrust Fox. Independents register negative ratings for all the news outlets, but Fox comes the closest at 41%-44%.

A lot of things could've "gone wrong" with this polling, methodologically speaking, but it shouldn't be that wrong. The fact is Fox is running an effective propaganda machine and we're not hitting them back and no one is really taking them on (except Olbermann, Big Ed, and on occasion Maddow).

Ugh.

 

[Submariner]

1. The DUMBING down of the American electorate is now complete

How a fake news organization, and the worst of the worst, becomes number 1 is a sad epitaph for all of us.

[liberal N proud]

2. Polls should take the IQ of those who participate

It would show the IQ of America has significantly dropped over the years.

[Turbineguy]

3. A lot of people believed Goebbels too

“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over”

[Enthusiast]

4. No corporate media outlet

wants to challenge Fox because what Fox does is in their competitor's best interest as well as their own. RW dominance has resulted in the corporate state we are witnessing. We can not have a corporate state without the control of information. Funny, Fox News plays bad cop but their viewers are so fucking stupid they don't even recognize it.

[mmonk]

5. Fox is a political organization, not a News organization.

[brewens]

6. It's probably because ALL the right-wing tea bagger types

watch FOX and believe/pretend it's all true. Everyone else is spread out among the other networks and skeptical of at least some of their content. An accurate poll of what viewers believe would put FOX on top.

[Zywiec]

7. "Fox News Ratings Explode On Scott Brown Victory Night"

The network saw its biggest night since Election Night 2008, averaging a staggering 6.161 million total viewers in primetime. For comparison, that's almost double CNN (1.503 million total viewers), MSNBC (1.138 million total viewers), and HLN (668,000 total viewers) combined.

Sean Hannity also set a personal record, anchoring his highest rated hour ever. In the 9PM hour (during which Bret Baier cut-in to announce the election results), Hannity averaged 6.809 million total viewers.

For the entire day, Fox News averaged 2.235 million total viewers, again besting CNN (809,000), MSNBC (484,000), and HLN (329,000) combined.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/fox-news-ratings-explode_n_431478.html

[BeFree]

8. Ducking, here

I watch about 4 hours of news a week. Once in a great while I turn the channel to fox. Tell ya what, their straight new shows rate way up there. The style is appealing.

Of course the commentators suck rotten eggs and it is rare that I ever watch that crap.

But the straight news shows... something different, for sure.

I think that is the hook that keeps people tuned in and turned on. Not me of course, but them.

[Bucky]

17. Slick, warm, easy on the eyes, full of attention grabbers and constant self-selling

It's a winning formula, no doubt. And I like Shep Smith before it was cool.

[KittyWampus]

23. I like Shep Smith and wish he'd get a better offer on another station. I had the misfortune of

catching Glenn Beck for about 1 minute and was very upset just watching him. Don't watch much tv and didn't really think he could be THAT BAD. But he is. As is Hannity. We have one guest who comes once a year who watches Hannity. I finally asked him to turn the volume way down. It was distressing to have his blather on audible in the background.

[YOY]

9. I wonder where 'none of the above' came in.

n/t

[old mark]

10. 74% of Republicans trust Fox.....explains so much right there, no?

Murdoch knows his audience.
And his audience doesn't know much of anything.

mark

[Lorien]

14. But they are only about 23% of the population anymore. nt

[old mark]

26. So we have 74% of 23% equalling 17.02% of the voting population,

which is not so much, is it.....


mark

[FBaggins]

11. Nothing wrong with the poll... they just don't understand what it means

Of course... this is from the hip without actually reading the poll.

You've got this one right-wing news channel (not counting thousands of radio outlets)... then you have several normal sources for news that range from somewhere around the center to a tad left. If a moderate/liberal is going to have a favorite, those votes are going to be split any number of ways. When a RWer picks a favorite? ALL those votes will go to Fox.

It's really just an indication that they march in lock-step while everyone else is actually pitting some thought into it.

The only thing that needs to be added is that "trust" here is really just a proxy for "who do you watch?"

[dalaigh lllama]

22. That makes a whole lot of sense

good points

[themaskedliberal]

12. FOX

Hmmm. And what does this say about the lowest common denominator approach to newzentertainment?

[Lorien]

13. It's Politico, so it's not an actual news source. nt

[mn9driver]

15. Easily explained. People that watch Fox are anxious to suspend disbelief.

Fox's audience has no ability or desire to critically analyze the propaganda. They consider political manipulation to be solid, factual reporting. This is their "reality".

[annabanana]

16. So.. fully 74% of Republicans are batshit cray +/or dumb as a

box of rocks...

Sounds about right to me.

[cascadiance]

18. Hmm.. Where's Democracy Now? I think "None of the above" would have won,...

... if it were an option.

Conservatives "trust" those who "echo" their stilted beliefs as in Fox News. They don't "split" their votes. Progressives don't really see a choice amongst all of these corporatist entities, and probably split their votes amongst the rest with none really being a network they gravitate to.

Democracy Now added would give many of us a choice if we didn't have "None of the Above" as an option.

[Berry Cool]

19. This poll means nothing without the margin of error (plus or minus percentage) given.

I note it's not given in the TPM article itself either, and if I click on the link to the study, it tries to download a PDF and fails (somehow my computer is failing to recognize the format).

[KittyWampus]

20. FOX News is on many public tv's across the country. DU'ers report FOX gives tv's to businesess

for free in exchange for playing them.

Waiting rooms etc.

So people may just be more fully exposed to FOX.

[City Lights]

21. American idiots.

:dunce:


:argh:

[Harry Monroe]

24. The decline and fall of Western civilization

When an entertainment outlet like Fox is considered "trusted news" then we are truly fucked!!

“A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to Farce or Tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and a people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives”
James Madison

[unblock]

25. i certainly trust them more than any other source

to lie unabashedly in the service of the far-right agenda.

with those other news outlets i'm never quite as sure.

[texasleo]

27. The poll splits the center and the left.