Americans Flunk Simple 3-Question Political Survey (Obviously they didn't survey DU!)

[Obamarama]

Interesting analysis. This is reallyinteresting given that Sarah Palin couldn't name when asked one publication she reads on a regular basis. Lets see...I read the NYT, Atlantic Monthly, and am a regular listener (and supporter!)of NPR, and frequently watch Hardball. I suspect most of the people on DU read or follow one or more of them as well. No wonder we're so damned intelligent!

Some news audiences are more politically savvy than others, according to a new poll, with readers of The New Yorker and similar high-brow magazines being the most knowledgeable.

The survey, conducted between April 30 and June 1 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, measured the political knowledge of 3,612 U.S. adults. Participants were asked to name the controlling party of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. secretary of state and Great Britain's prime minister.

The best-informed news audiences crossed the ideological spectrum. Nearly half of regular readers of The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Harper's Magazine answered all three political knowledge questions correctly.

A perfect score was obtained by 44 percent of regular listeners of National Public Radio (NPR), 43 percent of regular viewers of MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and 42 percent of the Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" audience. Thirty-four percent of "The Colbert Report" audience and 30 percent of "The Daily Show" audience got all three questions correct.

ust four news audiences had a majority who correctly identified Gordon, including regular readers of The New Yorker and similar magazines such as The Atlantic, regular NPR listeners, regular readers of political magazines, such as The Weekly Standard and The New Republic, and regular viewers of "Hardball."

Here's a detailed breakdown of the percentage of individuals answering each of the three questions correctly from the different news audiences:

* The New Yorker/Atlantic: 71 percent (correctly identified Democrats as the majority in the House), 71 percent (correctly identified Condeleeza Rice), 59 percent (correctly identified Gordon Brown)
* NPR: 73 percent, 72 percent, 57percent
* Hannity & Colmes: 84 percent, 73 percent, 49 percent
* Rush Limbaugh: 83 percent, 71 percent, 41 percent
* Colbert Report: 73 percent, 65 percent, 49 percent
* Daily Show: 65 percent, 48 percent, 36 percent
* NewsHour: 66 percent, 52 percent, 47 percent
* O'Reilly Factor: 70 percent, 60 percent, 41 percent
* C-SPAN: 63 percent, 59 percent, 35 percent
* Letterman/Leno: 51 percent, 42 percent, 31 percent
* CNN: 59 percent, 48 percent, 29 percent
* National Enquirer: 44 percent, 32 percent, 22 percent


http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20081015/sc_livescience/americansflunksimple3questionpoliticalsurvey

[SteppingRazor]

1. What this shows more than anything is the severe lack of foreign coverage in our national press.

After all, most Americans could answer the first couple questions just fine. It's PM Brown that stumped them.

[DrDan]

2. But I would be those results would have been different when Blair was poodlin' around

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Wow-can't belieive the Faux News numbers.