Pew Survey: Viewers of Colbert and Stewart Score High on News Test (See Who Didn't!)

The results of the new Pew Survey on News Consumption (taken every two years and released this afternoon) suggest that viewers of the "fake news" programs The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are more knowledgeable about current events (as judged by three test questions) than watchers of "real" cable news shows hosted by Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly and Larry King, among others -- as well as average consumers of NBC, ABC, Fox News, CNN, C-SPAN and daily newspapers.

The national average for answering the three questions was only 18%. But 34% of The Colbert Report fans got them right, with 30% of The Daily Show viewers doing so -- even though the two Comedy Central shows draw younger audiences which generally scored less well on the "test" than older viewers/readers.

The Pew Report observed: "The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are notable for having relatively well-informed audiences that are younger than the national average."

Topping the knowledge list were The New Yorker and The Atlantic (48%), NPR (44%), MSNBC's Hardball (43%), and Fox's Hannity & Colmes at 42%.

While consumers of most news outlets scored poorly on the test, a separate question revealed that a vast majority believe they follow national news closely. Yet, somehow, only 53% were able to correctly identify which party now controls Congress. In another finding: no surprise, Democrats were found to favor CNN and MSNBC while Republicans strongly dig Fox.

Respondents were asked to identify which party now controls Congress, who is the current U.S. secretary of state and name the new prime minister of Great Britain.

Coming in behind the two fake news show on the test were consumers of :

News magazines 30%
O'Reilly Factor 28%
Lou Dobbs Tonight 27%
MSNBC 25%
C-SPAN 24%
Daily newspaper 22%
NBC News 21%
Letterman/Leno 20%
Larry King Live 19%
ABC News 19%
CNN 19%
Fox News 19%
CNBC 17%
Personality magazines 13%
Religious radio 12%
CBS News 10%
National Enquirer 9%
*
Greg Mitchell's new book includes chapters on Stewart and Colbert. It is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. He is editor of Editor & Publisher.

Comments

[JulieKay]

I love both shows; however, "The Daily Show" is my favorite. I have only been watching it a couple month. It often takes an understanding of current events and sometimes history to understand the jokes. I think they should test the MSM and make watching the shows a requirement to report on politics.

[dadw5boys]

Someone got paid to research what 90 % of the people already know????

[Schallvain]

This would have been a valuble survey only if they had asked how many sources of news do you typically use in a given day, and how much time do you spend listen to or reading news. Somebody who reads The New Yorker probably doesn't just read that magazine, but for people who typically watch the nightly network news, that is their only source.

[mediamarv]

Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly and Larry King..

As far as I know and can tell, those three do not have news shows... why were they included?

[mivogo]

According to a Pew survey, 1n 1979, there were 30 Elvis impersonators in the United States. By 1989, there were 3,000, and by 1999, 25,000.
If current trends continue, it is estimated that by the year 2019, one in every two Americans will be an Elvis impersonator.

[vonfifenburg]

Okay - here's where the article kind of loses credibility to me - they actually consider "real" news to be shows hosted by Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly and Larry King - the three stooges of cable "news." Stewart and Colbert have just as much credibility, if not more, than these three bobble heads.

[Schallvain]

No kidding!! I find it scary when we start considering pundits and inteviewers hard news. What's next? "The Soup" is going to be awarded for its news reporting? An Enquirer report will get a pulitzer for their story about the"Montauk Monster"?

[CitizenFace]

Didn't you hear? Trya Banks just won a Nobel for bravely chronicling the previously underreported story of women who dress badly and should know better.

[TeriMcCarthy]

Wait, wait before I read this article, let me guess.... F.aux viewers!!!

[Tremonius]

I'm not believing in this as a valid test.

The Faux Noise crew may run a special extolling Rice as a Non-Uppity and praising Gordon Brown for not cutting and running and lambastes the do-nothing Democratic Congress and the audience scores tops in this poll.

Pew should use a control group of ordinary uncommitted parrots.

[saami]

Our house gets our news from Countdown with Keith Olbermann. He covers news that no one else does and often gets their first on big items that finally are noticed. He keeps track of the many scandals and outright graft of the Bush administration in Bushed as well as often looks at what is going on behind the "headlines" with commentators who are intelligent and well versed on the subject.

[Schallvain]

So you admit that you are not well informed about things beyond Bush's bumbles?

[mgh234]

o yes, three random questions, one of which is pretty irrelevant and ethnocentric (prime minister of england), really proves a point *rolls eyes*

A lot of Americans believe "congress" is the word for the white house....and use senate and house of reps for congress, so that statistic is fuzzy also.

[Chazzam]

The PM of England question is hardly "irrelevant". It is a basic entry-level question regarding whether someone is paying ANY attention to foreign affairs.
As for your second point, using the fact that a lot of Americans are ignorant of the proper basic terms for the branches of government is not a salient disqualifier of whether the polled are savvy regarding those branches of government. It's like saying, "They can't be judged ignorant on Middle East geography, if they are ignorant of ALL geography."
If someone is walking around thinking that "congress" is the word for the White House, than that person is seriously handicapped in news understanding and should not be given a pass on that.

[waynesmyer]

Stewart and Colbert have more news in their middle fingers than all of CNN & FAUX News!

[JenMI]

The "younger audience" gets their yucks from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and get their news from Huffington Post.
I suspect a lot of people think they have a handle on news by watching1/2 hour of nightly news on ABC, NBC or CBS..where everything is reduced to less than a soundbite and you get 15 minutes worth of commercials on arthritis drugs, erectile dysfunction, products for incontinence and constipation meds.

[InofTouch]

So I should trust
The New Yorker
The Atlantic
NPR
MSNBC's Hardball
Fox's Hannity & Colmes
and Comedy Central?

[jsarets]

Remember: 63% of Americans can't point to Iraq on a map, 18% of Americans think that the Sun revolves around the Earth, and only 10% believe Obama is Muslim.

[rjmiller]

68% of statistics are made up on the spot.

[Schallvain]

I thought it was 73%?

[rock2casbah]

I had to explain that to a viewer on You Tube when they tried to mock Obama with the charge of 10 percent. As if that was some big consensus. It was hard to try and tell them 10 percent is pretty much saying 90 percent know he is not muslim and you wil l never get better than that on any issue.

I don't even think they get how small a percentage 10 percent is. He finally got it when I explained how even Nixon had a 26 percent favorable rating the day he was flown away in shame. Then explained even Bush gets 26 which is as low as Nixon. Then he gets it.

[gdaerin]

So what you are saying is that News Outlets are Failing completely at doing what they are supposed to be doing, informing viewers? Wow, nice to know the networks hold themselves to such high standards.

The truth is, the mainstream media, or traditional media as I like to call it, has a lot to gain from misinforming viewers. To call them "News Outlets" is just a complete joke. It's so ridiculous, it's not even funny anymore. T.V. news will become more and more obsolete and meaningless in the coming years. They should just pull out now.

[tvfreesince93]

go back and study the history of american media. it has always been a megaphone for power and the key instrument through which the elites divide and control the masses. While todays mass corporate media consolidation does represent an unprcedented threat, to think that this is somehow new is incorrect.

[rock2casbah]

Then it seems to me they would have a huge stake in keeping the educational system in America in such a mess. The dummying down of Americans has succeeded.