Fox News Viewers Are Retarded

[Alkaloid]

Also, having had a look at the question now, I'm not sure we can say it was were poorly worded. Asked now it is too vague, as there is a new set of riots/protests going on, but when the poll was conducted they would not have been (I suspect, I cant see a date in that report anywhere). And I think that several months (at most) can be termed recently when referring to the overthrow of the Government of a populous nation.

[Phil Skayhan]

The poll was run approx four weeks ago: Oct 17-21

[Flagg]

8 months counts as "recent" when talking about a major world event, dumbass.

[Alkaloid]

The poll was run approx four weeks ago: Oct 17-21

Yeah, that probably is a little vague then. I'd say it's nitpicking, but this is the sort of thing where nitpicking is important.

8 months counts as "recent" when talking about a major world event, dumbass.

Um, was that at me? Cos I agree with that, and I thought my post said so.

[Flagg]

The poll was run approx four weeks ago: Oct 17-21

Yeah, that probably is a little vague then. I'd say it's nitpicking, but this is the sort of thing where nitpicking is important.

8 months counts as "recent" when talking about a major world event, dumbass.

Um, was that at me? Cos I agree with that, and I thought my post said so.

No, it was directed at captain nitpick.

[Phil Skayhan]

8 months counts as "recent" when talking about a major world event, dumbass.

Um, was that at me? Cos I agree with that, and I thought my post said so.

No, it was toward me.

Don't worry about Flagg, he's just flailing away hoping to hit something. Here he miffs again as I also agree. It's almost sad to watch.

Almost.

[Chirios]

Did this study look into how knowledgeable people who watch other news are, or is it just a load of liberal wank?

It did, and I know the answer. I'm just waiting to see if Flagg will go out and see who the second least knowledgeable group of cable news watchers are.

[Hint: I've already trolled Dalton with the answer elsewhere. DON'T WATCH CABLE NEWS KIDS. Listen to your local NPR station!]

Wasn't it MSNBC?

I'm curious how BBC watchers do on this.

[Alkaloid]

Don't worry about Flagg, he's just flailing away hoping to hit something. Here he miffs again as I also agree. It's almost sad to watch.

Almost.

I'm not worried about Flagg, I agree with him, I'm worried I was being unclear. If you agree as well, then why do you think prefacing the question with 'in the news recently' contributes to it being a poorly worded question?

[evilsoup]

Weirdly, they didn't ask that in the survey - they don't even have a generic 'I get my news from a foreign source' option. There's not even an 'other' option, or a 'I don't keep up with the news option' (though of course very few people are going to admit to that last one).

[Phil Skayhan]

If you agree as well, then why do you think prefacing the question with 'in the news recently' contributes to it being a poorly worded question?

During the time of the poll there were protests/demonstrations (as you noted still ongoing) against the interim ruling military, impatient with the election timetable and calling for them to step down and immediately hand over control to civilians. This could lead to, as you put it, the question being vague on what precisely it was referring to.

[Alkaloid]

OK, so your only real issue with it is the same as mine, that it was asked maybe a month or six weeks too late?

[Ziggy Stardust]

OK, so your only real issue with it is the same as mine, that it was asked maybe a month or six weeks too late?

What he is getting at is the word of the question is such that it can be construed in multiple ways. Is it asking about the ouster of Mubarak? The aftermath of that? The new wave of protests and violence against the military government? It is impossible to garner any real statistical truth from such a vaguely worded poll question. It's essentially the same thing as asking everyone different questions, but having absolutely no record of who got what question. We have no way of knowing how each person interpreted the question and how they were supposed to answer, therefore we don't know what they meant by their answer, therefore it is idiotic to try and eke a statistical trend out of it. This is one of the problems with polling in general, and why you should never trust poll numbers to be an accurate reflection of reality.

[Rogue 9]

8 months counts as "recent" when talking about a major world event, dumbass.

His point is that the Egyptians are trying to overthrow their government again, more recently than Mubarak, and have not yet succeeded at the second go. If the respondents thought the question meant to ask about the current round of protests rather than the ones at the beginning of the year, it would seriously affect how they answer the question.

Which is not to say that Fox News isn't an unreliable source of information, but any misinterpretation of the question as worded is entirely reasonable given the circumstances.

[Flagg]

8 months counts as "recent" when talking about a major world event, dumbass.

His point is that the Egyptians are trying to overthrow their government again, more recently than Mubarak, and have not yet succeeded at the second go. If the respondents thought the question meant to ask about the current round of protests rather than the ones at the beginning of the year, it would seriously affect how they answer the question.

Which is not to say that Fox News isn't an unreliable source of information, but any misinterpretation of the question as worded is entirely reasonable given the circumstances.

Except that the recent protests started after this poll was taken.

[Phil Skayhan]

Except that the recent protests started after this poll was taken.

No, there was a break for Ramadan.

Egyptians Return to Tahrir Square to Protest Oct 1st 2011


Dailymotion: Egyptian protesters return to Tahrir Reuters, 9 Oct 2011

And then there was also this: 2nd day of violent clashes in Egypt capital, which has the key paragraph

The ruling military council led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, defense minister of 20 years under Mubarak's former regime, took over after the 18-day popular uprising forced Mubarak to step down. The military initially pledged to hand back power to a civilian administration in six months, but that deadline has passed, with parliamentary elections now scheduled to start in late November. According to a timetable floated by the generals, presidential elections could be held late next year.

EDIT: Don't miss the embedded 60 Minutes video