The Fox and the Newt

Everyone who has some sense of understanding when it comes to politics and the media knows that Fox News is almost as bad as the Republicans themselves when it comes to false information. While Republicans call every news outlet other than Fox the “liberal media” or the “liberal machine,” courtesy of the Hermanator, they tout Fox news and its crew of maniacal commentators who are driven to spread the false word of the Grand Old Party.

Studies have been done that reveal that people who primarily use Fox as their main media outlet are not only less informed and misinformed about politics and world news, they re also more likely to believe the false information that they are given. A recent poll done by Fairleigh Dickinson University surveyed residents of New Jersey compared people who watch no news at all to those who primarily watched Fox News. They found that "people who watch Fox News are 18-points less likely to know that Egyptians overthrew their government" and "6-points less likely to know that Syrians have not yet overthrown their government." In total, only 53% of respondents knew that Hosni Mubarak had been overthrown by the Egyptian people, and 48% knew that Syrians were in the process of trying to overthrow their own.

A study conducted by the University of Maryland last year showed that viewers of Fox News were “significantly more likely” to believe:

--Most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely)

--Most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit (31 points)

--The economy is getting worse (26 points)

--Most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring (30 points)

--The stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts (14 points)

--Their own income taxes have gone up (14 points)

--The auto bailout only occurred under Obama (13 points)

--When TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it (12 points)

--And that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States (31 points)

While viewers of Fox News are predominantly right-leaning conservatives and vote Republican, Democratic viewers are also likely to believe the false information given through Fox News but less so than Republicans voters.

Newt Gingrich is also making news with his comments on child labor laws. During an appearance at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government last Friday Gingrich called the laws “truly stupid.” He believes that the students who attend schools in poor neighborhoods should be cleaning the school rather than unionized janitors. With the Republicans in Congress blocking any attempt to even consider many portions of Obama’s new economic work package that would have created hundreds of thousands of jobs, Gingrich would rather put the adult janitor out of a job and replace him with a prepubescent schoolchild. With the Republican party’s ongoing tirade proclaiming Obama’s iron fisted sack of the economy, they continue to subliminally convince voters that they are the white knight of the people in some of the world economic times since the Great Depression.