Benghazi – what’s that? at Catallaxy Files

Benghazi – what’s that?

These are not just your normal Democrats but students at the University of Ohio at an Obama rally. How little I am surprised dealing with students who do not read the papers or watch the news. My son once told me that most of his friends get their news from Jon Stewart and the Daily Show which I have had confirmed many times over. But even if they had read The New York Times or Washington Post, I wonder if they would have been any better informed. Romney’s joke that it is his job to formulate policies to help America and the media’s job is to make sure no one finds out what his policies are is not just a bit of fun but the almost exact truth.

Written by Steve Kates

October 20th, 2012 at 8:30 am

Posted in Uncategorized

33 Responses to 'Benghazi – what’s that?'

Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Benghazi – what’s that?'.

Looking at those interviews, is it any wonder that Obama surrounds himself with celebrities?

Token

20 Oct 12 at 8:38 am
“most of his friends get their news from Jon Stewart and the Daily Show which I have had confirmed many times over. But even if they had read The New York Times or Washington Post, I wonder if they would have been any better informed.”

The largest effect is that of Fox News: all else being equal, someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer just 1.04 domestic questions correctly — a figure which is significantly worse than if they had reported watching no media at all. On the other hand, if they listened only to NPR, they would be expected to answer 1.51 questions correctly; viewers of Sunday morning talk shows fare similarly well. And people watching only The Daily Show with Jon Stewart could answer about 1.42 questions correctly.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/174826/survey-nprs-listeners-best-informed-fox-news-viewers-worst-informed/

Jarrah

20 Oct 12 at 8:42 am
I knew a Phd (reputable, not one of the legion affirmative action recipients) who had never seen or heard the word ‘sombrero’ in her life. But I’m easily shocked.

Alfonso

20 Oct 12 at 8:58 am
I’m seeing a trend, I’ve met so many people that dislike Tony Abbott & the LNP with such passion but are ignorant when questioned about the policies of both the ALP & the Greens. No surprise really, much of the Australian media, particularly the ABC, does little else besides denigrate Tony Abbott.

Badger

20 Oct 12 at 9:08 am
We can’t put much stock in either the video or Jarrah’s link.

Only dumb people agree to be surveyed.

Have a look at the poor overall scores in Jarrah’s link for how bad it is.

2dogs

20 Oct 12 at 9:15 am
Gorge Orwell in “1984″: “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”.

MichaelC58

20 Oct 12 at 9:19 am
I got 6 right and I only read blogs like this and lewrockwell.com. I guess that is what happens when the news just shows stories about celebrities and car chases.

mundi

20 Oct 12 at 9:28 am
worst of all, a smart, young work colleague had not heard of Yes Minister!

Jim Rose

20 Oct 12 at 9:34 am
Jim, that is a shocking indictment of the dominance of the Left in the cultural sphere.
Or something…
Your colleagues loss I suppose.

Winston Smith

20 Oct 12 at 9:38 am
Winston Smith, maybe we are just showing our age?

Jim Rose

20 Oct 12 at 9:39 am
Have a look at the poor overall scores in Jarrah’s link for how bad it is.

Surely asking about the Iowa caucus results three weeks after the event would only provide an indication to the retention skills of the respondent, not a example of poor news delivery.

lotocoti

20 Oct 12 at 9:50 am
I knew a Phd (reputable, not one of the legion affirmative action recipients) who had never seen or heard the word ‘sombrero’ in her life.

Clearly not a Seinfeld fan then. I knew a Phd student who was unfamiliar with the word ‘tertiary’, kind of ironic really.

Andreas

20 Oct 12 at 9:56 am
This is further proof that the voting age should be raised!

Socialism Sux

20 Oct 12 at 9:57 am
Schumpeter’s theory of democratic participation is voters have the ability to replace political leaders at regular elections.

Citizens have sufficient knowledge and sophistication to vote out leaders who perform poorly, vote in minimally competent replacements, and prevent serious misalignments between government actions and public opinion at little cost in time or distraction from there far more interesting at least to them private pursuits.

All voters have time to know is performance, so they vote retrospectively.

The power to vote officials out of office at the next election gives political parties an incentive to adopt policies that do not outrage public opinion and administer policies with some minimum of honesty and competence.

Jim Rose

20 Oct 12 at 10:06 am
Jarrah, a whole 8 questions (count ‘em) can’t exactly be taken as a representative knowledge test. Methodologically it’s no better than sidbar pop quizzes. But hey, Fox news scored worse! How do we know they didn’t hand pick items that they knew Fox didn’t cover well?

As for domestic politics, here’s one of the questions.

In December, House Republicans agreed to a short-term extension of a payroll tax cut, but only if President Obama agreed to do what?

This kind of question is for political junkies.

dd

20 Oct 12 at 10:16 am
Jay Carney confirmed it was not an act of terrorism.

Great ad from Crossroads, made possible by the leftist media and the White House.

Gab

20 Oct 12 at 10:21 am
Who was George Washington?

stackja

20 Oct 12 at 11:05 am
JIM TREACHER:

What’s The Big Deal About Benghazi, Anyway? “Come on, you guys. It’s only an American ambassador and three other Americans who served their country, murdered by Islamic terrorists on the anniversary of 9/11. In a country our president invaded unilaterally and, arguably, illegally. And our government only ignored the copious warnings of an impending terrorist attack on the consulate in Benghazi, and actually reduced security there, despite the since-murdered ambassador’s entreaties. And our president has only been lying about it for over a month because it reflects very badly on his self-evidently disastrous foreign policy. It’s not like it was a hotel break-in.”

Infidel Tiger

20 Oct 12 at 11:37 am
This survey demonstrates the same level of knowledge/intelligence that was shown in the petition to ban “di-hydroximonoxide” because it was getting into all our rivers and lakes and “endangering” our water supplies. A lot of individuals signed that one!!!

Fred Furkenburger

20 Oct 12 at 11:40 am
I love that ad, Gab. Just in the opening sentence where Romney sas “You said, in the Rose Garden the day after the attack, it was an act of terror. It was not a spontaneous demonstration.” and raises his eyebrows with confronting askance. You can see Romney knows the truth, and Bambi knows the truth, but Bambi is desperate not to say it.

Aqualung

20 Oct 12 at 12:00 pm
In another nice touch, the final talking head in the Crossroads ad (who confirms that the Admin had been covering up) is Candy Crowley. It just underlines how dishonest and biased her intervention was in the second debate.

Cold-Hands

20 Oct 12 at 12:34 pm
Jim Treacher is right on the money. Journalists wet themselves over Watergate and yet here….

dover_beach

20 Oct 12 at 1:00 pm
This is in no way similar to Watergate….you dill.

Alfonso

20 Oct 12 at 1:55 pm
I remember seeing another survey conducted at an American university and students were asked who America was fighting against in world war 2 and one numbnut said ” we were fighting the Vietnamese and were supported by Germany.

Ignorance of foreign policy or anything outside US borders is not restricted just to the left.

Splatacrobat

20 Oct 12 at 1:57 pm
Watergate was a Republican affair.
Democrats assures us that they do not have such affairs.

stackja

20 Oct 12 at 2:47 pm
Alfonso, you’re not very bright are you.

dover_beach

20 Oct 12 at 3:08 pm
Bwaaa….you almost got it…..journalists wet themselves in the same way over the Gulf of Tonkin incident or was it the Cuban Missile crisis….all very similar wettings.

Alfonso

20 Oct 12 at 6:39 pm
Someone needs to change Alfonso’s nappy. Nurse!

dover_beach

20 Oct 12 at 6:51 pm
Is Nakoula Basseley (Sam Bacile) still in jail for exercising his constitutional right to free speech?

2dogs

20 Oct 12 at 7:12 pm
“Jarrah, a whole 8 questions (count ‘em) can’t exactly be taken as a representative knowledge test.”

Never even suggested it was representative.

“But hey, Fox news scored worse! How do we know they didn’t hand pick items that they knew Fox didn’t cover well?”

Entirely possible, but what would those items be? Are some that are covered by NPR and Sunday talk shows, but not Fox? Furthermore, the lack of coverage of certain items might be instructive in itself.

Anyway, this is not the only such study. Go look for yourself, there are several. Fox News never does well (nor MSNBC, if I recall correctly).

Jarrah

20 Oct 12 at 8:16 pm
Never even suggested it was representative.

If it’s not representative then the study has no value.
While there may be no deliberate bias, the researchers must be guided by their own intuitions about the sort of things that media consumers should know about, and those intuitions are guided by their own media consumption.

Anyway, this is not the only such study. Go look for yourself, there are several. Fox News never does well (nor MSNBC, if I recall correctly)

I’m suspicious of all such research because it plays too neatly into the evil-conservative-manipulators-of-the-gullible-public narrative. Essentially, the Evil Murdoch narrative, if you like.

It looks like agenda research.

dd

20 Oct 12 at 8:25 pm
Floyd, my dog, is acting weird. He’s been standing over in the “shadehouse” section of the pergola and staring through the slats…

SNAKE!

That’s why there’s no plants in the shadehouse section, it’s just rocks.

kae

21 Oct 12 at 8:54 am
“Floyd, my dog, is acting weird.”

I see Floyd’s everywhere – he’s like Eddie McGuire this morning, is Floyd.

Mick Gold Coast QLD

21 Oct 12 at 9:59 am

Catallaxy Files