Asia Times -

Are We Suckers?

Was it P.T. Barnum that said a sucker is born every second? Well, I am not exactly sure, but this recently published study indicates, according to this story in the Asia Times that "the more commercial television news you watch, the more wrong you are likely to be about key elements of the Iraq War and it its aftermath."

According to the study, "the more you watch the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News channel, in particular, the more likely it is that your perceptions about the war are wrong, adds the report by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).

Based on several nationwide surveys it conducted with California-based Knowledge Networks since June, as well as the results of other polls, PIPA found that 48 percent of the public believe US troops found evidence of close pre-war links between Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist group; 22 percent thought troops found weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq; and 25 percent believed that world public opinion favored Washington's going to war with Iraq. All three are misperceptions."

I have been thinking a lot about this recently, especially after having some discussions with some friends of mine about the war. It seems that the news has really been doing a horrible job at helping to educate the public about the going-ons of American foreign policy and especially the causes of America's war with Iraq.

Just a sidenote---Iraq is not pronounced I - Raq, it is more like eee-raq, and Iran is not pronounced I- Ran, it is more like eee-ran. In both cases the ran should rhyme with flan.

posted by sajit @ 11:15 AM