posted 10-21-2003 11:04 AM            

This OpEd from Harold Myerson
puts some numbers to the effectiveness of the Ministry of Truth approach ....

In a series of polls from May through September,
the researchers discovered that large minorities of Americans entertained some highly fanciful beliefs about the facts of the Iraqi war.
Fully 48 percent of Americans believed that the United States had uncovered evidence demonstrating a close working relationship between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.
Another 22 percent thought that we had found the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
And 25 percent said that most people in other countries had backed the U.S. war against Saddam Hussein.
Sixty percent of all respondents entertained at least one of these bits of dubious knowledge;
8 percent believed all three.

The fair and balanced folks at Fox,
the survey concludes,
were "the news source whose viewers had the most misperceptions."

Eighty percent of Fox viewers believed at least one of these un-facts;
45 percent believed all three.

Over at CBS,
71 percent of viewers fell for one of these mistakes,
but just 15 percent bought into the full trifecta.

And in the daintier precincts of PBS viewers and NPR listeners,
just 23 percent adhered to one of these misperceptions,
while a scant 4 percent entertained all three.

One more reason the actions of the FCC

(which are tending to concentrate news outlets into fewer and fewer hands -
- like Murdoch's) are important.

One question inevitably raised by these findings is
whether Fox News is failing or succeeding.

Over at CBS, the news that 71 percent of viewers hold one of these mistaken notions should be cause for concern,

but whether such should be the case at Fox because 80 percent of their viewers are similarly mistaken is not at all clear.

Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes and the other guys at Fox have long demonstrated a clearer commitment to changing public policy than to reporting it,
and an even clearer commitment to reporting it in such a way as to change it.

posted 10-21-2003 01:58 PM            

"--Eighty percent of Fox viewers believed at least one of these un-facts;
45 percent believed all three. ---"