One-in-three Americans fail on current events
By Steve Benen Monday Aug 18, 2008 4:00pmThe latest Pew Survey on News Consumption, which is conducted every other year, was released yesterday, and is chock full of interesting tidbits and results. Most notably, there was a great section of the report on news-consumer knowledge and sophistication.
About half of Americans (53%) can correctly identify the Democrats as the party that has a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. In February 2007, shortly after the Democrats gained control of the House after a dozen years of GOP rule, many more people (76%) knew the Democrats held the majority.
The public is less familiar with the secretary of state (Condoleezza Rice) and the prime minister of Great Britain (Gordon Brown). About four-in-ten (42%) can name Rice as the current secretary of state. The public’s ability to identify Rice has not changed much over recent years: In April 2006 and December 2004, shortly before she was sworn in, 43% could correctly identify her.
The prime minister of Great Britain is not well known among the public. Just more than a quarter (28%) can correctly identify Gordon Brown as the leader of Great Britain.
Overall, 18% of the public is able to correctly answer all three political knowledge questions, while a third (33%) do not know the answer to any of the questions.
I’ll admit, I’m torn about how humiliating this is to the nation overall. For the typical American not to know Gordon Brown strikes me as only mildly distressing — Brown has only been Prime Minister for about a year, and most of the public was probably more familiar with Tony Blair.
But one-in-three Americans got all of the questions wrong. For all the talk about the Democratic Congress, barely half the country knows there’s a Democratic majority.
Maybe my perspective is skewed because I just finished reading Rick Shenkman’s “Just How Stupid Are We?” but at a certain point, the political world is going to have to come to grips with the fact that a striking percentage of the electorate has no idea what’s going on.
As for the other results from the Pew survey, it was also interesting to note which news consumers did better than others.
From the report:
Regular readers of magazines such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Harper’s Magazine stand out for their political knowledge; almost half (48%) can correctly identify Rice, Brown and the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives. NPR listeners rank closely behind, with 44% of regular listeners registering a high knowledge score. More than four-in-ten regular Hardball (43%) and Hannity & Colmes (42%) viewers also score relatively high for political knowledge.
In general, well-educated news audiences have high levels of political knowledge; for instance, 54% of regular readers of publications such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Harper’s Magazine are college graduates, as are 54% of regular NPR listeners. However, a greater proportion of regular readers of business magazines are college graduates (60%), but just 36% answered all three political knowledge questions correctly.
Just a third of regular Rush Limbaugh listeners are college graduates, but this audience scored as well on political knowledge as did regular business magazine readers. Similarly, only about three-in-ten (31%) regular Hannity & Colmes listeners are college graduates, but a relatively large proportion (42%) answered all three questions correctly.
Some highly knowledgeable and attentive news audiences - such as The New Yorker’s, Limbaugh’s, Hannity & Colmes’ or Hardball’s - are older than average. However, age is not always a correlate of political knowledge: the CBS Evening News has one of the oldest audiences of the news outlets included on the survey; 63% of the regular viewers of this program are 50 or older. But just 10% of regular CBS News viewers correctly answered the three questions.
The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are notable for having relatively well-informed audiences that are younger than the national average: 34% of regular Colbert viewers answered the three political knowledge questions correctly, as did 30% of regular Daily Show viewers. Less than a quarter of either audience is older than 50 (22% Colbert, 23% Daily Show), compared with 41% of the general public.
Now, I found this particularly interesting because four years ago, Fox News viewers were the most confused about current events, especially when it came to subjects such as weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and Saddam Hussein “working closely” with al Qaeda. Viewers of “The Daily Show” were among the best informed at the time.
So, have things changed? I kind of doubt it — these Pew questions were easier and covered non-controversial subjects. My hunch is, had Pew asked more about subjects relating to Republican talking points, those Fox News viewers would have done considerably worse.
Call it a hunch.
Login or Register to post comments.
And is it any wonder Obama is supposedly having trouble securing the vote of white, non-college educated folks (the same people that voted for Bush in the past two elections)? Whatever happened to 'I think, therefore I am.'?
I love America but loath stupid selfish Americans.
The earth is 8000 years old.
Lee Harvey Oswald worked solo.
Obama is a muslim.
God loves you.
Given the contempt in which a large majority of Americans hold congress I'm perfectly content when they think it's controlled by the Republicans. Let the Fox Festival of Ignorance roll on.
The president of the United States, a Yale graduate, is an imbecile. Why be shocked that his lemmings are also idiots? This is old news, and still irreversible. Oh, look. It's Branjalina's babies!
Don't worry about it, we're doing our best to ignore Gordon too.
the worst part of it all is that of those that have no clue, the great majority of them really give a shit.
sorry, meant to say that they DON'T give a shit
RickB @ 5:
Attaboy!!
"But one-in-three Americans got all of the questions wrong."
I'm surprised they did that well.
Why asked the wrong questions. They should have asked who the last three American Idol winners were, the names of the stars of all the CSI shows and when the release date for the "24" movie is.
The nincompoops have circled the wagons. There isn't a chance in hell anybody's going to penetrate their cone of ignorance.
"the political world is going to have to come to grips with the fact that a striking percentage of the electorate has no idea what’s going on."
Come to grips with it? They're exploiting it.
you find the fact that most americans don't know Gordon Brown after a year only *slightly* distressing? The leader of one of the major global powers, a major world economy and probably closest ally to the US? Maybe it's not surprising, but to say it's not distressing is a tribute to low expectations.
Although, I have to agree with RickB too...
There's no surprise here, it explains why the repubs keep getting elected more than Dems, simply because the electorate is stupid and the repubs recognize it and cater to it, where as the Dems don't/won't deal with it. Doesn't it strike anyone else that "every repub whose been President since johnson should/could have been tried for treason?
Obsesity rates are rising in America.
So...we're fat AND stupid.
this is what the repugs want, a stupid fearful nation.
this is why i'm ashamed of my country, three questions pertaining to america, that 90% of the rest of the world could answer correctly, yet barely 50% can answer here
Nobody has ever gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. --P.T. Barnum
True then, truer now. The Neocons have gotten rich.
Many Brits will tell you that Gordon Brown is not leading them.
I hav dacided to rite this sentunce the way that childrin in our scools r bean tewt to. By soundng out the wrds nd gessing how they shuld b spelt.
For some reason, I can only think of this:
"You are stupid! You are stupid! You are stoooooopid! And in case you forget... YOU ARE STUPID!"
-Dexter to Deedee in Dexter's Lab
I thought the GOP had not only come to grips with it, but taken full advantage of it...
mike @ 13:
Also explains that preznit approval rating that just doesn't drop much below 25%. I say let's double the price of gasoline again and see if we can wake anyone else up.
This is why I don't understand why some people are so confident of an Obama win. The ignorant and stupid are easily swayed by the lazy thinking and ideas espoused by the right. Of course, I suppose it's possible that the 33% who could not answer any of the questions correctly are also people who can't be bothered to vote. One can only hope.
Rick @ 16:
But the questions weren't fair! None of them had anything to do with American Idol or Big Brother.
Phonics and Civics. Most Americans likely think they are cartoon characters.
And this suprises us? My fellow C&Lers have always complained how many Americans are dumbasses. Hell, Americans don't even know where Iraq is on the map! Supreme Court Justices? Who are they? I have been teaching my daughters about the government since they were able to talk. They can name all the Justices and our representatives in PA. In our society its money and fame is the most important thing, it is a shame how we are letting the future generation down.
Well the test explains why McCain is clueless as he has alot of company. Now I have to take up for those who didn't know about Connie being Secretary of State. She has the title but doesn't do the job. Cheney gives her messages to take back and forth. One only need to read about her visit with the Asian leaders when she first got appointed. The Chinese paper reported all she was worth was playing the piano. Each visit to a Foreign Leader that Connie has made she is just bringing instructions from the White House. Powell just knew how to cover up the lies he was telling when he was Secretary of State. Yes when the news came out that the White House had lied Powell did his best to act like he wasn't part of the inside job. Later he apologized and slipped away into the sunset until Obama became the Democratic Nominee. Yes both Connie and Powell will use the race card to get a job with Obama if he becomes President. Let's hope the non experienced Senator doesn't fall for it.
Why this be surprising?
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries." ~ David Rockefeller at Bilderberg Meeting in Baden-Baden, Germany 1991
America - the shining city on the hill.
Ugggh. Yeah...built on a foundation of shit.
Liberal AND Proud @ 14:
Now all we need is "drunk" for the Dean Wormer hat-trick.
Lyon @ 20:
I thought of this:
"Calling you stupid is an insult to stupid people!"
-Jaime Lee Curtis in A Fish Called Wanda
We are a nation of morons...but I bet 35% can name you at least one starter on every nba team, how many gold medals we have in china, at least ONE winner of American Idol, etc, etc.
Looney tunes! We're #1
johnbpt @ 30:
Does having a drunk in the White House count?
Imagine a single breast. The areola is the attentive public, and the milk duct is the partisans. The rest is just inattentive people who don't care and don't want to care.
By the way... I'm sick of people saying liberals are intolerant.
AMERICA! Luv it or leaf it.
Liberal AND Proud @ 25:
Civics aren't cartoon characters - they're cars made by Honda, silly!
EJA @ 35:
LOL! Well done.
Gretchen @ 24:
No offense, Gretchen, but I wonder how many of the epic fails on the Pew Survey can quote scripture, chapter & verse.
My guess is that the following question wasn't even on the test:
Which country is the US's biggest trading partner? ... and who is the current political leader of that country?
"One-in-three Americans fail on current events"
And even Crooks and Liars could use some classroom time--grammar and punctuation class at least. For starters, there should be no hyphens in this headline. That's just one of at least five errors by the writer of this.
I know, I know. That's nit-picking when compared to not knowing current events, but a web site held in high esteem by a lot of the blogging world should have higher standards in its own editing.
Thing is, I'm not so sure in all cases that this is purely about stupidity. I know some young, smart people who wouldn't be able to answer all the questions (and may in fact get all 3 wrong). The reason is that they feel completely powerless when it comes to politics, like their opinions wouldn't matter anyway so they put no effort into having them.
Now, I admit, this would be called a stupid opinion by some, but it doesn't change the fact that I think some of the issue is not stupidity, it is disenfranchisement.
Doesn't help that at this time, we managed to express our opinions enough to give Congress to the Democrats and still Bush is allowed to do whatever he wants. Honestly, my opinion doesn't really seem to be mattering very much right now.
Thinking Person @ 40:
My typos are because I think faster than I type. Dyslexia...the mark of genius. ; 0 )
No wonder we have a fracking idiot for a president and grampi mc same is close in the poll.s
-k
Hey, but at least we're better than Mexico in geography!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1120_021120_GeoRoperSurv...
Old news.. but still. Anyone still think "Czechoslovakia" was still a gaffe on McCain's part?
Being a "foreign policy expert" in the USA - like being the top of the special ed class.
Andy K Jong Il @ 38:
No offense taken. Plenty of them would be my guess. Too many people use their faith as an excuse for ignorance and, unfortunately, they combine that with pride and self-righteousness.
If they really believed the scripture they quote, or knew what it means, they wouldn't be so proud of their self-imposed stupidity.
"the political world is going to have to come to grips with the fact that a striking percentage of the electorate has no idea what’s going on."
why the hell did you think republicans keep getting elected?
Of course.. if you ask a Republican, this is just 'elitist' bullshit. And if of course European kids are better at finding Afghanistan on a map since it's a neighbouring country.
Liberal AND Proud @ 19:
As a teacher, I take exception to that. First, I don't know where you live, but cite your source...and not anecdotally. I want policy--because if it's happening on a wide scale in regular education classrooms beyond, say, third grade, it would be school district policy--in writing.
Second, it's easy to oversimplify and overgeneralize about kids who spell like this and why it's happening, but what you're implying is that they're receiving inferior instruction and falling behind as a result. There are legitimate reasons for some students to approximate, however--what is commonly called "guess and go." It may be because they're beginning writers. It may be because they're identified as having a disability (in which case, this would be part of a student's Individualized Education Plan). Sounding out words and guessing at their spelling is as common among beginning writers as it is for 5-year-olds to have poor sentence structure and an absolute lack of command of English--for example, proper past tenses of verbs. The point of writing is just that--to get their point across. That's why this technique is often used with emergent writers.
That said, you're confusing a complex issue by using an overly broad generalization. I call bullshit.
i voatin fer mccane becus hees a war heerro and obomba hussein is a moslem and marksist, rev wright , and soros and such as , and borshun. DURRRrrffff!!
Two of my favorite quotes from the movies are:
From "The Departed";
"Treat 'em like mushrooms. Feed them shit and keep them in the dark".
-Sgt. Dingham, talking to the Fed in meeting
From "Shooter";
"There are no sides. There's no Sunnis and Shiites. There's no democrates and republicans. There's only have's and have nots."
-the "upstanding" Senator asking him to join the "team" on the snowcap.
Welcome to the mushroom capital of the world. They pay very, very, well to feed the mushrooms. My school tax is almost two seconds worth of Mobil-Exons profits, and rising.
My theory that "people are NOT smart" keeps on getting more and more validated.
It's also sad that many people won't vote, such as if they're afraid we elect Obama we are all "screwed" and if we elect McSame we are all "doomed".
JudyLou @ 17:
Great quote. Here's another:
Albert Einstien..." Only two things are infinite; the Universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former."
Gretchen @ 46:
Actually, I wouldn't bet that many of them really can quote their bibles accurately. As an agnostic who HAS read the old and new testaments, I often find myself correcting god-botherers who misquote, take out of context, or simply fabricate biblical passages. Fun and extremely satisfying.
Rick @ 16:
good thing you're not michelle obama. this would be all over the msm and reicher blogs in a few seconds.
mike @ 13:
I've been embarrassed by this pitiful country many times before this. It's not a shocker. America is full of dumb fucks...starting with that worthless piece of shit occupying the White House. It's the dumb leading the dumber.
Anyone still surprised the US is in rapid decline?
Gordon Brown should start another war with Bush....maybe in Iran.....then more Americans will know who Mr. Brown is.
What does this say about the damn media in this country? If you watched the news you might know SOMETHING about the world, it would just be completely wrong, you'd know something though.
I personally think the ignorance is the fact that many people don't feel represented by either party and don't think it matters much who is in power. They might be wrong or right, but that’s the feeling from a lot of people who I talk to about these issues. They have an intuitive populist bent but are politically and economically ignorant. They fundamentally however understand far more than the "liberal" and "conservative" spokesmen they see on TV who supposedly represent and understand them (even though they don’t and know it) that the game is rigged and public opinion doesn’t matter a bit as far as policy is concerned.
The left too hasn’t done much to reach out to them, they don’t understand them and ridicule them. What, outside of voting for more power hungry representatives, can they do to effect change even if they wanted to? They COULD do things, but the liberals haven’t told them how to outside of putting all their faith in their “betters” in government, and the right wing wants them to be ignorant and sees their political activity as a threat. The liberal elites agree, but will use them if they can until they begin to assert themselves too much. Look at Brzezinski, a current Obama advisor, Samuel Hunnington and their “Crisis of Democracy” paper from the mid 1970’s. They said openly that there was too much democracy and participation by working people and something would have to be done about that.
Who's in charge of setting our education policy? Can any of you name that person or the powers that be behind that bureaucracy?
Who owns the media in this country? Can you name the companies?
Who's in charge of regulating them?
Who owns the voting machines in this country?
Who are our country's top investigative journalists?? Can you list your top five??
Is the Pew Survey a reputable company or do they have a partisan agenda like most corporations? Are there methods open source and viewable to the public? Do they poll cell phone users? Do they take into account those people that are intelligent enough to screen calls with their caller I.D.??
Answers?
Damn, who'd have thought we'd do so well? USA! USA!
jh @ 12:
This number sounds low to be honest, and yet we count on these people to vote...how many voted in 04 thinking we had actually found bombs in Iraq... http://tinyurl.com/6xr3b7
RobertD @ 49:
Well, I thought it was common knowledge (at least it seems to be among linguists) that kids always start writing stuff, not 'the way they sound' but in whatever way is regular; that is, consistent. Because that's how we learn, through observing and making generalizations. It's just that english spelling is notoriously irregular. Mostly because of the many influences (modern english is de facto a creole), but also because of silly conservatism like this (IMHO).
English could use some spelling reform. (It works. Other languages have done it.) Of course, now I'll be shouted down with counter-arguments which all tend to boil down to 1) "It looks stupid!" (after a generation they'll think the same about the old ways) or 2) "It panders to ignorance" (as if it spelling should be hard for its own sake)
But.. offtopic anyway.
johnbpt @ 54:
It would be a waste of my time to do that. I'm surrounded by thumpers of all stripes here in west Michigan. There's nothing like having the Bible thrown in your face in Dutch!
(How many Dutch Reformed in your neck of the woods, Gretchen?)
G String @ 59:
Great points.
Bill Moyers show on PBS where college and high school-educated respondents were asked to find Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Israel on a world map and only 23% of the college-educated under the age of 25 and 6% of high school-educated could find all four, despite the fact that the map they were given was labeled.
The destruction of the ability to think will destroy the planet before anything else will.
This will only get worse. How many children do you think this bottom third will spawn as opposed to the top third? It's a simple numbers game, especially when it comes to elections, and our future does not look bright. So to speak.
deathy/epl+ccs @ 42:
Good point. People are going to spend their time and effort on those activities they perceive will improve their lives in some fashion. Only those that believe they can influence politics are going to spend time understanding the system and its players.
The Rich want a society of absolute ignoramuses, drooling imbeciles and soulless technocrats who lack the sense to oppose them.
. . . a third (33%) do not know the answer to any of the questions. . .
Ah, yes. That part of the population which is still satisfied with Bush's job performance.
The dumbing down of America hasn't happened by accident. It is basically part of the slow slide into fascism - corporate elitists run the country.
- Funds for education have been used instead for endless wars
- Deregulation has allowed the media to be held and controlled by a very small group
- Mass media focuses on entertainment -Distraction
- Economic situations have deteriorated; both parents have to work - some more than
one job - so no one is home to parent/mentor the kids
- Standards in schools/colleges have been lowered
- Social welfare programs have been reduced/eliminated
- Nutrition - children who are no well fed or underfed cannot develop and learn
- Elitism has negated any social gains - haves vs. have nots
etc., etc., etc. ..........
Aged Blue Lensman @ 22:
Unfortunately, if the price of gas were to double (again), the kool-aid drinking 25 percenters would likely blame it all on those "Godless, anti-American liberals and them terrorist-loving enviromental extremists" that so hate this country and won't allow the poor bush crime family to have their way and drill holes wherever the the hell they please......don't pay no never mind to the fact that Exxon-Mobil's quarterly profits just rose to $20B.
I find it really frustrating when the actual questions asked are not included with the poll results. The results are far less meaningful without them.
It's fine to say that "n% of those polled could not name the current Secretary of State", but in order for the value of "n" to give us any real perspective, we'd need to know if the question was multiple-choice, or phrased as "Name the office currently held by Condoleeza Rice...", or a straightforward question that can solicit a binary response, like, "Can you name the current Secretary of State?", or was it, in fact, the phrased the way we would assume, "Please name the current Secretary of State...".
It would also be helpful to know the ratio between those who did not know, and those who thought they knew, but were wrong.
Admittedly, I only scanned the included links briefly, but the questions shouldn't be any harder to find in an article than the results they produced.
Liberal AND Proud @ 14:
At least we're not fat, DRUNK, and stupid. That's no way to go through life, son.
I took that poll. There were far more questions than just these 3, if I remember correctly well over 20.
Here's the sad part, these questions all pertained to current events and I'm no genius, but I scored in the top 1%.
That's right, 1%.
I was appalled because none of the questions were any more difficult than these 3.
And my vote is worth no more than the dumbasses who could't answer more than 3 or 4 correctly.
Sigh.
Alexdem @ 64:
Spelling is what it is, and yes, English is notoriously irregular. The point, though, that kids "r bean tewt to" spell incorrectly (with emphasis on the word "taught") is an absolute fallacy. No one ever "teaches" kids to spell incorrectly--that would be malpractice; akin to teaching them that a banana is an insect. Kids are encouraged to use the phonics knowledge they have--at whatever level--or whatever letter-sound knowledge they possess at that particular time--to get their ideas down on paper.
Spelling and writing (putting your thoughts into printed word) are two totally separate, unrelated skills. To take it further, just because someone spells poorly doesn't mean he/she reasons poorly. The two are unrelated.
This relates to the thread, by the way, because of our beloved St. McCain's adherence to the doctrine of "merit pay" for teachers, which is right-wing code for, "You better teach kids what we want you to teach and nothing controversial or you won't get a raise. And if those test scores don't come up, you're fired." As if testing ever taught kids a damn thing, other than how to cheat and hate school doing it.
johnbpt @ 31:
My apologies for #75. I see you beat me to the reference.
Americans are the most the most heavily propogandized people on earth. Part of the ruling class agenda is to keep them even stupider . Now ask the about new specials at McDonalds or how much money Batman is making and you get some real brain activity. The Corps loathe a knowlegable citizenry. They need consumers and poltical robots.
The pew survey doesn't even begin to uncover the truth.
well heres a current event for you just on cnn, we just started selling over a hundread deadly m1 abrahm tanks and other us equipment to the iraqys for thier oil dollars, everybody wins!
Andy K Jong Il @ 65:
None. We're just out of reach and in the heart of Amish country, and the Amish won't toss Scripture at you. Down here our republicans are more of the small town old money variety who go see church as a place to wear their new suit. If you're in the GR area I feel for you!
Not stupid - badly educated and stroked by corporate backed popular culture that discounts education and the arts in favor of simple minded television and crass materialism.
Bread and circuses - although you have to wonder what percentage of Americans will get the reference.
I have been saying this for years. The republicans count on the fact that most of the electorate are clueless when it comes to what is going on in the world. It is a fact that in the survey they were not familiar with Condelezza Rice's role as Secretary of State. It does not surprise me however that they could not name the current Prime Minister of GB given the fact that Brown has only been in office a year. Tony Blair would have been more familiar because of his close ties with Bush and the Iraq war. The right has always used this as a means to make sure that segment of our country is misinformed and clueless. This is why they keep on getting the White House. With Fausneuz at the helm they get over and make their case. I am deeply disturbed, however, by the latest ploy with this religious forum that McSame and Obama attended. McSame received applause when he was asked about Supreme Court choices and his favorites. He is clearly going to nominate more conservative judges which will create an imbalance and this country will surely be in the toliet. The court has shown its partisanship when it comes to certain issues and willing