fox news 'information'

Nailed it.

Good job, Fox News. Once again, you parody yourselves so we don't have to. It's hard to believe that even the geniuses over at Fox would make a mistake like this, especially when the actual occupant of that spot on the map is home to their freedom-fightinist, favritist, freedom-fry-iest war of all time. (Hint: that's not where Egypt is. Think billions of American dollars and thousands of American lives over a ginned-up set of lies...think 'known unknowns'...think John Bolton's mustache--who would he like to bomb?)


This maybe is a bit too on the nose, but it certainly does go a ways toward confirming that study back in December that showed that Fox News viewers were the least well-informed (from alternet):

Here is a list of what Fox News viewers believe that just aint so:

* 91 percent believe the stimulus legislation lost jobs
* 72 percent believe the health reform law will increase the deficit
* 72 percent believe the economy is getting worse
* 60 percent believe climate change is not occurring
* 49 percent believe income taxes have gone up
* 63 percent believe the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts
* 56 percent believe Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout
* 38 percent believe that most Republicans opposed TARP
* 63 percent believe Obama was not born in the U.S. (or that it is unclear)

Keep up the good work, Fox! Although the article correctly points out that CNN and MSNBC didn't fare all that well either. Hmm. Somehow, when politicians and the media are all completely beholden to corporate largesse, the 'news' gets weirdly skewed in such a way as to benefit the status quo--meaning big corporations.

Go figure.

So for fun, here's a graphic showing how Fox News might have reported events throughout history, had they been around.

last pic via.

self-fulfilling prophecy

Does it occur to anyone else that our dropping standards in education, along with a nascent, out of the closet 'proud to be a dumbass' movement (as opposed to a pointy-headed elite librul) benefits the party that works hardest to slash education funding, thus presumably making people dumber?

This story highlights a recent poll that shows that 40 percent of Americans still believe in creationism.

A new Gallup poll, released Dec. 17, reveals that 40 percent of Americans still believe that humans were created by God within the last 10,000 years. This number is slightly down from a previous high of 47 percent in 1993 and 1999.

So, as education gets worse due to budget cuts and privatization--and thus presumably, people become less able to apply critical thinking skills--media conglomerates grow stronger, and more blatant about telling outright lies that serve the corporations that own them, demagogues and criminals become more audacious in their outright thievery of democracy, not to mention the taxpayers' dollars.

Sounds like a great plan.