The Daily News is reporting that a poll released on Monday by Fairleigh Dickinson University found that Fox News viewers know less about domestic and world news than people who watch no news at all.
In a survey of 612 New Jersey natives, Fox News fans flunked questions about Egypt and Syria when compared with people who don't watch the news. Fox viewers were 18-points less likely to know that Egyptians toppled their government and 6 points less likely to be aware that Syrians have not yet overthrown theirs.
"Because of the controls for partisanship, we know these results are not just driven by Republicans or other groups being more likely to watch Fox News," Dan Cassino, a Fairleigh Dickinson professor who served as an analyst for the poll, said in the report. "Rather, the results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions that those who don't watch any news at all."
Those surveyed also struggled with current events closer to home. Just 47% were able to identify the Occupy Wall Street protesters as predominantly Democratic, while 11% thought they were Republican. Here it was MSNBC viewers who got it wrong the most - watching the left-leaning network was linked to a 10-point increase in the likelihood of misidentifying the demonstrators.
Surprised? Not really. The station has made no bones about its mission to shape the conservative agenda. But as we head into next year's election cycle, we hope that Fox will begin to focus on issues of importance so that Republican voters can make informed decisions at the polls. They owe their viewership much more than what they are providing. To be safe, Fox viewers should switch to MSNBC, where they can get more news, the survey shows.
Read more at the Daily News.