codyg1985’s Think Tank

On the May 23rd episode of the Fox News Channel primetime juggernaut The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly made the assertion that Americans 18 to 24 years old have no clue about what’s going on in the world. He attributed this to this age group watching Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and other “bomb-throwing entertainers.” The truth is, those that watch The Daily Show are more informed and have less misconceptions of the War in Iraq than The O’Reilly Factor viewers.

Study after study confirms the same thing:

Daily Show viewers have higher campaign knowledge than national news viewers and newspaper readers — even when education, party identification, following politics, watching cable news, receiving campaign information online, age, and gender are taken into consideration. — National Annenberg Election Survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center

“Daily Show” viewers are 78 percent more likely than the average adult to have four or more years of college education, while O’Reilly’s audience is only 24 percent more likely to have that much schooling. — CNN

The extent of Americans’ misperceptions vary significantly depending on their source of news. Those who receive most of their news from Fox News are more likely than average to have misperceptions. Those who receive most of their news from NPR or PBS are less likely to have misperceptions. — University of Maryland Program on International Policy Study