TV News Is Bad For Your Brain

I found this study and it is SO not a surprise. I don't know how many times I have almost pulled an Elvis and shot my TV as I sit there watching Bush administration officials lie through their teeth over the war in Iraq. Man, I thought the Clinton administration had a patent on the art of lying... Move over Bubba...



The Verdict IS IN: TV News Is Bad For Your Brain

A new study has revealed that people who rely on television to get their news are more likely to be misinformed.

The study polled over 3,000 people on their perceptions about international support for the Iraq War, ties of Saddam Husein to the events of 9/11, and the Discovery of WMD's in Iraq. What they found, incredibly, though not suprising, was that the more people got their news from TV, the higher the frequency of their misperceptions.

Out of all the news networks, of course, Fox News ranked highest among misinformed viewers. The lowest was PBS.

Another angle of the poll was to group by Bush supporters or Democratic candidate supporters. Naturally, the vast majority of the misinformed were Bush supporters. This included Democrats that supported Bush.

From the Program on International Policy press release:

A new study based on a series of seven nationwide polls conducted from January through September of this year reveals that before and after the Iraq war, a majority of Americans have had significant misperceptions and these are highly related to support for the war with Iraq.

The polling, conducted by the Program on International Policy (PIPA) at the University of Maryland and Knowledge Networks, also reveals that the frequency of these misperceptions varies significantly according to individuals� primary source of news.

Those who primarily watch Fox News are significantly more likely to have misperceptions, while those who primarily listen to NPR or watch PBS are significantly less likely.
The rest: www.americanassembler.com...

There are lies amongst lies all over the place..we just have to weed through it all with a skeptical mind in order to decifer the truths that happen to exist somewhere amongst all those lies.

Nice article/story

Thank you Magestica. What gets me is the study shows how just how powerful the mainstream media's propaganda is. (As if we didn't already know..) I say, turn the damm TV off! People believe anything they hear on TV no matter how idiotic it is. But then again, I guess it is much easier than actually thinking for one's self.

i very rarely watch tv now...because it is full of properganda...

It's really scarey, though, how many Americans get their news still from ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. Those folks are so thoroughly mis-informed, it's laughable.

Yep, I can actually feel my brain cells imploding when I watch TV news. I try and get all my news off sites like Reuters.com or other places like that. I think I can trust that site anyway, right?

Good post, and a very valid point. I occasionally watch the BBC24 news channel or CNN, but that's only to get the latest syndicated, plastic wrapped news stories.

The real stuff is on the 'net on the many news sites which exist for for just about every subject under the sun.

TV news is boring.


[Edited on 12-11-2003 by Zzub]

I gather as much news from as many sources as possible and sift through it all and come to my own conclusions. God help me if I ever looked to Peter Jennings to explain world events to me.

by ECK
I gather as much news from as many sources as possible and sift through it all and come to my own conclusions

I do the same thing. Once you've done that for a while you realise just how manipulative the T.V news is.

media gatekeeper issues aside, TV news is limited by the medium. a story has to be highly visual in order to be palatable to a TV audience, and a lot of important stories just aren't. admit it, you probably don't watch C-SPAN. I don't. it's boring. watching people sit around and talk is not good TV. but, people sitting around talking often makes for important news. unfortunately if there isn't things blowing up or cars racing that can be connected to the story, it doesn't make it into the broadcast.

Originally posted by kegs

by ECK
I gather as much news from as many sources as possible and sift through it all and come to my own conclusions

I do the same thing. Once you've done that for a while you realise just how manipulative the T.V news is.

How 'bout, mis-informed, shallow, programmed, idiotic and just plain laughable. They get their marching orders from the white house. And it doesn't matter whether its Dems or Repubs in charge. Liberal media? It's lap-dog, throughly controlled coverage. And dontcha love it when Tom Brokaw says, "and now for our in-depth story.." IN DEPTH. It's no wonder the government gets away with as much as it does. Americans who get their news from the networks havn't a clue about history or governance. Just the way the controllers intended.

Originally posted by MorningtonCrescent
admit it, you probably don't watch C-SPAN. I don't. it's boring.

I do watch C-Span. It's very informative on many levels. Every high school government class in public school should be required to watch it. And.. if you had been watching Journalist Roundtable awhile back, you would've heard CHER herself calling in. I thought that was cool, as the moderator didn't know it was her at first.

Since I found ATS, I don't rely on tv news anymore.

Anyway, I wasn't relying on tv news since a decade ( First Gulf War ). After the first GW ( GW as Gul War of course ), I suddenly stopped to believe what I was hearing and seeing on my TV set.

And then, came ATS.

You still can't stop me from watching the Simpsons...

No seriously, people should have figured this out when the United States tests scores of High School and Elementary School kid started to slip.

People in the United States do THIS more then anything else

*Bing*

Yes Jim

Masterbate

I am sorry that's incorrect

*Bing*

Yes Sara

Watch TV

Yes 1000 ponits for Sara

makes ya paranoid to see all the death of the news haha

Originally posted by ultra_phoenix
Since I found ATS, I don't rely on tv news anymore.

Anyway, I wasn't relying on tv news since a decade ( First Gulf War ). After the first GW ( GW as Gul War of course

), I suddenly stopped to believe what I was hearing and seeing on my TV set.

And then, came ATS.

This is a bit off subject, but what hell, it's Friday... Being that I was in the eye of the STORM, so to speak (Gulf War), I find it fascinating to see the footage that you all saw while it was going on.

And you guys ever see the J-Walk Allstars on Jay Leno's show? Those people are SO STOOOOPID, it makes me think it's fake. But then again.... I have actually met people THAT stoopid. It's scary.

Originally posted by EastCoastKid

1) Being that I was in the eye of the STORM, so to speak (Gulf War), I find it fascinating to see the footage that you all saw while it was going on.

2) And you guys ever see the J-Walk Allstars on Jay Leno's show?

1) I was still soldier when the first Gulf War began. I was seeing what was happening in the media and how the people were reacting the next day. I.e : " WOW, did you see this....Did you see that....There was a cruise missile....there were a F-177 bombing Baghdad " and so on....

First, I ve been disgusted by them. Then I realised they weren't understanding what were happening. They were thinking it was a kind of video game, with no real dead. A kind of clean war, with no soldier or civilians killed or wounded. And I found the media were responsible. So I stopped to watch them ( excepting when it come to the Simpson )

2) Jay Leno....Eeerm.... I like him, he's funny.

Originally posted by ultra_phoenix

Originally posted by EastCoastKid

1) Being that I was in the eye of the STORM, so to speak (Gulf War), I find it fascinating to see the footage that you all saw while it was going on.

2) And you guys ever see the J-Walk Allstars on Jay Leno's show?

1) I was still soldier when the first Gulf War began. I was seeing what was happening in the media and how the people were reacting the next day. I.e : " WOW, did you see this....Did you see that....There was a cruise missile....there were a F-177 bombing Baghdad " and so on....

First, I ve been disgusted by them. Then I realised they weren't understanding what were happening. They were thinking it was a kind of video game, with no real dead. A kind of clean war, with no soldier or civilians killed or wounded. And I found the media were responsible. So I stopped to watch them ( excepting when it come to the Simpson

)

2) Jay Leno....Eeerm.... I like him, he's funny.

Were you in the U.S. military?

I totally agree with you when you say people think our wars are a video game. I despise that attitude. They have no concept of war. Whatever war it is, it is hellish for many, many reasons. Those who have never experienced it cannot begin to imagine it.

If you can suspend dis-belief and shock at the idiocy, The J-Walk Allstars is almost as funny as "Girls Behaving Badly."

ps.. Right before we deployed to Saudi Arabia for the war, just about every grunt in the 5-0-deuce Infantry got a Bart Simpson tattoo on their arms. It was funny as hell. Me, I loved Calvin of Calvin & Hobbs. I drew a cartoon on the side of my Kevlar (helmet) of Calvin, cigerette danglin' from his mouth firin' an M-60 cal. machine gun. It rocked. I was flyin' door-gunner and drew it for the big ground assault.

I wasn't in the US Army. I was in the Belgian Army and was working for NATO, in Germany. My unit has been broke up right after the German reunification. Also, the Cold War was over and " they didn't need me anymore ". We were told that we were obsolete !

Originally posted by ultra_phoenix
I wasn't in the US Army. I was in the Belgian Army and was working for NATO, in Germany. My unit has been broke up right after the German reunification. Also, the Cold War was over and " they didn't need me anymore ". We were told that we were obsolete !

Sorry to hear! At least you are a valued perspective here at ATS. You bring a unique view to the table, which is great.

I have a friend who flew spyplanes for NATO. He and his family lived in Belgium and Greece.