In article <bpcb5t$2p9m$1@pencil.math.missouri.edu>, Metalious says...

http://americanassembler.com/issues/media/media.html

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
surprising, 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.

So what does this mean?

The ramifications of this study are far reaching. For one, it confirms the
long held suspicion that corporate controlled television networks are not
only failing to provide necessary information to viewers, but are in fact
providing false information.

It also confirms that, at least among the news networks, liberal bias is a
complete fabrication which, because of this report, is easier to believe
since a significant percentage of viewers believe liberal media bias exist
because they heard it on TV news.
But a larger issue exist here. The report shows a clear link between
misinformation and support for Bush's war. Here's where the Orwellian factor
comes in. Not only did Bush & co. mislead the public into war, but they had
ready accomplices in the network news organizations.

This forces serious questions about the motives of those who hold the sacred
trust of the public airwaves. It also demonstrates how powerful TV news is
at affecting public perceptions and consequently, public policy.