Late Night TV Viewers Know Their Politics?
CNN and others are all laughing up the results of the National Annenberg Election Survey. According to CNN’s headline writers, “‘Daily Show’ viewers ace political quiz”. Well, that’s certainly very impressive. Let’s have a look at the results that led CNN to draw this conclusion: (results printed at end of CNN’s interactive quiz)
“The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart viewers - 3.59 correct “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno viewers - 2.95 correct “Late Show” with David Letterman viewers - 2.91 correct No late-night comedy viewing - 2.62 correct
Yes, an average score of 59.3% sounds like aces all around to me! Now let’s look at the questions. (I’m assuming CNN has given us the same questions as the survey participants had)
- Who favors allowing workers to invest some of their Social Security contributions in the stock market?
- Who urged Congress to extend the federal law banning assault weapons?
- John Kerry says that he would eliminate the Bush tax cuts on those making how much money?
- Who is a former prosecutor?
- Who favors making the recent tax cuts permanent?
- Who wants to make it easier for labor unions to organize?
I missed one question when I took it - I guessed Kerry wants to eliminate the cuts for those earning $100k+. Turns out it’s $200k+. The rest of these questions have two possible answers: “Bush” and “Kerry”. And the average score of the top-scoring demographic was 59.3%?! Anybody with rudimentary knowledge of political party stereotypes should be able to at least get 4/6. Which party likes social security? Guns? Tax cuts? Unions? Wait, don’t tell me…
I didn’t know Kerry was a prosecutor, but I didn’t think twice before choosing his name. Perhaps this question was the big differentiator - connoisseurs of late night television know that Bush is supposed to be stupid, because they’ve heard hundreds of jokes to that effect over his term. You can’t be stupid and a prosecutor, now can you?
I have a headline: “Survey: Survey Respondents Dumb.”