Among 1,500+ adults surveyed for a new Pew Research Center study, regular viewers of Comedy Central spoof-news fare hosted by Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart scored just as high on a current-events quiz as those who regularly read daily newspapers and their Web sites. To no one’s surprise, both groups outpaced watchers of PBS’s News Hour (again with the unrest in East Timor?) and devotees of Fox News (this is a different show than Cops, right?). Overall, despite the proliferation of news alternatives, Pew found that Americans’ knowledge has slipped overall since the late 1980s. Shocking! Has anyone told President Quayle? I think he and vp Liddy Dole need to know.
—Posted by David Gianatasio
