Lamberted - Brian Lambert doesn't

Lamberted - Brian Lambert doesn't believe the media is liberal.

I just thought I'd mention that as context for those of you who aren't familiar with the work of the St. Paul Pioneer Press' broadcast critic. His own biases are evident from reading a selection of his columns.

Now that we all understand this, you can figure out what's behind his latest column, in which he almost perceptibly palpitates at a "study" that claims Fox News viewers are less-informed than NPR listeners:

Since June, PIPA has been refining data that showed disturbing misperceptions related to the following three questions:

• "Is it your impression that the U.S. has or has not found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the al-Qaida terrorist organization?"

• "Since the war with Iraq ended, is it your impression that the U.S. has or has not found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction?"

• "Thinking about how all the people in the world feel about the U.S. having gone to war with Iraq, do you think the majority of people favor the U.S. having gone to war?"

Naturally, being a dead-tree columnist, Lambert doesn't link to the "PIPA" study.

I will.

So read the questionnaire. The questions, as you'd expect, gauge how closely the responants' answers hew to the mainstream media line on Iraq and foreign policy. So Fox viewers apparently don't regurgitate the expected answers. Shocking.

Here's the part I thought was interesting:

It is probably no great solace to NPR and PBS that 16 percent of listeners glued to them also believe the Saddam-Osama link. But last time I checked, 67 percent was more than four times greater than 16 percent.

Brian Lambert, a former Twin Cities Reader writer, is apparently not one for details. If he'd read the report, he'd have noticed that while of those listing a primary news source 18% cited Fox News, roughly 1% listed NPR and 2% named PBS. 3% of the people who listed a primary news source.

The study claimed about 3,300 respondents. That means the poll result behind Lambert's sweeping, smug generalization is based on the opinions of 100 respondents among over three thousand people questioned!

Note that the study results don't seem to list a margin of error. But I'd suspect that 3% iisn't too far off, wouldn't you?

So - of people listing Brian Lambert as a source of information about conservatives, 100% were misinformed.

Posted by Mitch at October 22, 2003 09:03 AM