Say what you will about its bias and inaccuracies, FOX News is succeeding at its mission. Of course, that mission is to spread bias and inaccuracies that bolster the position of the Bush White House.
A new survey from the Program on International Policy Attitudes (a joint project of the Center on Policy Attitudes and the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland) asked more than 3,000 Americans a range of questions on foreign-policy matters. Conclusion? If you're a viewer of FOX News, the odds are high that everything you know is wrong. In particular, respondents were asked if it was true that clear links had been found between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq and that world public opinion was favorable to Bush policy in Iraq. Fully 45 percent of the FOX News audience believes at least one of these three whoppers is true -- compared with 36 percent of CBS viewers, 31 percent of CNN's, 30 percent of ABC's and NBC's, 25 percent of those who cited print media, and 11 percent of the NPR and PBS audiences.
So, is FOX News an abysmal failure or a stunning success? That depends, we suppose, on whether Bush wins re-election.