Daily Show IQ?

clipped from thezeroboss.com A study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that viewers of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert are among the most politically savvy news watchers. Shit, we even beat out those robo-geeks who watch Jim Lehrer on PBS! The average Fox News viewer, by contrast, bombed the political pop quiz, placing that audience just slightly above the early morning talk show crowd. it seems safe to conclude that my so-called “slacker” generation takes more of an explicit interest in politics than our ancestors. The other thing to note about this segment of the population is that it skews decidedly liberal. I think it’s quite simple. My generation (*cough*) grew very wary at an early age with propagandist style lies about everything from the War on Drugs to sex education; with racism, homophobia, immigrant paranoia; and with blind faith in both God and country.

Interesting post. I disagree with his analysis of the data though. Our (*cough*) generation is likely left-leaning just because they're twenty-something, not because we've been alienated by the right. That feeling of alienation we might feel from the right may be predominantly because we're not their target audience. Young people typically seem to be more liberal, and as they age, swing more toward the right. I don't have sources to sight on that, it just seems self-evident.

I would speculate that this age gap also explains why the Daily Show viewers did better on the quiz. My father, for example, used to watch McNeal-Lehr religiously, and as a Mayo clinic physician and information junkie, I suspect he was pretty well informed on things. Now, in his 60's, he leaves the TV on FoxNews "because PBS just got too damn-liberal nowadays."