Doug Jurney: Swaying opinion with falsehoods

I read with interest the Jan. 14 editorial “A house divided” that cited misinformation as one of the reasons for the current political impasse.

To support this, a respected nonpartisan fact-checking firm, PunditFact, analyzed statements made by the three 24-hour news stations. It found that 60 percent of opinion statements made on Fox News, 46 percent on MSNBC and 18 percent on CNN were to some degree false.

Fairleigh Dickinson University sent a current event questionnaire to two groups, one who professed to watch only Fox News and the other who professed to watch no news at all. The nonwatchers scored higher on the survey than the Fox watchers. Its only conclusion was the Fox watchers thought they knew about current events but were being fed so much false information they scored poorly.

My point, as I think yours was, is that Americans cannot make sound judgments on governance if they are basing their positions on false information. The media can do better!

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Doug Jurney: Swaying opinion with falsehoods."