Monday, May 08, 2006

Economic study shows FOX News added to Republican vote in 2000

The National Bureau of Economic Research has published an economic study of the 2000 Presidential election that in those cities which had FOX News they convinced 3 to 8 percent of its viewers to vote Republican who would not otherwise have done so. "The Fox News effect could be a temporary learning effect for rational voters, or a permanent effect for voters subject to non-rational persuasion."

I'm not at all sure what this means other than that FOX News has been a force moving the American voting public towards voting for Conservatives. It does intrigue me that the Democratic/Liberal blogosphere began to become significant in about 2002 and could possibly be interpreted as a reaction to the FOX News effect. This latter is, of course, pure speculation based on timeing, so should not be given much weight.

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