Colbert Helps Put Newseum in Its Place

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At Newseum, Stewart and Colbert Fans Get a Bit of ‘Truthiness’

Dr. Ted sez: The Newseum is a truly amazing place, not just a mausoleum to a dying press, as Stephen Colbert suggests in his video spoof helping to open the enormous museum on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., but a constantly evolving tribute to the role of a free press. And, as it turns out, the Newseum also now has interred both Colbert and Jon Stewart in anticipation of Saturday’s joint “Rally to Restore Sanity” and “March to Keep Fear Alive” on the Washington Mall.

By Andrea Silen
Newseum Assistant Web writer

WASHINGTON — While America’s favorite fake newscasters Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert hold dueling rallies on the National Mall Oct. 30, Newseum visitors can get a close-up look at the artifacts that made “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” among the most watched late-night talk shows on television.

Currently displayed in the News Corporation News History Gallery is a microphone from Stewart’s “Daily Show” that was used during the critically acclaimed “Indecision 2004” election coverage.

The original script from “The Colbert Report,” in which Colbert’s trademark word “truthiness” first appeared, is also on exhibit. An “On Notice” board — a lineup of satirical targets that annoy Colbert — round off the display. Grizzly Bears and the Newseum are two of the targets on the board.

In 2008, Colbert helped celebrate the grand opening of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., in a video suggesting the Newseum change its name to Newsoleum.

The Comedy Central comedians’ dueling rallies are spoofs of the “Restoring Honor” rally that was held in August by conservative commentator Glenn Beck.

Stewart will host the “Rally to Restore Sanity,” which he said was created “for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive and terrible for your throat.” The event is meant to counterbalance the angry tones that critics have said characterized the nation's political discourse.

Colbert, whose on-air persona has an ongoing feud with Stewart, will lead the “March to Keep Fear Alive.” Both events are expected to draw large crowds.

“The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” are widely popular among adults 18 to 34. While the programs are parodies of mainstream news, they have become the preferred source of news and information for many young TV viewers.

Related Links:
• The Real News in Fake News
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Reposted from the Newseum website. URL
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Must Be True, I Heard It on the News

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America the Ignorant:
Silly Things We Believe About Obama, Witches and More

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Dr. Ted sez: The central premise of Media Smarts is that, well, most of us aren’t. Very media-smart, that is. As U.S. educational achievement lags behind nearly two dozen other countries, according to a new report, this lack of media savvy can have big consequences, if the mass media are where most Americans seem to learn most of what they think they know. Here’s some evidence of that. David Graham of Newsweek has compiled a sobering litany of just a few of the myths Americans believe based on “stuff” (a technical term) they hear/see/read in the mass media. Part of the problem with what we used to call “objective” reporting is that journalists who simply report what their sources say—which is one definition of “objective” reporting—are just propagating the speaker’s lies or misrepresentations. Think about Obama the a) foreign-born b) Muslim who c) supports “death panels” to clean out old people from the Social Security rolls. We all heard these claims in the news, but that doesn’t make them true. Still, like McLuhan’s fish, Americans seem to soak up these myths and can’t get rid of them. This is a wonderful example of why America needs to work on its media smarts.

“Curro ergo sum.” (I think, therefore I am.)

—René Descartes (1596-1650) French philosopher, mathematician

By David A. Graham

Newsweek

October 2010

Chances are that by now you've heard about the Aug. 19, 2010, Pew poll that found that nearly one fifth of Americans (mistakenly) believe that President Obama is a Muslim. Perhaps you think that a terrifying outlier; or perhaps you're a believer, and then you are in good company. Either way, you're wrong: in fact, remarkably high numbers of Americans believe the most unusual things. Although the portion of poll respondents who believe Obama is a Muslim has risen recently, some of these oddball opinions contain more consistent numbers of believers. Here's a sampling of the nuttiest.

Darwin
To mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, Gallup thought it might be a good idea to poll Americans on their beliefs of the British naturalist's theory. But the results must have had Darwin spinning in his grave, since only 39 percent of Americans believed in the theory. The good news: only a quarter said they didn't believe it; the remaining portion either didn't have an opinion or didn't answer. (Also, only 55 percent correctly linked Darwin's name with the theory.) However, it appears that views may, um, evolve: younger people believe in evolution at far higher rates than older ones.

I Am Not a Witch
It seems obvious that it's not a good idea to put too much stock in witchcraft. But it turns out that 21 percent of Americans believe there are real sorcerors, conjurers, and warlocks out there. And that's just one of the several paranormal beliefs common among Americans, according to Gallup: 41 percent believe in ESP, 32 percent in ghosts, and a quarter in astrology. In fairness, the numbers in this poll are a little old—they date back to 2005. But then again, if people haven't changed their mind since the Enlightenment, it's not clear another half decade would make much difference.

Death Panels
From Facebook to faith: that's how a spurious rumor became part of the national dialogue. On Facebook, Sarah Palin wrote in August 2009 that Obama would institute a "death panel" as part of health-care reform. Soon pundits and politicians were demagoguing the issue into common currency. Even in August 2010, one year after the initial burst and five months after health reform was signed into law, the belief lingers. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, four in 10 Americans mistakenly believe the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act creates a panel that makes decisions about end-of-life care.

WMDs
Even years after claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction or had links to the September 11 attacks had been debunked, not all Americans were convinced. In a June 2007 NEWSWEEK poll (“Dunce Cap Nation”), four years after the invasion of Iraq, 41 percent believed Saddam was involved in 9/11—even though President Bush had said otherwise as early as September 2003. Wild views on 9/11 are in fact still rampant. In September 2009, Public Policy Polling found that a quarter of Democrats suspected Bush had something to do with the attacks. Meanwhile, many Americans also remain convinced that Saddam had WMDs, even though inspectors haven't found any in the seven years since the invasion. Still, as of 2006, half of Americans believed that, according to Harris. Who knows where they got that idea?

Earth-Sun?
Didn't we clear this one up in the 16th century? Copernicus be damned, 20 percent of Americans were still sure in 1999 that the sun revolved around the Earth. Gallup, the pollster that conducted the study, gamely tried to dress it up by celebrating the fact that "four out of five Americans know Earth revolves around the sun," but we're not buying.

Religion
If mutual understanding is the key to tolerance, we're in trouble. According to NEWSWEEK's 2007 What You Need to Know poll, barely half of Americans were correctly able to state that Judaism was older than both Christianity and Islam. Another 41 percent weren't sure; in case you're in that group, here goes: Judaism is the oldest of the Abrahamic faiths, followed by Christianity—which reveres the Jewish prophets (including Moses, above)—and then Islam, which reveres the Jewish prophets and also hails Jesus as a prophet. (And a September 2010 Pew survey found that atheists and agnostics know more about religion than members of mainstream established religions. Question authority?)

The 9 Justices v. The 7 Dwarfs
It’s hard to imagine what inspired the pollsters at Zogby to ask the question, but the answer is striking: in a 2006 poll, more than three quarters of Americans could name at least two of the seven dwarfs, while not quite a quarter could name two members of the Supreme Court. NEWSWEEK's response is a split decision, if you will: on the one hand, Disney is as much a symbol of America as the high court, and those dwarfs are adorable. On the other hand, it should be easy to name only two out of a pool of nine options. Objection sustained!

Where in the World?
Lost? Don't ask an American. Sixty-three percent of young Americans can't find Iraq on a map (can you?), despite the ongoing U.S involvement there. Nine out of 10 can’t find Afghanistan—even if you give them the advantage of a map limited to Asia. And more than a third of Americans of any age can't identify the continent that’s home to the Amazon River, the world’s largest.

Stooges
What a bunch of knuckleheads: according to Zogby, the majority of Americans—three in four—can correctly identify Larry, Curly, and Moe as the Three Stooges. Only two out of five respondents, however, can correctly identify the executive, legislative, and judicial branches as the three wings of government.

Freedom of Faith for Me, Not Thee
Who needs constitutional constructionism? Not one in three Americans, apparently: that’s the proportion that said in a 2008 First Amendment Center poll that the constitutional right to freedom of religion was never meant to apply to groups most folks think are extreme or fringe—a 10 percent increase from 2000. In 2007, two out of five Americans told the FAC that teachers should be allowed to lead prayers in public schools.

Muslim Obama
Opponents of President Obama have been spreading false rumors about his religion for quite some time. Recently, however, it seems that the number of Americans who believe these untruths is on the rise. Among respondents to a Pew poll, 18 percent believed Obama was a Muslim, up from 11 percent in March 2009. A Time magazine poll last week found similar results: 24 percent believed he was a Muslim, while only 47 percent correctly identified him as a Christian. There’s some evidence that the best indicator of belief that Obama is a Muslim is opposing him politically, casting doubt on the accuracy of the results. Then again, it wouldn’t be the craziest thing Americans believe, would it?
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Political Ads

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Election-year advertising over the top . . . or bottom?

Dear Smarties:

I’m not sure if it’s even reasonable to expect truth during a campaign season, especially a mid-term election year like this one when there is so much heat (and so little light) from the Tea Party and both Democratic and GOP critics over the Obama Administration’s perceived performance. The GOP hopes to regain control of the House of Representatives in November, and there’s a slim chance that they could get the Senate, too.

Meanwhile, clearly unqualified candidates (and that’s not a partisan statement...look at some of the winners of recent primaries) in many states might put “mama grizzlies” in the U.S. Senate (Delaware, Nevada, etc.) and in some governorships, all because of popular anger over the economy, “Obamacare” and the bank bailout (which was a Bush policy).

In such a climate, truth always suffers as partisans roar. Check this out from NBC News last night, as political advertising reaches new levels.

—Dr. Ted

Campaign ads depict not-so-real world

In the battle for the airwaves ahead of the midterm elections, Democrats are being outspent seven to one by Republicans, who in some cases are hiring actors to portray angry voters in attack ads. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports.

Unraveling Truth

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Making Sense of Truthiness

All: Like all of you, Kai Garcia has been thinking about a focus for her truthiness project. She sent me this email: “I really want to explore the topic of same-sex marriage. I feel there is a lot of opinion on the subject and want to really look into the truth and truthiness of the issue. I feel as if media and the general public have a lot to say about gay marriage and I’m interested in finding out the real reliable facts rather than just the biased comments and opinion feeding into the media flow.”

Good questions.

Dr. Ted responds:

Same-sex marriage certainly qualifies as the kind of topic that the mass media help become so incendiary in public conversation, and where opinion tends to get in the way of rational discussion—which is one definition of the truth vs. “truthiness” debate.

Everyone in pursuit of this truthiness project needs to remember that although opinion (on anything) is an important protected right in a free society (we vote as a matter of our own “conscience” and personal opinion, right?), much of that conversation gets heated up by partisans (believers in one direction or another), by mass media pundits and their need to keep audience attention by yelling and escalating emotions.

The same-sex issue is extremely volatile, and it often gives off more heat than light. And it continues as a current hot issue. On National Public Radio right now as I type this, as a matter of fact, is a story about the First Amendment rights of anti-gay protesters who picketed the funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq/Afghanistan with signs like this: “You’re a Fag” and “You’re Going to Hell...” to protest the military’s don’t ask, don’t tell policy. (Excuse me? At a funeral!? That’s free speech, of course, but makes me want to punch somebody...) That case is going to the Supreme Court. (See this URL).

In Utah, same-sex marriage is a current local issue because of LDS Church policy—as discussed again over the weekend by Boyd K. Packer at General Conference. And it’s current at USU because the JCOM department will bring JCOM alumnus Reed Cowan, a TV news anchor in Miami and director/producer of a controversial movie called 8: The Mormon Proposition, to campus on Oct. 21 (be there if you can!). The movie examines being gay in Utah, same-sex marriage issues, and the Prop 8 campaign that revoked same-sex marriage in California in 2008. That’s going to the Supreme Court, too. For USU, this is an opportunity to talk about these issues.

But I digress. The point is that same-sex marriage and gay issues are extremely incendiary everywhere, and so in looking at this topic from a media smarts perspective, it’s important to remember that the emotions accompanying the debate can skew the conversation. That is part of the truthiness project—what is “real,” and how do we define that in the mass media? You will have to spend a little time understanding what the issues are for yourself (is homosexuality “immoral”? If so, so what? why? Do gay people threaten the rest of society? How? What is the overriding issue in this conversation? and what is the mass media’s role in the societal discussion?)

We need to remember what the mass media can do in society, and what the media’s responsibility is. The Hutchins Commission (see your readings) offers a model for “social responsibility” (but how do we decide what that means?). Ethics codes from groups like the Society of Professional Journalists offer some yardsticks to measure media ethics. The first is to “minimize harm,” which is a lot like the Hippocratic Oath for doctors: “First, do no harm.” So how do the media accomplish that while reporting on topics like race or same-sex issues or women’s rights, all of which can become highly charged for the individuals involved? As communicators, do we report the emotion and ramp up the rhetoric for society, or can we find ways to make sense of these issues so that our neighbors can make informed decisions?

So, yes, Kai (and the rest of you). This is a great news topic to examine. But it’s also complicated by, well, human beings, from our own individual selective perceptions to how the issues are framed in the mass media, and how we—individually and in the mass media—cultivate opinions and perspectives on what we think we “know” about the issues and the world.

This is why I love being a professor of interesting stuff.

Ted Pease