This is pretty scary...

I was just reading an article online about the standard of news broadcasting in America. According to this article:

A new study by Indiana University concludes that the popular comedy program, "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, is just as substantive as "serious" primetime network news broadcasts.

it goes on to say:

Although a second-by-second analysis of "The Daily Show's" audio and visual content found considerably more humor than substance, a similar analysis of network coverage "found considerably more hype than substance in broadcast newscasts," said a press statement by Fox, specifying references to polls, political endorsements and photo opportunities as examples of "hype."

In another article, I found a report that says that seemingly it's the intelligent people that watch the Daily Show. In a survey on Americans' knowledge of national affairs:

[Pew] judged the levels of knowledgeability (correct answers) among those surveyed and found that those who scored the highest were regular watchers of Comedy Central's The Daily Show and Colbert Report. They tied with regular readers of major newspapers in the top spot -- with 54% of them getting 2 out of 3 questions correct. Watchers of the Lehrer News Hour on PBS followed just behind.

And then:

Virtually bringing up the rear were regular watchers of Fox News. Only 1 in 3 could answer 2 out of 3 questions correctly. Fox topped only network morning show viewers.

So Fox News viewers know nearly the least about what is actually going on in the world. Who would have guessed?

the articles I was looking at are here and here.