Martin Yant reports in Desert Mirage that knowledge about the Middle East, and Kuwait in particular, was inversely proportional to the amount of television coverage watched about the war. "Among viewers who watched less than an hour and a half a day, 16 percent thought Kuwait was a democracy, 22 percent knew of the Palestinian intifada against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and 40 percent were aware that Iraq wasn't the only country to occupy another in the Mideast. Among heavy viewers (more than three hours a night), on the other hand, 32 percent thought Kuwait was a democracy, just 10 percent had heard of the intifada, and only 23 percent were aware of occupations other than Iraq's.... Those who supported the war were twice as likely to falsely believe Kuwait was a democracy, and less than half as likely to know that before August 2, the official U.S. position on an Iraqi invasion was unclear. The only thing about which supporters were more knowledgeable was the name of the allegedly successful Patriot missile -- which goes to show that ignorance is more than mere bliss in America. It's also what passes for patriotism."This data was collected by a survey done by the University of Massachusetts after 6 months of war coverage. The purpose of the survey was to discover whether TV journalism was actually informing its viewers. Ironically, the president and his advisors considered the war coverage to be subversive and tried every which way to subvert it. I guess the level of ignorance wasn't quite high enough.
