Here's some less than surprising information, listeners of NPR are some of the most informed when it comes to what's in the news. As part of a research poll from poynter.org, out of 5 questions, NPR listeners answered 1.51 current domestic questions correctly, compared to 1.42 from viewers of The Daily Show, 1.22 from viewers of MSNBC, and 1.04 from viewers of Fox News. Shockingly, people who did not watch the news at all got 1.22 questions correctly, which is just a tick under those who watched CNN, at 1.26.

Now, I'm pretty sure that most educated people realize that some news sources are speaking to certain audiences, and that those same sources may be unreliable compared to others. Is it plausible to say then that this is an accurate reflection of the voter base of Democrats and Republicans? This isn't to say that all of one group are smarter than the other, but I do think that the news sources discussed here know full well what their viewer base consists of, and they exacerbate it. Naturally, this ties into ownership of TV stations, but it does not stop there. The politicians themselves feed into this, not only through their own constituency, but also through the constituency of the opposite party. It seems that every part of the political process is a part of this mechanism, with the sole purpose of continuing employment, or getting a promotion. None of this should come as a surprise, but it should help you to recognize and even separate yourself from getting too high-spirited about the political process. By keeping this in mind, you can objectively view the actions of politicians, and the kinds of things that are reported in the news.