If the question is the average voter, the unfortunate answer is inevitably no. Despite the lessons learned by those foolish enough to watch the TV show, it shouldn't be news that the average voter in any country is uninformed, quickly and easily offended, and really stubborn.
We live in a country where quality and objective news is not popular. Respectable newspapers are almost extinct, and even when reading the few that remain, you have to watch out for who the author is.
Still, newspapers remain almost incalculably more reliable than cable news. Cable news is not actual news of course; it is a business. Its design is not to be a credible and unbiased source of information, but to be a money making entertainment industry. People want opinion, loud arguing and most of all, they want to hear what they already think.
CNN, the "most trusted name in news" promotes racist filth like this and calls it news. It is not news. It is some opinionated bigot who spews his close minded, uninformed opinion to people who enjoy the show and the arguing, and who find it entertaining to have some guy without a fancy education say what they would say.
Fox News is most likely the cheapest of all. There has been documented evidence of Fox's deliberate twist on everything that they report (just try searching for "outfoxed" on youtube) which doesn't really need documenting; just watch the channel and you'll know there is zero reporting going on. It is beyond laughable that they say with straight faces "Fair and Balanced" when talking about their deliberately altered and biased product. It's things like this and this and shockingly even this that prove my point.
The increasingly ridiculous Bill O'Reilly often defends his mockery from credible news sources that he is a joke by saying that he has the best ratings and therefore the best show. The bad news for Mr. O'Reilly is the fact that The Osbournes, Jerry Springer, and MTV's Jackass also have had the best ratings in America. Partly because we love seeing rednecks yell and act stupid and partly because we're no smarter than fifth graders.
My purpose in writing on the subject of laughable media coverage is this: unless we stop looking toward completely fabricated and ridiculous news entertainment as a source for fair, unbiased information, we will continue to be uninformed idiot voters. The kind of voters that earned America four more years of George W. Bush trying to avoid inconveniences like the U.S. Constitution and just get things done. Things like illegal and unjustified wars.
It is very disenchanting to become politically involved and then hear an ignorant comment that was not only spawned from questionable sources, but has been debunked by reputable sources. When I think that Americans who actually believe that Barack Obama is an Arab despite his well documented background it almost shames me that those ignorant embarrassments to America have earned the right to vote just by being born here.
