Re: I finally figured out why Fox News appeals to Bush supporters

WHICH REMINDS ME....this popped up in my inbox a few days ago and I
meant to post it.
Lots of fascinating stuff here, but here was the headline for me:
Liberals are more likely to listen to programming that presents an
opposing point of view than conservatives.
So Rush, O'Reilly, etc. have a built-in advantage because liberals and
moderates will watch/listen to their show, while conservatives refuse
to swing the other way, so to speak.
Before any of the usual suspects jump in, I believe Zogby had a
reputation as a Republican-leaning pollster.

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Zogby/Lear Center Poll: Extensive National Survey on Politics and
Entertainment Reveals:
The Real Reason Rush Limbaugh is Much More Popular than Air America
Why Oprah May Be Obama's Secret Campaign Weapon
Why a Comprehensive Fix to Illegal Immigration May Never Happen
And Much More . . .

UTICA, New York ? Rush Limbaugh touts himself ? mostly in jest ? as
having ?talent on loan from God? and credits that talent for his huge
listenership and dominant perch atop the world of talk radio in
America, but an extensive five?month polling and research project by
Zogby International and the Norman Lear Center at the University of
Southern California?s Annenberg School shows his popularity may have
more to do with pre?set beliefs in the minds of his listeners than
with his presentation skills.

Actually, Limbaugh was ahead of the curve in recognizing the source of
his ratings success. He often says it is because he is merely
confirming what listeners already believed, not because of his powers
of persuasion.

He also says he suspects there is a sizable chunk of his audience who
are not conservative like him, but rather are from the other end of
the political spectrum. On this point the Zogby/Lear Center Poll shows
he is right, er, correct. The extensive interactive survey of deeply
held beliefs and behavior patterns ? conducted June 26?29, 2007,
including 3,939 adults nationwide and carrying a margin of error of
+/? 1.6 percentage points ? shows that liberals were much more likely
than conservatives to listen to commentary and entertainment with
which they disagreed philosophically. This could be part of the reason
Air America has faltered ? there are simply fewer potential listeners.

While 22% of conservatives said they ?never? enjoy entertainment that
reflects values other than their own, just 7% of liberals felt the
same way. At the other end of the scale, just 11% of conservatives
said they ?very often? enjoyed programming that ran counter to their
personal philosophies, compared to 20% of liberals and 18% of
moderates who said the same thing. In other words, Limbaugh?s
potential audience is larger than that of liberal competitors because
more liberals say they will listen to conservatives than vice versa.

This is just one conclusion from this far?reaching survey and research
project which was designed to probe the thinking of Americans about
the subjects of politics and entertainment. The findings showed that
not only is the country sharply divided on the topic of politics, it
is also deeply split in the types of entertainment and information
that appeal to ?Reds? (conservatives) and ?Blues? (liberals).

Caught in the middle are moderates, dubbed ?Purples? for the sake of
this study, who find plenty of entertainment offerings available on
the major broadcast television networks. They love ?police
procedurals? like Law & Order and CSI: Miami, as well as mass?market
books like mysteries and thrillers. Basically, anything without a
political theme appeals to the ?Purples.?

So What Makes These ?Reds,? ?Blues,? and ?Purples? Tick?

At the end of this release is a detailed statistical summary of the
research project?s findings, but here is a brief summary of the three
typologies, which were created as part of a statistical clustering
analysis based on respondent answers to a wide range of questions.
Reds make up 37% of the nation, while liberals comprise 39% and
moderates 24%, the Zogby/Lear Center research shows.

The ?reds?

People with a ?red? entertainment preference think a lot of
programming is in bad taste and doesn?t reflect their values. They don?
t like a lot of things on TV, but their two favorite channels are Fox
and Fox News. They like sports, especially football and auto racing,
and they watch news and business programming. They don?t like most
contemporary music and they don?t watch VH1 or MTV. They don?t much
like late-night TV. They like to go to sporting events, and when they
do go to the movies ? which is rarely ? they seek out action-adventure
films. They?re not big book readers, but when they do read, they
prefer non-fiction. When they read fiction, they often select
mysteries and thrillers. They are more likely to listen to country and
gospel than other people, but their favorite music is classical. They
don?t play a lot of video games, but when they do, Madden NFL and
Mario are their favorites. They think that fictional TV shows and
movies are politically biased, and they believe they can predict a
person?s politics if they know the person?s entertainment preferences.

The ?blues?

People with a ?blue? entertainment preference like many of different
types of programming, even if it doesn?t reflect their taste or
values. They shy away from a lot of primetime programming, especially
game shows and reality TV, but they like comedies, drama,
documentaries, news, and arts and educational programming. They love
60 Minutes, PBS, HBO, Comedy Central and The Daily Show. They go to
the movies, where they often see comedies, and they like to go to live
theater and museums and galleries. They read books more often than
most people ? they prefer fiction to non-fiction, but their favorite
genre is politics and current events. They enjoy entertainment with
political themes, and they feel like they learn about politics from
entertainment. Sports are less interesting to them, but football is
their favorite, and they?re more likely to follow soccer than other
people. They like lots of different kinds of music (except country)
and they watch MTV and VH1. They play video games a lot more than
other people ? Mario and The Sims are favorites.

The ?purples?

People with ?purple? entertainment preferences like all the broadcast
networks and a lot of primetime programming, including police
procedurals, game shows and reality programming. They watch a lot of
Fox News and they like daytime and children?s programming more than
other people. Moderates like to read non-fiction, including self-help
books and biographies, but they like mysteries and thrillers best.
Rock music is their favorite ? they don?t like classical or folk music
as much as other people. Their favorite video games are Mario, Donkey
Kong and Madden NFL. They don?t seek out entertainment with political
themes and they are far less likely to read books about politics or
current events than other people. They are less likely than other
people to think that they can predict a person?s politics based on
their entertainment preferences.

On Oprah and Immigration

Once you know how people of different political philosophies approach
entertainment, it is easier to understand why Oprah Winfrey may be
just the ticket to help Democrat Barack Obama reach those key liberal
voters that are so prized in a Democratic primary contest. Other Zogby
polling shows Obama doing well among more liberal Democrats, but Oprah
could also appeal to some self?described political moderates that
Obama needs to break through the lead now set by Hillary Clinton of
New York. That Oprah could offset some of the natural gender appeal
Clinton carries among female voters is obvious. Our survey analysis
shows moderates tend not to seek out entertainment with a political
edge, so when they take a dose of politics, it may go down better when
administered by such a non?political bona fide star. It is also
important to note that 62% of moderates are women, which could also
help intensify the Oprah endorsement.?

The survey also shows that women who pay more attention to
entertainment programming than news programming are more likely to
support Democrats in the voting booth.

On the question of immigration, the survey shows the Reds and Blues
are far apart on a core philosophical belief. It is as if half the
Reds are suspicious ? they are split down the middle, as 53.5% believe
foreigners immigrate to America for the chance to work for a better
life, but 46.5% believe they come to get benefits from the U.S.
government. However, almost all Blues (96%) said they think foreigners
come for a chance to work for a better life.

Such divergent core beliefs between Reds and Blues may make it
impossible to find an acceptable solution to the current problem posed
by undocumented immigrants.

Other Key Findings of the Zogby/Lear Center Politics and Entertainment
Survey:

The Zogby/Lear Center survey shows that the difference between
conservatives and liberals goes much deeper than politics, involving
much deeper patterns of thinking and behavior. It?s almost like the
Reds and the Blues are living in parallel universes. Liberals say they
like entertainment with a political flavor, while conservatives eschew
such programming out of suspicion that it is tainted with a liberal
bias. Instead, they favor news or reality television. And
conservatives love sports programming, in part because there?s no way
to inject liberalism into a football game:

On tv shows:

More than twice as many liberals say they're very often attracted to
programming with political themes, compared to the rest of
respondents, and this plays out in their TV show preferences, with 60
Minutes and Brothers and Sisters topping the list of shows most
closely associated with liberal viewers. Moderates are more likely
than liberals or conservatives to favor daytime programming and
children's programming.
Out of 20 top-rated TV programs, the one that conservatives are more
likely than others to tune out is 60 Minutes (almost 68% say they
never watch it, compared to 27% of all other respondents).
Late-night programming fares poorly with conservatives, with more than
32% saying they never watch nighttime talk shows. Offered a range of
nighttime choices, 22% of conservatives picked Jay Leno, while over
54% of liberals selected Jon Stewart.
On Books:

Conservatives and liberals are more likely than moderates to read
books.
Liberals are almost twice as likely as conservatives to read literary
fiction (20% to 11%) and they're also more likely to read science
fiction/fantasy than moderates (13% to 8%).
Moderates and conservatives favor mysteries and thrillers while
liberals (22%) and conservatives (20%) prefer books about politics and
current events.
Liberals like non-fiction and fiction equally. Moderates and
conservatives prefer non-fiction.
Moderates are more likely to read self-help books (7%)--liberals are
the least likely to read them (3%).
On Leisure Activities:

You're more likely to find conservatives at sporting events than at
movie theaters, live theater or museums and galleries.
Twenty-one percent of conservatives say they never go the movies,
compared to less than 9% of liberals. When conservatives do go to the
cinema, the biggest draw is action-adventure movies (35%) while
liberals rank comedies (26%) and drama (25%) highest.
Liberals are much more likely to visit museums and galleries and go to
the movies and live theater.
On Mixing Entertainment & Politics:

Conservatives overwhelmingly (76%) believe that TV shows and movies
"very often" contain political messages, but they are the least likely
to learn anything about political issues from them. Just 4% say they
learn lessons from movies.
While 68% of liberals seek out entertainment that contains political
themes and commentary, just 33% of moderates are the least likely to
do so.
Not only are moderates much less likely than other groups to seek out
entertainment with political themes. Compared to conservatives and
liberals, they are three times less likely to read a book on politics
or current events.
Nearly two in three conservatives think it is possible to predict a
person's politics when they know the person's entertainment
preferences, while 55% of liberals and 50% of moderates agree.
Over 80% of liberals admit that they are entertained by material
that's in bad taste. Almost 40% of conservatives say they are never
entertained by it.
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