I just found this link at Altercation. "Misperceptions, The Media and The Iraq War" is a study of attitudes about the war in Iraq and how those attitudes were influenced by media coverage.
An in-depth analysis of a series of polls conducted June through September found 48% incorrectly believed that evidence of links between Iraq and al Qaeda have been found, 22% that weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, and 25% that world public opinion favored the US going to war with Iraq. Overall 60% had at least one of these three misperceptions.
Such misperceptions are highly related to support for the war. Among those with none of the misperceptions listed above, only 23% support the war. Among those with one of these misperceptions, 53% support the war, rising to 78% for those who have two of the misperceptions, and to 86% for those with all 3 misperceptions. Steven Kull, director of PIPA, comments, “While we cannot assert that these misperceptions created the support for going to war with Iraq, it does appear likely that support for the war would be substantially lower if fewer members of the public had these misperceptions.”
And here's the kicker. They asked respondents about their primary sources of information, and it turns out that 80% of the Fox News audience evidenced one or more of the misperceptions, while only 23% of those who get their news from PBS and NPR did. Interesting. Not surprising. But interesting.
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