But these are people choosing to either watch a politics show during prime social hours or TiVoing or otherwise time shifting the shows. That makes them, almost by definition, political junkies. Indeed, that largely explains why Rush Limbaugh listeners are so well informed.

My guess is that if one factors in the demographics, differences among sources goes away. NPR listeners aren’t more informed than Fox News listeners because of superior content so much as because the former draws a more affluent, educated audience.

Generally true except for the notable case of Stewart/Colbert viewers - who, being generally younger, should have been expected to score low - but instead scored higher than all others.

Because we live in a democracy - the principle of which is that the people get to choose their government, irrespective of how stupid the people may be.

Jay Leno has a regular feature on The Tonight Show he calls “Jay walking”.

Do you think Jay picks the dumbest ones for broadcast? Do they interview a representative set of people?

Why exactly do we push for higher voter turnout and judge high turnout as a success?

Because when you get a 50% turnout you have to wonder which 50% it is: the informed 50% or the 50% that couldn't find China on a map.

So, what's failing here? The educational system or the political system? I bet if you asked the same groups of people what products were being advertise by the following, they could tell you.

Dude, you're getting a XXXX
Don't leave home without it
There's always room for XXXXX
Lost another loan to XXXXXXX
Ah, the power of XXXXX
Mmmmm, Mmmmm Good
Eat fresh
Love that chicken at XXXXXX

and so on.

Or, maybe our political leaders don't really want people to be able to answer these questions.

I’m a bit dubious of the low scores blog readers get, though, given the surveyed demographics reported by everyone who researches that sort of thing. Political blogs draw an incredibly educated, affluent demographic.

Maybe I missed it but I don't think they specified political blogs, they say "discussion blogs." I agree that if they focused on people who read political blogs they'd probably be seeing a much more aware group (since the topic is politics), but most likely someone who starts every day going to cuteoverload.com is going to answer that question as yes, they read a discussion blog frequently.

Vice President Dick Cheney called Congressional Democrats irresponsible for using a war spending bil...

I'd be interested in knowing what “political discussion blogs” were sampled. I suspect you get a somewhat different demographic from DU than OTB.