This is pretty awesome:

Americans may have more news outlets today than two decades ago, but they still don’t know much more about current events than they did then, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

But here’s one big difference: the survey respondents who seemed to know the most about what’s going on — who were able to identify major public figures, for example — were likely to be viewers of fake news programs like Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”; those who knew the least watched network morning news programs, Fox News or local television news.

It probably doesn’t matter, since Fox News viewers don’t believe in reality, anyway. But it sure is nice to know that we are now statistically proven to have a better grasp of what’s going on in the world.

But wait … there’s more …

Only 69 percent of people in the latest survey could come up with Dick Cheney when asked to name the vice president; in 1989, 74 percent could name Dan Quayle. Fewer could name the governor of their state (66 percent now compared with 74 percent in 1989) and fewer could name the president of Russia (36 percent now compared with 47 percent before).

I know it’s a classic liberal game to cite statistics about how stupid Americans are, but really, come on. Only 69 percent can name the Vice President. Now, there’s gotta be some accounting for senility, right? I used to work with a guy who had done telephone surveys for awhile. He said that every survey he did was disproportionately weighted toward the elderly, because they were the only ones who would actually respond. And fine, I’m willing to forgive 31% … very nearly a third of the country … for not knowing the name of the vice president. But how can only 36% name Vladimir Putin?

This is why it’s hard to care when we see polls showing that Americans have a slight aversion to the war in Iraq. Like, 54% of Americans are against it, or whatever. Well, according to this poll, in the best possible case scenario, 18% of those people couldn’t even name the president of Russia, so how informed can their opinions be?

The entire survey is pretty fascinating. Check it out here if you want to know more about your fellow Americans.