Fox's Bill O'Reilly is very upset that many Americans can't answer the same questions that are asked of immigrants who take our citizenship test, and used his Talking Points Memo segment this Monday to rail about it.
This from the man who works for a network that literally makes their viewers dumber, that constantly rails against funding of public education in favor of school vouchers and charter schools, and who has been carrying water for the party that's responsible for getting rid of civics classes in our public schools to begin with.
Here's how Fox covered Bill-O's rant at their blog: 'Self-Absorbed and Ignorant': O'Reilly Reacts to Startling Study About Americans:
Why are so many Americans uninformed about the world around them? A Newsweek study asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take the nation’s official citizenship test, and the results may shock you.
More than three million immigrants took the test from October 2009 to August 2013. Roughly 92 percent of applicants passed it.
Among U.S. citizens in the study, 29 percent could not name the vice president, 43 percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights, and a startling 40 percent did not know America fought Japan and Germany in World War II. Also, 73 percent did not know communism was the main concern of the Cold War, and 67 percent couldn't identify capitalism as our economic system.
Another poll found that one in four Americans couldn't name more than one of the five freedoms in the First Amendment. But more than half of those polled could name at least two members of “The Simpsons” cartoon family.
“That’s a disaster,” Bill O’Reilly said, reacting to the findings in his Talking Points Memo.
The Factor host said the public school system is a main culprit by not teaching history, geography and civics effectively.
He blamed the Internet for creating a generation of "self-absorbed, addicted, distracted and ignorant people."
The result, O’Reilly said, is that a select few “shrewd” people are wielding enormous power. “Many Americans are now voting for what they can get, not for what is best for this nation.”
O’Reilly said America is in decline because so many citizens are not paying attention and are not interested in the welfare of the country.
O'Reilly's right about the problem. You'll never get him to admit his and his network's part in contributing to it though.
