Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Posted 9:09 AM by Gene

The natural constituency for THE EDWARD R. MURROW OF COMEDY:

According to polls taken this year, nearly 65 percent of the public doesn't know that Congress has banned partial-birth abortion. Seventy percent is unaware that a massive drug benefit has been added to Medicare. At least 58 percent say they have heard "nothing" or "not much" about the Patriot Act, notwithstanding the enormous amount of coverage the controversial law has drawn.

This is not a new problem. As Cold War tensions bristled in 1964, only 38 percent of the public knew that the Soviet Union was not a member of NATO. In 1970, only 24 percent could identify the secretary of state. In 1996, The Washington Post reported that 67 percent of Americans couldn't name their congressman and 94 percent had no idea that William Rehnquist was the chief justice of the United States. Only 26 percent knew that senators serve six-year terms, and 73 percent didn't know that Medicare costs more than foreign aid.

TRANSLATION: The more things change....

P. S. I wonder -- in 1964, how many people got their news from Mad magazine and That Was the Week That Was? And in 1970 from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In? Hmmm?