Study: Half of Americans Total Jerks

My parents don't subscribe to the L.A. Times like the rest of our civilized metropolis, but rather to the Daily News, which is a more "fair and balanced" newspaper, if you catch my meaning. As such, I usually try to avoid reading the paper while I'm home, but some mornings when I sit down at the table with my Apple Jacks™, I really need something to look at.

This morning I read that a Cornell University study showed that 44% of "Americans" favor curbing the civil rights of all Muslim Americans. I couldn't find the article on the Daily News website (which seems to be on par with the physical paper in terms of quality), but it's an AP piece, so here it is on USAToday.

The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims' civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious.

Researchers also found that respondents who paid more attention to television news were more likely to fear terrorist attacks and support limiting the rights of Muslim-Americans.

[...]

While researchers said they were not surprised by the overall level of support for curtailing civil liberties, they were startled by the correlation with religion and exposure to television news.

That's funny -- it's the overall numbers that I found shocking; the association with strict religious beliefs (by which I assume they mean strict Christian beliefs) and television news is exactly what I would have anticipated.