The Pew Research Center has an interactive quiz about the news. Head on over and see how much you pay attention 🙂 I got them all correct, but I have to admit that I wasn’t sure of two of the answers.
Somewhat related: we may know news but do we know history? The nonpartisan, nonprofit American Revolution Center did a survey to assess our knowledge of that event.
83 percent of Americans failed a basic test on knowledge of the American Revolution and the principles that have united all Americans.
Sad, don’t you think? Some findings:
- Many more Americans remember that Michael Jackson sang “Beat It” than know that the Bill of Rights is part of the Constitution.
- 60 percent of Americans can correctly identify the number of children in reality-TV show couple Jon and Kate Gosselin’s household (eight), but more than one-third do not know the century in which the American Revolution took place (18th). Half of those surveyed believe the Civil War (1861-1865), Emancipation Proclamation (1863), or War of 1812 occurred before the American Revolution (1775-1783).
- More than 50 percent of Americans surveyed wrongly attributed the quote, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” to George Washington, Thomas Paine, or President Barack Obama, when it is in fact a quote from Karl Marx, author of “The Communist Manifesto.”
The survey is available here (pdf).
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
9 for 10 on the American History (guessed wrong on the 50/50 financier question) and 12 of 12 on the news, without a guess!! 🙂