Education and news

In his letter titled “An education for all,” Ruud DuVall implied that educated people don’t watch Fox News Channel, but I doubt that he could prove that contention with statistics— nor could I prove otherwise, although my personal experiences lead me to believe that many well-educated folks watch FNC.

Mr. DuVall equates Fox-watching with ignorance (i.e., uneducated) and with Republicanism (i.e., conservatism). While I agree that most Fox-watchers probably are conservative or lean in that direction, I doubt that they are generally either more or less educated than watchers of ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC or NBC.

Over the past six decades I’ve enjoyed the friendship of three men educated similarly to me; two of us lean in a conservative direction, while the others leaned (both have died in recent years) in a progressive direction. All four of us graduated from college in the ’40s and ’50s and have held professional certification in our chosen fields; three of us have post-graduate degrees, earned in the ’50s.

My small sample may or may not be typical of the general population, but it at least shows that conservatives are not universally uneducated.

Finally, although I somewhat agree with Mr. DuVall’s statement that “[e] ducated people know that Fox News is not ‘fair and balanced,’” I believe Fox to be more nearly fair and balanced than other network TV sources. Fox’s “leaning rightward” is fairer than the total “leftward plunge” of its competitors. KEN MILLER Little Rock