I don't have cable and I don't drive so I don't listen to radio. As far as my exosure to TV news goes, it's usually FOX-5th 10 o'clock news, or CBS's 11 o'clock.

I am certain that it would stand out in my memory if I've ever heard any of these claims being made:

# U.S. forces found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

# There's clear evidence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein worked closely with the Sept. 11 terrorists.

# People in foreign countries generally either backed the U.S.-led war or were evenly split between supporting and opposing it.

Curious: do stations where you live explicitly promote any of the above ideas? Because the ones here in NY do not. If this is true of the rest of the country as well, I bet there's a real easy explanation for the observation.

For example:

6-9/03 9/03 7/03 6/03
NBC...............................................14% 14 12 17
CBS .................................................9 9 9 7
ABC...............................................11 10 11 12
Fox News.......................................18 18 18 17
CNN ..............................................16 13 19 16
NPR.................................................1 1 2 *
PBS..................................................2 2 2 *
(No answer) ...................................28 33 28 28

This clearly shows that most Americans watch (in this order) FOX, CNN, and NBC.

From the writeup:

A survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes shows that people most likely to hold one or more of these misperceptions are also most likely to get their news from Fox News, followed closely by CBS, NBC, CNN and ABC.

No kidding. If more people watch Network X, then, all other things being equal, there will be more (numerically) people who watch this network who also happen to misundestrand the situation. NPR and PBS have a 1 or 2% share each. What are the odds that people who consume these two outlets consume other sources of media as well, despite being advised to skip this question if that were the case.

But that's not even what I think the issue is.

NPR is allegedly a left-leaning broadcaster (I say allegedly because I don't listen to it and don't really give a shit.) If you have a left-leaning network, then you're likely going to have guests on that are going to repeat over and over and over that "THERE WERE NO WMDs, HUSSEIN DIDN'T WORK WITH OSSAMA, AND PEOPLE ROUND THE WORLD ARE AGAINST THIS." You're likely to hear these things repeated so often, you simply don't have even a chance of thinking otherwise. I mean think about it, if you are a Plastician, you heard the above three things so many friggin times that you can't possibly answer differently on any of them. It doesn't really mean you're more enlightened and aware, but it does mean that you had the "right" answers to the poll questions drilled into you. I bet that if you had a poll on some equally important issue which was not part of the anti-Bush mantra (a mantra can be factual and still be a mantra, can't it?) then you'd see a more similar rate of eroneous answers among those consuming different media sources.