Oliver!
by digby
A fascinating interview with Edward Snowden:
One note about the fact that people in Times Square didn’t know who Snowden was from Greenwald:
The data on American political apathy is rather consistent, and stunning. Begin with the fact that even in presidential election years, 40% to 50% of the voting age public simply chooses not participate in the voting process at all, while 2/3 chooses not to vote in mid-term elections.
Even more striking is what they do and do not know. An Annenberg Public Policy Center poll from last September found that only 36% of Americans can name the three branches of government, and only 38% know the GOP controls the House. The Center’s 2011 poll “found just 15 percent of Americans could correctly identify the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, while 27 percent knew Randy Jackson was a judge on American Idol.”
A 2010 Findlaw.com poll found that almost 2/3 of Americans – 65% – were incapable of naming even a single member of the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2010 Pew poll discovered that 41% of Americans are unable to name the current Vice President of the U.S; in other words, Oliver could just as easily (if not more easily) compile a video of Times Square visitors looking stumped when asked if they knew who Joe Biden, or Antonin Scalia, is.
he goes on to point out how them media is complicit in this.
The interview is great, well worth watching.