You may have wondered why, in a class on news editing, I asked you to name the three branches of the United States government and the Three Stooges. Here's the answer:
I had just read an essay that appeared in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2005. In it, the author, Evan Cornog, makes this statement: "The greatest danger to American journalism in the coming decades is not commercial pressures or government regulation but the decline of public interest in public life, a serious disengagement of citizens from one of the primary duties of citizenship — to know what is happening in their government and society. Americans know a lot about a lot of things, but when only 41 percent of teenagers polled can name the three branches of government while 59 percent can name the Three Stooges, something is seriously amiss."
I realize many of you are no longer teenagers, but I wanted to test Cornog's data on you. Here are the results:
Section 1: 81 percent knew the three branches of government; 67 percent knew the Three Stooges.
Section 3: 84 percent knew the three branches of government; 58 percent knew the Three Stooges.
Both sections: 83 percent knew the three branches of government; 63 percent knew the Three Stooges.
So I guess that makes you smarter than the average teen in 2005 on all fronts: More of you knew the branches of government and more of you knew the names of the Three Stooges. And more of you knew the three branches of government than knew the names of the Three Stooges.
For the record, the three branches of government are executive, legislative and judicial.
I did not give extra credit for those of you who knew that over the years there were actually four Stooges: Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp.
Maybe next time . . .nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
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